Scouting

Friends, the count down is almost over.  Only 8 days until the 2011 upland hunting season starts.  Soon we will be knee deep into that sweet, sweet CRP.

 I was driving down the Interstate today and noticed a few dog crated pick-up trucks heading north toward South Dakota.. (their season always starts a week earlier than ours here in Nebraska/Iowa).  Harvest is in FULL SWING, and it is almost time.

Lately I have been spending all of my time outside of the work place driving up and down every dirt and back wood road I can access. That map up there, my PLAT map for this county, has been scribbled on and over analyzed to the point to where it is "dog eared".    Ive handed it over to every farmer, farm hand, store keeper, and any local that would look at it, in efforts to find out who has what ground that we can access this season.   I`ve even taken on a part time job working at a local small town Steak House/Lounge to try and meet some of these people around the areas I will be primarily hunting.  I`ve met a lot of interesting characters and  its been a funny few months.

This year I decided to hunt the Omaha Indian Reservation in addition to Nebraska and Iowa.  Looking further into the proximity of their "public" ground that is offered through the permit, and the great habitat that is offered, I decided to go for it.  The permit sells for $170 and is only offered to 100 applicants, but after the last scouting through the Reservation, I had to go for it. Big, big overgrown fields surrounded by crop and waterways.  Just what we want.  Surprisingly well marked boundaries too.  Im totally in.

This is shaping up nicely.

Very soon and in pleasant company,

AP

PS:  I will again be FREQUENTLY and oh so RANDOMLY blogging about our 2011 upland adventures.  Don`t miss out if you are a fan.  I don`t do Facebook or Flutter (twitter) or whatever... we are in the country and the internet slowly works via satellite if we are lucky.  I old school blog here.  Subscribe.  If you want to.  I guess I don`t really get anything if you do subscribe.  Thanks for reading.  (Shouting to the folks in Korea!)