2016 - 2017 Deer Season Part 1 - Preparations

So, as you can tell my initial plan to blog throughout the year fell through but I plan to give it another go next year. As for this past year, it was an epic year down at the cabin but most of those details will have to wait for my next blog post. In this post I will review all of the preparations that were made throughout the off season. Unlike years past, I had no real plans for any major projects or changes on the property this year but that didn't mean there wasn't any work to be done.

The first project on the list was to trim out a new access trail to "The Ridge". The existing trail lead directly out into the big field food plot and we often would bump deer out of that food plot going to the stand in the morning or heading back to the cabin in the evening. The new trail would angle to come out behind the plot screen on the big field. The challenge in cutting this path was to work our way through the mess left behind from the edge feathering that was done 2 years prior.

New Ridge access trail

Brush trimmer chewing through the thick stuff

Dad changing the chain on his chainsaw

It wasn't much of a year for shed hunting. I'm not sure if it was due to the times that we were down there or because the food plots were cleaned out before the bucks started to drop their sheds, but we only ended up with a single small shed.

Lone shed antler of the year

While hunting for shed antlers dad did manage to locate a set of ATV keys that I had lost while planting a food plot the previous summer. Considering that I lost them while tilling a food plot, what were the chances of that?

Dad with his big find of the day

Our yearly plot screen burn started out very well, but before we were able to finish it started snowing. Worse yet, it was a very wet snow that kept us from finishing the job.

250 yards of hose run to help keep the fire under control

Things started well on the first burn

The snow starts to cause problems

After the success that we had from the new box blind on the big field in 2015, we decided to assemble a similar box blind on the north end of the small field. The previous 2 seasons we had a ground blind in place on that food plot so we knew it would be in a good spot. Building the blind was a process. I built the platform at home and dad built the walls and roof in his garage. We disassembled them to take them down to the cabin. We then worked on assembling it over 4 separate trips down. The process started in March and ended Labor Day weekend.

Building the platform

Blind all assembled

Blind all painted

Having an apple orchard can be a huge asset to a deer hunting property, not to mention a delicious reason to take extra trips to the cabin. A few years ago we planted a dozen new trees but hadn't done much maintenance since. This year we decided to spend some time pruning and mulching the trees and it resulted in our biggest crop of apples yet (although still not huge by any means).

Cutting landscaping fabric for the trees

Giving the orchard a little TLC

Apples

More Apples

The largest project of the year turned out to be a bust. We planted 40 trees, a combination of blue spruce, red cedar, and arborvitaes in an attempt to grow a couple of permanent screens. The trees were delivered while I was already at the cabin, so I had to drive back to meet my wife and girls half way to pick them up. I had my parents help to plant the trees and it was a lot of work. The bad luck came when we didn't receive any rain for the 3 weeks following. We lost about 60% of the trees in those 3 weeks and the majority of the others by early fall. I learned some valuable lessons from planting these trees but am just writing them off as a loss for now.

Running lines for the trees

Mom and dad planting and caging new trees

Big field  screen all planted

Cabin screen trees planted

Hunting success started early this year as well. In April I headed to the cabin for a short trip to turkey hunt. I sat in the box blind on the big field for a couple hours in the morning. I ended up having a tom come in from the South but stall out at 60 yards. A few hens came from behind the blind and led the tom back the way he came. I headed back out that afternoon and less then 15 minutes after I settled in blind 2 toms came in silently from behind the blind and were directly outside the front window. I let them work out to about 20 yards before shooting the biggest one.

First turkey shot at the cabin

After the success of last year, I kept my food plot strategy the same for this year while continuing to work with the same rotation. With the exception of the brassicas planted on the ridge food plot, everything turned out great.

Plot screen on the big field

Plot screen on the small field

Clover on the small field

Brassicas planted in the small field

Small field brassicas looking good and cereal grains planted

Clover grew very well in the East food plot

Brassicas planted in the ridge food plot

Brassicas didn't come in very well on the ridge

Planting oats and clover in the big field

Planting brassicas in the big field

Brassicas growing very well in the big field

One of the more subtle changes that we made this year was to adjust the placement of tree stands. During the early spring, dad and I spent an entire day scouting sights on the public ground for tree stands. We ended up settling on 3 sites, all of them were based on observations made during previous hunting seasons. More on the success of those stands in Part 2 of this blog. We also made some small moves to a couple of tree stands on my property. The stand on the East food plot as well as the ridge tree stand were on trees that left us too exposed. We moved each of them about 20 - 30 yards SE of where they were. This ended up helping us hunt the spots with less risk on additional wind directions as well. 

Erin helping me trim shooting lanes for the new East stand

Dad and I moving the ridge tree stand

Our last big project of the year was not related to hunting, but instead to providing a different form of food for the family. We planted a large garden that included zucchini, potatoes, sweet corn, pumpkins, onions, and carrots. We ended up with a mixed bag in results as we battled weed and grass competition, but we learned our lesson on preparation of the garden and will make adjustments for next year. The real successes came in the zucchini and pumpkins with moderate success with potatoes.

Mom and dad planting potatoes

Garden planted and marked

Growing well but battling grass

Zucchini plants growing well

Zucchini and pumpkins taking over

Last haul of the year

Potatoes!

It was also a great year for the wild blackberries as I brought home several buckets full. 

Blackberry bushes loaded up

Blackberries!

With my newly found love of running and triathlon over the past couple of years, I spend a significant amount of time training. Combine that with having 2 young children at home and there were not many long relaxing trips to the cabin this year. In fact, most trips were down and back in a day or at most staying a single night. We were able to find a little time to enjoy ourselves though. 

Mom and dad enjoying supper by the fire

I won't bore you with a bunch of pictures this year, but of course, there was A LOT of mowing to be done every trip down and a lot of people chipped in this year. 

Mom mowing the jungle

For the first time since owning the cabin, my wife was able to come down and help out at the cabin on Labor Day weekend and she always makes things more fun. She loved getting to see everything that we have been doing over the past few years and getting the chance to help out. She also took a ridiculous amount of selfies throughout the day, but I simply refuse to post those here.

Erin's turn to mow the jungle

Because I have had issues in the past with certain siblings of mine claiming that I must make everyone else do all of the work I always try to include a picture that helps to show that I actually work just as hard, if not harder then everyone else.

Planting food plots

Of course I can't talk about the cabin without mentioning my dog, Hunter. He just turned 10 and is slowing down fast. He has Lyme Disease and is going blind but the one thing that still manages to bring out the puppy in him is a trip to the cabin. He didn't get to spend as much time down there this year as he has in past years but he sure was happy when he was there.

Hunter ready to go exploring

Supervising us while we planted trees

 Check back soon for part 2 to hear how the hunting season went. Spoiler alert, it was AWESOME!