TexOk
Active Member
So it's about time I started my own property tour, or in my case, property tour. As you can guess from the thread title, I'm working with 70 acres in east Texas, and 50 acres in southeast Oklahoma. I don't own either of these properties myself outright, but as of now at least I am the de facto property manager of both of them. Because I don't own these myself each have their own sets of restrictions, and naturally each property has their own pluses and minuses.
First, a quick look at the Texas property. It has been owned by my wife's family for over a century. Her great grandfather used to own hundreds of acres in the area, but as was often the case back then, he had numerous children, and the land was split among them. Many family members or their grandchildren eventually sold the land, but my wife's grandmother held on to hers.
I had heard about this property for years, which her family always reverently referred to as "The Country," but nobody ever went there. Her family (including us) live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, so it was a pretty long drive. I always wanted to check it out, and talked to her grandmother once about the prospect of me hunting there, but she didn't seem too keen. Apparently one of the nearby neighbors there owned some cattle, and he helped her claim an agricultural tax exemption on the property. In return, she gave him permission to hunt the land. This informal deal had gone on for many years, and she seemed hesitant to change things up. That was a few years ago... fast forward to today. As other grandchildren have gotten older more of them have grown interested in the Country. We all talked to Mamaw about how we wanted to do more stuff out there and convinced her to let us take over taking care of the place, rather than the neighbor. Still hoping to turn the place into a whitetail paradise, I told everyone about how the state of Texas allows land owners to claim an ag exemption if the property is used for wildlife management. So it was agreed that the responsibility of creating the wildlife management plan fell to me. For the county we are in, the law requires that at least 92% of the land be dedicated to wildlife management in order to be ag exempt. Luckily this works out great for everyone, as most of the family is happy to focus on the small odd shaped parcel on the west side of the road where the old family farm site resides. I'll have to get a pic of the old farm house next time I'm there, it's the original house that my wife's grandmother was born in. The small western parcel is mostly cleared with a few large post oaks. The rest of the property on the east side of the road is all very densely wooded undergrowth that nobody is really interested, well except for me and the deer anyway.
I do have one brother-in-law that is interested in hunting, as well as my dad and maybe my wife sometime in the future. I'm pretty sure we will be the only ones hunting, and time will tell how much my brother in law will be into it long term, since he's never actually hunted before. So here's a wide look at the property:
And here's a topographical map of the area for those of you who can read such things. You can see the road a little more clearly and some of the streams that run through the property:
So I was excited about getting started on this property, and quickly hit a snag. The neighbor who had been managing the property felt put out that he was being given the boot. There was a tiny little hidey hole food plot on the property that he hunted and he had already planted it in the spring with some oats. Thus he felt entitled to continue hunting it this season. Unbeknownst to me another family member negotiated with him and agreed that he would be allowed to hunt the property by himself one more season and then he would clear off. Needless to say I'm not pleased with this arrangement since it means I can't really do anything with the property until after deer season ends in January. But as you can see from the map, one of the big disadvantages with this property is that it is long and narrow. I can imagine in the future needing to track the odd wounded deer onto the neighbors land, and so I don't really feel like making any enemies out of the neighbors yet. So as of now I'm left to plan and dream until next year, when I can really get in there and explore the property and start coming up with some long term goals. So until then, on to the Oklahoma property...
First, a quick look at the Texas property. It has been owned by my wife's family for over a century. Her great grandfather used to own hundreds of acres in the area, but as was often the case back then, he had numerous children, and the land was split among them. Many family members or their grandchildren eventually sold the land, but my wife's grandmother held on to hers.
I had heard about this property for years, which her family always reverently referred to as "The Country," but nobody ever went there. Her family (including us) live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, so it was a pretty long drive. I always wanted to check it out, and talked to her grandmother once about the prospect of me hunting there, but she didn't seem too keen. Apparently one of the nearby neighbors there owned some cattle, and he helped her claim an agricultural tax exemption on the property. In return, she gave him permission to hunt the land. This informal deal had gone on for many years, and she seemed hesitant to change things up. That was a few years ago... fast forward to today. As other grandchildren have gotten older more of them have grown interested in the Country. We all talked to Mamaw about how we wanted to do more stuff out there and convinced her to let us take over taking care of the place, rather than the neighbor. Still hoping to turn the place into a whitetail paradise, I told everyone about how the state of Texas allows land owners to claim an ag exemption if the property is used for wildlife management. So it was agreed that the responsibility of creating the wildlife management plan fell to me. For the county we are in, the law requires that at least 92% of the land be dedicated to wildlife management in order to be ag exempt. Luckily this works out great for everyone, as most of the family is happy to focus on the small odd shaped parcel on the west side of the road where the old family farm site resides. I'll have to get a pic of the old farm house next time I'm there, it's the original house that my wife's grandmother was born in. The small western parcel is mostly cleared with a few large post oaks. The rest of the property on the east side of the road is all very densely wooded undergrowth that nobody is really interested, well except for me and the deer anyway.
I do have one brother-in-law that is interested in hunting, as well as my dad and maybe my wife sometime in the future. I'm pretty sure we will be the only ones hunting, and time will tell how much my brother in law will be into it long term, since he's never actually hunted before. So here's a wide look at the property:
And here's a topographical map of the area for those of you who can read such things. You can see the road a little more clearly and some of the streams that run through the property:
So I was excited about getting started on this property, and quickly hit a snag. The neighbor who had been managing the property felt put out that he was being given the boot. There was a tiny little hidey hole food plot on the property that he hunted and he had already planted it in the spring with some oats. Thus he felt entitled to continue hunting it this season. Unbeknownst to me another family member negotiated with him and agreed that he would be allowed to hunt the property by himself one more season and then he would clear off. Needless to say I'm not pleased with this arrangement since it means I can't really do anything with the property until after deer season ends in January. But as you can see from the map, one of the big disadvantages with this property is that it is long and narrow. I can imagine in the future needing to track the odd wounded deer onto the neighbors land, and so I don't really feel like making any enemies out of the neighbors yet. So as of now I'm left to plan and dream until next year, when I can really get in there and explore the property and start coming up with some long term goals. So until then, on to the Oklahoma property...
I always wanted to get into hunting, but after that season my dad didn't really hunt anymore and life never really offered any other opportunities. So when my parents bought the Oklahoma property my dad and I both started getting excited about the prospect of hunting there. So we got some new gear, put up a corn feeder and a couple of tree stands, and viola! Insta-hunter! 
