We have had a couple of flash floods up there since they have finished but no where near enough rain to fill it up. We planted bermuda grass on top and around the inside of the dam to keep it from eroding so much while we wait for it to fill up. Seems like it just stopped raining now but probably just as well until the dam gets covered in grass. Hopefully it will be full by next spring and we can start stocking it.

We plan on stocking it with bluegill and fathead minnows first so they can get established good as feed for the other fish. After they get going a few months we are gonna stock about 100 largemouth bass and 100 channel cats. That’s what we had in our pond on our old place, and they provided hours of fun for us the kids and also quite a few good meals for us all. We love our new place and about the only thing we been missing especially this time of year is our pond. Hopefully next year we won’t be missing it at all. We just prayin for some of those slow,steady, two and three day rains to get here. I am posting a picture of it below but it is from a cell phone so it is probably hard to tell much about it. You can see in the pic the little pond down in the middle and behind it is the new dam.When it fills up all the ground in the pic should be water.

To make a long story short, by 9:00 am sitting on the cold ground I was freezin’, so I decided to move and just still hunt into the wind along the creek. Don’t know for sure what the temp actually was, but I know that the small pond on the backside of our property had ice and frost around the edges, so it was well below 40.  

Good news is that while I was easing along the creek, I found lots more rubs and also narrow places where I could see deer had been crossing. Also realized that the fields that border our property that were green not more than 3 week ago, are all  just dead grass now. I had thought it might have been wheat or something planted for their cows they have but guess I was wrong.  So all in all it was a good morning I learned a few more things about the area. I have about made up my mind just to chalk this season up as a bad one, and just start focusing and preparing  for next season. After all I did manage to take a buck, just not a monster like I dream about.

I know now that all I have to do,  since I know so much more about the area, is make it more attractive and huntable for deer. My plans are gonna start right after the first of the year. First thing I plan to do is widen the path through the center of the property a little bit, between the cedar thicket and the creek so I can see a little further and cover more ground. Next I will build a box stand and place a corn feeder and some salt licks off to the side of the path to maybe help attract them a little more. The main reason I am building the box blind,  is so that I can take the kids, one at a time of course, and they can be comfortable and not have to sit just still as a rock. And even if all they see are does, I want them to be able to see deer when they go so they will not lose interest.  

I already have an aerial map of my place so I plan on placing my other stands in about four other spots around the property, 2 morning sites  and 2 evening sites,  so that I will have a stand to hunt for whatever the prevailing winds are for that day. And no matter what if the wind is wrong for a stand it will not be hunted, and any time the wind is swirling and shifting around, no matter how bad I want too, I will not hunt at all that day! It may sound like that I am getting too anal about it, but I am trying to really turn this place into a great spot not only for me, but for the 5 kids me and Michele have between us. I want them to be successful and see deer and other wildlife, after all they don’t get a whole lot of time with school and everything, so I have to make the best of what time they have.

The last thing I will do, besides maybe setting up a couple more feeders, will be to plant about a acre and a half along the edges of the woods behind our camp trailer house,  in a mixture of wheat, oats, and winter peas around the first of September. Not planting it so much to hunt over, but to give the does and yearlings something to munch on, and to keep them comin through our woods and hanging around close by. Because we all know the does are what keeps the bucks coming through! 

 I have not givin up completely on this season, but I cannot help but get excited when I think about getting the place ready for next year and having a whole new fresh start. When I stop to think about it under the circumstances I really did not have that bad of a year after all. I got deer meat in the freezer, and seen quite a few deer for no more than I have done to the place. Also I know for a fact that several people went and looked at the property when it was for sale, so really there is no telling how many different people stomped around up in my new woods from August to the middle of October, me and my dad included. One of the main things the place probably needs is just a little cooling off period. When I get a few things done in there after the first of the year,  that is exactly what it is gonna get.

Hope your season is turning out good, I will keep you posted on how things are coming along.

I am pretty positive that the invasion we have made on the area since we first started looking at buying it in October,  probably has the deer and hogs a little skittish, and not going about their normal routine. But what else can you do when you acquire a new piece of ground you have never hunted before,  right in the middle of the bow season, except go on in and try to be low key as possible while looking for the best possible stand sites. I know I have left scent around and probably spooked them some, but how am I supposed to scout it, by helicopter?

I am not a guy who just walks in the woods and throws up a stand thinking this looks like a good spot, been there and done that and I am not that lucky!  I like to at least try and find a little deer sign to hunt by to up my odds a little, and if possible I like the deer sign to be more than a track or two. I like rubs, scrapes, droppings, anything other than just a track. Deer tracks are great to find when you find lots of them coming and going cause then you got a trail, but just a track here or there don’t tell me crap! I walk along fence lines looking for signs where they have been going under or through it, I look for hair on the barb wire and things like that. If I can’t find new sign I will hunt by old sign, at least I know that deer at one time or another, have spent a little time there. If you are the guy who just goes and throws up a stand because you think it looks like a good spot then more power to ya. If it works for you then you are luckier than me,  I am glad it works for you and hope your luck continues.

It did not help matters any that I started feeling so discouraged and impatient for awhile that I did not know if I was coming or going. I also started second guessing myself alot and I really hate when I do that! Guess it is because during my vacation I got picture texts on my phone every other day from buddies of mine who were taking some dang nice bucks. Now let me say this, I am happy for them and anyone else who takes a deer especially a nice buck. I do have to say though that when you sit in a treestand day after day, in spots where you know you should see deer activity, and rubs are  everywhere in the vicinity and your not seeing anything but squirrels, while everyone else you know is sending you pics of bucks they are killing, it gets a little discouraging! Pretty soon you start to wonder if you have any idea what the heck you are doing!

I have never felt that way in my life and have always hunted because I love the woods and just being out in them. Guess I just pressured myself into believing that  because I am in Oklahoma now, that everyone is expecting me to kill a huge buck. I did not really realize how ridiculous I was becoming until the other day. While I was in my stand I had a big doe walk out of a cedar thicket in front of me. She milled around a minute and started looking behind her,  at that moment I thought here he comes and started breathing heavy and my heart was pumping like it was coming out of my chest! I kept telling myself “Calm down make sure you hold behind the shoulder. Do not screw this up  and do not miss him”, then I started seeing legs walking behind the cedar she stepped from behind and I was already beaded down, safety off, waiting for this massive 10 point to step out so I could pull the trigger and start sending picture texts! Well it seemed like eternity but what finally did step out was a smaller doe, and then another small doe,  probably her twins from this spring. Needless to say I felt like a real idiot,  but I was also very happy to see them in our new woods! Michele thought it was very funny that I almost had a heart attack over a doe!

So after that near massive heart attack I asked myself what is wrong with you, you have never been this way! Michele has been very supportive of me as well as my buddies. They all remind me that I just got the place right before hunting season, and that it takes a while to learn a place and really make it good. Michele tells me that I am being too impatient and that I am making a job out of it instead of doing it for the enjoyment like I always have, and that is why I am having such a hard time. I know that they are all right. I have the place now and it is not going anywhere, so I am just gonna relax and enjoy the rest of the season in the woods. I will start working on the place preparing for next deer season right after close of this season. That is actually as much fun and enjoyable as the actual hunting.

I did manage to take a spike buck right before the rifle season closed. I never would have shot him but I wanted some deer meat because I was completely out. I also wanted to check the performance of my handload for the .243. I shot him right behind the shoulder at about 75 yards and he dropped on the spot. The Sierra 85Grain HPBT completely turned his heart and lungs into jelly, but did not exit the offside. I have them pushing a little over 3000 fps with 43 grains of IMR 4350. So far I like the load but the buck did not!

I still have a bow tag left and the bow season is not over until January. I also have a vacation Dec 20, I got meat in the freezer, and took my first buck off of my new hunting ground. Now I am just gonna relax enjoy the woods and hope I get lucky and maybe get a shot, or just catch a glimpse of one of those legendary wallhangers that are known to be in Oklahoma!

To tell the truth I would love the new place even if I never saw a deer on it. The place is beautiful to me and anyone who likes the woods would fall in love with this place. I told Michele the other day when I was discouraged, if there were not many deer there I would just get a lease. But now that I am back in my right frame of mind with the help of Michele, family, and friends, I know they are there. Anyone who owned this place and paid for a lease would be stupid! It  just needs some plots planted, feeders going and then kept quiet and undisturbed for awhile, and it should be a hunters paradise. I may not fill my bow tag this year, but I will go out on a limb and say, that if I get everything done that I have planned to do before this summer, I am expecting  2010 will be the best deer season I have ever had!

I  had a  4 point walk right under me Friday morning while I was in my climbing stand. It was tough letting him pass, especially since I am wanting to try out this new recipe I found for backstraps, but I held off.  I put up a feeder and filled it with corn but nothing has seemed to have found it yet. Didn’t really figure on it attracting much right now anyway, due to all the acorns that are on the ground.

I have been hunting in the mornings and working around the place in the afternoons so I have not had any evening hunts so far. Before I left yesterday I moved my stands around a little. I didn’t move them far from where they were, but just moved them to where I could get a little better view. Been seeing a lot of new rubs popping up and I hear that the rut is starting so maybe my luck will change!

My vacation starts tomorrow and it is supposed to rain and then turn cooler Monday, with lows in the 40’s and highs in the 60’s sunny and clear. The moon is gonna be dark so it should be a perfect week. Hopefully sometime before the end of next week I will be posting pics of a good buck and eating some backstraps. I am pumped!

I did get a shot at a coyote coming down an old fence row but I shot to quick  and my arrow flew right over the top of his back. It was clean miss, but close enough he was not  hangin’ around to give me a second shot! After that I went and picked up my dad so we could finish moving stuff from our old camp to the new one, and that pretty much took the rest of the day. 

This morning I went on my second hunt there and I was pretty much just doing the same thing as the day before. I didn’t see any deer but I did jump up a couple of pigs so I know that hogs are there too! First thing I did was stop and send Michele a text saying, ” Babe, we got hogs” . She was happy to hear it because we do like huntin’  and eatin’ hogs. While I was looking around I found quite a few old rubs from a year or two ago along the creek that runs through the place.  I don’t know a lot about the area yet but I am smart enough to figure out that if bucks frequent an area enough to leave rubs at some point and time those bucks or other bucks will eventually be in those same area’s again. Just playing a  waiting game right now and that is all I know to do.

I did get my climbing stand on a tree today in what looks to be a pretty good area judging from old deer sign. I won’t have a chance to hunt the spot until Thursday or Friday, but figure I will just be patient and sit tight there until I come across some fresh new sign, or I pop a good buck, either one is fine by me. I am just playing it by ear this year and trying to put something in the freezer, but next year we will have the place set up alot better for hunting. I also plan on being a whole lot more selective on what kind of buck I want to shoot after seeing what kind of bucks that area can produce.

I did see a small 6 point the other evening while me and my dad were moving a hog trap and box blind off of our place. Finally stopped raining this afternoon so tomorrow morning will be my first day to hunt the new place. I really am not sure about where I am gonna start at, so guess I will be hunting and scouting it at the same time.

Since I will be going to a place I have never hunted, trying to shoot a whitetail buck with a bow from the ground, my expectations are not running very high. If it happens and I score on a good buck, I will be the first to say it was just blind luck! I will mainly be looking for sign and good places to hang  stands, so that when my vacation in November gets here, I will have a decent chance at a good buck.

Even though I don’t figure I will be successful my first time hunting the new place, I am still pretty pumped and excited about it. The weather is supposed to be pretty good in the morning, clear and 45 degrees. Maybe since all this rain has stopped, and with the cool temp, the deer will be moving around a little more. With all the odd’s I have stacked against me, if I just see deer or find good sign, I will consider it success.

The good news is that the reason we went ahead and sold is because, we have found another great place to buy! Our old deer camp has been like a home to me and I know I am gonna miss it, but I think once we get settled in to the new one, I will have the same feeling for it also. 

The new place is  70 acres, which is 20 more than we had before. About 5 acres of it is clearing with just a few big shade trees scattered around, and the rest is hardwoods timber. It also has a  creek running through the property, two small ponds, and is bordered by open pasture land on one side and more woods on the other. It looks like it will be a hunters paradise.

The property also has a older double wide trailer house sitting on it that will make a great hunting cabin! There is electricity and a well for water on the property too. The only negative to the place at all is that it is in Oklahoma. Now I have nothing  against Oklahoma hunting land, especially since the deer are bigger there than they are where I hunt, but the out of state license and tags are gonna be quite a bit more expensive, but I will figure out something. 

I am pumped and excited about getting this place.I am really looking forward to learning it and fixing it up for hunting and getaway purposes! I mentioned something to Michele about moving into the trailer after we are married and she kinda frowned and said ” It’s gonna make a great deer camp babe, but we ain’t moving in here!”, so I guess that’s off. Lol

So for now the deal with the seller is on, and unless something falls through, I guess I will be  spending  most of my bow season moving stuff from our old camp to our new one. It does not really matter because I have a vacation in November and another in December and that’s when I usually have my best luck anyway. I will keep ya’ll posted on how things are coming along!

I went ahead and filled my corn feeder a couple of weeks ago and put my game camera out but have not got any pics as of yet. The hogs have not even started coming  in on it yet, guess there is still plenty for them to eat right now with all the rain we have had this year. Our trees are loaded with acorns this year too, so food plots probably would not have done a whole lot of good anyway. 

Good news is I did get a spot on my buddy’s deer lease so I will at least have a place to hunt this year if we wind up losing in court. We have been trying to get down to his place and do some shredding and mowing so we could see a little better, but as much as it has been raining we have not been able to even get that done yet. Maybe it will stop raining long enough for us to get it done pretty soon, at least by rifle season I hope! Lol

The one good thing I know, is that next saturday morning I will be in a tree with my bow, and thats all that really counts I guess! Where I will be I am not sure, but at least it will be somewhere!

Usually I am shredding and disking  preparing  for my fall food plots right after Sept 1st, but it has all been put on hold this year awaiting this stupid court date! I mean who wants to invest time and money into planting food plots and filling feeders when they could end up losing their lease or land?

 The court date has finally been set for Sept 11 and I am counting the days til it gets here. Win or lose it is gonna be a big load off of us. At least our hands won’t be tied anymore and if we lose we can start looking for another place to maybe buy or lease. Since I have been spoiled to hunting my own place for 23 years, from just looking around a little I am amazed at how much deer leases cost now!

So we are ready to go get this thing resolved, but our lawyer told my dad the other day that it is possible that it could be cancelled on the 11th due to other cases coming up. He said that since it is a civil case then they always are the first to get pushed back. Well that really chaps my behind but what can you do? Its all a bunch of BS if you ask me!

Well he told us we would know by Tuesday if it was gonna be cancelled or not, and just on my thinking I figure it will! My mom and Michele are very positive about the whole thing telling me to go ahead and plant and do everything I normally would because we are gonna win anyhow. I hope they are right. I know Michele is ready for it to all be over and get back to normal around here. We are getting married Dec 31st if I have not driven her insane by then with my worrying and negative attitude about this whole thing!

If the court does not get cancelled on Sept 11 guess we gonna finally find out. I will post how it all turns out in about a week. Wish us luck!

He is one of those old rich, out of town guys who is retired  from the big city and thinks he wants to try his hand at ranching,  something he really has no clue about!  But he has money so figures that will make him anything he wants to be.  He has already bought up over 600 acres around us!

My dad made the mistake of considering selling our land to him without thinking to talk  it over with me or my mom because he thought he was really getting an awesome price.  Dad signed a little agreement that the jerk made up on some notebook paper and then he gave a Dad a check for 10 percent of the total price  and said he would pay the rest the next day when they would go sign the deed and other legal papers and left.

Needless to say, I was pretty upset when I found out Dad had sold the family property that was my home away from home for the last 25 years.  I was in shock.  I didn’t know what I was gonna do if I didn’t have our place to go to anymore.  Also after reality hit my dad that he had actually sold our place, and the shock of what he thought was a good price wore off, he was already regretting it too!

Two hours later my mom drove down to our property to talk to Dad after I told her what he had done.  She  said she did not want to sell, and that my Dad couldn’t sell without her approval anyway because it is as much her land as it is my Dad’s land.  So Mom and Dad drove over to the jerk’s cabin and gave him back his check (which never left the property)  and told him that we decided not to sell. My dad told him, “I am sorry but my wife and son don’t wanna sell our land.  I didn’t figure they would mind selling it, but they do.

After they got back to our cabin my dad was relieved. He said he had already started feeling sick just looking at the check right after the jerk drove off. He said he just screwed up and did something without thinking about it.  Dad joked about how he has learned one thing – he won’t ever sell our place again because he didn’t realize how much he loved it til he sold it!

We pretty much thought everything was fine, until about a month later. My Dad gets served with papers saying the jerk has filed a lawsuit against my Dad! Mom and Dad had to hire a lawyer and this suit has been going on for almost a year now! It is just a case of someone who has lots of money and thinks they can get anything they want, and in this case he wants our land.  We really can’t believe it has even gotten to this point because the agreement my dad signed is not even a legal document and he gave the down payment back to the jerk two hours later!

Dad’s lawyer was hinting around about having a jury trial! A jury trial over a piece of notebook paper agreement! Dad told him no thanks, this thing has already cost him $2000.00 in lawyer fees and if a judge does not have enough integrity to rule for us in this case then he has been bought off! In the court deposition they had to attend when Dad’s lawyer questioned the jerk about why he wanted our land, and if it had hurt or cost him anything because we decided not to sell.  The jerk  simply answered, “No, I just wanted it to add to my other 600 acres, it’s my little heaven“. He also basically said he does not like my family being down there and wants it all for himself!

He has owned the land by our family’s land for about 4 years now and we actually thought he was a great guy until he pulled this stunt.  At least now I know how he feels about us being down at our own place and believe me, the feelings are now mutual!

We finally have a court date set to go before a judge in Sept, which will be exactly 1 year from the date this whole thing took place.  We find that incredibly ironic.  This thing has been a real nightmare for all of us,  but it has really taken it’s toll on my Dad.  Dad has worried about it and even talked about going ahead and selling and just finding another place somewhere else to buy, but Mom is determined now and says she would not sell to that man if he offered to double his price!  That’s the way I feel about it too.

I am not sure how this will all turn out yet and have started looking for a  hunting lease in the unfortunate event that we lose our land so I will have a place to hunt this year.  I hate thinking negative, but I’m trying to be realistic.  After all, this land has been my family’s “little heaven” for 25 years.