Susan Lagazo

Excuses for our failures are  easy to recite and remain abundant as expected but the prospect of emerging as a seasoned hunter seemed to be “a not too distant” reality??

The land is situated in the town of Harrisburg in Lewis County. By the time we closed our property, the other remaining 7 parcels of land were quickly sold to mostly hunters from other neighboring States. These new landowners are considered pioneers in this newly acquired raw land. As we met these hunters,

I realized all of us have the urgent and strong desire to get  good game in our respective lands. Each and everyone had their own little strategy to improve and study the hunting lands.  I think I will be able to also harvest interesting stories amongst these hunters as they play their own hunting games.

The hunting season for that land was not over. There was one weekend left for hunting. The Friday before that last weekend, we scouted the area early morning when the mist of the night lingered around. The tracks of the deer were just found everywhere. Before we entered the woods, a 5 pointer deer sauntered 15 yards away from us.

Not expecting to see a deer that morning, we opted not to bring our bows and just travel light. The deer saw us and did not jump with fright. He had a ”Hey guys I’m cool, I know you won’t get me this morning” attitude and that made me smile. The deer looked at us with his bored eyes and walked away carrying his magnificent crown of pointers. His 180 lb body floated gracefully in the morning fog.

My partner and I silently admired this scenery that seemed to be a better version of a documentary film clip from “Animal World”. “ Okay buddy, today is your day, tomorrow will be our day. Tomorrow will be ‘the day’; I thought to myself with great optimism.

The following morning, with bows in our hands we set up a blind to ambush the deer we saw yesterday. Two hours passed, the fog had cleared, some birds started to chirp and the 5 point deer was no where in sight. As quickly as we found his fresh track, we suddenly lost it. 

As we peered thru the slit of our blind, we were treated to a parade of coyotes and red foxes. They were all headed to the same destination across the field as they boldly stepped out of the safety of the woods. 

My hunting buddy and I decided to emerge from the blind and walked toward where the animals were converging. As we approached the spot, all these little animals scurried away, relinquishing the crown of dominance to us. 

“ Aha! Someone had been here ahead of us!”

The tracks and guts that clearly belonged to the 5 pointer deer were found on the ground. He was taken maybe 3 or 4 hours ago. Some hunters who were not informed that the area had been sold were hunting the area.

That was lesson number one for us. After buying a raw land, first thing to put up are posting signs warning other hunters to keep out of the property. Now we know. But will ‘Almost got it’ be the theme of our hunting days?   In my mind, I uttered a desperate little wish  “Dear Lord, just give me a chance to experience the glory of a successful hunt and I will be good for the rest of my life”!

We entered the following hunting season year with enthusiasm. The simplicity of happiness came naturally now every time I visited the new hunting ground. My working morning days in the city are no longer greeted with “I wish I could stop working or I hope to win the lotto” wistful thoughts. I know that at the end of those 5 working days are two grand fun days at ‘Twin Ridge’ the name I dubbed the new place because of the two ridges along the creek that cuts the land.

We learned that in our area, corn and hay were the predominant plants in the farmer’s field. So, my dear husband thought we will be hitting two birds with one stone if we  create a food plot for the deer and at the same time harvest some fresh corn. We are definitely not farmers but we thought, “No big deal, all we need is clear the land, plant the seed of corn and presto, a corn field”. “ How hard can that be”?

 

Susan on her Workhorse

After buying and using the hand tiller, we realized after a day’s work that it would take us forever to till the soil if we insist on using these tools. We decided to buy a workhorse, an ATV machine, but realized we needed another one for me. These two workhorses were equipped with rotary disks so we could till the land simultaneously.  

‘This project is costing us a lot of dollars’. I thought to myself, but the desire to be a weekend farmer prevented me from stopping Armen’s relentless excitement with the new events unfolding in our lives. I went with the flow of new ideas on how to go about farming and kept my resistance to expenses to myself.  Besides, riding a four-wheeler was an experience itself! “Whee! A new toy for both of us”! Euphoria!

After the many weekends in the scorching sun and working ourselves to exhaustion, we finally cleared an acre of land. I followed Armen’s lead. We never bothered to inquire for some pointers on farming. At last we could see the corn seeds grow into plants together with the weeds and hay between them that grew faster then the corn.

Apparently, we missed several steps of farming, one of which was spraying the land with chemical to kill the weeds before planting.  The rows of corn had been broken here and there. Instead of a smiling field with all its row of corn plants basking in the sun, our field was smiling with three or four missing rows of corn plants, but still basking in the sun, an awful big consolation to us.

The squirrel, chipmunks and other little critter invited themselves to a feast of corn seeds.  The deer discovered the food plot and started eating the young plants before hunting season! Grr!  Since there was ample food around, we did not think the deer would concentrate on the corn field, “Duh”. In spite of all these unfortunate mishaps we could see the remaining plants bearing their fruit. Some of the corn plants escaped the misfortune of being eaten and survived until harvest day.

The day of harvest  we stood at a distance from the field of corn, that looked like a storm passed the field. We were both radiant with our little accomplishement. We harvested a few dozen ears of corn that we divided evenly and proudly to the children and some friends. All these city folks looked at us with admiration and amazement. Little did they know that the corn on their table that would cost a dollar or so was worth several thousands, a couple of bails of sweat and a hill full of missteps!
 
To be continued...