No Hunting

When I had my 100 acres, I didn't allow hunting except for a select few people. It was actually an animal paradise and I wanted to keep it that way. One day I had the priviledge of watching a 16 point and an 18 point buck do battle in my front yard for about 45 minutes over a doe that was grazing nearby. As she meandered along, just grazing here and there they followed her with their horns locked practically the whole way. I learned after living there for awhile that they were actually buddies that hung out together. You know how it is though once a woman becomes involved.

The hunters would tear down my "no hunting "signs, so I started to stencil "no hunting" on the trees and telephone poles. I also went deep into the woods and I spray painted big blotches of orange paint on the trees so that a hunter would have to investigate before he could take a shot. (my theory was that he would have to look twice to make sure that a hunter wasn't in the way of his shot) I also tore the steps out of tree stands so that hunters couldn't climb to their vantage points. My favorite thing to do and the most effective is that I would go out right at daybreak and I would race all over the 100 acres blowing my car horn and blinking my lights. I saw whole herds of deer run away when I did this. I also saw more than one hunter cussing me in my rearview mirror!

For every respectful hunter there is an asshole that just wants to go out and get drunk and shoot anything that moves. My biggest fear is that someone would mistake one of my greyhounds for a deer and shoot it. (they do look similiar afterall) Once I found a dead deer and the only thing the hunter bothered to take with him was one hind leg. What a waste! If you are going to go to the trouble of killing it - at least eat it! My neighbor complained to me once that someone had actually shot into the side of his house. I told him the only thing that I could tell him to do was to call the police because nobody had permission to hunt there anyway. We all know what good that would do.

Anyway I adored my 100 acres and I wish I was still there.