Claire and I headed down to my parent’s place south of Red Wing to make sure that the stands were good, and the shooting lanes were cleared, for one last season there.
It is going to be hard to say good-bye to this place, which has been a deer hunting paradise for us. We tried to figure out just how many deer we have all taken, in the 18 years my parent’s have owned the place. Closest we could figure was over 60, between me, my family, my brother’s, my dad, and my nephew Ben.
This stand has seen more deer taken from it than any other individual stand on the property. So we have not moved it since it was put in, and there is no getting it down without destroying it or the tree. It is going to stay right where it is.
Even the strap on tree steps have grown into the tree.
Again, there are a lot of scrapes on the property. This one was made last night, under an old apple tree at the foot of the bluff.
The size of the deer making scrapes varies wildly. This is probably just a 1.5 year old buck’s print.
This print is much, much larger.
These two scrapes, barely 6 feet apart, are directly in a shooting lane of my brother Matt’s stand.
Everywhere, there are saplings with all the bark rubbed off where bucks have been polishing their antlers.
So another season is nearly upon us, and as stated, if all goes as my parent’s plan, the last one here.
What can I say? We are going to miss the place.
