First deer season on my farm

[Penguin]

Alas it has not turned out as I had hoped.

The real estate lawyer had a heart attack a few months ago. He had to go in for another procedure this week, not a big one I'm told, and we lacked a couple sentences on one contract and one update to a deed attachment. Alas the farm won't be closed on until a week or two after Thanksgiving. So, instead of walking around and hunting on my own property for the first time in my life, I will be walking around and hunting on a piece of property that I am a couple sentences and a dozen signatures away from owning.

I asked my cousin who is executor or the estate if she minded me going hunting and she said of course not, as far as she was concerned I was the owner. So at least I am going to go but it would have been nice to have it all wrapped up in time.

I'll be taking some pictures to show you guys what it looks like up there. The "farm" portion is maybe 12 to 13 acres of beautiful fields, the other 68 acres is mountain timber. It is a gorgeous farm for West Virginia in all honesty. Kind of funny to walk around on a piece of property that your family originally settled on 6 generations ago. I haven't hunted it since I was a shavetail kid. No one has. One of my cousins who lives up the road from it tells me there are two 10 points and one 12 point there this fall. Hope to see one.

Will

[DeputyDog]

To quote John Denver, “almost heaven, West Virginia”.

Sounds like you’ll have a place for years to come. Congrats.


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[BarryBobPosthole]

Congrats Willy! Enjoy your new place and go kill a biggun!

BKB

[Penguin]

This is what it looks like from Google Earth looking from the southeast. Once you break over the edge of the fields it is pretty darned steep all the way to the creek at the bottom of the hollow. Thanks for the well wishes and I will try hard to bring down a good one... or even just one. :)

9728

[Big Muddy]

Will, that's great, buddy.....just curious, did you buy out the other heirs???

[Penguin]

Well the previous owner was my aunt and I bought it from the 4 children. She had bought it from my great grandfather. Aside from one daughter the other 3 are scattered to the winds are were happy to see the place stay in the family as she had requested in her will.

The previous picture really doesn't show how rugged the place is. Maybe this one will show how the land lies a bit better.

9729

[johnboy]

Looks great!

[BarryBobPosthole]

So is there a house place on the farm you are going to use?

Is there a room for me?

BKB

[Penguin]

Yes, my aunt built a really nice place on it around 1985 when she moved back to the state. It has a basement and a garage and also there is a shed for the lawnmower and rototiller and whatnot. There isn't a barn on the place anymore though and that will probably be the first major project I attempt. Maybe next summer. I plan on running some stock on the place but don't want to rush into it too early.

And this place also has one of the biggest ramp patches I have ever seen. :)

Posty you would be welcome to stop by any time. Goes for any of you who happen to be in the southern WV area. It would be nice to meet some of the people behind the names I've known for so long.

Will

[Trav]

Posty we play the hillbillies in Morgantown next year maybe we kill 2 birds with one stone.

[Arty]

Looks like a fine place! That anywhere near Bluefield?

[LJ3]

Well that's awesome Will! I know we're only interwebs friends but I found myself feeling very happy for you!

[Penguin]

Trav that sounds fun. If you can't make it down here I may be able to slip up there for a game. Even if it is one that we'll likely lose. :)

Arty: It is an hour or so to Bluefield south of here. From Bluefield you'd just jump on I-77 and head north till you get to Beckley. Take I-64 east into the New River Gorge and the farm is 4 or 5 miles east from it.

Thanks Len, it has been a long, long time away from home for me. Unbelievable that I lived in so many different places only to land my dream job in a place that allows me to live in my hometown and around friends and family.

Will

[Chicken Dinner]

What part of WVa? I’m near Warm Springs, VA and can just about spit onto WVa from here.


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[Penguin]

We're 40+ miles west and a bit south of you Hank. Not too far away actually.

Will

[Chicken Dinner]

Beautiful country! Weren’t we talking chestnuts a while back?

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[Captain]

Never all that about them “pointers”. What’s the turkeys population look like that’s the real question.
Congrats on a great “new” piece of property!

[Penguin]

Well the season is ~mostly~ over and it was an interesting one for sure.

The first day I arrived predawn with a few inches of snow on the ground. Since I hadn't had time to scout at all and knew there were big deer on the place I decided to just sneak in a bit and see what happened. Walked down the ridgeline from the garden 50 yards or so and sat down on the north facing slope. As the sun sneaked up over the opposing mountain I heard a few clucks and thought "That sounds like a turkey." And so it was. Within 15 minutes you literally couldn't hear anything for the ruckus coming from 100 yards or so downhill from me. They were clucking and yelping and crashing onto the ground and generally raising hell, I even heard a couple of those rare winter gobbles. Eventually they split into 3 groups. One of them walked by below me and there were maybe a dozen in the bunch.

Aside from that? It was really cold. A lone doe came in on me at about 2:30 and laid down not 40 yards away. I was pinned there for almost 2 hours waiting for a buck to follow her in. No dice. Ended the day seeing only one deer.

Next day I was back. Sat for the morning without seeing a thing. Except the damned turkeys again. They had split into 3 roost trees this time. One in front of me and one upstream and one downstream from me. They made it hard to hear anything at all for a good part of the morning. Decided to move at about lunch. Went south along from where I was sitting and in the next hollow almost immediately got into deer sign. Jumped one. Noticed trails coming into the path I was on. Walked further and jumped a bunch of 4 or so. That hollow was torn up with scrapes, rubs, and trails. But too late to get into them. My cousin wanted to hunt a bit and I let him have the place for the rest of the week. He's been really good while I have been getting things lined out to buy the place and I felt like I owed him a chance to hunt the place one last time.

Hunted the next 3 days at my brothers place. For the first two days all I saw were turkeys. First day a group of hens came down headed for the farm across the road. Next day a group of gobblers came in scraping for acorns. The group of hens came in and tried to run them off. I didn't know that gobblers would strut in the winter. Apparently they do. After a while they all headed back up the mountain and I didn't see them again.

Finally on friday morning after freezing my ass off for most of the week a doe came cruising by at about 7:45. She crossed the hollow and passed me like a paytrain passing a hobo. Never looked right or left. Just walked right by. About a half hour later a buck came in and I filled my tag. He wasn't one of the monsters I had seen up on the mountain but he was a nice bodied 3 year old with a 6 point rack. Take one every year to be honest.

Anyway that was my week. I wish I had gotten a chance to scout the place first. I just didn't think it would take all this time to get the place signed for. But I know there are a legion of turkeys both up there and at my brother's place. Some nice gobblers both places. Maybe I can finally get my act together and learn how to turkey hunt this coming spring. :)

Will

[Chicken Dinner]

We'll just call you the turkey whisperer. That's such a cool story and I imagine you'll be one heckuva steward of that land. Best of luck.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Meat in the pot and a place of new discoveries to come. It don’t get much better than that Chilly Willy! Congrats on both and I hope there’s many more to come.

BKB