That's a great looking mallard! Fantastic work.
I sent a woody out to Birdman Studios probably 10 years ago or so. It came back great. Paid a little extra for an expedited return and it was worth it. Only took a few months. Not sure if he still does that. Waiting sucks!
If you haven’t bought windows yet I’d highly recommend getting the grey or tinted windows from the start. All of this add-on stuff sounds like a pain in the ass. With a dark blind interior and the windows closed you can’t see in them.
I've got a running word document w/ tree planting information (much like Cat mentioned) going back to 2011 when I started doing it. I also keep a CAD drawing w/ aerial and fruit tree locations and food plot info/layout. So I've got them labeled in the field and on the computer.
I use a cheap engraver to write on metal tags I get off amazon. Then I used plastic coated wire to put on the cages. When the cages get removed I put the tag on a small diameter branch. The "write-on" tags I tried were chewed up by the deer or coons and became pretty useless. The method I'm...
That's only in the front. Rest is box. Did that so I could vertical bow hunt out of it. I hardly ever sit there for bow hunting. My dad crossbow hunts out of it. I don't think I sat in it once for bow this past fall. Gun hunted out of it a few times later in the week after I had already shot one...
Here's mine from the outside. Original Deer Blind Window Co windows.
The deerview windows I have sitting in my spare room don't have holes drilled for the mounting screws along the edges. One minor difference (annoyance) between the two.
I used 3' high fencing on ROD years ago. Worked fine. Just don't put a 12" dia. cage on a plant. Make them big enough. I planted a silky dogwood in a 12" dia. cage. 3' tall. The plant has still not grown bigger than the cage.