I am very fortunate, my father bought 180 acres about 16 miles SW of Bemidji Minnesota in about 1971. If anyone here knows the area, we are one quarter mile west of Becide, feel free to drop in and enjoy the outdoors with us during the day, and we will teach you a cribbage lessons later in the day . One person that we took up there years ago commented that with the beaver dams and water, that 40 to 60 acres are swamp. My response was , YEP....

With that persons thought in mind, we have taken some really, really nice bucks right off the edge of this swamp area. Woodcock seem to always be available, even though we have not taken any for about 20 years because, and I don't care what your recipe is, they taste like mud, and that is being kind. Grouse are all over the area, even when they say the count is down, we seem to do well, or maybe we think we do because a good day hunting is more in the mind than the harvest. Our grouse hunting trip starts next week, we are going up on Tuesday or Wednesday and will hunt state land early, work on deer stands and hunt our land later. Life is good, thanks to Dad.

The cabin is about 27 by 21 feet, two rooms, one a general sleeping area with 4 bunks and room for 2 cots. The kitchen area, which really isn't a living area, but everything goes on there, has a table for 5, and we can make room for others, has two purposes. One of course is to eat and the other is to play cards, that is if we are not outside around the fire ring.

One of the guys that I hunt with, I truly believe is some type of fire nut, he goes out and brings back more firewood than we needs and makes a huge fire. In fact, last year one of the guys started laughing and told me I should look at the bottom of my boots, the soles where bubbling and I had them resting on the outside of the stone fire ring. Even though we have a really nice country tavern in Becida, during grouse hunting we still retire to around the fire ring to listen to the baseball play offs, or the world series, which ever is happening at that time. Again life is good, thanks to Dad.

Our hunting shack, or cabin has no running water, still a hand pump well out back. We do have electricity because when my fathers health was faltering, he could not handle some of the conditions that the cabin presented, so we brought in electricity for air conditioning so he could still come up north. There is a really small gas stove for cooking, and since we have electricity, we have a small microwave, ya I know, that is really cheating. We also have lp heat with small blower on it, kind of like what you would have in a camper, Dad decided we needed that because of a woodburner chimney fire years ago that almost claimed the cabin when Mom and Dad where up there.

People laugh because when we brought in electricity, we ran a line to the outhouse with a control switch in the cabin so that we could put a heater in the outhouse and turn it on from the cabin. You have no idea how much of a luxury this is when the temps are in the teens and if you turn on the switch to the outhouse, the temp inside the outhouse goes into the 50's when you have to drop your pants to tend to business, this is truly a luxury.

I am sorry this dragged on so long, or that it appears that this is bragging. But it is truly a special place for my brother and I, and after I started to reminisce about this special place and the passing of my father in 2000, you have no idea how long this took to type................................

Now maybe after you have read my long story, you can agree that I should have changed the subject line from "Fall is approaching, so where is your special place" to something that really reflects as to what I have just posted about and my exposure to hunting and the outdoors. So maybe it should have had a subject line of something like, " Thank you Dad".

Great story.......... lost my Dad in 00 also. My memories are similar but in in a different setting. You go north we went south. (SE MN.)

Dad and three brothers make for some great hunting stories and memories.

Miss ya Dad.

Sounds really nice, I wish I had some land to hunt or play around on, our family has a cabin on lake that is pretty nice to have, I wish we had a little land to go with it too. Heck I'd like just enough to shoot some clay pidgeons.

Hopefully someday we'll buy a little chunk of our own, we'd like our own place on a lake someday, and a little land (probalbly somewhere else).

Sounds like our place up near Virginia. In our case I'm the old dad. We recently put in electricity too and it makes it so much nicer than noisy generators running all season. Air conditioning in the summer is good too. We also have satellite TV and microwave ovens. Talk about soft white guys. I was up there for 4 days last week checking deer stands and the wife and I plan to spend a week or so there before the deer opener, just enjoying the fall colors and hiking around the property.

Our place joins state land with thousands of acres that is blocked off by all private property on the west side. You can enter from the east side but it's 8 miles wide, about 20 miles long and swampy in the middle so nobody except the landowners ever hunt the west side.

Need anyone to help hunt that west side?

Nemadji State Forest ... The family has been going up there since about 1946, I've been up there since I was a kid in the mid 60's so we all know the terrain and roads pretty well ...

Cobb, you are very fortunate. Fortunate for the land you are able to hunt on, yes, but even more so for the time you were able to spend with your father. My father passed away in 1985 (I'm 42 now) and even though he was a great man in my eyes (EMT and volunteered on our local ambulance service and taught CPR classes in the area, active in local area Jaycees with too many awards to count, active in our local church (treasurer), and WCCO Good Neighbor recipient, all while running his own business to support us), he didnt' spend a lot of time with me outdoors. Cherish the moments you have left with your fathers.

I got involved in a deer hunting group through my ex father-in-law. I now own a 10% share in 240 acres in NW Minn. In 2000, we had to build a new cabin after our two old trailers were burnt in an accident during a grass burn-off on our property. We now have a very nice 28 x 40 cabin. We have electricity (in our out-house too!) but no running water. It's a long drive from where I live, but I do look forward to the trips up there. I am fortunate to hunt with a good group of guys.

Awesome post

Hunting is more about spending time with fathers and children and teaching them a value. Creating a legacy

You just hit the nail on the head....

Cheerish your family - and father and the time that we all have left with them....

I was lucky enough to get a cabin on a lake up by Perham and NY Mills in Otter Tail county. I have enough land to bowhunt on, and my wife's family has about 25 acres on the same lake.

I am actually thinking about getting some dedicated hunting land asap. I have a feeling that, as happened with lakeshore, I will soon be priced out of even the swamp alone.

Don't have any right now. I'm in the process of figuring out where I'm going to hunt with my buddy.

My first place was terrific, north woods, totally secluded. Spent 3 years there, and got to put my then-new first responder skills to test when my dad's tree stand broke. (There's an interesting memory, but I guess it was an interesting demonstration of adrenaline response.) Second place we lost because the woman is selling the property, but it was a joy to hunt. Last year I was on my mom's best friends farm. That was a blast being able to help out on the farm when I wasn't hunting and help get some stuff done that they hadn't had time to do. Felt good having fun hunting and relaxing their workload a little as well.

This year we're looking at either going back to the farm or finding some state land in the area to hunt.