Deer hunting

All politics are local.

All deer habitat is local.

Most of the land near my Dad's property in northwest Eaton County is leased by the same farmer.  The farmer runs a simple Corn-Beans rotation.  To keep the logistics manageable, he split the land he farms.  One side is corn while the other side is soybeans.  The next year it flips.

The years "our" half is in corn is a great year for deer hunting.  They pour out of the swamp (about 400 acres) to eat the spilled corn or to bang around in the standing corn.

The years "our" half is in soybeans is a deer hunting drought.  By November 15, the beans are all harvested and the land is either chisel plowed or disked.  There is no deer food above ground.  Not only is there no food, but the ground is soft and mushy.  Given their druthers, they will avoid walking across freshly tilled ground because it is too much work.

This is a soybean year for us.

Undoubtedly, the deer are working fields that are worked by a different farmer, one who is not following "our" farmer's rotation.

I saw three deer today.  One was dodging traffic on M-50.  One was a wounded deer limping across a corn field fifteen miles from where I have permission to hunt.  The third deer was a deer that had been poorly hit and it scooted onto an unfriendly neighbor's property and was not trackable.

Like the old guys say, "It is called hunting for a reason.  If there were guarantees then it would be called shooting, not hunting."

In spite of the dearth of deer, it was a beautiful day.  The high may have touched 60 degrees F.  I saw spider lines blowing in the wind.  I heard bullfrogs.  Squirrels (the size of bison) kept me awake by rummaging around in the dry leaves.

It has been a good day!