This week we had Van and his crew working on the elk room expansion, new kitchen counters installed by KBR, and Jeff and his son doing dirt work. A lot of progress has been made.
The elk room has been closed in.
The new sliding glass door is installed.
It’s going to be nice for taking the dogs out or getting to the porch.
The countertops are in but the plumbing hookups aren’t done yet.
This is Van’s crew - Donnie, Michael and Larry.
Here’s Jeff out in his excavator. He also used a bobcat.
And he had a dump truck assist for some tasks including cleaning the driveway ditches and delivering gravel.
I’ve been trying to eliminate the pooling water in the orchard area. Jeff cut a new swale.
He also cut the hill behind the pond house and put in some anchors.
He used that dirt to build a nice backstop for the new 300 yard shooting range.
And he got the target stand post planted better - it had been leaning in.
There was a lot of culvert work to be done.
While he was doing that, he did a little smoothing of some trails. There’s still lots of “face slappers” that need attention.
Not shown is a new creek crossing to the way back trail loop. The crossing is great but he kind of missed part of the loop back there. I’ll need to work on that when time permits,
This culvert next to the driveway has been a persistent problem. We’ll see how this fix works.
The implement shed had a real soft spot right in front of it. Jeff contoured and spread gravel to improve the drainage. He also filled a little with excess dirt from the driveway ditches.
And the fire pit had been filling up with stumps and ashes. He re-excavated it.
I decided to set up a couple of ground blinds down in the woods. I think they will be especially good for morning hunts.
This one has a view across a creek drainage onto an oak hillside where we did the TSI.
It is mostly north facing.
And this one looks down on an oak hillside.
It is mostly facing south. I should usually have favorable wind on at least one of them. They should be accessible without blowing out a field.
I’ve been meaning to install a rifle rack in the shooting house. I finally got it done.
Some photos from last week with Eric and Tommy.
Here they were heading out to the stand.
Tommy driving after checking the doe trail/bed.
The good news is that the buck is clearly unharmed.
It was a clean miss.
I got out one evening and found this present on my stand platform. Seems to be coon.
Turkeys and young bucks out. Left and right.
The bucks were sparing.
Also lots of does out.
But the young bucks were everywhere.
Had a good frost on Sunday morning.
This appears to be an owl in mid-hunt.
Hawk in flight.
Flying squirrel.
Coyote.
Bobcat is back,
Still too many does.
The fawns seem to be weaned.
Showdown.
Dumbo.
Fox is hard to see.
From the shooting spot looking at the new 300 yard backstop.
Zoomed in a bit.
Zoomed in a lot.
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