Wannaskan Almanac for Thursday, October 25, 2018 by WannaskaWriter

    
    As fall nears in northwest Minnesota, anyone who hunts (of whom there are many) begin thinking about their favorite hunting seasons. Many prepare by reading hunting magazines in barbershops all across the northland. My barbershop is Brot’s Barber Shop, in Roseau, Minnesota: https://brots-barber-shop.business.site/.
     

    Shawn Broten has a fine selection of outdoor publications at the customer’s disposal in a barbershop built like a comfortable homey den, with local roughsawn wood paneling, knickknack and old beer can collections, antique fishing gear, and likely a few used hockey sticks, pucks, and skates (Hey, this is ROSEAU, MINNESOTA), and an aroma like no other barbershop in the whole state of Minnesota owing to his wife’s barbecue business on the other side of the wall, “Kate’s Kitchen.’https://kateskitchenmn.com/, complete with a drive-up window.
    
    Plus, Brot is so busy every day, with regular hours from Monday-Friday, beginning at 8:00 am and on, that he’s provided a second barber chair to his son who has been cutting hair for a year or two now, to keep up with the demands of his clientele. No appointment is necessary, but parking facilities fill up quickly. Did I mention the shop is across the street from the city liquor store?

    Ennaways, our passions for fall can begin much earlier for some individuals who begin wearing florescent orange caps, vests or other paraphernalia about the first of July and never take them off. We know who they are and take it into consideration, but still, that’s overdoing it a little in my book. The first of September, okay, but in July? A guy or gal must have run out of clean clothes, and have started wearing their hunting duds, can be the only reason they would begin wearing a grungy-looking florescent-orange cap--with the fuzzy earflaps tied on top of their head-- every day, the rest of the year. 

Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good, to eat

    
    I can hear my daughter, in Saint Paul, say, “Hey, this is ROSEAU, MINNESOTA, Dad.” Point well taken, dearie, but a person has to be even more broadminded to live in a Canadian border town community now, especially since, ‘the loonie’, has taken on even more significance with marijuana legalization.
    
    That being said, I begin to look forward to fall on the first day in late July that I begin getting deer food plot seed specials in my emails. Thoughts turn to deer hunting and an internal mechanization stirs me to think about working up my food plots or creating new ones. In addition, I begin amassing odds and ends of lumber I may have piled around, to repair deer stand steps on ladders or make minor repairs or improvements. 

    My youngest stepson works for a medical firm and has salvaged pickup loads of crate lumber some of the equipment has been shipped on, much of it much better than a person normally finds around here, with strong odd-dimension bases made from 2x6s and 4x4s and crates that are bolted together, not nailed. They lend themselves to my imagination and youthful experience building tree houses, which in turn, translate to the building of deer stands. I’m not a carpenter-grade deer stand builder, but just some now-retired guy who greatly enjoys screwing pieces of wood together and figuring the inherent design problems out. The wife mistakenly thinks I’m reliving my boyhood. What? My boyhood days weren't this much fun! Even my friends, Joe and Jerry, are on hand to help me raise the 500+# deer stand on its ten-foot high legs using a varied, but tried and true, system of electric and manual winches provided by Jerry, and two Toyota pickup trucks, one provided by Joe--and a whole lot of chain. Thanks boys!

We call this one "Marty's Stand"

     Most deer stands have a 360 degree field of view. “Leaners”, those with two long legs and a seat, that lean against a tree, are generally 180 degrees in front of the hunter. 

 

A Palmville box stand

    “Box stands”, those with roofs and those without, usually allow the all-around sight line, with location where the stand is placed, being the limiting factor. An unlimited line of sight has its own challenges, as someone may be indecisive where they should be concentrating their attention, whereas, depending on whether the ground is covered with snow or is dry, sounds may direct initial attention more than would vision. An astute hunter may hear something approach from one direction and then concentrate his attention on that side, but keep his/her ears and eyes searching the ground below for their game moving elsewhere. Hunting is much about patience anyway.

My stand built of re-purposed scrap wood and telephone poles for legs. I raised the roof six inches and reinforced the ladder to support my 6'4" 300 lb grandson.

    
    Our deer stands, three of which are visible from a road, are set back from the field edges and gloved somewhat by trees, and with one exception, in locations in which deer are hidden until they step from behind trees or brush, into view, not standing in the open like a herd of cattle. I like it set up like that, requiring the hunter/shooter to choose his/her shot carefully between the trees. The deer get a break and the hunter faces more of a challenge. (Can’t say much about the trees...)
As I’ve suggested, “Hunting requires patience ...”
    
    One of my grandsons is a large lad. He enjoys deer hunting. At six feet four inches and 300 pounds, not just any deer stand will do, so I’ve modified two old stands and built a fourth stand to accommodate a person of his size, of which he said wasn’t necessary, but appreciated. And too, building them to withstand his weight, requires overbuilding them for lighter-weight hunters and hopefully extending the life of the deer stand for a number of years after I’m no longer able to do it. (I greatly enjoy it.)

John's Stand, a 360 degree stand, is in its 4th stage of modification, beginning life as a factory-made a tripod stand. Feeling it was unsafe, the next year we added a fourth leg and a widened its base. The next year we added a wood sided box. Then we moved it to another location. The next year we moved it here and rebuilt it with walls and a roof. This year saw improved windows, a new floor, caulking to stop the drafts including improved door seals, a raised ceiling and reinforced ladder.

       

The Palmville Church has a deer stand too.