2010
2010….I can hardly believe it’s a new decade, my son turned 16, and the next time we face a new decade, he will be 26…..notice I didn’t mention I would be ten years older as well. It is moments like these that make me realize that the time we as family spend together is priceless and is always cherished. It also makes me realize how much the great outdoors has played a part in our family time. Each year my wife makes a scrapbook for both of our moms highlighting all of the things we did as a family and almost all of our family’s activities for this year took place oudoors. No matter what the season or activity, we seem to be doing it….outdoors
Just this weekend as cold as it was, we found the time to take a walk through the woods, and of course, hunt. Yes, we froze, but it felt invigorating to be out there and more importantly, memories were made, the pictures were taken for next year’s scrapbook…. and that’s all that counts. Hope you have a great year enjoying the outdoors too.
Opening Day
Opening Day. There are no two other words like it. Some relate the phrase to dove or quail hunting and some others even relate it to duck season or turkey hunting. I personally relate it to the beginning of whitetail deer season and autumn, a time when Mother Nature begins to paint her landscape in vivid oranges, yellows, and reds. In different parts of the country, it takes on different dates, but no matter where you live, Opening Day is a day of great anticipation. It really doesn’t matter what game you may be chasing, that in itself is not the true spirit of the day.
Personally, it’s a time in my life to reflect on the memories of seasons past. Memories with friends and family in the field, or just those early morning breakfast gatherings and the smell of coffee and bacon in the skillet. The older I get, the more thankful I am of each season I’m able to just be part of it. To be able to sit in the stillness of a crisp autumn morning, one with nature and watch the orange sun peek over the horizon is nothing less than a blessing. Squirrels cutting acorns from the tree tops to the deer below, owls hooting, blue jays singing, and turkeys flying from their morning roost are all part of another daily routine of morning activities in the autumn woods.
I’m often asked by the unfortunate people of this world, how I could rise so early in the day and search my way through the darkness of the forest to sit on stand all morning not guaranteed anything but the rising of the sun only to return home empty handed. I just tell them I’ve never once returned home empty handed but they never understand. Opening Day has come again, so don’t miss the opportunity of the rest of your lifetime.
Top Ten Reasons It’s Better to Spend Thanksgiving at the Hunting Camp Than at Home
- You don’t have to clean the hunting camp like you would have to clean your house before company comes.
- Paper plates and mismatched serving pieces are totally acceptable.
- There is nothing for the kids to break.
- Everyone seems happier and more relaxed.
- Those who hunt are not itching to “leave” the thanksgiving dinner table to drive to the hunting camp….they are already there!
- You don’t have to ponder what to wear.
- It’s OK to have a bad hair day even on a major holiday.
- There is a lot more room to get away from family members that drive you crazy.
- It doesn’t really matter if the food is good when the surroundings are great.
- What better way to give thanks than to be amongst all of the beauty God created.
Mother Nature is Waiting….
It’s still dark when the alarm clock rings. You’ve got to get moving to beat the sunrise. You crack the door to feel the October morning air. A crisp 50 degrees. Perfect weather for the morning sit. To the closet where you grab your favorite fall clothing that you’ve had now for 12 years. The colors of your clothing still blend in perfectly with the autumn woods after all these years.
A cup of coffee and a small fanny pack for the morning and you are out the door quietly not waking the family. Your place of solitude isn’t far from the cabin so you will safely beat the uprising sun by a few minutes.
As you grab your seat, you can see the orange horizon and the tree silhouettes beginning to form. The weather is perfect. The stillness of sunrise is breath taking. There is only the sound of a few early rising birds and then one hungry squirrel in the fallen leaves on the ground nearby.
As the sun rises above the trees, the crunching sound of leaves distinctly becomes evident. To your right is the same doe you saw yesterday feeding under that same white oak. You wonder to yourself how many of your friends in Surburbia have ever experienced the true beauty and peacefulness of the great outdoors. It’s just you and nature. No traffic, no neighbor’s dog, no occasional siren. None of the animals are even aware you are there.
How wonderful it is to be a 45 year old woman in a gazebo with a cup of coffee and with her favorite book watching the sun rise………..
Everyone should experience the beauty and the solitude of the great outdoors. Whether it be from twenty feet up in a tree stand deep in an white oak hollow or only twenty yards from your back door sitting in your gazebo, the true beauty of nature can and should be experienced by all of us. Mother nature is waiting and she still doesn’t charge admission.
A Place of Your Own…..
Learn how to connect the dots between “I want it” and “I have it.”
By Don Webb (reprinted with permission of Game and Fish Magazine)
But most people have no idea how to connect the dots between “I want it” and “I have it.” So they drive around looking at land, and they decide to keep looking until they see something that strikes an emotional chord. Waiting for that “eureka” moment, however, is not a very efficient way to conduct a land search. Because without preparation, you won’t be in a posi-tion to make a good decision should an opportunity arise. That could result in a bad decision, or a missed opportunity and an unfulfilled dream.
I believe everyone needs a plan that will help them determine what they want and how to get it. Here is the process that I follow, which has allowed me to sort through the variables, make good decisions and turn dreams of land into the reality of ownership.
- Get a plan: A wise man once said, “Most people want, but most people won’t.” You can’t “want” your way to a place in the country. You need to put a plan in place to get you there.
- Know what you want: If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you can’t find it. It’s not enough to understand the land; you also have to understand yourself. You need to decide how far is too far, how big is too big, how much you can afford, how you want to use the land, and what you want it to look like.
- Think like an investor: Everyone should be looking for a return on investment, whether that return is measured in dollars, trophies or memories. Even if you don’t think of yourself as an investor, you need to understand how professional land investors evaluate and ana-lyze property before they buy it. By doing so, you’ll be able to judge the potential and value of different tracts.
- Educate yourself: You must learn to really understand land. It’s amazing how many people want to buy property but have no idea about the characteristics, components, potential or value of the land they want to buy. Knowledge is power, and ignorance is expensive.
- Assemble a team: You cannot be an expert in every topic, but every topic has an expert and you need to find them. Learn all you can yourself, but also find people who have knowl-edge and experience in specific areas, such as cutting and selling timber. You may want to essentially assemble a team of people to support you.
- Locate the land: It doesn’t have to be a wild Easter egg hunt, but you do have to actually look. There are ways to find land that are obvious, and some that are not. The best land deals are usually not the ones in the real estate flyers or on the Internet. You need to learn where to look (we’ll explain in upcoming columns).
- Evaluate the land: Understanding what a piece of land is will help you determine what it could be. Your ability to understand “properties” of the property will determine your success in getting the tract you want. You must be able to see its potential as well as its limitations.
- Acquire the land: Financing, negotiation, offers, real estate agents — the whole thing can be a confusing process. And for most people, it’s a process they have never attempted before. Acquiring land is not like buying a house, and for most of us, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
- Enjoy the process: Owning land is fun, and finding it should be, too. Both the journey and the destination of land ownership are opportunities to have fun, whether it’s spending a day in the woods looking at land or spending a day on your property planting trees or food plots. Don’t turn it into a chore.
- Share the experience: For me, one of the greatest joys of land ownership is the ability to share the land with others. Be sure you involve your family in the process, right from the beginning. Land can be the focal point for family gatherings and memories, and a terrific place to share friendships. Be sure to make the most of it.
If you want to own your own piece of property, by all means go ahead and dream about it. But it won’t happen unless you actually kick-start the process. In future columns, we’ll explain exactly how you can do that, and provide you with more tips on how to negotiate each step of the process.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Don Webb is President of The Greenwood Project and the author of “Maximizing The Land Ownership Experience.”
A Place of Your Own….
When Looking At Land, Make It A Family Affair
By Don Webb (Reprinted with permission of Game and Fish Magazine)
A friend of mine likes to say that people need a place where they can go to “knock it in neutral” for a while. He’s right, I think: All of us dream about a special spot where we can recharge our batteries, enjoy the outdoors and get away from the relentless pace of our everyday lives.
Five years ago, I finally decided that I wanted to find that special spot. I had convinced myself that I needed to buy some land, but I had no idea how to approach my wife with the idea. I’m not sure how it is in your family, but in mine, a hunting club membership might be my decision, but a land purchase is definitely a family decision. So one day, out of the blue, I just blurted it out: “Honey (I always start out this way when I want something), would you ever want to buy a little place somewhere out in the woods, with a cabin and maybe even a lake?” She didn’t even think about it. “No,” she snapped. “I can’t even keep this house clean. Why would I want another one? And you . . . you can’t even keep the grass cut at home. How are you going to find time to keep up another place?”
Ouch!
Months passed. Then one day, I came home talking about a little place I had found.
I caught her at a weak moment, and we headed out to see it. It was a beautiful location. The cabin was more like a shack than a lodge, but it did have indoor plumbing, which was definitely a plus in my wife’s book. We were living in a congested suburb at the time, and after fighting traffic all week, the chirping of birds sounded a lot more soothing than the honking of horns.
Even so, she visited that property with the idea that we were buying a place for me to hunt and fish. At first, I don’t believe she ever thought about it as a family retreat, or a place where she would enjoy spending time. It’s not that she dislikes the outdoors. She loves it, as long as she has a lounge chair, a beach towel, a small cooler by her side, and a body of water where she can wade when it gets too hot. A condo on the beach would have been perfect for her, but you can’t hunt from the balcony of a condo.
When I was considering this property, I thought the cabin is what would really sell my wife on the concept. But she viewed the cabin simply as more work. When we walked to the lake, I saw the road as just a way to get to the lake; she looked at it and said, “Oh, this is beautiful!” The gazebo didn’t matter to me at all, but for my wife, it was an idyllic place where she could drink her coffee and read the newspaper. I learned that while we may appreciate different aspects of a property, it was possible to find one place that had something for everyone in the family.
We wound up buying that place, and my wife loves it as much as I do. She doesn’t hunt or fish, but she gets just as excited as any of us when my son comes back with a catfish, a deer, a rabbit or a squirrel. She goes there to bask in the sun, take photographs, read and relax.
For us, owning land was a family decision with family benefits. It is our place to “knock it in neutral.” If you’re a sportsman considering a land purchase, be sure to get the whole family involved. You’ll be glad you did.
In next month’s column, we’ll discuss how you can get started along the road to land ownership.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Don Webb is President of The Greenwood Project and the author of “Maximizing The Land Ownership Experience.”
