Keep Out (at least unless we know you)

Tomorrow is the first day of the real, rifle deer hunting season. Up until now, it had been bird season, bow season, black powder season, etc. But tomorrow starts the real thing.

For the past couple of weeks I have seen guys I don't recognize (some with out of state plates no less!) cruising slowly on the road through our part of the world, scanning from side to side looking for places to set up once the season starts. More than one pickup truck has come to a dead halt in front of our property, as the driver (sometimes with binocs or a scope) salivates over the 20 acre open field behind our barn.

Our dilemma is that the field the hunters like is the field where I have my crops and winter cover crops, where the hoophouse with the five-year plastic is, where I plan to be cutting some cedars over the next few weeks, and where Maryellen and Wavo like to go for walks. Needless to say, I would be seriously bummed if some hunter inadvertently wounded a member of our family, shot a hole in the five year plastic, or drove over our vegetable fields.

So what to do? In Vermont, unless you post your property, it is open for hunting and fishing. On the other hand, there is a subtle anti-posting ethic -- it is considered somewhat un-neighborly, especially if your neighbors (like ours) like to hunt.

The solution I arrived at yesterday was to post along the road, so the out of towners (hopefully) don't get any ideas about coming onto our property. At the same time, I called our neighbor who I know hunts further up in our property, and I told him that he, and anyone he was willing to take responsibility for, could hunt up there. Our neighbor is a former dairy farmer, a responsible individual, an integral part of our community, and he knows what we are trying to do with the vegetables. So I am not worried about him or his sons or grandsons being up there. But we could do without the guys who we can't necessarily hold to account.

I'll let you know if this strategy works.