My general outlook on deer season took a double dose of dry dicking this weekend. On Friday night, I talked to the new owner of the single most important farm in my little corner of the world. Our other new neighbors practically helped him move in to get permission. I tried to let them get settled before I broached the subject and my respect of their space lost me access to a farm that hasn't had legal access written to it for several years. Most likely the young kid(s) hunting it will blow every deer off there because access requires finesse on that farm and I don't see them realizing that. Only bright spot is the new owner has known my wife for years and won't tolerate any shit from the guys with permission. He said I am welcome to recover deer and if they are not there hunting, I can check with him and he'll give me permission to hunt that day. In the long run, we will be "neighbors" as his new farm adjoins the property we will purchase next year, so I expect I'll eventually lock it down via lease, or just because we'd rank higher on the old "networking" hierarchy.
On Saturday night, our new millionaire neighbor at the farm informed me he's buying a crossbow so he can hunt Hippie Ridge after he was given "free range" of it. He hasn't hunted in 36 years and will blow out every deer on the 50 acres trying to go anywhere in that nastiness. It may help me when he begins pressuring it, but now we have one more guy taking resources out of the pool.
It's always something with this sport...
