My Uncle Bud lives down the road from Alex & Sharon who owns a little chunk of wooded land. I had permission to hunt the tiny woodlot behind my uncle’s place and always had deer near my stand when I did. Those deer all seemed to come from across the road from Alex’s place. I often wondered about the deer on his property. They say the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but I wonder if the deer are more plentiful on the other side too?
One day I decided I would visit this couple and inquire about possibly hunting there. The afternoon that I pulled into their driveway, they were not at home. I figured I’d leave and come back later to try again.
While backing my truck out of their driveway, I managed to run into their mailbox and knock it off the post. Actually, I broke the post too. I certainly couldn’t ask for permission to hunt now after doing such a stupid thing to their mailbox.
I went back to Bud’s and let him know of my misfortune. I also asked if he happened to have their phone number so I could call them and apologize.
I did call but there was no one home.
Later on that day I went back to their house and this time they were there.
I don’t remember the conversation that took place, except for the apologizing part. I went back to Bud’s and continued to hunt his tiny woodlot for the remainder of the season.
Fast forward to the next year. When I asked Bud if I could hunt behind his place again he responded with, “Oh, Alex said you have permission to hunt his place too.”
I was surprised, to say the least. I went over to Alex’s and he took me out on his 4-wheeler to show me the hunt boundaries. It was then that he told me, “You know, we were impressed that you actually came back to tell us that you knocked our mailbox down. Not many people would have done that. That’s why we thought we’d let you hunt our place. You seem like an honest person.”
Wow. Just for being honest opened up several more acres. Honesty really is the best policy. My husband would later tease, “Maybe you should go out and run over more peoples mailboxes, cause then you’d get even more places to hunt!”
Now as funny as I thought that was, it’s something I would never do. I’m perfectly happy putting my mailbox bashing days behind me and looking forward to hunting on the little piece of land that some wonderful neighbors so graciously shared with me. Thank you Alex and Sharon. May all the deer on your land grow big and fat. Oh, and may my arrows fly true too.
