A Farm Worth Hunting in Tennessee

It was gun season in November and the alarm went off at 3:30 a.m. which is when I normally get up to go hunting. As I began to get out of bed I realized it was raining,just as predicted by the weather channel. I thought to myself "do I really feel like going out in the rain, getting soaked to the bone and probably not seeing anything or stay in bed and sleep all morning." so I laid there for another 45 minutes then got up and went hunting in a drizzle rain to a stand I had at the edge of some large oak trees with thick brush behind them. Probably 30 minutes went by when I began to hear something playing on the ground behind me. I thought it was probably squirrels play but then realized there were no squirrels out in this rain this morning. I slowly picked up my 25-0-6 remington bolt action rifle turned ever so slowly on my stand and there just 15 steps from the tree was 9 does and a small 5 point buck feeding on the acorns that were buried under the leaves that had fallen. I decided to go ahead and try to take the buck even though he was small. As luck was with me this day the deer stayed in the area just long enough for the buck to present a nice broadside shot to me. I tagged the buck then went to the landowners house, where my truck was parked, and the landowner came out asking if I had seen anything. I told him of the buck I had shot and he wanted to take his John Deere 4020 tractor to get the buck out of the field and to my truck. I agreed, we got the buck to my truck and I offered him some or all of the buck once it was dressed out and packaged. He said he would love to have some of the deer meat if it was all right with me.I explained that I loved the sport of the hunt and that his farm was always full of deer if he ever wanted to go along and that he was welcome to any of the meat he wanted. He told me he was too busy with his farming and too old to go hunting anymore but appreciated the offer and that I was welcome to hunt his farmland anytime I wanted without an invite. I have since looked after his livestock, repaired fences and gates and shot stray wild dogs on his farm. This landowner will always be remembered by me for as long as I live as a down to earth, hard working, generous dairy farmer with a respect for the people who help him. Thank you Earl McCrary for living an honest respectable live as a farmer and thanks for the many memories of hunting on your farmland.