Once in a lifetime encounter with a VERY Rare Deer in New York State!
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 |It was a beautiful winter day on December 1st in New York State!
I proceeded out of my door at 7:00am to my favorite hunting spot. It’s a beautiful unexplored parcel of land attached to a very affluent farm in one of our NY counties. From what I understood, there hasn’t been hunters allowed on the farm since the early 1900’s. The previous owners of the farm had a very strict policy that continued through the generations into the new millennium. The words “NO HUNTING” were prominently displayed at the front entrance to the farm! If you’re a hunter, you know what it’s like to find a good parcel of land. I love to hunt on private land, It seems to be a little bit quieter than State lands, and one of the roads less traveled. I had been granted permission to hunt because of an ad I had started placing on craigslist.com two years ago. Most of my friends pay an annual fee to hunt.
They go up opening week and are required to pay $2500.00 per season. I’m a small business owner and have fees popping up all the time so I really don’t have much money to spend towards hunting season, other than the normal fees incurred, let alone pay to hunt. So I decided to come up with a way to have that privilege and not pay any fees that hunting private properties entailed. Being a multi licensed & talented Union Sheetmetal Worker, I placed an ad that was titled appropriately “Handyman, GC Skills in exchange for Permission to Hunt”. In the ad I described a little about myself, how much I love our forests, nature, water ways and wetlands, my skills and what it is that I can offer. The responses were phenomenal! I had offers from people ranging from hundreds of acres, all the way down to private homes with 5 acres attached to State land. I emailed back a few of the people to see what it was they wanted done and if I was qualified to help them. The duties ranged from cutting grass, digging holes with a post hole digger and installing a fence, to exterminating deer. (more…)
From my experience, watching one of your favorite sports teams lose on a consistent and devastating manner can really ruin your week. Of course I realize it is just a game and in the scheme of life, it is relatively inconsequential. But still…it really, really bothers me and if I let it and put me in a horrible mood for longer than it should. Talking about a loss which can bother you until the next game is one thing, but rooting for a team that is truly bad, well that is quite another.