So the holiday weekend started off rough...
Friday afternoon I had to say farewell to the best dog I have ever had. Lucy was my companion for nearly 14 years. She wanted to be where I was regardless of the situation. Age finally slowed her down over the past year or so and Friday morning after a rough week she couldn't even get herself up off the floor. She HATED to show any signs of weakness around me. And as hard of a decision as it was....it was time. Lucy was part lab part healer and smart as a tack. She wasn't a hunting dog, but as with all our dogs was a true member of the family. I had never been hit by a loss of a dog like I was with her....
Saturday was mowing and the like but I did take a walk to help clear my head some. My beans in my plots are putting on pods and my brassica is just starting to germinate. Normally I plant my brassica on Labor day weekend, but I broadcast a week or two ago so hopefully I will see a bigger plant and hopefully warrant an increased interest in the deer. In the pic with the very small brassica that is a buckeye for reference. I did pull cam cards but nothing much to report there either (but no dead deer from EHD thus far either on my place). I think one of my cams is messed up as it reads the SD card as being full....when there is nothing on it. I'll have to dig into it further....it's just a cheap stealth cam, but we will see.
Sunday....I got me a new habitat "tool". It took some running and the like and some frustration, but it works well now. I got me a Stihl FS111 clearing saw. I only have the weed wacker head on it for now, but it's nice having a real tool to do some work. I historically have been too much of a tight ass to spend serious money on a serious weed wacker. I had used a tool like this back in my younger days and loved it...but 3 to 4 hundred dollars for a weed wacker just seemed like too much in the past. Well, I got my bonus check....and I was wacking weeds like a champ on sunday!
Monday....We officially started "project: Battle Wagon". I will post progress pictures here and then will post everything at once in the "projects" thread. So to start we got a gravity cart. It was recently repaired with all bearing replaced and 4 new tires....I think we paid $250 for it. The intent is to be able to move the blind when needed. I have a floodplain area where I want a shooting house, but I have concerns about what the water would do to a fairly fixed structure over time. With this....I can pull it into position a month or so before season....and once season is closed or we are done....I simply pull it to higher ground. We will be gun hunting from it, so the deer getting used to it I don't think will be a significant issue....and they see carts like this all the time as it is.
First real step was figuring out how to put a platform on/in it. I considered putting the floor down in the wagon.... But the more I looked at it....I wanted as much height as would be reasonable. So I put the "deck" on the top lip of the hopper. The "deck" is pressure treated 2x8's. I have 2 "stringers" that run the length of the hopper to tie everything together. The stringers are wedged in a way that they can not move fore and aft and they are also inside the "pockets" so they can not shift side to side either. The hopper is 76" wide, but I am not sure of how long it is. Doing it this way also means no modifications to the cart itself. That makes things simpler on me as I am not a metal fabricator.
I used a ratchet strap to pull all the boards together to reduce any gaps (they will be sealed with caulk or expanding foam if needed). And each is screwed in with 3" coated decking screws. The majority of the boards I had where already 8 feet long and I wasn't going to cut them first. I simply put them up and then would cut them off later. Which was a great idea....until the battery for my saw died (and my other battery seems to be on the fritz). So I improvised.....and used the chainsaw. Not really the best tool for the job and it sure isn't pretty, but it got the job done. We left the two pockets open in the front and put 2x4's in them as this will be where the ladder goes and I figured I might as well use those pockets. If I decide I "need" to use the other pockets....I'll make that happen. Hopefully this coming weekend I can get my battery replaced and some sheeting and we can get some walls framed up.
