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Spent pretty much the entire weekend walking properties with clients. It was a beautiful time to be wandering the woodlands. Bright warm sunshine, melting snow and a woods full of critters, or at least their tracks.

 We walked a 75 acre parcel on Sunday near Vassar that had the most turkey sign I believe I’ve ever seen. There were litterally tracks everywhere. The property was a perfect make up of woods, pines, hardwods, poplar, maple, they were all there. Nice rolling terrain and a creek too. Going to make someone a heck of place for a hunting camp. We also walked the 65 acres I have listed near Kingston. That property has yet to let me down as far as deer sightings, and Sunday was no exception. We saw many deer both out in the ag field to the north and roaming in the woods. I also found out that the ice had become weakened from the warm weather. Got to wandering around looking for a corner stake and found myself up to my knees in ice water. I figured there had been plenty of deer wandering on the ice evidenced by all the tracks, guess I must weigh a bit more than the deer. LOL!!! Wound up getting pretty wet, thankful it was warm weatherwise.

Got the chance recently to meet a new bowhunter. My son decided to sell his nearly new Matthews bow and try out a crossbow. We tried the ebay thing, lots of watchers but nobody wanting to pull out the wallet. So we then decided to give craigslist a run to see if there were any interested folks on that website. We did get alot more response from that endeavor and eventually set up a time for a buyer to come check out the bow.  I thought the buyer might be a bit young from the voice, and that suspesion was backed up when I received a call from his parent checking up on whom her son was coming to meet to look at the bow. Great job mom, by the way. Always very impressed to see parents keeping a wary eye on their kids. Mom told me how excited my potential customer was about getting a look at the bow and she was concerned about making sure this would fit his needs. I assured her I would make certain the bow would fit her son and that he got to shoot a few arrows to try it out.

 Shortly after the phone call a knock came at my door and there was my customer anxiously waiting. Great kid, very polite and obviously really excited to try out the Matthews.  I took him over on the side of our house and let him launch a couple arrows to make certain he liked the bow, and also for me to make sure the bow liked him.  He told me it was better than he had imagined and that he would take it. He was quick to dive into the pocket to retrieve the money and I noticed a bit of shaking in his hands as he handed over cash and grabbed the bowcase. It was a good feeling to know that the Matthews was going to a good home and no doubt she got a good workout as soon as the boy got home. 

  After he left I gave a ring back to mom and assured her everything was fine and her son and his new bow were safely on their way home. Always great to see excitement in the eyes of a new hunter. Here’s hoping that young man enjoys every day afield.

 As for my son, well lets just say that money didn’t stay out of circulation for long. That same evening we were in route to a local bow shop and a new Eastman crossbow is in the garage waiting for October.

If you’ve spent much time wandering in Michigan’s Outdoors you’ve no doubt came across a place you call your own. It’s one of those special places where things just feel right. It might be a place where you’ve been successful in a hunting adventure, or maybe you found a hat full of morels, what ever the reason that place forever holds a spot in your memory.

 I have 3 such spots and thoughts of them brings a smile to my face and puts me in a better frame of mind. The first one is in Roscommon County, near Houghton Lake. It’s an out of the way place deep in the Federal Forest, one of those you need a compass to find. It a small trickle of a stream winding it’s way through some towering pines. Always cool and damp there, lots of wildlife too. This particular spot I found while turkey hunting with my dad. We had just returned from a big breakfast and very soon after setting up our decoys for a bit of calling, we both fell sound asleep. Not sure exactly how long we slept, but I do vividly remember how we awoke!!  A big long bearded tom woke us both with a loud rumbling gobble as he stood 30 feet away looking at our hen decoy. To say we were startled would be an understatement. However not quite startled enough to keep from sending a load of 6 shot his way and later after many pictures, putting him in our cooler.

 Second spot is another out of the way place in Gratiot County on some state land. Dad and I have hunted that spot for over 30 years and taken numerous bucks from an old log blind we built many years ago. Between him and I I’m sure we’ve seen the dawn break at least a hundred times in that patch of woods. The old blind is just a pile of rotted logs on the ground, and dad has gone on to the big hunting grounds in the sky. My son and I just went back to this place last gun season and I’m happy to say it still has it’s charm.

 Last place is a favorite stretch of the Platte River in northwest Michigan. Nice stretch of spawning gravel, with a few deeper holes scattered about, and a couple cabins. I’ve fished that spot nearly every spring for 30+ years.  I’ve caught and lost more steelhead there than I can remember. Just one of those places where I’ve watched the rituals of spring unfold in the great outdoors. Crisp and cool in the morning, maybe a little ice in the rod guides. Then the ole sun pops out and things warm a bit, brings out the chickadees, nuthatches, and blue jays. There were a couple times we hit that spot at the right time and wound up getting to watch the courtship rituals of the woodcock. AHHH…….Springtime!!! 

 As an ole friend says on TV…….Get outdoors here’s no better place to be!!

Just back from the show in Lansing last evening.  Nice show had some very nice exibits, but hardly any people. Looked like very low attendance for a Friday evening.  No doubt another casulty of our poor economy.

 We do a few shows a year and pretty much every year the 2 which come outon top for attendance are the one in Grand Rapids, and the Woods n Waters Weekend in September in Imlay City. Those shows seem to bring out the hunting public like no other. Even the Outdoorama, which used to be the jewel of outdoor shows seems to be slowly fading away.

Gotta say I love this state. Yeah I know things are tough around here, not a financial picnic at my house either. But I believe we are very resilient people in this state. We’ve been through tough times before and though I don’t expect we’ll see the prosperity we had 5 years ago, we will survive. Been alot of folks that have left here to head to other parts of the country to make a living, feed their families. Far be it from me to think any less of someone taking care of their families. My family did the same once before too, but we just couldn’t stay away from our Michigan. 

 Back in 1982 I was just out of college and things were not great here then either. My wife had family in Colorado and there were jobs to be had there so off we went. Packed everything we could into our 2 cars and headed west. We both found jobs out there, definately weren’t getting rich by any means, but working at least. We wound up calling Georgetown Colorado our temporary home. Beautiful place, 10000′ up in the Colorado Rockies. We rented a ski condo there and commuted 120 miles a day back and forth from Denver, where we worked. Would have been nice to have lived closer to our jobs but couldn’t afford any place near Denver. It was a nice time out there, different than Michigan, mostly rocks, pine trees and white water.  It took us about 6 months to come to the realization we were existing, but not happy. Yeah we had food on the table and the wolf wasn’t knocking at the door, but this just wasn’t home.  We made a decision that the view wasn’t worth the climb, and back to Michigan we came.

 Again we packed our 2 little cars to the roof with all we could and headed east. Believe me it was a long hot ride going across the great plains in the middle of the summer. I swear Iowa was just a long green tunnel of sweltering cornfields. Long about the second afternoon of driving we came into the southwest part of Michigan, a bit north of Chicago. It was a typical hot muggy July afternoon, temps about 90. Low and behold I saw a sign that told of beaches on Lake Michigan!!  I could not get that little car off the freeway quick enough and immediately headed for the lake. To this day I have no idea what the name of that town or beach was, but I can tell you within seconds after arriving at the beach parking lot I was standing neck deep in MY LAKE MICHIGAN!!

 That was in 1982, and I’ve not left since. This is my state, my woods, lakes, rivers, fields and hills. Say what you like about your favorite places to visit, but for me I’m just snug as a bug in a rug right here in MY MICHIGAN!!  We’ll get through these tough times, of that I have no doubt. At the end of the day, Good Lord willing, I’ll be right here watching the sun slowly set over MY MICHIGAN!!!

Funny how sometimes you get so focused on something you miss the obvious. I guess sort of like not seeing the forest for the trees. I have a couple listings on the website which I have been marketing as good deer hunting lands, which they are, but it took another client to open my eyes to the fact these properties also had other uses. I have a 40 acre listing in Genesee County down near Byron which is very good deer hunting land, but has a large swail in the middle which sort of restricts your access to the rear of the acerage. Recently I’ve had 2 different clients who found the swail not a hinderance, but a great asset. Both these guys are duck hunters and they pointed out how great a duck hunting set up the swail could be, and they are right, a tremendous duck spot.

 Another 35 acre listing I have in northern Lapeer County, a very nice deer hunting property, could also have other uses as a possibly a great place to ride dirt bikes and ATV’s. Rolling terrain, fields, woods and 3 existing trails would make a great place to ride bikes, never thought of it before.  Heck I suspect a person with a little talent on a dozer or front end loader could transform that property into a very cool motocross area.

 Another set of eyes…….priceless!!!

Just a friendly reminder to folks that you have to have until February 1st to get your Turkey Hunting permits bought.  If you happen to forget you may still have a chance to pick up a left over after the draw, but better to be certain and get them now.

 In 1991 my dad and I didn’t draw a spring permit for our area so we were forced to grab a left over permit in the UP.  We wound up with tags for over near Iron Mountain. We had not spent much time over in that neck of the woods so our first couple days were all scouting missions. In fact we hunted for 5 days and with the exception of the half dozen jakes we saw under the birdfeeder at the motel where we stayed we never saw a bird. We did however stumble into many nice patches of morels and wound up taking a cooler full back down state. I love turkey hunting, but I have to say those morels tasted better than any turkey I ever harvested.

Spent the weekend with my family up at Houghton Lake. We have a park model mobilehome in a condo association park about 1/4 mile off the lake. Great place to spend a weekend, no snow to shovel, no grass to cut, just pull in turn on the water turn up the heat and enjoy. The park is located right on the main snowmobile trail head so it’s also a great place to come to ride. Anybody interested, there are a few places for sale in the park.

 Now on to the perch fishing. My son and I grabbed some wax worms and headed out yesterday to try our luck for some bluegills on the lake. We fished right across the street from the Party Time party store. Short walk out to a bunch of shanties and we even found a couple holes left from the last folks, so no drilling holes needed. The water there was about 6 feet deep and only some short weed growth at the bottom. In short order both my son and I were hauling up perch affter perch. No doubt we must have caught nearly 50 in an hour. OK, now here’s the catch, if we had kept them all and put them nose to tail on the ice all 50 together might have measured 15 inches. Man I mean some of those fish were only 2″ long!! We both caught a few that were so young they hadn’t even gotten all their stripes. The good thing was they were all lightly hooked and released to swim another day, and hopefully grow up !! We didn’t see anyone pulling up anything else but small perch, not a tip up flag all day.

Thought I’d put a few things to remember when buying vacant land today. Most folks who are looking for land have an idea that the only way to buy vacant land is either to have a pocket full of cash, or to buy on a land contract. Actually there are many banks out there that will finance vacant land and a few who specialize in vacant land purchases.  You do however need to remember that most if not all banks are going to require 15% or more as a down payment.  This is not much different than most land contract options that are offered by land sellers.

 Secondly, if you’re looking into financing vacant land thru a bank, be absolutely sure they know it’s VACANT LAND, not a repo, or a conventional home loan.  More than one of my clients have found out the hard way that those great zero or low down financing options due not apply to vacant lands. They go thru all the paperwork, get quotes on payments etc, then suddenly the whole thing comes crashing down when the bank realizes there’s no home involved in the purchase. Save yourself the heart break and headaches and go to a bank that specializes in VACANT LAND. You’ll get the right info right from the start. 

  Lastly, be sure to look into all the financing programs offered by the bank. There are some banks currently offering up to 30 year financing at fixed rates. That can be great news when you’re trying to fit in as much land as you can into your budget. If you’re in need of some contact info involving vacant land financing, pick up a Woods n Waters News magazine and peruse the realestate section, there are usually a few who can be found there. As always, if you have questions please feel free to give me a shout.

For those of you who are actively searching for some new hunting land for next season, now’s the time to be walking the woods.  All the leaves have hit the ground so visibility is at its best. It’s also a great time to find runways and rubs and if you’re really lucky maybe a shed antler. The snow presents a clean canvas so to say. All the contours and curves of a property are now visible. Finding property boundries and survey stakes is at it’s best right now.

 Besides the business side of things it’s also a very nice time to just walk the woods. There are tons of tracks from all different kinds of wildlife. It is also a pretty good time to see wildlife as they are far more concerned with food and staying warm than with running away from you. The now dark brown coats of deer stand out and are much easier to see. Turkeys with all their black plumage are easily seen as they peruse the woodlands in search for acorns. If you happen to be walking near an active feeding area, namely acorns in the woods or maybe a standing corn field, the number of birds can be amazing. Chickadees, Nuthatch, Blue Jay, and Junkos will all be around any corn left in the field, or near any bait piles left by hunters. 

If you’re starting to get the early tinges of “cabin fever” , throw on some warm clothes and take a walk in Michigan’s Outdoors. There’s always something interesting to be found in the woods, and the fresh air is great for the soul.