It was a fairly low spend weekend. No major cash expenditures.

We visited my in-laws Saturday. Our niece and her husband will be returning to South Africa, for probably another two years as he finishes his doctorate, so we stopped to say good bye.

While we were there our kids were invited to a neighbor's house to pick pumpkins. I struck up a conversation with the neighbors. They are real estate agents that specialize in selling hunting land in a five county area in Michigan, including the county we live in. They said that my general area is one of the hottest for hunting land sales.

I asked about sales prices. They said that most sales were in the range of $2,200 to $2,700 per acre,and that "square 40s" (a forty acre parcel 1/4 mile X 1/4 mile) are the hottest sellers. I asked if those sales were typically made to groups of hunters buying together. They replied that sometimes 40 acre sales were made to a group of two hunters, but usually one. For a group of multiple hunters to buy land together, the size usually has to be 120 acres or more.

I guess I'm just naive, but it seems insane to me to spend 100K on hunting land! But, then, I'm surrounded by 200 acres of family-owned hunting land, and I don't hunt.

And, I would guess by all the bill boards and radio ads that I see and hear around here from banks looking to lend for hunting land that the majority of sales are financed. I wonder if they put 20% down?

I suppose the buyers also look at the purchase as an investment, figuring that the price will appreciate when they are ready to sell.

I've heard that landowners can command a $20-$25 per acre fee to rent their land out to hunters. Many farmers don't want hunters on their ground at all. My brother-in-law allowed hunters on his land at one time, but he was called to settle one too many hunter-hunter arguments, so he doesn't put up with it anymore.

My dad allows his cousin's sons to hunt his ground, and he doesn't charge them anything. They are very gracious, and they give my dad gifts, and a share of the meat.

The way I look at it is that I'm glad to have the deer around my house harvested. It's less likely that I'll run into a deer with a vehicle!