Day 111 - Stand Off
Based on the number of deer stands we found on our initial walkthrough of our new property, we knew the land had a rich history of hunting. The wheeling and dealing previous owner mentioned he bartered with neighbors, often allowing them to hunt the land. Being connected to a basically unmanaged nature preserve also made us wary that there was probably ample hunting going on in and near our backyard. While we have no issues whatsoever with responsible hunting, we wanted to make sure that those who may have had previous access to the land knew there was new ownership that had a lot of plans for the land and wanted to create a safe place for a growing family.
A contact at the DNR said that these stands were technically ours when the property was purchased. However, he did say landowners sometimes put notes on the stands with contact information and leave them there so that anyone coming back to their stand can reach out and figure out next steps. If time has passed and the note is still on the stands, it can be assumed the stands are abandoned. I took his advice and put notes on the stands. We put up “no trespassing” signage and waited. After a few months and an entire hunting season, we moved abandoned stands to more accessible areas of the land. We were prepared for unexpected visitors. Besides my initial run in with a neighbor looking at taking one of the deer stands, we hadn’t encountered any other visitors. However, we knew they had come by.
One of the deer stands we initially found had gone missing. While my wife was initially upset that someone had entered our property and technically stole what was ours, I was somewhat relieved. While it would have been nice to have someone ask for permission, I saw it as someone realizing they might not be able to hunt here anymore. They went in, took the equipment they had used, and left. Potential problem solved. Sometimes, you have to turn lemons into lemonade.
While this person left our land for greener pastures, we had a number of people seek out our farm.
