and a strong cup of coffee

If you have been a dedicated reader, you know that we have built a new treehouse for the 2015 season.  If you are a new reader, do a quick search for T3 and you can see what we have done so far (and why.) When the weather is cool with lots of sun, it's hard to be anywhere but outside.  Since rifle season opens in a couple of weeks, Dad, Hubby and I took to the woods to get things set up and ready for the Oct 31 start. We hauled carpet, plywood, tar paper, canvas and a chair down to T3 to add the finishing touches.  We also brought a limber to get those little branches out of the way of the shooting lanes.  On the floor, we put two layers of the tar paper then the plywood.  The canvas was turned into a gun rent out the front and the carpet was put on the wall behind me to keep out the cold and help to keep me hidden. The shooting lane that you can see behind me is where I shot my deer last year.  With the sun shining in on the stand and the lanes b...

The 4th of July was a sunny and warm day so Dad, Hubby and I headed into the woods at 7am to paint T3 and beat the heat.  We carried down paint, ladders, rollers, another trail camera and some rags.  I was excited to see what deer sign were around since this is the same spot that I shot my deer last year. We needed a weed-wacker to blaze trail! I was so happy that I was dressed the way that I was: jeans, rubber boots, sweatshirt... and enough deet to (hopefully) kill all bugs that came in contact with me. I snapped a few before shots and then grabbed a gallon of paint and climbed the ladder.  My job was to paint as much of the outside as I could reach then paint the inside - specifically what the rain may hit - and then paint the outside and my sunporch.  I also needed to make sure that I did not paint myself into a corner or miss one spot that only I could have reached.  Luckily, I had had my strong coffee! Before the paint job Hubby helping to nail ...

Dad, Hubby and I headed into the woods last weekend to look for some turkey sign as well as see if we could find some sheds.  It was a beautiful afternoon and we took our time enjoying the run and the start of some green grass. As soon as we got out of the car, we saw deer tracks - and some pretty nice looking ones. We headed up to the Sky Condo and down through the woods to T3.  We were maybe 10 steps into the woods when Dad stopped and pointed - four, maybe five flags bounced through the trees and away from us.  We were glad to see that they were starting to spread out again and break away from their yarding areas and they looked healthy. We spread out to cover more ground and kept looking for a shed or two.  A few years before, Dad and I had found one in this area so we were hopeful but we came up empty handed.  So, we headed to T3. Tracks and poop were plentiful.  We walked through the woods and down to where T3 is standing. The frost is leaving t...

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...

It was cold, but the sun was out and Dad, Hubby and I were eager to go into the woods to look at where T3 will be set up, bring in a couple of tree stands and I wanted to look for sheds. The recent dusting of snow helped to see any new deer tracks.  It also helped to see the main trails and activity of the deer herd.  There were a lot of spots that looked like this.  The deer have been on an acorn frenzy and since there is not a lot of snow, they can still paw at the ground and leaves to find them.  Deer paw for acorns buried along the leaves and snow. I tracked a couple of deer from the Sky Condo as we made our way to my treeseat where I shot my deer this year .  It is always amazing and kind of frustrating to see how close the deer are around you and yet, you don't see them during the season.  But, it is also good to see that there are SO many deer around where we hunt.  Some of the trails amazed me.  They were like super highways throu...

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 ...