and a strong cup of coffee

No matter what animal I hunt, I always come back to deer.  Hunting predators like bear and coyote are great and I'm eager to check off turkey and moose but I plan my vacations around deer season.  After getting yelled at last season, we decided to build a permanent structure a little further into woods and close to the same property line.  It was hard to visualize what it would look like and Dad had great plans for our third permanent deer stand.  He built it in the barn and we tested out sizes, wall height and visibility.  We were going to put it up in late January but time got away from us and February hit bringing about five feet of snow in four weeks.   So instead, Dad used the snowmobile to bring pieces of the stand over to our build spot. T3 before the roof Then, a couple of weeks ago, Dad started building. He needed help with the roof so Hubby, Dad and I took the snowmobiles over and lifting it into place.  The stand is a little ...

After my incident last season, Dad decided that it would make more sense to be hidden in the woods and have more coverage than my treeseat gives me.  This will help me get a better view of the more traveled deer trails and not rely on the deer to come my way.  He wanted to build a permanent structure that would allow us to hunt in all weather conditions. So, Dad has been busy building T3.  He constructed it in the barn to make sure all of the dimensions were right.  Our first treestand was built 16 feet off the ground using a 12 foot ladder.  Not ideal and clearly not built by hunters who knew what they were doing.  The Sky Condo was considerably better with insulation and a tar papered roof.  T3 is looking to be the best yet! T3 being built in the shed Once Dad and I figured out how tall everything needed to be in order for me to take good shots from every angle, he started moving pieces of it down into the woods.  The plan was for u...

There is nothing better on a nice fall day then walking through the woods with Dad and checking the trail cam pictures.  We headed out to check the camera by the Sky Condo and the camera by my tree seat.  That big buck has been hanging around the Sky Condo but if it's the same deer as last year, he made a few trips past my seat and into the bog. After doing some logging on the property, Dad has decided that we will move my tree seat and build another permanent stand.  The plan right now is to move closer to the bog and off to the left of where I sit currently.  This will allow me to sit close to the bog and thickets and if it rains, I can still be around any deer that decide to move.  I am naming my new stand T3 (tree-stand three - how original right?)  I may do a Google search and see what cool, function designs might be out there that we will want to add to this new stand.  The Sky Condo is pretty nice but we have had to patch up some leaks in ...