Aging deer hunters in the Great North Woods of Wisconsin now have deer stands so elaborate that they allow television watching.
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"What I ended up with is a home in the sky," developer John Lawlis told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Lawlis spent $3,500 creating a gussied-up stand with carpeting, a deck, a propane heater and a battery-operated television and radio. There are stairs instead of a ladder.
Permanent deer stands are only legal on private land. The newspaper suggests that hunters who spend a lot of money on land are ready to lay out a bit more for some creature comforts.
Hunters also tend to be older now and less willing to freeze on top of a ladder while they wait.
Al Hofacker, founder of Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine, still uses a portable stand, even on his own land.
"It's not hunting for me," Hofacker said. "I do have buddies who have some rather elaborate, well, you might as well call them treehouses. I tell them they might as well be sitting in their house with a sliding glass door."