fly

That or perhaps the settings were off. I’ve done that before. Yep - date is right. Won’t check again for a while to keep my scent out of the woods.

Got the first decent pic of a buck on my new place. Thinking this is a 3.5 year old that will grow into an 8 pointer. Can’t wait to see what else shows up over he next couple months.

I agree Tim. They won the President's Trophy some years ago and a few years ago they beat Chicago in round one. Those were great years but for whatever reason they never came together in the playoffs. This team reminds me of the 2000 Rams. The Rams went from worst to first in one year. The Blues were dead last in January and look a them now. They played better than the Bruins last night - they deserved that win.

Any Hockey fans around? I'm not a die-hard fan but it sure has been fun to watch the St Louis Blues this year. I've never seen them play for the Stanley Cup as it has been 49 years. Last night the Blues won their first ever Cup playoff game evening the series 1-1 with the Boston Bruins. I checked Stub Hub and the cheapest ticket for game 3 in St Louis is going for $800! Think I'll watch it at home. LOL

Thanks Tim. I met with a lawyer and he said it could go either way if it goes to court. He said that the fence owner has to prove it was placed under hostile conditions and remained as such for 20 years. The original owner is deceased and the land went into a trust fund about 5 years ago. The lawyer is craftign a reply letter to send out. It does take some of the excitement out (but not as much as those biting gnats)! I can't even get out there until they die off. I think they are no-see-ums.

My new land has plenty of ticks skeeters and biting gnats of some kind (not black flies - smaller but larger than no-see-ums). I use permetherin to keep the ticks off me. So far I've seen plenty on my pack, boots, hat and clothes but they get off immediately and so far not one tick has embedded in my skin. Deep woods off helps with skeeters but the gnats got me a few days ago. They got inside my bug net and got me on the cheeks, ears, and neck. My face looked like I had been in a fight. I've heard vanilla extract on a neck rag works - will try that next time out.

Good luck with the new job Tim! I've been at SIUE for 20 years now so I now what you mean. My daughter's HS graduation party was yesterday and she'll be attending the University of Illinois this fall. By working at a state university for 7+ years my kids can get 1/2 off tuition so I'll likely be at SIUE for at least 4 more years and longer depending on where my son goes next year. Probably by that time I'll just stay there and retire (LOL). We've had the air on for a couple weeks now. Didn't get too many nights of just keeping the windows open this spring as It jumped from cold to hot in about a week.

So sorry to hear about this Joe.

Yep - I recorded a video showing where it is on the ground, washed out, buried, and overgrown with brush. The south west corner also impacts my neighbor as the fence is well off his line as well - probably even the neighbor next to him. I'll report back after speaking with the lawyer.

For those not familiar with the backstory check out the Lounge thread titled: What would you do? Here is the latest news... This came in the mail today. I will consult with a real estate lawyer next week. Again, the property in dispute is less than a half acre along the eastern and southern borders.

Saturday my son and I used a chainsaw to clear a 1 acre field for a fall food plot. Also established more of a trail system. Today I celebrate a friends promotion to Lt Colonel (US Air Force) then back to the land this evening to use my other friends tractor to brush hog the field I cleared Saturday.

Update... The property boundary markers I put up are all still in place. Haven't heard anything from Eagleton about the adverse possession. Walker and I seem to be getting along a little better now. He sent a picture of his map and it looks the same as mine. He still wants to walk his property borders with the surveyor and that will be a few weeks. In the mean time I have been morel hunting. The place is loaded! Biggest morels I've ever found. Also have seen numerous turkeys and jumped a hen at 3 steps from the nest pictured below. Those turkeys can scare the crap out of you. Hope the eggs make it! I've also found 2 other nests that something got into and destroyed/ate all the eggs.

Interesting discussions. The 87 year old guy (Eagleton) stated he had been paying taxes on the property marked by the old cattle fence. I checked at the court house and it is a lie. He has paid taxes on straight lines (not the crooked cattle fence). He also says his deed states his property is described by the cattle fence. I doubt that is true as there is no historical record at the court house. We looked and everything at the court house is exactly described as the one I have. I took a video of the fence. I'd say at least 50% of the fence is on the ground, buried under the ground or washed away by the creeks and drainage's. There is no maintenance or cattle containment and there hasn't been for many years. If Eagleton ever wanted to put cattle on his property he would have to replace most of the fence so my argument would be to place it on the line or better yet 5 feet on his side. I never had a lawyer involved and will not hire one. My property is filed at the court house, assessed and described as straight lines as the survey indicates. I'm going to be paying taxes on it as assessed. If Eagleton wants to steal this land by this adverse possession law he will just have to try to do so. The legal fees I would incur are not worth the land in dispute (less than an acre). In addition he will be also trying to steal land from my other neighbor (Dennis) as the fence crosses both of properties. Dennis has been there 15 years and is the only neighbor I've not had an issue with. I told him about it and he said the old man is trying to bully me and to call his bluff. I received a letter from the north eastern neighbor yesterday. The one with the tree stands. Walker is his name and has only owned the 7 acres of land for 3 years. He stated he thought/thinks he owns considerable land on my side of the marked border. He said he is planning to build and had planned to put in a drive way on my land! He said he still thinks it's his land is going to do a walk through with the surveyor. He also wrote in this letter that his lawyer said for me NOT to remove the tree stands until he walks the borders with the surveyor. He also accused me of driving on his field to place the border markers (which is a false accusation). This is almost 4 weeks from the time I sent the original letter to him. I wrote him back and said I'd be happy to walk the borders again. It's not a matter of GPS coordinates but 2 feet of iron rod placed in the ground some 15 years ago. I can't imagine there is any type of error but if so I'd place his stands back and sue my realtor and the seller for selling me ground that wasn't theirs to sell. I'm trying to be nice with these neighbors but when I'm being falsely accused and lied to I loose all motivation to compromise. I'll keep you all posted.

Congratulations! I too think of her as a kid hunting with dad.

Another issue. So now the 87 year old farmer on my eastern and southern side is claiming that the old and un-maintained and crooked cattle fence is the border line and NOT the markers placed by the surveyor. The fence staggers from being on the line to 50 feet away in some areas. It was placed in the easiest places due to the topography of the land. He said since the fence has been there for 20+ years he can claim Adverse Possession. The realtor and myself will be speaking with him about it next week. The hidden joys of being a land owner I never knew about!

Thanks for the tips and stories. Al, I thought about taking them home but I don't have the space for all three stands. I figure I'll leave them where they are until December and if no one contacts me or moves them I'll just set them up on other areas of my property.

Yea, I was not able to get the number, just the address. He lives 40 minutes from the property and he purchased it in 2015. I felt like searching for a number was a bit much. There was a trail camera up when I saw the place for the first time but it was gone a couple weeks later when I did the walk through with the surveyor. I thought about waiting longer but the woods are already getting real buggy, hot, and full of briars. It was 80 degrees yesterday! I'll hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.

You all likely saw my post last month about purchasing 32.49 acres for hunting. I walked the borders with a surveyor and discovered that three tree stands were on my property. One was a good 100 yards from the border while the other two were about 20-30 feet. I believe these stands belong to the owner (we'll call John). John owns a 7 acre bean field to my east. A neighbor to my south indicated John was the only person hunting in the area and believed he had been hunting in areas he didn't own. While I do not like to create conflict I also don't want anyone hunting on my land (even if it's only 20-30 feet). John has also been farming on my ground (about 1/6 acre). I obtained John's address from my realtor and sent him a letter indicating I had the property professionally surveyed and had placed stakes on the boundary lines. I said please avoid farming on my land and that I would be removing the stands I found. I provided my contact information and asked him to call me and I would leave the stands on his land to retrieve later. After 2 weeks he did not contact me. I therefore removed the stands and placed them on the boundary line where a stand had been located. I left a note in a ziplock bag indicating I had sent a letter to the property owner and did not hear back. I indicated I did not want anyone hunting on my property and also not to farm on the property. I placed no trespassing signs up and purple paint so the boundaries are clear. I also called the conservation officer for my area and explained the situation. He said that legally the stands came with the property and I could keep them. Even though it's legal it didn't seem right to me. What do you all think?

Found this on the south end of my new property near an old cattle fence. Any ideas what it could be? Might make a nice burn ring.

looks great!

Had several long discussions about this on FB last year when this was a hot topic. Most said everyone will forget and buy Nike's in a year. I said we'll see... clearly there are those of us still around that have not forgot. I love RT but if I saw Nike in RT or Converse in something else... the choice would be clear.

Can't wait to see it!

Great Thread that I'm just now getting to. Thank for sharing everyone. Up until my Dream to reality thread (you all likely saw in the Lounge) I was hunting public ground and one cattle farm I had permission to hunt a 25 acre section of. However, the owners family member decided to hunt on that 25 acres. He left me a 5 acre section to hunt this past season and I took a decent buck from it. It is basically a fence line that bordered a pay to hunt area. The fence line has some trees I could place a couple stands in but not much hope for hunting the wind. Still, it was peaceful (when the cows were in a different area) and I'm thankful to have had it for the past 12 years. My new property is 32.49 aces of rolling hills and a small creek that runs through the middle. I am in LOVE with the place and have been hard at work this spring putting trails in. Below is a trail I worked on earlier today. No hunting pressure for a couple years but I have seen a couple stands near my borders. One neighbor has his stand a good 50 yards inside my border. Going to have to deal with this issue soon.

I'm close - St Louis - but unfortunately only been through KC - don't know it well enough to give you any pointers. You might start with web sites that produce heat maps for high crime areas. Here is a link to one I found. https://www.areavibes.com/kansas+city-mo/crime/

Ross... I'm afraid all I got is IT LOOKS AWESOME! Almost as cool as that knife you made me for Christmas but then again... I'm biased.