We have a great time here every year, talking property, hunting, and outdoors. I love being able to talk to folks about there properties or listen to their stories of hunting seasons past and those ahead. Over the last 5 years we’ve done this show I’ve met some very nice folks.  Hunters, fisherman, hikers, campers, and even a 3 Star General from the US Army have stopped by to say Hi, and I’ve loved every minute of it. Like my website says, it’s not just about the hunting, but making memories is pretty darn important too. So if you’re out to the show this year, stop by and get acquainted.

 We stopped over to the seller’s home Saturday morning to get a look at the truck and I believe my son and I were both about equally excited. I knew from the first glimpse of the sellers house that if this truck was anything close to as clean and neat as the home it was gonna be ours. I mean you could have eaten off the garage floor!!  The owner came out and showed us the F150 and from the look on my son’s face I knew he was hooked. Yeah she’s got a couple rust spots, nothing big, but she purred like a kitten and has an interior cleaner than my 2002. Couple runs down the road and I was sold. She now sets in our driveway waiting for my boy to reach his 16th birthday in October. In the meantime I’m gonna introduce my boy to a little body work to patch up the rust spots.

 I can’t hardly wait to make a few bow and duck hunting trips this fall in my sons’ new truck!! Man, now I can track my muddy waders on his front seat, and leave some feathers in his visor!! Hey getting old may not be so bad afterall.

 Another item of note is that I’m already seeing mentions of folks catching chinook salmon up in rivers on the northwet side of the state. Now that is a great bit of news in my book. It is an absolute riot to tangle wih those silver monsters in shallow water. Be sure to have lots of line on the reel cause long runs are common, as are the sounds of lines snapping! Best guess of where to explore for early salmon would be Little Manistee and Betsie Rivers on the west side of Michigan.

 Now on to more early arrivals. Been seeing some big fawns so far this summer. Heck I saw 2 last weekend in Tuscola County that had nearly lost their spots already.  This years goslings have pretty much gotten as big as mom and dad. Seems to be lots of them too, good news for early goose hunters.

 Thanks to the folks at Vacation Trailer Park on the Betsie for yet again providing a great family camping experience. Clean comfortable trailers and cabins, right on the riverbank, can’t beat it!!

 Back in 1990 I was again driving my wife mad bothering her with my vacant land wishes. I kept telling her how we were missing out on alot of potential investments. ”Aw come on honey this 10 acres is perfect, and it’s a great investment at the asking price.” Why if we bought this and held on for a couple years I bet we’d make more money than our 401K, and get to use our investment too.  It took me a L-O-N-G time to convince her to let me give it a try, but persistance finally paid off and I found a hunt club that was disbanding and selling off their holdings.  The asking prices were pretty decent, and the land looked nice. Long story short the seller was willing to deal and we wound up with about 40 acres instead of just 10. A result I’d never have known if I hadn’t put an offer on the table. We had a blast with that property and in a few years the itch was there again to buy another 40 acre parcel I’d been watching for nearly 2 years on the market.

 We hooked up with a local realtor I had used before, who convinced us to do some parcel splitting and then put them up for sale. We wound up selling off all but 14 acres around our pole barn, and netted a decent profit, enough to make an offer on the 40 I wanted. The property by the barn was pretty special to us and it was difficult to put that on the market, but I decided instead of working up an offer on the 40 we’d instead play it safe and sell off the barn and 14 acres first.  Low and behold the 14 and the barn sold in 2 days!! Soon as we had an accepted agreement on our property I was off to write an offer on the 40. Unfortunately, my luck had run out, seems someone else had put an offer on the table for the 40 just a couple days before I came along and he got it for a song!! Drat!!!  If I’d made my offer first instead of waiting to sell the 14 acres and the barn I’d probably have gotten that parcel. A “Shoulda, woulda, coulda ” moment. 

 Where I’m headed with this rambling is that you never know what you can get a property for unless you write an offer. If you’re in the market for a property, don’t let the asking price keep you from putting in an offer you’re comfortable with even if it’s a bit below what is being asked for the property.  Last bit of advice here as a buyer make sure you put your offer in writing! Sellers are much more likely to give your offer serious consideration if it’s in writing, as the ole saying goes “Talk is cheap”, and all those zeros can look mighty inviting.

 If you’re going to head over to the dam, bring along a couple dozen perch minnows. They seem to be the ticket right now. Seemed that the fishing has been about even on both sides of the dam too. There’s a public access parking lot right at the dam site so access is no problem.