Deer Fort

For sometime now, John and I have been working on building his new deer fort. Basically, it's an 8ft by 6ft cabin, with balcony, 9 feet in the air. It has a fantastic 360° view of the entire property and will act as a great summer tree house shelter or overflow sleeping cabin for Spring and Summer camping activities.

We located it behind the cabin, on the other side of the creek where deer stand #1 sits. This cabin will replace that deer stand. Next Summer, we hope to add a lower platform with a nice picnic table and chairs and some hooks for lanterns and hammocks. It sits just 5 feet from a beautiful twin oak tree so ought to be real nice in that setting.

Next time up (10/3) I'll be doing a little work on my tree stand to get it shored up a bit, put some weather walls on it and make a new ladder so I can easily access it. It was a stand we were contemplating for removal, however given the way my knees are acting up and the close proximity of the cabin and the basic traffic patterns of the deer, we made the decision instead to shore it up for use this year and then rebuild it a little higher up in the trees next year.

We picked up a couple of trail cams from Gander Mountain and have been using them to monitor our deer plots and trails. We have caught a lot of does but the big buck, whose hoof-print is nearly the size of my palm has not yet shown up on the camera. We left the cams up north for the last 2 weeks to see if he gets in the shot. Will let you know if we get a picture of him.

Wood Stove

Well, we finally did it! Due to some rather creative financial dancing and careful shopping, we managed to get a wood stove, pipe and crown, along with the protective wall board. It cost a little under $1000 for everything which makes it 1/3rd the cost of the entire cabin! Still, it works like a charm and sure heats up the place. Too much so, if you ask me. Still, it'll be nice for hunting season and trips made this Winter.

In previous week-ends, we had purchased and installed insulation. We bought R11 for the whole cabin, but to date have only managed to get the downstairs and half the upstairs finished. We got the hard half of the upstairs done which means the vaulting part. All that remains inside is to do the loft ceilings and back wall. And then the under floor which is the porch ceiling.

Also, we have to fix the spring arms of the loft ladder. John and I took one side off and noticed that we could easily pull it down a good inch and a half or so, so that'll be done, hopefully soon. We also rearranged the furniture and shelving in the place to get everything in its proper long-term place. We have a little clean-up to do yet, but it's shaping up just fine.