| To
Other Columns By Linda...
"Changes" An Introduction
To Food Plots
Now, a light zephyr pushed cool air up through the porch planks, so I wrapped the red polar fleece blanket a little closer and drew up into a fetal position. I could hear birds, squirrels and chipmunks a few feet away, and the rustle of dry oak leaves on each breathe of air was like music that lulled me into a trance. Our entrance gate a hundred yards away was tethered loosely to keep intruders away. However, my neighboring landowners would often drop by to visit, and I imagined what an odd sight it would be to see a person lying on the deck floor boards wrapped up in a blanket, nested amongst archery tackle. If I could just fall asleep, this would be the idyllic day and place. But just to curl up outdoors like a cat in the sun was something I could only do here at my hunting shack. Bliss. Seeing no deer while hunting on that beautiful November morning, my son and I arrived back at the shack to find a red plastic net bag full of chestnuts hanging on the front door knob. We proceeded to crack a couple open and eat them. Well eat anything if were pretty sure it isnt poisonous. They were sweet, then bitter. Within an hour, we both fell ghastly ill and decided to lie down to rest before the evening hunt, he in the shack and I on the porch. We would later find a note on the front door, with planting instructions from our neighbor, Sherby. Later still, Sherby would tell us that those were horse chestnuts, the kind that make people sick. Knowing I was grooming this property for whitetails, he had left them for me to broadcast seed on my land, noting that deer and bears loved them. He chuckled to find we had eaten them. Thankfully, my son and I both have cast iron gizzards and our respective sick spells passed quickly. This has been a hunting season of many changes. I shot my first decent sized buck with a bow on opener this year, and arrowed a doe the following weekend. My attitude about hunting had changed, from pressing to relaxing. There were changes in my primary hunting partners too. I had lost one hunting buddy altogether due to various circumstances, and my friend Tom now had a toddler and wasnt as available to hunt as in past years. I hunted with new groups as both a student and instructor, in this State andin other States. My son has been my main hunting buddy these many years, but his passions had swung more to fishing, college, girls and work. My non-hunting husband took pity on my buddy-less and tagged-out condition, purchased a bow and agreed to hunt with me for the first time. He went three times and it had been like having a second son to teach. There was a huge change in our camp itself, with a new log sided hunting shack instead of the small trailer that had been my home base for so many years. Probably one of the biggest and most exciting changes, was the late Fall bull dozing of two food plots, each about an acre in size. By Wednesday afternoon on this January day, I had mentally checked out. I knew I was going up to the hunting shack on Saturday morning, and as is usually the case, that thought so preoccupied me that I could concentrate on little else. My fellow hunters understand this addiction well. Its hard not to speed on the way to the woods, and the stereo is usually pumping out Rock n Roll until I turn it off for the last mile of approach to camp. This day, camp was covered with a pristine blanket of snow, crosshatched with every imaginable type of animal print. Stepping out of my truck...I drank it all in. The icy baron winterscape held the same allure for me as a lush green summer woods or a brilliant dry Fall woods. I saddled up the ATV with an Otter sled full of corn, and went to inspect the areas bull dozed just 5 weeks ago. As I anticipated, both of the future food plots had become deer party central, with thousands of prints and dozens of trails fanning out like the spokes of a wagon wheel. I had studied about food plots, and signed up for a food plot program, but I was nonetheless stunned that the simple razing of some timber could effect deer behavior so dramatically and in such a short period of time. I stood at the edge of the first clearing, listening to deer movement in the distance. I imagined it was May and I was liming and tilling this soil to plant clover and alfalfa. For a moment, I could almost smell the fresh turned earth, feel the soft sun, and hear the buzz of flies. These thoughts would carry me through the winter. I crept around the periphery of each clearing, inspecting primary deer paths and picking appropriate tree clusters in which to erect portable or permanent stands next season. I marked deer trails and stand approach trails for tacking and grooming next summer. This land had been a transition zone in the past, but I had now made it a destination. I was excited! As I walked, scouted and drove around, numerous deer curiously followed about 15 minutes behind me. Like Pavlovs Dog, they knew that when Linda arrived, so did corn and mineral blocks and clear cuts, despite the factthat I had killed one of them here last Fall. I discovered many of their prints and urine marks in my ATV tracks as I forced myself to head back to camp, pack up and head home. Changes are often good, though we may have mixed feelings about them at the time. Sometimes nonproductive things need to be cleared out so more beneficial things can take their place. When I saw the bull dozer knocking trees down, I had serious pangs of regret at ravaging this woods. Watching some very large trees getting leveled and pushed aside made me fretful at the time. But now, the sun could shine through the once dark woods and the deer had a food source for the winter. They would
also have an even better food source once I planted in the spring and I
would definitely have some of best hunting of my life next Fall.
Linda K. Burch, WildTech Corporation, 7650 Currell Blvd, Suite 130, Woodbury, MN 55125. Phone/fax 866-245-8518 and Email: lburch@firetacks.com. Linda K. Burch
Web Site: www.firetacks.com
|
The Bowhunting Netcenter We invite you to visit some of the other Bowhunting.net Netcenter web sites: |
