Bridget and I headed to the cabin late Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend to meet my parents for a weekend of work and fun. With so few trips made down this year, I knew there would be a lot of work to do and I was happy with cooler than normal temperatures to complete that work.
We set to work mowing right away with mom and dad on the riding mower and me with the trail mower behind the ATV. As I made my way down to the big field, I was disappointed in the amount of weeds and grass growing where I had planted a food plot. Half of the field was set to be mowed off and planted and I decided to spray off the weeds on the other half and over seed what I had planted previously.
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| Big field food plot overtaken by grass and weeds |
Luckily, the food plot in the small field was doing much better so I just had to mow off the weeds in the half that wasn't planted yet.
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| Brassicas on the small field looked great! |
Of course, it wouldn't be a Labor Day weekend at the cabin without a few challenges. While I was mowing, the belt on the trail mower gave out. Dad ran into town to get a new one and I decided to get the disc hooked up to start preparing the 2 food plots that need planted. The disc hasn't been used for nearly 2 years and I quickly discovered that the bearings had seized up. I was able to find replacement bearings online so we opted to disassemble the disc and send the disc axles home with dad and have them shipped to him to work on over the winter.
With the disc out of commission, we strapped some old rail road ties to the drag harrow and did the best we could.
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| Our best disc replacement for the weekend |
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| New shoulder spreader loaded up with rye |
With the last light of the evening, dad and I worked on trimming along the drive before sitting by the fire and enjoying some smores.
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| Trimming trees and brush along the lane |
After mass on Sunday morning, dad and I got to work on moving tree stands, trimming shooting lanes, and cutting a new trail on the ridge to a new stand location. We grilled for lunch and were joined by Erin, Abigail, and Hunter for an afternoon of fun before Erin headed home with Bridget.
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| Cutting out old dead falls from the new ATV trail |
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| Mom giving the girls a ride in the wagon |
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| A rare family photo at the cabin |
In the evening, dad and I worked on cleaning out the box blinds and I began mowing the big field, a task that hasn't been done in many years.
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| View from the small field box blind |
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| Sweat soaked shirts drying on the line |
Monday morning was spent cutting down trees that had begun growing in the big field before I finished mowing it off. We also put up 3 additional trail cameras and both dad and I shot our bows. After lunch, we loaded the trucks and headed for home. It was a great weekend and the official end to our off season work. I'm looking forward to another fun and successful season hunting down there this fall!
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| Big field all mowed off |
