Asking permission today

[SDhunter]

It is hard. Good luck Glen

[flintguy]

No farm land near me for 45 minutes in any direction. Hard to even pick an area, let alone find a name, get there and talk the owner into it. My in-laws live near some farmland. I've tried to get them to put in a good word when I go up to visit. Hasn't worked yet.

[SurfaceHunter]

Lots of the farm lands are changing to sod farms with the developments being built. Traffic is bad now. When I first moved here you might of seen 5 cars in 5 miles now I’ve counted 50 many days.

[flintguy]

Depending on who you listen to, I live in the fastest growing spot in the U.S. may not actually be but it certainly is growing way faster than I care for. The older I get, the farther away from the city I want to be. Makes finding un hunted land about impossible.

[tomf]

Lots of the farm lands are changing to sod farms with the developments being built. Traffic is bad now. When I first moved here you might of seen 5 cars in 5 miles now I’ve counted 50 many days.

My little valley, just east of the big one, has gone from 30% vineyard to 80% in last 15 years.

Two things to mention on that, actually three.

First, it's a damn shame, as it has had a major and detrimental impact on the environment - sucking up the precious water, felling the important trees, soiling the creeks, fencing out the wildlife and obliterating the old pasture and oak groves that made this little corner of the county one of the last places left, more or less, natural.

Second, and most important, that's still a lot better than many other kinds of development that have (and continue to) occur in other places here and across the country.
Most of Napa County is mandated as agricultural zone, so the type of development is limited. If that wasn't the case Napa would have been paved over years ago like much like the Santa Clara Valley was. Anything close to the San Francisco bay is ripe for concrete.

So Napa is a wine county. Mostly corporate investments and vanity projects, with a few noble artisans mixed in for respectability. The cowboy life here is over. So are orchards and poultry and all the various small family farms. Instead there's a monoculture of vines and tourism.

Thirdly, and relevant to the thread, is that all this ploughing of land has provided me with opportunities to salvage artifacts. My wife's extended family still owns many acres out here and they, like almost every one else, have chosen to lease large parcels for vines. I've permission to hunt the all of it. I know a lot of the vineyard workers too and sometimes they'll tip me off if they notice chips.

So I'm very lucky that I don't have to be brave as you, Glenn. I'm pretty shy and have a hard time asking favors.

[SurfaceHunter]

I’m not shy if there is a good driveway and no signs posted on them and if it’s visible from the main road I will ask if I see cars parked but I could tell he wasn’t going to let me walk either way but had to ask. Maybe he was a collector himself I really couldn’t say. I knew artifacts were there by the lay of the land.

[Tam]

I just saw this post . I am starting to feel blessed walking all of those hunt leases .
Wayne has a couple and and it’s kind of stupid because we have 150 year old white acorns spitting out nuts like a popcorn machine . It’s crazy sitting up in a stand and listening to them fall like rain and all the deer .
But it’s a bond with the other men and I enjoy the club and friendship . Good thing is all the guys let us walk the leases . Every darn nice point has been found in those roads .
If you can ever find an old timber area that has been plowed up and replanted , those are the gold star places for me . Not to many people ever walk them and they don’t get exhausted from human traffic .