say ya have a stew..we smell stew...mmmmm..
when an animal smells stew, they smell potatoes, carrots, onions er whatever is in the stew...
so hosing down yer stand and covering it in pine needles wont help. the deer smells pine needles, the oil from the tools used to cut holes and bend yer stand into a stand, and of course yoy, because you touched it.
the best thing ya can do is hang that sucker, leave a pair of yer nastiest drawers and a very used work shirt in the stand and let the deer sneak up on that for a couple weeks. they will get used to it and when they smell you, they wont think anything of it....BOOM SHAKA LOCKA.. gl