We had our yearly meeting Saturday at the farm. We always meet either the last Saturday of February or the first Saturday of March every year. I always look forward to this meeting. It is a get together of four cronies. The fact that these four cronies have breakfast together once a week every week of the year did not affect my anticipation. Of course those could also be considered “get togethers.” But the yearly meeting is different.
The meeting starts sharply at the crack of dawn. For us, the crack of dawn is 9:00 AM. We meet in this little restaurant in West Union for breakfast. Not much of a restaurant really, just a little place where locals meet and have coffee. The four of us probably look out of place and would blend in more at one of the chain restaurants on the other side of town by the Super Wal-Mart. But we prefer this little place and think we belong as we probably pay more property tax to the local government then most all of the local patrons giving us the eye. But we don’t live here and those patrons know it. So we are still four “city boys” pretending to be country folk and we have learned to live with our stigma.
This breakfast differs from our weekly breakfast in one huge way. It’s a road trip! Some how the mere thought of a road trip magically transforms four sixty year old men into eighteen year old delinquents. There is a whiff of danger in the air and surely one of the four will do something they would never remotely consider doing in the confines of their home environment. We were four geezers clad in camo but it might just as well been black leather. Those high end four wheel drive pickup trucks in the parking lot were our Harley’s. All we needed was Bruce Springsteen belting out “Baby we were born to run” on the juke box and we could order our eggs in a perfect state of euphoria as we make fun of Becker ordering his bran flakes. We were hunting’s hells angels and not even irregularity could tarnish our image.
After breakfast we drove to the farm for the “official” business portion of our meeting. The first report is the harvest report. This is not the most important report that will be given at this meeting by any stretch of the imagination, but it is the one we like best and we cannot discipline ourselves so we always do it first. Shrader always presents the report. He has the privilege of presenting this report because he is the best hunter. The fact that he was also an army ranger in his younger days also comes into play. Shrader has this eerie habit of getting close to you without you knowing it. You turn around and he is just there. It spooks the hell out of us and we bust his chops about it. But if we didn’t let him be the “deer master” he would do it a lot more as he knows it irritates us.
There were twelve doe’s and four bucks harvested this year. The twelve doe’s were harvested by various business associates or clients of the partners. Each of the four partners killed a buck. There were two large eight points taken by doc (the doctor) and Becker (the lawyer). These two bucks were four years old and although wide, they lacked the potential to become anything better. Shrader went on an on in glowing terms how taking these two bucks out of the gene pool was a wonderful service to our farm and praised doc and Becker like they were returning war hero’s.
The next buck in the report was my eleven point. Both Shrader and I scored the buck and our scores were within one half inch of each other. The buck came in at 151 3/8 and Shrader had named the buck Eli (after Payton) as he was harvested on Super Bowl Sunday. The last buck in the report was the magnificent ten point typical that Shrader took the last week of October. Once again Shrader and I scored the buck and I came up with 168 1/8 and he came up with 162 5/8. We have a difference of opinion as to a deduction to the score and he is being more cautious then me. The six inches not withstanding, the buck was just fabulous and ranked as the third largest buck ever taken on our farm. Neither buck however was good enough to take to the Deer and Turkey Expo as 160 point bucks are a dime a dozen at the show. In order for one of us to overtake the Ohio Crossbow record for a buck, all we have to do is kill one that exceeds 291 2/8. Yep, you read that right. 291 2/8 is the record for a non-typical whitetail killed in Ohio with a crossbow. That buck was killed within ten miles of our farm.
The next two hours of the meeting concerned the budget and tax issues. We determine what it will cost us for the next year and who is going to deduct what from last year. We review the cover crops and the attractant crops and determine what crops will be planted during the next year. Our Imperial Whitetail Clover field was really hit hard by the drought and we expect that it is in such bad shape that we just may convert it back to beans or corn. We are taking a different tact this new year and will put in more shooting plots. We review the equipment and determine what maintenance is needed. We also let the contracts to the locals who will lease our fields to plant beans and corn.
We take inventory of our feeders and estimate the amounts and types of feed we will supplement to the deer over the course of the next year. We schedule “shed patrols” for the next five weeks. It is very important that we hunt the sheds. We are able to cross reference sheds with all the bucks we have on still photos or video and gauge what we think they may produce next year. We divide up the total cost by four and everyone gets out his check book and writes a check. We close the meeting and the fun begins.
We break out the beer and the steaks and start grilling. We will all spend the night at the farm house so we can crank the beer, get moody, tell wild stories, relive our youth and become those hells angels in camo once again. Geeze I just love road trips!
Our next road trip will be March 16th to the Ohio Deer & Turkey Expo in Columbus. If anyone is going to be there that day, we should be easy to spot. Look for four geezers in camo acting like eighteen year olds and spending half their time at the beer booth. The other half of the time you can find us either at the “wall of bucks” or the line to the men’s room.
Road Trip!
Moderator: Excalibur Marketing Dude
I only wish i could find a group of guys that would be willing to do even 15% of what you described. I am all for the planning but my group has a bunch of cheap guys that only want to think about deer when the season has started. Then they complain why they havent seen anything in weeks! It burns my ass!!
I like your style Mike. By reading your post, it sure sounds like you and your partners are very, very proud of your hunting property. Its very interesting reading about what other people have for hunting grounds and what they do with it. It gives me ideas on my own property.
I'm a habitat freak, and only do what's best for the wildlife, NOT MY POCKET BOOK. Although last year I hunted with a Architect and a Senior City Administrator, I never felt the least intimidated, we were all on the same ground level, that's what's nice about hunting. Nature humbles us in a way I still can't understand. We all have the same thing in common, where each of us owns land to hunt on and enjoy, we become for that brief moment kids again, or at least youthful.
I'd like to know out of curiosity what you guys have for property, not that I want to hunt here, but just how many acres you have, how you manage the property, ect. ect. If you feel uncomfortable saying it on the forum here you can P.M. me.
Take Care
Grey Owl
I'm a habitat freak, and only do what's best for the wildlife, NOT MY POCKET BOOK. Although last year I hunted with a Architect and a Senior City Administrator, I never felt the least intimidated, we were all on the same ground level, that's what's nice about hunting. Nature humbles us in a way I still can't understand. We all have the same thing in common, where each of us owns land to hunt on and enjoy, we become for that brief moment kids again, or at least youthful.
I'd like to know out of curiosity what you guys have for property, not that I want to hunt here, but just how many acres you have, how you manage the property, ect. ect. If you feel uncomfortable saying it on the forum here you can P.M. me.
Take Care
Grey Owl
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dick195252
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