Developments-- Food Plots and Jagede Hutte II

We got to deer camp Friday night and did not even bother to open the doors. Instead, we immediately rolled out into the field to check on the food plots. I'd planted over Memorial Day weekend. In the interim, the farm has been soaked repeatedly. The results were fantastic! In two weeks, both the sunflower/milo/clover field and the wheat/clover field are germinated and growing. The other surprise we had was that as we drove past the one field, a dozen mourning dove flew out. In the other a dozen turkeys, all gobblers, ran off. There were serious deer tracks in both fields.

I've got a bunch of pictures from the farm. We had to come home early. Both KYHillChick and Angus seem to have some kind of flu-type thing. We figured with the Swine flu going around that civilization was a better bet.

While those two were making up their minds whether they were sick or not, Mooseboy and I got to work on Jagede Hutte II. This project has a long history. Back in 2001, I'd intended on building a raised shooting house that would serve as a clubhouse for the kids and an all-weather hunting deer shack. The renovation of the house and out buildings took precedence. However, I kept collecting scraps. In 2003, I took a huge packing crate and made Jagende Hutte I. It was everything I was looking for, except it was a ground blind.

One thing after another got in the way. Probably the biggest thing was that we never really needed a raised shooting house. Then 2008 came along. In 2007 we got our first two food plots planted. The deer and turkey ate them up. Then 2008 came around, and after the plots were mowed for the first time the clover came up and the game went nuts. The acorn crop was lousy this past deer season. Hurricane Ike came through in September and blew all the acorns off the trees early. As a result, the deer and turkey were out in the clover fields in a big way in November, and a new stand that we'd put up between the two plots had terrific luck. I thought then about resurrecting the idea of a raised shooting house.

Moose is now thinking of going into construction after he graduates high school. It's been a while since he and I had serious time with the hammer and saw, and I wanted to show him the old family way of making due with what's available. We were a construction family way back, and part of our success was our penurious way of treating construction scrap. Any dimensional lumber 2 foot and longer was collected, sorted and put out for the carpenters the next day. I carried on the tradition in a way-- 10 years as an IT manager in a wire foundry, and I always tried to hit the receiving dock at quitting time and see what scrap wood had been left. My kids have two sets of bunk beds that's 100% found material. Jagende Hutte I was all scrap. Jagende Hutte II is probably going to be 80% scrap-- leftovers from the foundry, the renovation of the house and stuff I've picked up over the years thrown out in the garbage. It never ceases to amaze me that people throw out whole sheets of plywood.

Jagende Hutte II will sit on fenceposts for legs-- probably about 7 feet off the ground. The floor is constructed of 2 X 8 with 2X6 joists and plywood over the top. The whole floor went together without a single bit of sawing-- everything just fell together to make a 96X56 shelter with a 2' exterior porch. The floor joists are 16" on center. The 2X4 wall studs are 24" on center. I'll have a salt box roof, covered in galvanized metal. The walls will stand 60" high with room to stand erect with your head up in the rafters.

You're going to say that's a bit overkill for a simple deer stand. Yes, but it was what was left, it was all we had, and I wasn't going to spend the summer ripping 2X6 into 2X3. I've borrowed a trailer to roll it to the final location. More on this later.

Before I packed the two sickies up for the trip back to town, I rolled out and took some more pics of the food plots. In one, you can see the doves feasting on the un-germinated seed.