Saturday, May 16, 2009

Recent Visit to My Folks

Earlier this spring on a trip to Mom & Dad's I decided to take a walk around the lake and through the woods to see the progress Dad might have made on his new deer hunting stand. I knew he was making good use of some of the wood and slabs from his home-built sawmill to construct something more comfortable & spacious than the ordinary tree stand. Well, as you can see, he's gotten quite a bit done after starting by setting railroad ties upright to support his heavy rough-cut oak platform and slab-sided cabin/blind/hut or whatever you might want to call it. Nothing too good for a real hunter you know and such is the case here as the steps are black walnut!


Since this hunting mecca is across the lake and in the "North Woods" area of the farm, far removed from modern conveniences, it would be necessary to build an additional building. And important though this building may be, it could be built almost exclusively out of slabs thereby keeping the costs under control. Due to the "seasonal" use and limited number of hunters in the area, costs & labor were controlled by eliminating the digging of a "pit".

However, it would be expedient it seems, to build a two-seater. I don't know exactly how that was necessary since there really is only one hunter that stalks these woods but perhaps the reason is the builder/hunter was more interested in the aesthetic value of his design.

In the event you couldn't read the sign over the white seat, I shot a closer photo.

And over the left side seat is this sign.

A closer look at the seat itself. Pretty much a guaranteed anti-slip seat indeed if you ask me!

So there you have it. One of the many ongoing projects that keeps my Dad busy. Pretty impressive to see an 81 year old so active and still sporting a good sense of humor!

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