Well, it looks like my original post got deleted. It was a long one too... I wish I'd saved it somewhere.

The gist of the post was this:

I am new to deer hunting. I am also new to my area. Moved in October 1, and have been scouting heavily since then. I am on a 15 acre horse farm with roughly 250 huntable acres adjacent to me. My problem is that there are deer tracks literally everywhere. At the same time though, I have yet to see any rubs or scrapes, and I have not seen any deer during the day. I have seen them in the pastures at night however. The 250 acres is a bowl between two ridges with a beaver swamp at the bottom, and my house being at the top. It is mostly pine forest, but there are also old pastures in the woods and some recent (4-5 yr.) clearcuts. Then there is the swamp itself with grass that is head high and a small alder forest near the largest beaver dam. I think this may be where the deer are during the day as it is by far the least accesible place on the property. I was thinking of placing a stand near the alders, but the only trees near there are dead or dying hemlocks, so that's not really an option.

I figure the deer need four things:

Water - there are streams running in three directions to the swamp as well as ponds, so there is no pressure here, and I don't think this can help me.
Bedding areas - these are also scattered throughout the area. I'm not sure how this can help.
Food - I'm not sure what these guys are eating. There are no oak trees or anything like that. I have found a few apple trees, but almost all of the fruit is gone now, and they never saw much action anyway. If all these guys need to eat is grass, they're set, as it is in abundance anywhere.
Sex - I'm not sure if the bucks have gotten horny yet or not. Maybe their patterns will change when they do. As I said, I've seen no rubs or scrapes.

Most of the magazines that I have read have you setting up in a terrain funnel. Here there is nothing of the sort as the forest really lacks physical barriers such as ditches and fences. The deer can basically go wherever they want.

What would you guys do?