Triple C's Place

Close up of the leg anchor bolt. Rebar anchor has a welded steel head. Sledge hammer made short work of driving these in flush with the leg bracket. Auger style anchor was a beast to get all the way down level with the ground.
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That Redneck blind should be the cats meow, looks well built. Nice to have strong young sons with equipment:D I think I need a pheasant hunt after seeing your pics. I have hunted wild birds in Kansas and shot raised birds in Missouri and Tennessee. I need a trip to the Dakotas!!!
 
I love tower blinds. So comfortable. I bet there are going to be quite a few deer taken from the redneck.
 
Curious, had you not had the skid steer to lift the blind up and onto the platform what would have been plan B to do so?
 
Real nice looking blind 3C. Looks like you had a good time in SD as well. Looks like its drier than a pop-corn fart down there! Hopefully you guys get some rain.
 
That Redneck blind should be the cats meow, looks well built. Nice to have strong young sons with equipment:D I think I need a pheasant hunt after seeing your pics. I have hunted wild birds in Kansas and shot raised birds in Missouri and Tennessee. I need a trip to the Dakotas!!!
Flyfixer...Some of the most enjoyable wingshooting I've ever done is pheasant. And, South Dakota is some kind of beautiful country. I'd certainly recommend it.

I love tower blinds. So comfortable. I bet there are going to be quite a few deer taken from the redneck.
At 60, my guess is that over the next couple of decades, Lord willing, that blind will get more and more use from me!

Curious, had you not had the skid steer to lift the blind up and onto the platform what would have been plan B to do so?
Great questions CTM1. Instructions called for bolting the blind to the base platform at the beginning of assembling the base. Not sure how you would lift that thing up without a FEL or in our case, the skid steer. Skid steer made it a piece of cake with the boys there. Just slid it off the pallet onto the base after we raised and leveled the base and then bolted it to the base.

Real nice looking blind 3C. Looks like you had a good time in SD as well. Looks like its drier than a pop-corn fart down there! Hopefully you guys get some rain.
Neve seen it this dry for this long. No reasonable chance of rain in the forecast. Just hoping that the implement we used to plant this field buried the seed just deep enough to prevent crows and turkeys from feasting on it. Rain will surely come. Hope to be posting pics within the next month of green surrounding the blind.
 
It's been a while! Let's start with the worse drought I can remember in my lifetime down here. Here's the rainfall chart from Farm Logs for our property. As you can see, we've had hardly any measurable rain since the 1st of August. Did get a shower 3 Sundays ago but only bout 3/10 of an inch. Look at 2016 compared to 10 year average. Pretty much flat lined since August.
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Drought monitor has 2 categories above severe - extreme and exceptional. Our farm is in the exceptional category.
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On a brighter note, here is the 5 day forecast. Looks like a sure thing with lots of rain on the way, right? In the last hour the chances for tonight and tomorrow have dropped from 90% to 70%. Wednesday showing 100%. Praying we good an exceptional soaking.
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Foot plots. Here's a pic of our largest field that was planted around the 19th of September. This is the field that we had extensive logging done around with an acre on the south end clear cut. Had heavy equipment to come in and remove stumps in the clear cut area along with stumps of the linear row we took out on the north side. Also had lots of slash removed and piled for burning. Bottom line, we had to subsoil this field and then disc harrow to level clumps. This field has been encircled around the edges with ladino for past 2 years but had to pretty much turn it all under after subsoiling due to compaction. It looks really bare but actually has germinated with about an inch of growth in the furrow lines. If we get the rain forecasted this could look really good in mid December.
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The following pic is proof that no-till is better than tillage. This is our upper lower plot that retains more moisture but was still dry. We simply terminated all the growth in this plot in early August and then ran the Plotmaster over once while planting. Discs on Plotmaster created shallow furrows which the seed dropped in and had a decent amount of thatch still on top. It's actually up and growing. Just needs a really good rain to take off.
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Update on deer hunting at the Triple C...To date, one doe. That's it! We have lots of deer. More than ever. Seeing plenty of bucks but only 2 that we are after - a nice 9 and solid 8. Everything else has gotten a pass. We will remove approximately 10 does in December, maybe more. had 15 in cabin field at dark last week and see deer on every sit. Time to remove a few.

On a discouraging note for me, this past week I shot every arrow in my quiver at a doe. 2 days prior I shot and missed same doe in the lower lower plot. This is my 3rd year of hunting with a recurve. Started out taking the 2nd deer I shot at 3 years ago at less than 10 yds. Discovering that 20 yds is out of my range. Plus, confidence falls with each miss. Kind of a weird feeling sitting in a stand with no arrows left in quiver and doe still feeding in plot. HA! Only carry 3 arrows in my quiver but still...4 shots and 4 misses at the same doe.

On a positive note, my grandson took his 1st deer with his bow 3 weeks ago. It was just the 2 of us hunting the farm that weekend. First year he's hunting by himself. I bought 2 Ol Man 15 foot ladder stands that are perfect for him and had him set up in white oaks when they were dropping. He was one excited little feller!
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This past Wednesday before Thanksgiving, my 7 yr old grand daughter wanted to sit in the stand with me. 1st time I've taken her to the stand. She witnessed miss on at the doe that has nine lives.
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Building projects over Thanksgiving Holidays...
Friday morning, Brooks showed up with a load of lumber on his trailer along with plans for a wood shed. Wood setting out in the weather rots within a couple of years so he decided we needed a wood shed with covered roof. Positioned it with the back facing north west. Started Friday about lunch and I helped him finish it late in the day on Saturday. Pretty cool! 4 x 12.
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Friday morning I took off to Tractor Supply and picked up a hand crank winch to replace our rope lift n tug skinning deal. We've had one rope to break already and the current one looks like it's ready to break with any decent amount of weight. Took me about an hour to install this winch with steel cable.
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And finally, we always take family pics at Thanksgiving along with our tradition of loading the grandkids up on the trailer behind the tractor and go for a Christmas tree hunt. Here's a pic of Meme and Poppy with the grandkids. I love Thanksgiving and all it stands for. No pressure of the commercialization of Christmas.
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Hoping my next update is pics of one of the bucks we're chasing! I'm prolly taking the rifle with me for the next few sits. HA!
 
Congratulations to that young man with a big old doe! And she looks like a smart one.
Sure would be nice to see those plots green up. After today's soaker, we are set. I wont complain, but man that would have been nice in October. So it goes.
 
Now that was an update worth waiting for. Sure hope you guys get some rain. Forest fire smoke here has been so aggravating. We have had a few showers but just so dry. Great job on grand pup doe. Maybe he could teach… no just kidding. I whiffed on a deer at 15 yds with my recurve myself earlier this year. Aggravating, to nail a target all day long and then choke. But I been doing a lot longer and have no excuse.
A hint on improving your recurve hunts…. buy that fur coat for you to wear that shows at bottom of your forecast you posted. Just sayin, doe would drop dead with laughter.
 
Congratulations to that young man with a big old doe! And she looks like a smart one.
Sure would be nice to see those plots green up. After today's soaker, we are set. I wont complain, but man that would have been nice in October. So it goes.
Thx Fish! She was a huge doe. We are getting steady rain right now and forecast shows all day today and good chance tomorrow!!!

Now that was an update worth waiting for. Sure hope you guys get some rain. Forest fire smoke here has been so aggravating. We have had a few showers but just so dry. Great job on grand pup doe. Maybe he could teach… no just kidding. I whiffed on a deer at 15 yds with my recurve myself earlier this year. Aggravating, to nail a target all day long and then choke. But I been doing a lot longer and have no excuse.
A hint on improving your recurve hunts…. buy that fur coat for you to wear that shows at bottom of your forecast you posted. Just sayin, doe would drop dead with laughter.
Funny you should mention the ad...My wife walks behind me while I'm typing about the forecast and the only part of that pic that was showing was the ad with the lady. She asks me what the heck I'm doing. I say I'm updating our land thread. It was an awkward moment...
As for missing with the recurve, I'm simply not going to be slinging arrows beyond 15 yds from an elevated stand going forward.

Congrats to your grandson. That'll be a memory that last a lifetime! I hope you and your family are doing well. Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
Thx John! All is well with our clan.
 
Place is looking great and good job with the hunting.
I'm going to have to build me one of those firewood sheds. I hate tarping wood to have something dry to burn during winter storms. The tarps always get blown all over the place and it never seems to stay dry anyway.
I've had the same experience with no-till plots and no moisture. When it's dry that layer of thatch seems to be a life saver. Bare dirt works but it sure drys out quick.
Hope you get some rain soon! That farmlogs pic says a lot about your fall.
 
On a discouraging note for me, this past week I shot every arrow in my quiver at a doe. 2 days prior I shot and missed same doe in the lower lower plot. This is my 3rd year of hunting with a recurve. Started out taking the 2nd deer I shot at 3 years ago at less than 10 yds. Discovering that 20 yds is out of my range. Plus, confidence falls with each miss. Kind of a weird feeling sitting in a stand with no arrows left in quiver and doe still feeding in plot. HA! Only carry 3 arrows in my quiver but still...4 shots and 4 misses at the same doe.
HA!

Congrats to Gramps for providing a place the family loves, getting those kids outdoors, loving that girl enough that she wants to accompany you on stand, and putting that grandson in the right place at right time. Good job,.

On the empty quiver, I had the same thing happen a few years back, except with a compound no less. Four or five deer in the small patch, and after each shot they just walk over to the arrow and smell of it! There I sat with deer in field, no arrows. I even got down and retrieved a close arrow and missed with it too, after they returned.
Next day I am back at that plot with my target and cannot miss from the stand. Go figure! Sometimes it is just not meant to happen.

Hope you got lots of rain. I am a long way from my plots but farmlogs says over two inches last night. That should boost some growth, but I am more happy about some moisture to the roots of those small trees.
 
16 weeks without rain is tough....especially in the southern heat. Congrats to the grand pup....but looking at body condition of the doe, 10+ doe harvest would be a wise move. Poor doe condition is one of the things which bothered me after 2011 drought....the were hungry and easy picking that year...and we picked hard! You may not see a better winter for doe harvest...be ruthless! Hate it that you have to endure this.....but glad you are able to see the same advantages of no-till we saw after 2011 drought. Sometimes, Nature is the best teacher when it comes to the soil resource! Keep up with the native hab enhancement and doe thinning and the property will be a much more resilient place in 5 years.....there is quite a bit of green in the background of doe pic....that was nice to see.

We are dryer than normal here...speaking now from a subsoil moisture and stock water standpoint. Which is probably the driest fall since 2009 and 2010. Accustomed to fighting mud this time of year, but I revel in the mild dry weather. Cold is harder to take with age!

We live in challenging times! I will leave you with an old rancher adage advice, "Every once in a while you need a good hard drought to help cut the fat out of an operation!"
 
Glad you are getting some much needed rain right now. As Doug stated we have had a very dry fall but nothing like yours. Lucky to have healthy soil.
Congrats to the grandson. First bow kill is a memory for a lifetime. I hope one day to be able to enjoy teaching my grandkids the outdoors. Always enjoy your updates and love the wooden shed.

God has blessed you!
Todd
 
Wow, that is a big doe for such a small hunter. That's just awesome for him to take a deer with a bow at that age.

Loved the other family pics too TC. I always love those pics when you post them.
 
Congrats on your grandsons first bow kill. Good looking family you have and no better place for them to be than out in the country. Your grand kids are blessed to get to enjoy the outdoors with you and vice versa!
 
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