Day 43 - The Grass Isn’t Always Greener

When we took our Department of Natural Resources friend’s advice and went out to label the tree stands scattered throughout the property with our information as new owners, my wife and I saw something that elicited a much different reaction.

One of the tree stands was gone.

Of course, of the handful we had found, the one that was missing was the best one. Of those out in the woods, there were stands of varying levels of condition. Some looked abandoned while some seemed hunting ready. Some were older models while some resembled the latest and greatest in the tree stand marketplace. 

When my wife found the spot where the stand used to be and noticed it was gone, she was upset and anxious at what that meant. She was not pleased someone had entered our property without permission. To her, it was a big problem. While I understand her frustration and agreed that a request to enter someone else’s property is appropriate, I felt a problem was actually averted and even solved. I took this missing tree stand as a positive sign. In my opinion, someone figured out that the owners had switched and that their prior deal or accessibility had changed. They decided to remove their stand and find another place to hunt, away from our property. Would it have been nice for them to come talk to us? Sure. Do I anticipate a return? Nope. Potential problem solved.

Either way, a new farm chore was created. With bow hunting season just around the corner, we decided to put private property signs around the edges of the property so that any future visitors would understand that they should come meet the new owners. I got to work and created a few signs and placed them the evening before hunting season began. Unfortunately, the height of the grass made them less visible then we would have liked, but at least we did our due diligence and got them out there. Then again, maybe out of control grass was a hunting deterrent.

We knew rogue hunters entering our woods unannounced was problematic. What we didn't expect were the headaches that grass would create for us.