We each only have a couple of acres of woods and want to keep away from the cabins on the other ends of our property (and adjacent neighbors). And believe me, I'm not being a jerk about it. I've thought it through several times. On one hand, the guy has been hunting there for years and throroughly enjoying himself. I don't want to take that away from him. On the other hand, opportunities for me to hunt where I live are few and far between. Public land is crowded and there's not much land available for lease that I could afford. On the other hand, I watch does and fawns sneak across our (and the neighbor's) property almost every afternoon/evening to get to an adjoining State Park and alfalfa field. And as my father-in-law who previously owned the land has said, many of the bucks the neighbor's shot down there over the years have probably been on our property - and that I have just as much right to hunt down there on our own land as he does on his.

But again, I agree the two key pieces here are to be courteous and safe. That's why I tried to call the guy every night this week. He doesn't have an answering machine and is working long days to bring his crops in. I finally got a hold of him last night and he was very cordial. I introduced myself as his new neighbor and then cut right to the chase. . I let him know for safety's sake that I would be down there too this weekend. He seemed nice and glad I called. He said that last year, this guy who always trespasses on our land set up so close to him (and directly in his main shooting lane) that he was afraid to lift his gun. Anyway, I let him know where I will be and I saw where his stand was. We'll be close to one another but not too close as we know where one another is and out of one another's main shooting lanes. I think he was relieved as he thought I would be sitting in a ground blind much closer to his stand that I use for archery.

I feel relieved that we got this out of the way beforehand and told him I looked foward to meeting him in person. His upbeat reply was, yeah, I'll probably see you this weekend!