The Shack

[West Branch]

Back in 2009 there was a neighbor that was building his new hunting "shack" (a 2,000 sq ft house) and they were tearing down the old hunting shack and asked if anyone wanted part of the building. There was a lean-to part and then two other parts to the old shack. They torn down the lean-to and we were the first to claim the better of the other two pictured here:



There was some prep work required:



The place we wanted to move the shack to was about 1.5 miles away to the north side of our property. My dad and brother welded up some I beam skids with braces and the shack was lifted up and the skids put underneath. Then the shack was lowered down onto the skids and pulled with the 4wd tractor. There are not any pictures of that part of the project, but here are a few of going down the road.

 

[West Branch]

I think it was 2009 when the shack was moved. I was in college and me and my brother did not have the money to do much work on it. The previous owner gave us the windows from the front of it so we were able to close that up to protect it from the rain.



A relative got an old sliding door from a contruction project and we framed that up and slapped it in place to patch the hole on the other side. We also got the interior cleaned out.



The shack is located in front of a small pond on the edge of the woods and fields. We have a nice view out of the front. Here is some one of our hunters doing what he did best:

 

[West Branch]

We got some clearance flooring on black friday at Menards and putt that in in 2013. Yes, the shack was sitting for a few years. The main farm house is 1/2 mile to the south, so it wasn't too big of an issue that the shack wasn't in working order.

We tore off the bad wall covering and sheetrocked that and tt has a loft for a sleeping area so we braced that up and put some stairs in:



Here is a summer view, you can't quite see the pond with the tall reed canary grass there:



In the beginning of January 2014 we drove the snowmobile out and took a pic. The brown spot on the right side is siding that needs to be painted:



And then we snowshoed out there in the end of March as well, things looked pretty good. :

 

[huntall]

nice!

 

[bueller]

Cool. What are your plans for the shack? Sleeping quarters during hunting season?

 

[sandbur]

Good Job.

That looks like great deer habitat in your area.

 

[West Branch]

Cool. What are your plans for the shack? Sleeping quarters during hunting season?

Yes, mainly hunting season, and other times of the year if we feel like it. We want to try to use it in the summer as well to get the deer used to our presence. 2013 was the first year we had people staying in it. We definitely need some screening on the opposite side of the pond. My mom and dad like to drive out on the fields in the summer evenings a few times a week to look at wildlife so I think that helps the deer get used to activity. And that is on top of hay making and other farm stuff that goes on.

We wanted the shack since that farmhouse is separated from the woods by fields. The fields have pretty good alfalfa and clover so we would spook a lot of deer going to and from the stands on the long walks through the field.

Here is an aerial view. The red dot is the shack. The i is the farm house. The blue lines are the property lines. The 40 north of the shack is state land.

 

[bueller]

That shack looks like a pretty good score for you. Definitely should make access better and give you a true "deer camp". I like it.

 

[Deer Kar]

Looks like a great place. From the Ariel photo you placed it in a funnel. You could hunt right out of the window!!!!!!

 

[kskid]

West,
Great post! Did you just drag it on the skids? I have a smaller outbuilding that I want to move & have been thinking about where to get wheels & get them under it. Never thought about just dragging it on I-beams. How were the beams braced? How was the building attached to the skids? Were ground bumps/dips a problem? Thanks for any details!

 

[foggy]

Nice! I keep hoping a building like that will fall in my lap. I don't want a big investment in a "shack"......so I keep checking Craigslist for a building.

Great Pics!

 

[West Branch]

Looks like a great place. From the Ariel photo you placed it in a funnel. You could hunt right out of the window!!!!!!

Deer cross on the north side of the pond quite a bit, there is a little ridge that loops around that swamp, it is about where the red line is below, it gets about 10 feet higher than the swamp. It is pretty much the biggest elevation change that we hunt. The little peninsula also gets quite a few deer beds, it is about 6-7 feet higher than the swamp.

The 40 to the north there is state land that only we have access to since we own the land on three sides and the north side is pretty hard to access.

You can also see deer trails to the SE of the shack. It gets pretty heavily travelled where the deer are heading to our clover and alfalfa hay fields. There were scrapes about 60 yards from the shack last fall.

 

[West Branch]

West,
Great post! Did you just drag it on the skids? I have a smaller outbuilding that I want to move & have been thinking about where to get wheels & get them under it. Never thought about just dragging it on I-beams. How were the beams braced? How was the building attached to the skids? Were ground bumps/dips a problem? Thanks for any details!

Yup, it was just dragged, the I beams were cut on the front and some curved steel was welded on so it wouldn't catch the ground. It was braced in the front and the back with perpendicular steel bars that were bolted to the I beams. The building was pretty heavy so it was not attached to the skid at all. The steepest area it was on was the curve on the gravel road and that wasn't much. It was on only dragged down county roads, a short driveway and across a hay field so there wasn't much for bumps or dips. The chains were attached to the 3 point on the tractor so it could lift of the front of the skid when needed and that was only in a couple spots.

We also moved this "Amish" style cabin below with the same skids over 5 miles down the road for a neighbor. He had bought it from someone who had it on their hunting land.



Last year my dad also moved a chicken coop for a neighbor and on that one he modified the skids to have wheels since it had to go on top of a block foundation so you couldn't just pull through like we did with the other two buildings. I wasn't there to see that at all, but it was a much smaller building and it was only 100 feet or so, so it wasn't too big of a deal.

 

[kskid]

Thanks for the info!

 

[foggy]

Yup, it was just dragged, the I beams were cut on the front and some curved steel was welded on so it wouldn't catch the ground. It was braced in the front and the back with perpendicular steel bars that were bolted to the I beams. The building was pretty heavy so it was not attached to the skid at all. The steepest area it was on was the curve on the gravel road and that wasn't much. It was on only dragged down county roads, a short driveway and across a hay field so there wasn't much for bumps or dips. The chains were attached to the 3 point on the tractor so it could lift of the front of the skid when needed and that was only in a couple spots.

We also moved this "Amish" style cabin below with the same skids over 5 miles down the road for a neighbor. He had bought it from someone who had it on their hunting land.



Last year my dad also moved a chicken coop for a neighbor and on that one he modified the skids to have wheels since it had to go on top of a block foundation so you couldn't just pull through like we did with the other two buildings. I wasn't there to see that at all, but it was a much smaller building and it was only 100 feet or so, so it wasn't too big of a deal.

^ This is the kind of cabin I wish I could have moved onto my place. Just a place to hang out in between daily hunts. My home is about 20 minutes away......so we sleep there. But I sure could use a place to hang out for a few hours during the hunt.....and have a little lunch, watch the Queens loose.....and stuff like that.

I keep looking.......

 

[West Branch]

^ This is the kind of cabin I wish I could have moved onto my place. Just a place to hang out in between daily hunts. My home is about 20 minutes away......so we sleep there. But I sure could use a place to hang out for a few hours during the hunt.....and have a little lunch, watch the Queens loose.....and stuff like that.

I keep looking.......

My cousins bought a cabin from up in the Outing/Remer area and moved it to their place a couple miles from ours, so they had it moved around 75 miles. I don't know what they paid but they said it cost more to move than what they paid for the building. One of them has an business up there and found it cheap through a guy he was doing some work for. Driving around some area lakes and knocking on some doors of places that have old cabins that look unused may work for finding something.

The cabin pictured above was one of the Amish cabin kits that the original owner had delivered and built. It looks like those are usually at least 8k-9k when I have looked online and can get a bit more spendy.

This ones isn't too far from you is it? Searching online the moving companies seem to want you to call for a quote.
http://brainerd.craigslist.org/for/4686630750.html

 

[sandbur]

My cousins bought a cabin from up in the Outing/Remer area and moved it to their place a couple miles from ours, so they had it moved around 75 miles. I don't know what they paid but they said it cost more to move than what they paid for the building. One of them has an business up there and found it cheap through a guy he was doing some work for. Driving around some area lakes and knocking on some doors of places that have old cabins that look unused may work for finding something.

The cabin pictured above was one of the Amish cabin kits that the original owner had delivered and built. It looks like those are usually at least 8k-9k when I have looked online and can get a bit more spendy.

This ones isn't too far from you is it? Searching online the moving companies seem to want you to call for a quote.
http://brainerd.craigslist.org/for/4686630750.html

I like that, and not far from where I grew up.

But if the window needs work and the floor joist, there could be lots of problems hidden underneath.

 

[foggy]

My cousins bought a cabin from up in the Outing/Remer area and moved it to their place a couple miles from ours, so they had it moved around 75 miles. I don't know what they paid but they said it cost more to move than what they paid for the building. One of them has an business up there and found it cheap through a guy he was doing some work for. Driving around some area lakes and knocking on some doors of places that have old cabins that look unused may work for finding something.

The cabin pictured above was one of the Amish cabin kits that the original owner had delivered and built. It looks like those are usually at least 8k-9k when I have looked online and can get a bit more spendy.

This ones isn't too far from you is it? Searching online the moving companies seem to want you to call for a quote.
http://brainerd.craigslist.org/for/4686630750.html

Yep, I have been watching CL for cabins for some time now.....just to see what's out there. Next year I am going to look in earnest. I just have too much on my plate this year to get into another project like this. Thanks!

 

[West Branch]

We added a wood stove back in October. Doesn't take much to keep the place warm. The gas stove in the background has a propane adapter and works well for all cooking needs. We also have a propane heater to supplement if needed.

 

[j-bird]

That is one aspect of hunting that I don't have. I live on the property I hunt - the convenience is awesome, but I don't get that rustic hunting cabin/camp affect that some of you guys do. Every guy needs a place where he can hang with his buds and just be guys. My wife just yells because we track mud all over the place!