I hung my first ladder stand today. Man was it a pain wrestling it up the tree and around branches by myself. It's about 30 yards from a natural funnel between 2 field and about 40 yards from a millet, sorghum and soy bean food plot. On the other side of the food plot is my orchard. It's the first year the apples have produced. I dug a hole and buried some rock salt. I dumped a pile of apples out. I might hang a homemade gravity feeder there also. I cleared a path through the brushy drain area from the other field so I can get into the stand without being in the field I'm hunting, except to climb the ladder. By the end of next week there will be a 1 1/2 acre of winter wheat planted on top of a hill about 200 yards away. From the wheat there are 3 natural paths a deer will follow. One is in front of this stand.
I checked my hanging stand sight. Last year I busted up a mineral block in front of it. There was a 12+ inch hole pawed in the ground with some recent tracks. This stand is over a steep hill, drainage area in a cedar thicket. Deer love to hang out there when a cold west wind is blowing. On top of the hill about 80 yards way is 1 1/2 acres of soy beans which have already had deer in them. By the end of next week winter wheat will be planted at the ends of the soy bean patch. The lower patch of winter wheat will be about 40 yards from this stand.
Before you condemn me too much for baiting deer, let me tell you my situation. Our 50 acre farm was a pasture when we bought it 14 years ago. The front 25 acres is still hay fields. I've let the back half grow up. The only mast trees on the place are the one I planted 13 years ago. It will still be 10 or 15 years before they drop the first acorn. If I don't plant food plots, there are practically no deer on my farm. I might see 1 deer in 20 hunts. I'm just doing what I have to do to have deer on my farm.
