Final Preparations

This weekend I headed down to the cabin with my oldest daughter, Abigail to make the final preparations for hunting season. My parents met us down there and we got to work right away. 

Abigail supervising as I vacuum the cabin

A few timely rains over the last month made all the difference as the clover food plots have greened up and the brassicas that I planted at the beginning of the month are off and growing. It is still severely dry down there but I am happy to take what I can get. 

Brassicas growing in the big field

Clover plot behind the cabin is green instead of brown

After getting the cabin cleaned up and lunch ready, the next job on the list was to plant the last of my fall food plots. Dad and I tag teamed to get 1/4 acre in each the big field and small field food plots planted into a cereal grains blend. 

Fertilizer spread and ready to disc the small field food plot

Dad finishing off the last food plot of the year with the cultipacker

Of course, with Grandma O'Connell at the cabin, it was Abigail's job to keep her busy, and she did great!

Reading books with Grandma

Playing Skip-Bo with grandma

We also managed to get the mowing done along with several other small jobs on Sunday before settling in for a relaxing evening that included cooking supper on the fire. Of course, it wouldn't be a trip to the cabin this year without some drama. On Sunday, we noticed that 2 of the ATV tires were flat. Luckily, the leak is slow so we were able to fill them with the air compressor and get our work done. However, on Monday morning when we went to fill up the tires, the air compressor wouldn't turn on. After a quick trip into Menards for a new air compressor we were back to work. Monday's work included the tedious job of prepping stands and blinds by clearing access trails and cutting shooting lanes.

The drought made my watering holes go dry, so I filled them up

Put up a blind on the expanded Ridge food plot

Even with the drought, it ended up being the best fruit production year that we had. We even had the chance to try some early ripening apples and we picked a few apples and pears to bring home. 

APPLES!!!

Abigail picked a pear

Overall it was a successful trip on so many levels. My favorite part of owning this property is still being able to spend time sharing it with family and friends. Abigail LOVES going down there which warms my heart to hear. As always, a big thank you goes out to my parents for coming down to help. It is a lot of hard work every year, but the pay off is right around the corner with the start of hunting season.