The Game Farm

I think I spelled it wrong, I seem to remember that it was "Oren", not "Orin". It's not a common name, Welsh I think, and it's usually spelled "Orin" or "Orrin", but this guy spelled it "Oren".

The Beagle and Bass Hunting and Fishing Club, of which my dad was a member, used to lease hunting privileges from farmers. This was not a rich man's club, and the lease was usually for a nominal fee. Once they made friends, and convinced the farmer that all Chicago people were not gangsters, he was happy to let us hunt on his land because we kept everybody else off. Oren told us that he didn't want our money, but he could sure use some help around the farm. The deal was that we would have these work bees on several summer weekends, and that would earn us hunting privileges in the fall.

I did this with Beagle and Bass for several years, and then the club had a falling out with Oren. By then I had joined a club of my own called "The Outdoorsmen Gun and Hunting Club". It wasn't much of a club compared to Beagle and Bass, it was mostly high school aged kids, I think the oldest guy might have been 20. I asked Oren if he would work out a deal with my club like he used to have with Beagle and Bass, and he was happy to do so. Our membership peaked at 10, and then began to dwindle down until there was only two of us left, but we kept at it until I graduated and left the state. That last summer, between my junior and senior years, the other guy, who went by the name of "Smix", stayed with Oren all summer. He wasn't getting along with his parents and was looking for a new home anyway. I spent a lot of time out there myself, but not nearly as much as Smix did. By this time, my friend Jack had joined the navy, so he was out of the picture. Jack did not adapt well to military life, and they sent him home after about a year. I took him out and introduced him to Oren shortly before I left for Alaska, and he continued until Oren went out of business, but that's a whole nother story. I heard that Smix got in trouble with the law while I was in Alaska, and I don't know what ultimately became of him.

Oren and his family used to raise sheep and hogs, but they transitioned to wild game about the time I first started going out there with Beagle and Bass. They had a few buffalos, a dozen or so deer, and some mallard ducks, but pheasants were becoming their main focus. Most of the work Smix and I did that last summer was building pheasant pens and two big barns, where the chicks would be kept until they were big enough to be let outside into the pens. The farm was 80 acres, with the pens and barns located on the front forty. The back forty was in Christmas trees and was loaded  with rabbits. There were also pheasants out there, mostly escapees from Oren's pens, and we were welcome to shoot those too.

This can be a long story, depending on how much of it you want to hear, and I've got to go now and help my hypothetical wife with something. I will continue tomorrow, unless you've got something else you would rather talk about.