Happy place?

Catscratch

5 year old buck +
Do you have a happy place? It doesn't seem to matter my mood, the temp, the time, or anything... I can find myself in one of these 2 places and I'm relaxed.

One is in a lawn chair under the leantoo... looking through a flowerbed at a food plot/orchard.

The other is on our dock. Can almost always hear the waves lapping.

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I close my eyes and go to mine. It’s a long way away from where I live now. I think I have more than one. This is one of them.

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Sitting by the campfire right after I’m done cutting grass. I didn’t get a chance to trim, so don’t judge me.

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I actually like this more than messing with deer these days. But I realize as I age this game isn't in the cards but I'll still be able to climb in a box blind.

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I enjoy wondering around my yard checking on my flowers and/or fruit trees. Most weekend day mornings I’ll make a cup of coffee and walk the yard checking on things. Today I checked on my pecan grafts very happy to see several took.
 
I actually like this more than messing with deer these days. But I realize as I age this game isn't in the cards but I'll still be able to climb in a box blind.

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You will be OK. I talked to a group of four experienced gentlemen about to head offshore. I asked them if they had any younger guys going with them. They said no, if one of them goes down, they just carry extra ice to keep the body cold so they can finish their trip.
 
I love hunting & fishing in Minnesota, but a true “happy place” for me is my farm in Iowa. It’s very scenic, interesting, full of wildlife & it’s in a small town rural area. I really enjoy the hunting, trail cams, habitat work, shed hunting & just hanging with friends and family !
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Not necessarily a specific spot, but everytime I go HOME to Nebraska once I get within about 15 miles of our family farm I just feel different. No matter where I have lived or for how long, HOME is in that "neck of the woods". It just feels like I belong there. Life throws us curve balls and maybe one day I will live back up there again.
 
Not necessarily a specific spot, but everytime I go HOME to Nebraska once I get within about 15 miles of our family farm I just feel different. No matter where I have lived or for how long, HOME is in that "neck of the woods". It just feels like I belong there. Life throws us curve balls and maybe one day I will live back up there again.
I do understand this sentiment I feel the same when I go back up to northern Wisconsin.
 
Over the past several years I have come to love the Driftless area. For those who aren't aware, it is a region of the country along the Mississippi River that wasn't covered by ice during the Ice Age so it didn't get flattened by glaciers like much of the surrounding landscape.

Here is a map of the region.
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The area always intrigued me from a beauty aspect of things, I used to duck hunt on pool 9 when I was a kid and thr bluffs were always incredible. It wasn't until I became a deer hunter later in my adult life that the thought of owning property there ever occurred to me.

Since buying land there a few years ago, I have a great excuse to go down there as much as possible. The river has excellent fishing and duck hunting, there are turkeys galore, and the deer hunting is world class. The people are the type you want to associate with, and the beauty during the changing seasons can be breathtaking.

It is definitely my happy place. I will retire there (God willing) and that day can't come soon enough.
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One of my favorite places in the world... across the road from the cabin, up the hill that is state land. At the very top was a section of hemlock trees the CCC had planted during the depression. A several acre rectangle plot that was so out of place from the natural growth surrounding it. A sky high canopy and wide open underneath. Always so peaceful and quiet. So beautiful. A wide open green carpet from 80+ years of pine needles, soft and quiet. You could walk through it totally silently. Always cooler there, especially in the summer.

And it's gone. I can picture it clear as day, I still find myself hiking up the hill anticipating getting there, only to remember it's not there. I can't believe I have no pictures of it, though maybe it's better that way. The state logged it a few years ago now and erased it from existence. Now it's just a tangled mass of rotting slash and bramble. 😥
 
My happy place is anywhere on the snowmobile trail in the winter. Only "quiet" time I get with nobody talking, calling, texting, emailing, etc. Time on the riding mower during the summer fills the gap.
 
@Brian662 I grew up in the far south edge of the drift less region. As you go north from my home town on both sides of the Missisippi it gets more beautiful.

Also Pool 9 is legendary. I grew up hunting Pool 13 and that wasn’t half bad either! Pool 9 sounded like a whole different deal though.
 
As long as the hustle and bustle of life is silenced and as long as the weather cooperates and I'm outside.......I can find a happy place.

Sometimes you have to go looking for it......sometimes if you give it a chance.....it will find you.

I can be taking the dogs to the creek
I can be sitting in a stand as the morning sun comes up
I can be sitting on a porch swing just listening to it rain
I can be sitting on a dock with my feet in the water
Sometimes its just sitting with the grandson snuggled up while he takes a nap
Sometimes its around an evening fire with a cold beer and friends just bull-shit'n

I think we can all agree that whatever it is or wherever it is....we all could use a little more of it!
 
I’ve got a hemlock grove something like you describing on my place in Wisconsin as does my uncle on a 40 he owns that borders the national forest his is much more impressive growing among mature NRO and hard maples. There is a magical effect when among those trees for sure.
 
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