Deer Season Is Upon Us

Here in Kentucky, next Saturday is the opening day of gun season for deer, this year there will be an emptiness however, since this will be the first season without dad. I have so many fond memories of hunting with him, we hunted everything that there was a season for, but deer hunting was always special. When I was a kid, deer were few and far between in Kentucky, I had never even seen a live deer out in the wild. In 1969 my dad was holding a revival in the small western Kentucky town of Tulu, one of the congregation asked dad if he would like to go deer hunting one morning, of course dad jumped at the opportunity to go, and killed his first deer, it was a small four point buck. I remember mom waking me up early one morning and taking me outside to see a deer strapped on the trunk of the old white Pontiac, dad had drove in late the night before and I was asleep. I wasn't even sure what it was at first, I remember all the neighbors coming over to check it out because in was a rare sight to see in Louisville at that time.

Over the next 40 years I always looked forward to deer season and hunting with dad, we harvested a lot of deer over the years together, the last couple of years dad could no longer hunt, but when he felt like it I'd drive to the power line that runs across the farm and set in the truck with him so he could enjoy it. He taught me so many things about hunting and life on those trips that he will be missed so much. Now it's time for me and my son to continue the tradition that he started with me.

Until next time,

Tim

Trees and New Toy

Friday and Saturday I went down the farm to plant some fruit and shade trees I picked up at Lowe's for 75% off. I picked up two Golden Delicious, one Red Delicious, one Winesap and one Bartlett pear. I will be ordering some more trees from Stark Bros. this week, I need a pollinator for the pear tree plus a couple other apple as well as some pecan trees. I also planted three Autumn Blaze Maples in front of the man cabin.

We haven't had cattle on the farm for about 20 years but we still have a lot of rotted manure over at the old feed barn. I went and got 20 gallons of the black gold to mix in with the soil I planted the trees in.

Black gold (rotted manure)

Fruit trees

Autumn Blaze Maples

I've been looking for an all terrain fork lift for a while to haul logs out of the woods and load my sawmill with. I found a Lull telehandler on Craigslist which will do what I wanted plus it will also be a big help when I start building my barns and house on the farm since it will extend 27' vertically and lift 6000 lbs 38' into the air. The only drawback was it was in Boonton, New Jersey, so I loaded up the Semi and was off for a 13 hour drive to pick it up. My friend Rick was on vacation so he went with me, after loading it up we went ahead a drove back into West Virginia to avoid the morning rush hour the next morning.

Sitting in the hotel parking lot in West Virginina

The day after we got back I went ahead and took it down to the farm and dropped it off. Saturday morning I moved some logs I had cut and were setting on top of the hill in the middle pasture, it made moving them much easier than using my skidsteer plus I can move a lot more logs at a time due to its capacity.

Until next time

Tim

Rain

Finally, we have rain coming down, I almost forgot how good it smelled. I actually went outside and stood under the awning for a little while just feeling the mist hit me in the face while I took in the smell.

Until next time,

Tim

Fall Break

The kids had their fall break week before last so we took a few days and went down to the farm. My daughter and I went down on Friday and the wife and son came down Saturday afternoon. The first day we went to Holiday World in Santa Clause Indiana, it's only about a 30 min Drive from the farm. We spent the day riding rides, ate then went back to the farm. As you can see in the pictures below the leaves were starting to change to their fall colors, the weather was great all week and I got a few things done around the place.

We enjoyed campfires every night roasting marshmallows and making smores.

We cooked out Ribeyes one night over Hickory wood, YUMMY!

Tia and Samantha (Sam) enjoyed their time running around and chasing everything in sight.

I spent most of my free time Excavating the front of the building and putting down grass seed, I also seeded where we had ran the water line and electric line.
The more I get done around the farm the harder it is to leave everytime.

Until next time,

Tim

Fall cookout

This past Saturday we had a cookout at the farm with several family members and friends. It was a beautiful sunny day in the high 60's with a slight breeze. After feeding our faces we went on 4 wheeler rides, fishing in the pond and shooting some trap.

I went down on Thursday with my friend Rick and his son Luke (5 yo) to get everything ready for the cookout. We started by getting the area ready by installing a culvert and leveling the area where the cookout was going to take place. Next we put down gravel moved the smoker in place, installed the cook top and setting the picnic tables up. My cousin Ron brought over 3 additional tables and chairs and we were ready to start cooking.

Preparing to install the drain tile

Moving dirt from the big pile to level out the cookout area

Loading dirt into dump truck

Dumping at site

Tile installed and dirt leveled

The gravel spread out

Smoker, cook top and picnic tables set

Chickens on the smoker

Chickens, Boston Butt and Pork Loin

Smoker in action

Doodlebugs with my sister and her grandson

My sisters husband, cousin Ron and his Dad my Uncle Billy shooting the breeze.

Nephews riding the 4 wheeler

Mom and her friend Mary

Hungry people waiting on food, the secret to a good bar-b-que is to have it ready at least an hour later than you tell everybody, that way they are good and hungry and will eat anything.

Cut up smoked chicken

Time to eat

Nothing much better than a beautiful day, family, friends and good food.

Until next time,

Tim

Man cabin kitchen cabinets

I've been looking on Craigslist trying to find some used kitchen cabinets for the man cabin. I found some a couple of weeks ago not to far from where the farm is located, they wanted more than I wanted to give but I made an offer anyway. About a week ago last Tuesday he countered but it was still more than I wanted to spend so I countered back and told him I would be at the farm on Friday and Saturday. I never heard anything back though, last Tuesday he emailed me back saying he would accept my offer and could I pick them up on Thursday before noon. When I left the farm the previous weekend I had left my covered trailer down there because I was going to pick up some drywall the next time I went down there. I had to wind up driving an extra 3 hours out of the way to get the cabinets picked up and hauled back to the farm. Below are the cabinets when they were still installed in their house. They are hickory wood.



Now all I have to do is get them up in the cabin.

Until next time,

Tim

Man Cabin update

Spent the weekend down at the "Man Cabin" this weekend, worked on Friday and Saturday and lounged around on Sunday at Mom's house. I ran the power from the main panel in the barn to the sub panel in the cabin and ran 7 outlets so I don't have to have extension cords everywhere now. Next on the agenda is to get the bedroom walls and bathroom walls up then install the temporary overhead lights and the rest of the outlets installed. That will probably be about all that will get done on the inside before Deer season. I want to get the retaining wall installed and the front yard area in grass before winter.

I bought a sectional that has two recliners and a sleeper sofa for the living room off of Craigslist, it's really too nice for a Man cabin but it was only 6 months old and I made an offer on it and got it for a great price. I'm also an avid rocker so I went to Big Lots the other day and found a really good deal on a rocker recliner as well.

I brought this little kitchen table down from the "shack" and put it in the dining area, we (family) have had it since the late 60's and it was used when we got it, the quality back then was so much better, all the chairs are still like new, no tears, rips etc.

This is the temporary kitchen, it is a Cabela's camp kitchen, I got it for free with Cabela points I had. The picture is kind of dark but it has zipper storage compartments underneath for storing plates, food etc. On top is a toaster oven and microwave and a coleman one burner stove.
This was Jonathan's first bed, we had given it to his aunt and she called last week and didn't need it anymore so here it is.

This is the indoor outhouse, it will have to do until I get the bathroom finished. The cots will go in here when the outhouse is gone.

This is where the bathroom will be when it is installed.

I put out food plots about a month ago, it has only rained on them once before this weekend, hopefully they will take off now.

Until next time,

Tim

Catching up part 6

With the outside completed, except for the front porch and rear deck it is time to start on the inside. Since this will eventually be my woodworking shop I am going to leave the area as open as possible.


Before the bat insulation and horizontal studs were installed I used spray foam (Foam It Green, great product but a bit pricey) to spray all of the vertical and horizontal seams to give me a tight seal as well as keeping out the creepy crawlers. It was close to 100 degrees that day with very high humidity, on top of that I had to wear a pair of Tyvek coveralls and mask. I was sweating so much that the mask clogged up with sweat and I couldn't breathe, I had to raise up the mask take a few breathes and then spray some more. The big problem was if you didn't spray for a few seconds your tip would clog up and you would have to replace it. When I was finished I was so weak from sweating and the heat I had to set down about 15 minutes to recover, when I took off the coveralls I was drenched from head to toe, I couldn't have been any wetter if I had fallen into the pond.

Until next time,

Tim