Three New Blinds

We've added three new blinds to "fill-in" our hunting coverage.  The decision was made to allow for more acreage to be used as sanctuary habitat.  We subsequently surveyed the property and decided on stand locations that would give us maximum coverage of travel trails and corridors as well as food plot coverage during bow season.  The 1st stand is a ladder style located in a site pick out by Jake.   My feeling is that it will prove to be a phenomenal rifle stand that can cover almost the entire Upper Plateau and still hunt well as a bow stand due to the obvious deer trails leading into the pine forest.   

View of the stand from ground. It is a Big Game ladder stand. Roomy, easy to climb and a comfortably large shooting platform to stand and draw a bow. The drop down rail adds safety while standing and provides a solid perch while seated to steady your gun.

The view looking down on a freshly planted food plot. That's Jake surveying a good location to set up a mock scrape. It was raining as we were finishing up ... good for seed germination in the food plot.

The 2nd stand we completed this weekend will hunt over the "clover field".  Last season I was able to harvest our first deer in this location from a ground blind.  It was very difficult drawing and aiming the bow while seated inside a "pop-up" blind.  Pivoting on an unstable stool, while at full draw, made for a difficult shot acquisition.  I decided it was not ethical to continue to try and hunt this way.  We would need a better arrangement so we could shoot more accurately.  The result was to build a platform stand since there were no mature trees in the near vicinity for a ladder stand. 

Base is a "Big Game Booster Stand". Jake and I built the upper box with treated lumber, painted it Hunter Green. Need to finish the "camo" paint and add some artificial branches.

Trap door design entrance. Small ladder. Ladder flexes somewhat severely but can be corrected (will need bracing against back platform framework).

Far left view of edge transition.

Center view of clover field. Field was freshly cut this weekend.

Far right view of edge transition.

The 3rd and final blind may be our best bow blind.  A strong shooter can cover almost the entire food plot, but you need to be good for a kill at the longer distances.  It's located in the Graveyard and will hunt over a field of chicory, clover and eventually chestnuts.  We see deer in this field all the time.  It's located between a hardwood forest and a grove of standing pine  There are countless entry and exit trails along it's fringe as deer traverse the area.  We aren't the only ones who hunt this area as witnessed by the numerous coyote kills in this field.  With luck we might even take out one of the 'yotes. 

Superb concealment set into the woods.

Far left view with chestnut saplings in grow tubes.

Center view.

Far right view.

The Pond/Lake

In terms of magnitude and expense, the pond, or as everyone who sees it calls it ... "the lake" is our biggest undertaking to date.  It was one of those visions that got stuck in my mind's eye from the first day we viewed the farm, but it seemed like it would be a long way off before it ever became a reality.
  
Building it at this time (June-July 2012) came out of the blue.  Occasionally, the stars will all align to make things happen.  That's just how it went so that the pond could be built now.  A contractor needing work, an offer too good to be true, available capitol on hand to finance the project, a competent cooperative field officer at the Army Corps of Engineers and the willingness of the rest of the family to add more to the already gargantuan work load of this summer allowed this undertaking to come to fruition. 

So here it is, a progression of pictures and comments as the construction went along.  Click image to enlarge the photographs.    

Proposed site submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers. That's the house, garage and our red pick-up at the bottom/middle of picture.

View of the site from our back deck before we started digging. Army Corps allowed us to dig 1/2 way into the cattails/wetland area to widen pond AND double the length. That's how it became "the lake".

Jake Hilts and his crew had been digging for a week when we returned on the weekend to check on the progress.

Hilts and his guys continued working all day on Saturday.  As you can see, underground springs where already beginning to fill in the dig.  A sluice-way was cut into the back wall of the berm to allow some of the water to drain out. 

A week goes by and the digging continues.  Little rain, but the springs are making the water difficult to control.  As you can see below it's slowly filling.

Excavation continues.

Me and Ben pick-up and haul the drainage culvert for overflow control.

Notch in the earthen damn where overflow culvert will be installed.

Another week goes by and the pond excavation is now finished.  Hilts and crew are pretty much done and now we take over the work.  After much internet research and 2 pond books read, we have a very good concept of how to provide bottom structure for game fish to feel right at home.

Jake starts assembling the 1st of six "Honey Hole Trees" that will provide desirable habitat for future game fish to be stocked in the pond.

A close-up of a tree almost ready to be strategically placed on the pond bottom.

As you can see, the "tree" will provide ample cover for fish to feel safe. We elected to use artificial materials instead of old Christmas trees due to their superior longevity.

Jake donned some hunting waders to check pond depth prior to placement of two Honey Holes in the deep end.

The first 2 trees sitting somewhat submerged in the far end of the pond near the drainage culvert.

Next up were the bass spawning nests.  After the initial stocking we'd love it if the fish will spawn in the pond.  Bass require a gravel bottom to make their nests.  Research turned up numerous ideas on how the perfect bass nesting site looks.  Basically male bass will search a lake for a graveled area with maybe a submerged log overhead for cover/protection and an underwater embankment or wall that covers the back of the nest to protect their blindside. The males then use their tails to form a bowl shape in the gravel that females will lay their eggs into.  After fertilization and hatching of the fry, the nest is protected by the large male to ward off predators and allow the fry to survive.  Below is our idea of a good bass nest site.  Hope they use them and repopulate the pond over the years.   

Jake and Kellen drilling holes into PVC downspouts (our version of a log).

The holes should allow the small "fry" fishlings to escape into the pipe from predators.

An assembled spawning site prior to placement of gravel and front retention wall.

Placing larger rocks to hold gravel in nesting bed.

Adding smooth river stone (2"-3" diameter) to the nest floor.

Spawning hole before the "log" is added.

Putting on the finishing touch.

The honeymoon suite is ready. Just add water and bass.

Overview of structure and spawning beds.

Looking down the length of the far side of the pond showing the shallow water spawning sites.

A Honey Hole Bush placed near spawning beds for additional cover as the fry grow into fingerlings.

Well, we did our due diligence, hopefully we've created a productive spawning zone.

Our beat-up old picnic table will now be a deep water structure for the larger bass.

We limed and seeded the perimeter with a conservation mix from the Pioneer Seed Company.  We then covered the crest of the berm with a Curlex, a product designed to protect the seed, encourage germination and help reduce soil erosion while the root structure is taking hold. 

Final picture of the pond showing completed work for 2012. Now we need the drought to end for the pond and the crops. There is some discussion, however, about putting in an aeration system in the fall.

It started as a pond (outline in black). It ended as a lake (outline in blue). Jake used a GPS app. to record the actual shape by walking the perimeter. Red balloons show start and finish point.

Our Newest Hunting Blind 

Earlier today we arrived back home to River Edge after an extremely eventful weekend up at the farm.  Pretty much every time we're up there a ton of work gets done, but this particular weekend just might have been the single most productive one yet. We built 9 artificial trees/shrubs to create structure for fish habitat in the pond, built 6 nests for bass to spawn, hung three new trail cameras, and most importantly built and raised our brand new "Red Neck Hunting Blind".  When I write these projects out in one sentence that takes 5 seconds to read, it just makes them seem so much smaller and faster than they actually were. Believe me when I say, they were neither small nor fast! My alarm went off every day at 7:30 and we worked right up until sundown.  I am not exaggerating when I say we only stopped for food and water.  There will be a another post coming shortly that highlights the other projects, this post will serve primarily to explain how we successfully assembled and raised our new blind.

Upon arriving at Red Hand on Thursday night, we spoke to our friend Ivan who accepted the delivery of the blind for us. He then informed us that our blind was waiting at the local tractor dealership because he did not have the equipment capable of unloading the heavy cargo from the flatbed delivery truck.  We then coordinated a pickup time with the dealership ownership and waited until the next morning.  On Friday we headed back to the dealership and brought our blind to its designated location at the farm.  After unloading the blind from our own trailer, we literally spent several hours bolting all the pieces of the platform and legs together.  With darkness closing in quickly and the mosquitoes draining blood faster than a syringe, we decided to call it a night.

On Saturday morning we were absolutely champing at the bit to get the blind finished.  Everything was assembled, but the bolts were merely hand tightened. We very quickly tightened all the bolts, and reviewed the safety procedures for raising the blind.  We were working off the verbal directions given from the great guys over at Red Neck blinds, and a few videos we had watched online. Of course with no access to a computer out in the field, we were all racking our brains trying to remember exactly how we were supposed to raise this thing.  With the blind laying on its front (door facing down), we drove two stakes into the ground and anchored the front two legs with ratchet straps (the orange straps in the video). We then parked the ATV behind the blind, and anchored it to a large tree so that it wouldn't slide. Finally, we attached the winch cable to a tow rope which was fed over the top rung of the ladder (the rope would withstand the friction much better than the cable) and hooked into the center loop below the floor of the platform.  Kellen and dad stood near the legs to guide the blind slowly into place upon the release while I sat on the ATV and worked the winch. Of course, we all had on eye protection, wore gloves, and had an escape route planned juuuuust in case something snapped, or didn't go according to plan. As you can see from the video, everything worked perfectly and we were ready to celebrate when the blind smoothly landed in its final resting place.  Now the fall just can't get here soon enough!!!!

The boys just finished tightening up the entire metal framework ... see above video for what came next. I had a brief vision from the Wizard of Oz. Only it wasn't Dorothy's ruby slipper sticking out from under the house, it was a pair of work boots ... lol.

It's up! A little leveling to even it out and we have a luxury sky box to cover the middle field for deer season. The long "corner" windows are perfect for bow hunting while the horizontal "wall" windows are excellent for rifle.

Viewing the blind from across the creek. Notice the emerald green line in the field just in front of the blind. It's a spouting 2 acres of Power Plant from Whitetail Institute. (July 2012)

THE BRIDGE

We literally just drove in the last nail. September 2010.

While it looks rather ordinary, the completion of this platform bridge was a major undertaking.  The building specs were laid out by a friend, Mark Hess from beautiful Candlelight Cottages on Lake George.  It has the load strength to handle the full weight of a tractor trailer (18 wheel semi).  The added width was equally important to allow larger sized farm equipment to transit the creek thats runs across the property.  It was an upgrade from the smaller logging bridge that was initially constructed in that location.  The original bridge could handle UTVs and ATVs but was lacking the platform area for bigger equipment.  The bridge was our first major upgrade to the farm.  It is the key to the future developments planned for the land.  We built it over Labor Day weekend 2010, shortly after we purchased the farm.  From left to right are myself, our son-in-law Ben and our youngest, Kellen.  Marian and Jess also contributed and you can see more pictures of the work on the Photo page.  This spring (2012) Barry road over it with his dump truck full of cobble stone and then later crusher run multiple times to complete the new culvert further up the ATV trail.  The bridge held up fine, but he said he was sweating bullets the first time given the extreme weight he was hauling.  Because of the access this bridge gives us, we are really able to keep improving the infrastructure of the rest of the farm.

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Fully completed with cattle gates July 2012.