Every summer at deer camp we arrange for the gang to get together for a couple of days of trail-clearing, camp chores and treestand placement. This year, the plan was to put up a couple of new stands so we decided to move the dates sometime in March instead of the sweltering heat of August. Well, mother nature pulled a fast one on us and on the day of work last week we ended up reaching a high of 21C!
We divided up the work so as not to overburden any individual members. The plan was to pre-construct a couple of covered tower blinds. My job was to build the floors, ceilings and supports at home and transport them to camp. Another member built all the walls at his place, one guy supplied the Argo and the chainsaws, the rest of the guys the food and "beverages"...Every one pitched-in to clear trails to the spots as well as raising and securing the stands.
I apologize for the crappy pics, my camera is definitely on it's dying legs and I only discovered the problem when I got home and loaded the pics. We loaded all the tools and parts of the blind in a trailer and hauled them out using the Argo. First thing in the morning it was drizzling a wee bit. Notice the funky baby blue colour we painted the walls with...leftover paint, we'll probably spray paint the outside before November anyway.
We hauled the load all the way to the tree we chose for the spot and took about 20 minutes to clear out all the tangles and deadfalls around it. One on the guys brought alond a Dewalt radio/charger and tuned it to the first station with good reception...sorry...
http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a95/Lakon/Forum_Videos/?action=view¤t=DSCN9592.mp4
The task of raising the floor was made easier through the use of the Argo winch and a homemade L-bracket welded for the task at hand. This was the first stand of the day we raised and mistakenly tied the front end of the platform to the winch. This resulted in the back end tilting and rubbing against the tree. On the second stand we raised we tied the rope to the rear of the platform, the raising took a fraction of the time and needed no intervention from us.
http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a95/Lakon/Forum_Videos/?action=view¤t=DSCN9593.mp4
Here's a pic from the roof-raising of the field blind:
And here are the crappy pics, first from the swampview blind:
And next from the field blind:
All in all we had a fantastic time, in great weather and accomplished a heck of a lot of work. All that's left now is another weekend in the late spring to construct permanent ladders, double-up the vertical supports with cedar posts and paint the outside walls a final green of grey colour.
We divided up the work so as not to overburden any individual members. The plan was to pre-construct a couple of covered tower blinds. My job was to build the floors, ceilings and supports at home and transport them to camp. Another member built all the walls at his place, one guy supplied the Argo and the chainsaws, the rest of the guys the food and "beverages"...Every one pitched-in to clear trails to the spots as well as raising and securing the stands.
I apologize for the crappy pics, my camera is definitely on it's dying legs and I only discovered the problem when I got home and loaded the pics. We loaded all the tools and parts of the blind in a trailer and hauled them out using the Argo. First thing in the morning it was drizzling a wee bit. Notice the funky baby blue colour we painted the walls with...leftover paint, we'll probably spray paint the outside before November anyway.
We hauled the load all the way to the tree we chose for the spot and took about 20 minutes to clear out all the tangles and deadfalls around it. One on the guys brought alond a Dewalt radio/charger and tuned it to the first station with good reception...sorry...
http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a95/Lakon/Forum_Videos/?action=view¤t=DSCN9592.mp4
The task of raising the floor was made easier through the use of the Argo winch and a homemade L-bracket welded for the task at hand. This was the first stand of the day we raised and mistakenly tied the front end of the platform to the winch. This resulted in the back end tilting and rubbing against the tree. On the second stand we raised we tied the rope to the rear of the platform, the raising took a fraction of the time and needed no intervention from us.
http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a95/Lakon/Forum_Videos/?action=view¤t=DSCN9593.mp4
Here's a pic from the roof-raising of the field blind:
And here are the crappy pics, first from the swampview blind:
And next from the field blind:
All in all we had a fantastic time, in great weather and accomplished a heck of a lot of work. All that's left now is another weekend in the late spring to construct permanent ladders, double-up the vertical supports with cedar posts and paint the outside walls a final green of grey colour.
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