Basement II

Next item on the list? The fireplace!
The fireplace shop sent 3 guys out to install and they put it in place and ran the vent in no time at all. They didn't stand around except here while one of the guys jackhammers through the block wall for exhaust pipe installation. Unfortunately, I didn't have the gas line and electrical ready since they came to install ahead of schedule (imagine that!) but they came back later to complete the project.

The fireplace was set on the framework you see on the ground and I came in later
and built the framework.

It sure didn't take long to take advantage of something Brenda has wanted for years. She's cold so much of the winter, sitting beside a fire is like a dream. So while the room is far from done, you can see we've got chairs in place and have enjoyed it's warming comforts all ready.
Here, Brenda is covering the furniture as some nearby drywall is about to be sanded.

More later

Basement - again

Several months ago I posted some photos of the destruction taking place in our basement. It may seem logical to suppose that because no further story or photos have been posted since last March I've neglected to keep my blog updated. But that would be wrong. Hard as it may be to believe, actually what happened is; nothing! Instead I worked outside, went hunting and pretty much avoided going downstairs.

Sometime around Thanksgiving I came down with a case of motivation and I can't seem to shake it. I'm afraid it might last all winter!

This photo from a previous blog was the last photo taken of Kyle's old bedroom before walls and doors started coming down. The drop ceiling and what were two closets on the left have been removed but basic room layout is still the same.

The long period of "nothing" started here I guess. It looked like this (below) for a long time.

The closets had come out in the previous photo but not the back wall of those closets.
Now they have been removed except for the 2x4 across the floor and a couple studs that supported a small gas heater.
The main issue now is those two support posts are in the open instead of being hidden by closet walls. What to do? I initially wanted to put up a new beam spanning 20' and remove those two posts but I learned after consulting an expert (thanks Bruce) that it would take a pretty impressive steel beam to make it work which was doable but daunting. Time for a change of plans!

Instead, the middle post which supported the concentrated load from upstairs stayed and we were able to add two LVL beams (back side) to the existing beams and span about 11 feet and remove 1 support post.

Now here is a pretty impressive bundle of wood supporting the first floor. Upon removing the 1 support post we had no deflection whatsoever. While I had good advice on how to do this, it was the first time I'd attempted such a project and it was exciting to see it work perfectly after all the planning and effort.

More later.

A Morning in the Woods

Written after a hunt in early December 2010

My blood pressure has returned to normal and I’m much calmer than I was yesterday. All the happenings at work made me feel like Murphy was an optimist. I’ve missed the first day of my planned three day hunt, but now it’s time to make the best of the two remaining days. As I pass the city limits of Eureka heading south, a quick glance at the clock in my truck shows it is 3:20 AM. The two and a half hour drive will be quiet and free of traffic. I keep awake by considering which of the numerous spots I’ve hunted in the past might be the prime locations today.

My destination is a private farm in west central Illinois. I’ve had the good fortune of hunting some of the best whitetail habitat in the Midwest for twenty-four years. While it is impossible to know if I’ll be able to fill a tag today, I do know for certain that I’ll see deer. I’ve hunted in these woods for nearly a quarter of a century and never gone a day without spotting some whitetails.

I park my truck and step out into the cold early morning air. It’s a crisp 28 degrees and beautiful. The moon hangs low in the eastern sky. It gives just the slightest sliver of silvery light. It lies like a cradle, but I don’t remember if that means it is waxing or waning. I do know it’s been a dark and moonless night. Likely the deer have been less active than normal during the night's deep darkness, and they may be moving around more during the early morning hours. It’s a good sign.

Quickly, I put on my flannel shirt, climb into my insulated coveralls and then don the mandatory orange vest and hat. I’m anxious to get to the woods but realize I can’t rush. Over the years I’ve spooked too many deer as I hurried into the forest, and I’m determined not to let that happen this morning. I’ll have to constantly red flag my instinct to move too fast.

The recent Thanksgiving holiday is something of a deer hunter’s intermission. Of the Illinois gun season, three days of the seven day season fall the weekend before Thanksgiving and the remaining four days the weekend after. The hunt two weeks ago had yielded a nice doe which helped restock my nearly empty freezer, but I was not able to fill any more of my three remaining tags. I had only the one opportunity to even take a shot, and it seemed like there just weren’t as many deer around. This "second season" I’ve decided to modify my hunting tactics.

My plan is to "still" hunt until late afternoon. Unlike hunting from a stand high in a tree or sitting in a blind I’ll be on the move, but moving slowly; very slowly. “Still” hunting is the lingo used when describing this method. Late in the day as the light fades, I will find a good spot and sit. Deer are always moving as dusk approaches, and I will try and sneak into one of their favorite haunts and become invisible. Now I head toward the woods. The light breeze is blowing directly into my face. That too is a good sign.

The section of woods I’m approaching is probably fifteen acres and is surrounded by farmland except at the lower end where it connects to woods from the neighbor's property. A ditch runs down the middle of its length. The countryside is gently rolling and mostly tillable, but there are many ravines which hold oak and hickory trees as well as numerous osage orange and cottonwoods. I’m going to start on the west end of these woods and slowly work my way east. The ground is covered with a light frost, the wind is almost non-existent once you enter the woods, and walking slowly and carefully, it is possible to move in almost complete silence. Stepping gingerly from the field edge into the woods, my heart jumps as I see five deer on a ridge to my right. They have crossed the field 150 yards distant and are headed northeast. If they and my direction of travel are maintained, there is a chance we’ll come together. My blood pressure is back up a bit but for different reasons than yesterday at the office.

The morning sun is at least a half hour from peeking over the horizon, but there is now enough light to see fairly well. My still hunt plan is in motion. First, I got into the woods without hearing a deer blow or snort which would be a giveaway that I’d been busted. Nor do I hear any running through the leaves. So far, so good. Now I remind myself to move slowly, be alert, look, listen and did I mention, move real slow? As it turns out, I’ll move about two hundred yards in the next two and a half hours. As slow as a snail moving through a construction zone. If deer have any visual limitations, seeing movement isn’t one of them. They pick up movement like a Hoover picks up dirt.

Minutes pass and I’ve moved forward now to a large tree. I think I’ll stay for a bit and survey carefully what is ahead. Whoa! I’ve unknowingly come to an urban area I hadn’t noticed on Google maps- satellite view. This must be downtown Squirrelville. There are five bushy-tailed creatures in this tree alone. It undoubtedly is rush hour. Their morning commute to wherever squirrels travel is stop and go, but unlike motorists on the Kennedy expressway, they are rarely in low gear. When these guys go, they really go. Which works fine I guess, because they can stop on a dime. Really! There are three more squirrels off to the right and two to my left. That makes ten of them I can see right now and there may be more but they only get fleeting attention as I'm looking for other creatures. They are oblivious to my presence, at least until one comes a few feet from my head, does a blazing u-turn and roars back up the tree with his quartet of squirrel friends.

The village of squirrels is left behind as I move in super slow-mo to the next temporary hiding spot. Now I spy Mr. Raccoon. He’s apparently heading home after a night out. He waddles along, and I don’t watch him long as my eyes shift back into deer search mode. His dwelling must be nearby because a few moments later, I glance to where I last saw Rocky, but he’s gone.

The sun has now risen in the east, but until now I’d not seen it due to the slight overcast. It pops out for a few moments. The warmth is immediate, but I try to stay in the shade. When you are trying to stay hidden, stepping into the sunlight feels like stepping into an onstage spotlight.

There doesn’t seem to be much going on at the moment except an occasional bird chirping. It’s not unusual to hear a woodpecker rattle on some nearby tree, and when they do, it echoes throughout the forest. Those silly squirrels frequently leave their wooded highways and bound through the leaves, sometimes giving me the impression there is a deer nearby. After twenty-four years of deer hunting, squirrels still fool me on occasion.

Gunshots sound sporadically from neighboring properties. These booms echo through the still air and stir thoughts in my mind like, “Deer are moving elsewhere, so they probably are moving here too; stay alert!” It’s beginning to seem like I’ve been out here for quite some time, and the only things I’ve snuck up on were rodents. However, a quick glance at my cell phone clock shows it’s just now 8:15 AM. It’s still early but too late to call my wife. On occasion I’ve called her before she starts work and told her I’ve all ready gotten a deer. Not today.

Moving ahead again, I see a nice tree that offers good cover, so I decide to stop there for a while and see what happens. I’m pleased with myself for not getting too hasty so far this morning.

As my eyes search ahead, looking for something that doesn’t fit the vertical lines of the trees, my heart jumps. Something catches my attention but then is gone. Off in the distance, I think I just saw the faintest glimpse of something moving. It wasn’t in a tree but seems to be at ground level. It happens too fast to be sure what it is, but my instinct tells me I’ve seen what I’ve been looking for all morning. I strain to catch another glimpse, but now it seems there is nothing visible except trees. Visions of those five deer I saw before sunup are dancing in my head. I tell myself not to budge! At this point I’ve got the advantage. I saw movement first, so it’s only smart to stay put right here until I see more movement… or until I can’t stand it any longer and my curiosity drives me forward.

Seconds pass, but they seem like minutes. Actual minutes pass. Several of them in fact. I stay concealed. My body hugs the tree and the top of my head and eyes are the only things visible as I look intently off into the distance.

My patience is soon rewarded. Two deer have followed a shallow gully and have moved toward me and therefore were not visible for some time. Now they step over a ridge to my left and appear to be headed in my general direction. Good thing I stayed where I was or they certainly would have seen me moving forward.

I don’t take my eyes off them as the slowly amble onward. Perhaps they are following a path unseen from where I stand or the ridge itself but either way, they are angling to my left. If they keep this direction of travel, it will place them in an area with no real obstructions between us, and better yet, they will be broadside to me.

They do. They are. I’m ready.

I select the lead doe.

One shot.

It’s 8:55 AM.

Details on previous story

The previous story I left unfinished so here are some of the details. The experience was unlike anything I'd seen before and quite riveting as I watched it unfold.

A deer had jumped out of the thick cover just after I'd approached the edge of the undergrowth silently and unseen. However, my first couple steps into the waist high grass had given my prey notice that something was in it's backyard and although it didn't know what, it ran a few feet into a field some 70 yards away and then stopped to look back and survey the area. I fired through some brush and perhaps that was a poor decision or maybe my aim was off slightly but to my chagrin, the deer ran wounded out into the field too distant for a shot. The noise alerted an obviously older doe I'd not previously seen and it followed the first .

My wounded doe soon lay down about 150 yards away and while I wished to get close enough for a second shot to finish her off, it just wasn't possible as there was no way to approach unseen. I was sure she still had enough strength to get back up and run. Perhaps, even enough energy to run off the property I was hunting which would make it difficult to track and recover her. Meanwhile, this second deer which had followed was now curiously observing her downed comrade with no apparent intention to leave the area.

This guardian deer soon started looking intently in another direction from where I sat, but at what, I didn't know. That is, until a coyote came trotting in to check out the situation. I found it surprising and completely fascinating that in less than five minutes from this deer laying down from it's wound, a coyote would be aware of the situation and coming to see if this was his lunch. The part where I wished for a video recorder came next when the second deer, obviously disturbed at the coyotes presence did not run but rather put it's head down and chased the coyote away. Not that the coyote went away but as it circled it was kept at bay by the doe as she stayed between the predator and prey. I've never seen anything like it before in all my outdoor experiences.

After about 15 minutes of this the coyote decided things weren't working out or possibly decided to come back later for it's planned meal. It left the deer and came back to the brushy area where I was hanging out. This allowed me to prevent it from carrying out either of these two options with a 12 gauge slug to the front shoulder.


With all that had transpired and my wounded deer still stationary in the field, I thought her strength would be low enough by now that I could move from my cover and she would stay right where she was. Wrong! She totally surprised me and bounded off to a wooded area at least 200 yards in the opposite direction. When I went to the woods to try and track her, I had no trail to follow. My hope was to find some point of entry where there might be blood. As noted in the previous story after searching for an extended period of time I found a single drop of blood that eventually led me to a fresh supply of delicious roasts and supremely tender grilled steaks.

Hunting story # 1

The last morning of this years deer hunt was perhaps the most interesting of any I've experienced over the past 24 years. The deer I shot ran about 1/8 mile through an open field and I completely lost the blood trail among the corn stubble and freshly overturned dirt. I knew she'd entered a wooded area over a ridge and out of sight but didn't know exactly where. After walking the perimeter of forest for about 100 yards, then reversing direction and starting to do it all over again, I found one drop of blood on a leaf. Following this clue into the underbrush, I found a easier to follow trail and soon recovered the deer. This was about a 4 hour process in total. In addition a deer, I bagged the coyote shown below.

This photo shows the drop of blood that caught my eye and eventually led me to my quarry.

No, that's not all the story - not by a long shot. The rest of the story is here.

Whee, it's nice and cold this morning.

On the way to work this morning I saw two rabbits pushing a squirrel trying to get him started!

Actually the camping trip last January was slightly colder than this morning. If I remember correctly all of us winter camping enthusiasts hinted after last years negative double digit temperatures we now had our story to tell... and in the future, we'd be happy to go back to the positive side of 0 degrees for our next cold weather klatch.

Deer Season 2010 - Done

Back home after a day and a half in the woods.
Good weather: 30's both Fri and Sat
Good hunt: Brought home 3 deer for the freezer. Left the coyote.
Few photos: Don't like to take my good cameras in the woods. Don't own a cheap one. I should.
Great story: I'll try and do that soon!!