These hot humid days of Summer are the days I have waited for since those bitter cold days of last January. However, this past beautiful July weekend, I was not out on the water fishing or relaxing up North enjoying the weather as many people were. Instead for me, the hot grueling dog days of July & August is when my work in the woods begins for me as I really shift gears to my true passion of hunting whitetail deer. It seems as every year passes, this passion of mine grows and eats up more and more of my time. I pretty much have whitetails on the brain, 365 days a year now. Along with that my fishing season has become shorter and shorter which is different, but ok by me. I spent pretty much the whole day down at the “Honey Hole” last Saturday. I went down to this MN farm to get that property ready for the upcoming archery season. The trail camera pictures of the deer on this report are from last year and we did not hear of this deer being harvested. If this is the case, he is #1 on our hit list on this farm. I had encountered him one time last year and decided to pass on him @ 12 yards broadside in mid October. Stacie and I sure hope he made it through. If given the chance at him again this year, he will not be so "LUCKY". Only time will tell if he made it as I just put out a camera in the same area and he was not camera shy last year.
I made the trip down there solo as my wife Stacie was back home in SD for a bridal shower. My day began as I had washed my clothes in scent free soap the night prior and went through my pre hunt ritual of showering etc. before hitting the road at 8 am which would put me down on the farm by 10 am giving the deer some time to bed down. It was a perfect day to do this deer season prep work as a strong NW wind was howling @ 25 mph to not only keep my scent out of the bedding area but to also muffle any noise I might make. After getting dressed and spraying down, I spent the entire day clearing shooting lanes, moving stands, hanging new sets, putting out a trail camera and replenishing a couple of mineral lick sites. The mineral licks I started down there 2 Summers ago, are really starting to take off. I noticed they were really starting to hammer one pretty good last year as I had my trail camera set up over one. Well, I went back this Spring and dumped another bag of Hunter Specialties Vita Rack 26 mineral supplement to help replenish some essential minerals to the fawning does and help the bucks after the rigors of last years rut and Winter. I was quite surprised when I walked up on this particular mineral lick this past Saturday as the deer really pounded it in the last 3 months. The basically ate the ground and dirt aw ay and created a good sized crater in the ground as shown here in a few pictures. The other mineral site was also hit pretty decent but not compared to the crater. Well, I freshened both of these mineral sites up with Evolved Habitats Black Magic Deer Cane and hung my camera over the crater again. As always when doing this preseason work, time flew by and the next ting you know it was 6:30 pm and it was far past the time for me to get out of there. 
So by the time I stopped to eat and got back home it was past 9 pm and there would be no rest for the wicked as the crew (Brad, Craig D and Dean) and I were headed down to Buffalo County to do it all over again on Sunday. So after a very long day on Saturday I got home and re packed the truck with more stands, trail cameras, powerade, clothes, waters, etc so I could be @ Deans house by 7 am to head to WI. As always, it was great getting together with this group of guys as we all share a deep passion for chasing deer with our bows and I’m looking forward to chasing deer with them all this Fall along with Ricco from the site here. It was a lot warmer on Sunday and definitely a lot more hills down there. We repeated pretty much exactly what I had done the day previous in MN as we set out trail cameras, hung stands, cleared shooting lanes, put out a few mineral licks in this whitetail mystic Mecca. Words definitely can’t describe how excited and how much anticipation I have for hunting this world wide known area of Buffalo County. To top things off, this entire area is absolutely beautiful to the eye. I can’t imagine how much better it will be with the Fall colors showing and monster whitetail’s running recklessly abound come the end of October and into the beginning of November.
Well that about wraps up this last weekends chores and know I need to start planning for the upcoming weeks duties of starting to tear up new food plot ground up at the families “Ranch” North of McGregor and replant some existing plots from the past few years. This coming weekend I will be up there doing some clearing and spraying of the plots to get them ready to till and plant the following week. I will also be checking shooting lanes and hanging hopefully one ladder stand for a morning bow hunt. The time is here, doing some of this hard work in the preseason can pay HUGE dividends come later in the Fall. So make sure you get out now and clear those shooting lanes, hang some stands, put out some minerals, put out trail cameras and start thinking exactly how you are going to get the upper hand and put the squeeze on that big boy that has been taunting you in your dreams since last season. 
Hang on, this Fall is going to be a wild ride here @ iDoHunting.com. 
**CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE**