Drenalin 2019 Whitetail Season

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Drenalin 2019 Whitetail Season

Unread postby Drenalin » Sat Jan 26, 2019 3:34 am

Decided I'd start a journal on here to log my scouting and hunting for the 2019 season. I've set out to do this on paper before, but hopefully by having it on this forum I'll feel more compelled to stick with it. I'll be logging my scouting trips and eventually my hunts for this season in an effort to not only document my season, but also to have compiled information that I could potentially pull trends from to help out with future seasons. This is more for me than anything, but it would be great if anyone else gets something out of this.

2019 will be my second season attempting any bed hunting tactics whatsoever - you're not going to see any expert opinions here, simply my experiences. I hunt East Tennessee, primarily public land, mountainous wooded terrain.


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Re: Drenalin 2019 Whitetail Season

Unread postby Drenalin » Sat Jan 26, 2019 3:53 am

January 19, 2019 - Scouting Trip

Decided to check out an area that I have previously only map scouted this weekend. Aerials show a lot of great looking edge and I marked a handful of potential bedding areas where topography and cover seemed to create ideal spots. Access involved a hike in of 1.46 miles for me; however, there was an old tractor road from private property about a quarter of a mile away. I expected this to be abandoned and overgrown, but it wasn't. Actually it was well manicured and apparently is used often. There was pink and orange ribbon everywhere and I walked by at least one trail cam. As far as deer sign, I found tons of tracks, droppings, and rubs but nothing that suggested a good buck. Tracks and droppings were average, and the rubs were like most I find around here, on 2" saplings and low to the ground. I also did not find beds where I expected them, possibly because of the obvious hunting pressure in this area and possibly because I'm not real good at picking out the best spots for bedding yet. Obviously the deer using this area are bedding somewhere, but since I didn't find sign to make me believe there was a good buck in the area I didn't bother expanding my range to find the bedding. Nice to find an area so heavily used by deer in a low density area, but between the pressure and the lack of good sign, I doubt I will be back unless it's for a rut scout/hunt mission. Between the hike in and out and the time spent scouting, I logged a shade under 4 miles. Going to have to draw a buffer around adjoining private property going forward so I don't confuse "long hike" with "remote" again.

When I got back to the truck, I decided to check another area north of where I parked that was only about 660 yards off the road. Pretty much the same as the first spot, lots of deer activity and lots of human activity. Crossed this one off completely. Logged about another mile in total.
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Re: Drenalin 2019 Whitetail Season

Unread postby Drenalin » Tue Jan 29, 2019 12:49 am

January 26, 2019 - Scouting Trip

Checked out a large, kind of elongated knob today about 45 minutes from home. Not far off the road, but I gained quite a bit of elevation on some pretty steep slopes. On the various hogbacks I checked out, which were either 1/3 down from the top or slightly further, there was good deer sign. Like last week, most of that sign was in the form of rubs typical for this area - small trees, about knee to thigh height to the center of the rubs. I did find a handful of rubs at waist height. Didn't turn up any obvious heavily used beds, but found a few general bedding areas. On the steep slopes and on top of the knob, cover was extremely thick and I never once got on a game trail in those areas. Looks like most of the activity is around those hogbacks. I dropped off the backside of the knob, mostly because I thought it would be miserable to go back the way I came. Turns out, it was harder to traverse the back side but I also found more concentrated sign. Ran out of time and had to head home, will have to make a couple more trips probably to put enough of the puzzle together to feel good about hunting it, especially accessing it without being busted. The good news is, the only hunter sign I found was one old 16 gauge shotgun shell that was probably at least a few years old. Only logged 1.8 miles today, but with all the ascending and descending and then ascending again, felt like I'd been walking all day. Got to take in some awesome views from the top though.
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Re: Drenalin 2019 Whitetail Season

Unread postby ghoasthunter » Tue Jan 29, 2019 2:01 am

Drenalin wrote:January 26, 2019 - Scouting Trip

Checked out a large, kind of elongated knob today about 45 minutes from home. Not far off the road, but I gained quite a bit of elevation on some pretty steep slopes. On the various hogbacks I checked out, which were either 1/3 down from the top or slightly further, there was good deer sign. Like last week, most of that sign was in the form of rubs typical for this area - small trees, about knee to thigh height to the center of the rubs. I did find a handful of rubs at waist height. Didn't turn up any obvious heavily used beds, but found a few general bedding areas. On the steep slopes and on top of the knob, cover was extremely thick and I never once got on a game trail in those areas. Looks like most of the activity is around those hogbacks. I dropped off the backside of the knob, mostly because I thought it would be miserable to go back the way I came. Turns out, it was harder to traverse the back side but I also found more concentrated sign. Ran out of time and had to head home, will have to make a couple more trips probably to put enough of the puzzle together to feel good about hunting it, especially accessing it without being busted. The good news is, the only hunter sign I found was one old 16 gauge shotgun shell that was probably at least a few years old. Only logged 1.8 miles today, but with all the ascending and descending and then ascending again, felt like I'd been walking all day. Got to take in some awesome views from the top though.

sounds like a good spot bucks love bedding and traveling down on those steep narrow ridges. one thing that might help you pin point those beds is concentrated droppings. once i get close too buck beds you always find it in there beds and on primary exit trails. the first thing a buck seams too do when he stands up is let one go within 50 yards of his bed.
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Re: Drenalin 2019 Whitetail Season

Unread postby Drenalin » Tue Jan 29, 2019 3:29 am

ghoasthunter wrote:sounds like a good spot bucks love bedding and traveling down on those steep narrow ridges. one thing that might help you pin point those beds is concentrated droppings. once i get close too buck beds you always find it in there beds and on primary exit trails. the first thing a buck seams too do when he stands up is let one go within 50 yards of his bed.

Good point about the droppings. Very close to where I found the two best rubs, I walked up to a good bit of scat, then a few feet away more scat, then a few more feet away more scat. None of it was in piles, just kind of spread out on the ground. There was enough of it that I marked on my map, which I never do with droppings. Found all of that on my way out, so next time in there with more time I'll have to check that area more thoroughly. Thanks for the feedback...I probably would not have considered that if you hadn't mentioned it.
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Re: Drenalin 2019 Whitetail Season

Unread postby Drenalin » Tue Feb 05, 2019 1:14 am

February 2nd

Was not able to get into the woods for any serious scouting this weekend. My three year old daughter came down with an ear infection, so I was on duty all weekend. We had some snow in the higher elevations, so I took her for a long drive through public property checking for tracks crossing the road. Didn't find anything interesting as far as deer were concerned, but we did find some bobcat tracks in one area. Took her for a short walk down an old logging road too. We didn't see anything of note - just some small rubs and doe tracks, but she had a blast and was practically begging me to keep walking. Seems like the fresh air did her some good, and I'll have to take her back with me when she's not sick for a longer mission. We also glassed some private property on the way home. I've already been turned down for permission to hunt there, but I still glass it because I'm working on access to adjacent properties. My little girl spent the rest of the weekend talking about the "deer hunt" she went on with daddy. As disappointed as I was not to do the scouting I had planned on this weekend, I wouldn't trade those four hours for anything. I'll just have to work twice as hard my next time out.

Probably should note too that even though I'm not able to get out scouting more than once a week usually, I do spend a couple of hours every day looking over topos and aerials, and I stop and glass deer on my way to and from work just about every day. Given the relatively small amount of time I get to spend in the field, my current plan is to learn as much as I possibly can about just a few areas that I think have the best potential (which may mean a couple dozen stand locations) and then scout in-season in all the other areas I've identified off maps and aerials that I'm probably not going to be able to get to. Still intend to go after access to a couple of private properties that are between home and work so I'll have places I can get to for quick evening hunts after work, just working on narrowing that down.
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Re: Drenalin 2019 Whitetail Season

Unread postby Drenalin » Tue Feb 19, 2019 12:28 am

February 16th - Scouting Trip

Finally made it back into the woods this weekend. I went back to the same area I scouted on January 26th. After I posted that scouting trip, ghoasthunter pointed out to look for concentrated dropping to help pinpoint the bedding. I had found concentrated droppings on that trip, so before I headed out this weekend, I drew a 100 yard circle around that location (which happened to be close to the two best rubs I found that weekend) and then looked for where that circle intersected with terrain and cover. I started this weekend's trip by going to where that 100 yard circle overlapped an adjacent thicket. Lo and behold, there were two beds on the side of the ridge backed up the thicket. Neither was well worn (so neither is being used much right now), but in both beds I could clearly see the logging road that most people use to access this area. If the beds are being used when that side of the ridge is leeward then I'd be looking for a southeast wind, which is going to be fairly rare here. I think I've seen Dan touch on beds on the sides of ridges setting up for crosswinds, which would put these beds being used on southwest (prevailing) or northeast winds. Southwest would be great for me to get in and setup undetected on a well used trail, but for that reason I would think the northeast wind scenario is more likely. These beds were only 30 yards from where I found concentrated droppings, 50 yards from either of the good rubs I found, 70 yards from the logging road they overlook, and 170 yards from the gravel road through this part of national forest. I'll have to keep an eye on sign in this area during the season, but I've definitely got something I can work with here. Oh, and there were two mylar balloons within 20 yards of those two beds (another shout out to ghoasthunter).

Next, I hiked a little over a mile deeper into this area once I finished up near the road to check the edges of a large, kind of patchy laurel thicket. Great deer sign all over, including tons of relatively fresh droppings and more rubs from this past season than I cared to count. This laurel is a couple hundred yards from the doe bedding I found last time I was in this area, and it's certainly being used heavily by deer...but it doesn't look to me like it's being used by anything resembling a mature buck. Or I haven't keyed in on the best part of it yet. I am ecstatic to find this kind of concentration of deer on our public land though. It seems like most folks around here have given up on national forest, and I rarely see anyone near this area unless they're cutting firewood out near the road. Since this laurel was on my way to a north facing ridge and a couple of points I wanted to check, I didn't spend much time here. I may come back for a rut hunt, or to put a doe in the freezer.

That north facing ridge ended up being pretty tore up by wind. Most of the trees left standing are too big to climb, and there's quite a bit of low, dense laurel here. Between the rocks, the blowdowns, the steepness, and everything being soaking wet, I took a couple of pretty good tumbles working my way out the ridge. I ended up pulling the plug and will come at it from the other direction. I wasn't seeing much for sign, but I don't feel like I made it to the good stuff in there. I'll come in from the northeast, and higher up the ridge next time.

I got back to the truck about 2:00 (started at 7:00) and decided to go take a quick walk on the private property I hunt about 30 minutes away. I had hunted just outside a bedding area on this property (actually the bedding is on the neighbor's property) during the 2018 season. Both times I hunted it, I was on the north side of the bedding and noticed the couple of deer I saw were moving east-west. So I checked out the west side of the bedding area and confirmed that I had been hunting it completely wrong. Looks like the deer are exiting that bedding, dropping off the side of a point into a drainage, and entering the neighbor's field at it's lowest spot. I've got a couple of stand sites picked out there now with pretty good access. I still need to check the east side of the bedding area. I also walked the ridge overlooking where I access and park...thank goodness, I didn't find any beds watching me. Doesn't mean it isn't happening, but right now I don't know of it happening. Also picked another stand site where deer (not mature bucks) cross the road from another field in the mornings and access this property. Hopefully I've got meat covered for 2019 so I can spend the rest of this offseason focusing on bucks.

I have no idea how many miles I walked Saturday, only that my legs are still burning Monday morning. It was pretty good day of scouting. I figure I need three more trips into the area I started out in Saturday morning, which is about a 600 acre chunk I've outlined as one my main areas to focus on. I'm itching to get to another area that is very promising, but I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to focus on getting very familiar with a few areas so I won't move off this one till I get it figured out.
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Re: Drenalin 2019 Whitetail Season

Unread postby Drenalin » Tue Feb 19, 2019 4:08 am

Drenalin wrote:I got back to the truck about 2:00 (started at 7:00) and decided to go take a quick walk on the private property I hunt about 30 minutes away. I had hunted just outside a bedding area on this property (actually the bedding is on the neighbor's property) during the 2018 season. Both times I hunted it, I was on the north side of the bedding and noticed the couple of deer I saw were moving east-west. So I checked out the west side of the bedding area and confirmed that I had been hunting it completely wrong. Looks like the deer are exiting that bedding, dropping off the side of a point into a drainage, and entering the neighbor's field at it's lowest spot. I've got a couple of stand sites picked out there now with pretty good access. I still need to check the east side of the bedding area. I also walked the ridge overlooking where I access and park...thank goodness, I didn't find any beds watching me. Doesn't mean it isn't happening, but right now I don't know of it happening. Also picked another stand site where deer (not mature bucks) cross the road from another field in the mornings and access this property. Hopefully I've got meat covered for 2019 so I can spend the rest of this offseason focusing on bucks.

Well, I can cross this off the map. Found out this morning that the property is being sold and the new owner wants to hunt it himself. Will just have to work harder to dial it in on public.
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Re: Drenalin 2019 Whitetail Season

Unread postby Drenalin » Mon Apr 01, 2019 11:32 pm

March 30th - Scouting Trip

Been a while since I've been able to get out, but finally got a half day this past Saturday. Been dealing with sick kids at home, along with an overloaded wife. Also took a week away for a mission trip, which swallowed up two weekends. I'd say the woods are changing quick around here, but when I look at how long it's been since I got to go scouting, that isn't really true. Turkey season is open here now and the TWRA is stocking trout, but I decided to skip those and focus on getting some scouting in for deer season. I'm way behind on my scouting with everything else going on, so some of the things that can take a backseat will just have to.

I went back to the 600 acre area I was in on February 16th (not the same ground, just the same area). My plan was to access through a creek, scout up a point, sidehill the upper third of the main ridge and come back down another point. There are some pretty obvious cover transitions I needed to hit in this area. When I got started, it was apparent this area isn't as devoid of human activity as I thought. Someone else has been working this creek bottom and I was finding broken branches where they had cleared a slight trail down there. Not ideal, but I figured someone working the creek bottom doesn't mean they are also working the points and ridges above there. The creek bottom was heavily choked with laurels, which I expected, but I figured the laurel would taper out as I gained elevation up the first point and got away from that creek. Turns out that wasn't true - most of the north side of that ridge was heavily choked with laurels, and I had a heck of time pushing through it and picking up any ground up the steep slopes. I found very little deer sign at all, but also no human sign once I got away from the creek.

I finally make it up the first point, and one of the main transitions I wanted to scout turned out to be thick laurels on the north side and thick scrub on the south side. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing - there was a pretty well used trail along the transition - but very tough to move through. I don't know that I could carry a treestand through this tangled mess, and ultimately spent around three hours covering less than a mile. I spent a lot more time with the thick cover and steep terrain than I intended, and had to pull the plug so I could get back home to the kids. When I come back to this area, I'll have to figure out a better way to access it and try to determine where there are openings in the laurel that I could exploit. As thick as it is, and as much noise as I make moving through it, I'm thinking it might be best to wait until season and then still hunt it during heavy winds or hard rain (or both).

I did find a dead head on my first point, but it was a doe :roll:.
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Re: Drenalin 2019 Whitetail Season

Unread postby backstraps » Tue Apr 02, 2019 12:41 pm

Drenalin wrote:March 30th - Scouting Trip

Been a while since I've been able to get out, but finally got a half day this past Saturday. Been dealing with sick kids at home, along with an overloaded wife. Also took a week away for a mission trip, which swallowed up two weekends. I'd say the woods are changing quick around here, but when I look at how long it's been since I got to go scouting, that isn't really true. Turkey season is open here now and the TWRA is stocking trout, but I decided to skip those and focus on getting some scouting in for deer season. I'm way behind on my scouting with everything else going on, so some of the things that can take a backseat will just have to.

I went back to the 600 acre area I was in on February 16th (not the same ground, just the same area). My plan was to access through a creek, scout up a point, sidehill the upper third of the main ridge and come back down another point. There are some pretty obvious cover transitions I needed to hit in this area. When I got started, it was apparent this area isn't as devoid of human activity as I thought. Someone else has been working this creek bottom and I was finding broken branches where they had cleared a slight trail down there. Not ideal, but I figured someone working the creek bottom doesn't mean they are also working the points and ridges above there. The creek bottom was heavily choked with laurels, which I expected, but I figured the laurel would taper out as I gained elevation up the first point and got away from that creek. Turns out that wasn't true - most of the north side of that ridge was heavily choked with laurels, and I had a heck of time pushing through it and picking up any ground up the steep slopes. I found very little deer sign at all, but also no human sign once I got away from the creek.

I finally make it up the first point, and one of the main transitions I wanted to scout turned out to be thick laurels on the north side and thick scrub on the south side. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing - there was a pretty well used trail along the transition - but very tough to move through. I don't know that I could carry a treestand through this tangled mess, and ultimately spent around three hours covering less than a mile. I spent a lot more time with the thick cover and steep terrain than I intended, and had to pull the plug so I could get back home to the kids. When I come back to this area, I'll have to figure out a better way to access it and try to determine where there are openings in the laurel that I could exploit. As thick as it is, and as much noise as I make moving through it, I'm thinking it might be best to wait until season and then still hunt it during heavy winds or hard rain (or both).

I did find a dead head on my first point, but it was a doe :roll:.




Gathering intel is always fun, a good way to unwind and get back to yourself sometimes ..... Even if it is fighting your way through laurels :lol:

Still sounds like a fun time
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Re: Drenalin 2019 Whitetail Season

Unread postby Drenalin » Mon Apr 08, 2019 11:22 pm

April 6th - Scouting Trip

Got a quick scouting trip in this afternoon around a clearcut that I didn't have high hopes for this afternoon. The cut is older, probably 12+ years, and runs along the top of a point with deep drainages on either side. The south and west sides of the point are pretty thick laurel it most places, but it's more patchy than what I was in last weekend. The laurel to the south of this point is north of a much higher ridge on the south, so the thick laurel makes some sense there...it threw me off at first. I entered from the north and scouted around the north and east edges without finding much before working my way around to the west. Where the point drops off away from the cut on the west, three drainages come together and the laurel starts coming in. Felt like better habitat, and more huntable, than the thick scrub and briars that choke the old cut, but still wasn't finding much sign. Finally found some pretty good rubs on the south side of the point in the shadow of that higher ridge, along with some acorns from last year. Took a look at the map to make some guesses on nearby bedding and worked my way out from those rubs, but ultimately didn't find it. Still think this was a good area for deer, but suspect bedding is further to the west where the terrain and cover line up a little better. If that's the case, I wouldn't expect to see bucks in the area of those rubs in daylight. Will have to check that out on another trip since it got dark on me while I was still trying to piece things together. Got into the cut on my way out and got chopped to pieces in the thick briars...I look like I spent my weekend wrangling cats.

Doing pretty good this year about getting on deer from my map and aerial scouting, and have found some pretty good buck sign in the process. But I'm not nailing down the bedding and I'm not onto anything good as far as bucks go. I might need to take some sick days to get in some more scouting. Have kicked around the idea of scrapping my rut vacation in November and taking that week to catch up on scouting, but I haven't been able to convince myself to do that yet.
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Re: Drenalin 2019 Whitetail Season

Unread postby Drenalin » Thu Jun 20, 2019 9:43 am

June 18th - Permissions

Haven't been out at all in a couple of months. Between work and young children, it's been a heck of a busy spring. Also opted to trout fish a few times when I probably should have been scouting, but it sure was nice having smoked rainbows on the menu for a few weeks. Started shooting my bow a few weeks ago, but this past week my rest failed (the piece that connects the rest to the cable just gave up the ghost). Should have that squared away the end of this week - turns out the rest I installed 10 years ago is discontinued, but I found one on ebay that's supposed to show up today. Good news is I was shooting lights out before that happened.

Still driving around glassing when I can and working on getting access to private parcels close to home. Got the go ahead yesterday on a small section of a large farm where the landowner wants does removed. I'm ok with that, I eat meat more often than I do antlers, but hopeful that over time it'll turn into a little more. We'll see. I've put together a laundry list of parcels where I've seen good deer both during the fall and over the last month or so, so it's time to start working the phones, knocking on doors, and networking to pick up another property or two. Looks like I may actually get to burn a little boot leather Saturday, so I'm going to hit a piece of public I hunted last year and see if the pieces fit what I think I figured out back then. I wouldn't say it'll be easy to nail down a couple of stand locations on it, but with my past experience in that area I should be able to get it done with a solid day of scouting. Then it'll be back to the public piece I was on at the end of March. The more I think about it, the more I like that nasty steep aggravating place.
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Re: Drenalin 2019 Whitetail Season

Unread postby Drenalin » Tue Jul 02, 2019 12:30 am

June 22nd - Scouting Trip

Went to a public area I hunted a little last year in mid-October. I saw a lot of rubs in there then, but gave it two evening sits in slightly different locations without ever seeing a deer. This weekend I saw a tremendous amount of browsing sign, tracks, and droppings so the area is obviously heavily used by deer now. Appears most of the movement is coming from adjacent private property though and based on my best guess of where the deer would be bedding over there, there's a real good chance I was seeing night sign last year. I'm also pretty sure that when food sources change a little later in the year, this area will be used a lot less by deer. I may give it one early season sit to see what shows, but I don't have high hopes for the area and don't want to burn much more time in there than I already have.
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Re: Drenalin 2019 Whitetail Season

Unread postby Drenalin » Tue Jul 02, 2019 12:43 am

June 29th - Scouting Trip

Decided to grab some low-hanging fruit this weekend, so I scouted a deep cut in a relatively long ridge line about half a mile off the road. I expected to find some hunter sign from past seasons, but surprisingly didn't see any evidence that other people have been hunting this area. It's less than half a mile south of one gravel road and less than half a mile north of another gravel road, so maybe it's falling into the overlooked category. It's also thick (right now anyway) and steep. There's not a great amount of sign in the area outside of one heavily used trail paralleling the main ridge and then going through the cut. The trail looks like it gets a lot of use, but in spite of a good amount of rain over the past week I didn't see a single track. That has me thinking it's a low enough density area that sitting that cut could be pretty hit or miss. I was able to find a handful of rubs from past seasons in there, and there's likely a lot more that I just couldn't see. I prepped a hemlock tree just outside the cut on what would be the leeward side of that ridge for prevailing winds in November, where two trails intersect and pretty close to some of the rubs I found. I think I'll save this for a rut hunt, hoping that if the area is overlooked, more deer will be in the area once pressure has picked up around it. If we have a good acorn year, there'll be plenty of food in there for the does by that time and there's a lot of opportunity for bedding nearby the cut. Access is pretty good too, with a creek running parallel with that main ridge for the full length of it. My tree is 10 yards out of the creek.
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Re: Drenalin 2019 Whitetail Season

Unread postby Drenalin » Mon Jul 08, 2019 5:45 am

Saturday July 6th - Scouting Trip

Scouted a small piece of private this afternoon. Found a very heavily used trail with a few decent sized tracks and followed it back to a bedding area. Found seven beds and bumped a pretty good buck nearby. I cut a couple of shooting lanes to that trail from a tree just over the crest of the ridge from most of the bedding. That ridge is typically loaded with acorns, so I’m optimistic this will be a pretty good setup in early archery. It also wouldn’t surprise me if it goes cold before the end of September since bedding has historically been on an adjacent piece of private that I can’t access.

Also prepped a tree in a spot that usually sees really good deer movement in early season. I passed two bucks on opening day a couple years ago here, one of which would have been my best buck to date. That was a horrible decision, but there was a real stud in there at the time that I was after.

Planning to drop in one evening this week and glass this property from a good ways away.


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