Florida Connections.

The guys had a fantastic pheasant hunt last week. they wanted a cold weather hunt, and they got one.

Most of the guys that came were from Florida, They had never been hunting with a shotgun, and had never seen snow. Temps were about 5 above zero, and about 10 inches of fresh snow.

They had a lot of gun problems, their automatics and pumps did not work well, but even then, they must have each fired about 3 boxes of shells. They figure that they must have seen about 1000 pheasants the first day.

One of the guys was a commerical and charter fisherman from Clearwater Florida, his web site is (T-Kat.com). Tom brought a bushel of fresh crab legs, we stood around the fire ring outside the house, cracking and dipping crab in hot butter, when it was about zero outside. If you set your beer down for more that just a few seconds, it started to freeze. Did you know that commercial crab fisherman catch the crabs, just cut off the claws, and throw the crab back, and it grows a new set of claws. I brought about a dozen back for Terri, she really liked them. Tom is available for a charter almost any time, depending on the season, check out his website. Phil, how far is Clearwater from you?

Looking forward to seeing some of you in January.

Gary

Food plots

Phil and I talked about financing some food plots for next year. He talked to several of you and it sounded like a good idea so I talked to Dad some and he has talked to the Pioneer seed guy about options.

There is a corn variety that is shorter (they call it maize?) that is roundup ready. He asked about grain sorgum and they don't have any that is roundup ready.

We're looking at roundup ready so that it will require less tillage throughout the year. Some weeds are ok but the intended food needs to not be choked out.

Anyone want to do a little research on other food options? Or just make some suggestions?

Deer stand plans

Here are the basics of the plans that dad and I put together while we were in SD for the hunt.

The basic dimensions are 4x6. Small enough that you can see in all directions without moving around to much but large enough to be able to swing your rifle around.

The entry will be through a trap door in the floor that you can close and then stand on (makes it so you don't have to deal with a full size door on the end) Hinges will be against end wall? and a few inches from the wall so the door will stand on it's own. How do we want the ladder to flow to make entry easiest?

Side windows dad already has and I believe they are 54" wide and about 14" high. We'll mount them about 36" high (so that you can rest on the sill) The windows will hinge inwards and up so that you can hook them out of the way to shoot and be able to clean them from the inside.

End windows are small sliding windows should give about a 12x12 opening to shoot through.

Sides and roof are tin, floor is made of either plywood or 1"x lumber (which we have some of already)

I wanted to get some feedback on these if anyone has ideas. Also, if someone has free time and wants to they could create a better set of plans

Pics from the hunt

Here are some pictures that Phil took from the hunt.

On the road

No, I'm not actually posting this from my phone or anything. I did however just talk to Pat and he's on the way north. My stuff is all loaded and I'm outta here as soon as class is over today. As far as I know, Phil and Ryan will be up tomorrow. Good luck to all....

Gary on radios

Cabella's has a set of 4 Cobra LI 6000-2 WX VP for $159.95 listed on their web page

I checked at Walmart, they don't have that model, but they have a LI 7500-2WX EVP (set of 2) for $69.95 ($140 for 4) It has all kinds of features, including 2200 monitoring combinations of frequency ( I think that was what the package said. It has a range of 25 miles, so it should at
least reach across the slough well.

Unless I hear different, I will probably purchase 2 sets (4 radios) from Walmart. That should be a
deductible tax item for the farm.

Food.

I am glad no one is getting too excited yet, I have only been on the phone with my brothers about 90 minutes a day this week.

Anyway, I thought it was time to open a thread about eating. I think the entire gang will only be there Friday and Saturday nights, so two dinners would be good. Lunches, Breakfasts, Braunschwager, who wants to bring what?

Also, for those who are getting into the butchering side I highly recommend this site:
http://www.best-venison.com/visual.html

Two-fer

I love this pic... I call it "Two-fer".

Latest from the farm

Gary says, "Hello again, my pheasant hunters had a fantastic week, they went home with full limits and not nearly as many shells as what they came with. If they don't shoot better on the streets of Peoria(they were mostly cops), the criminals should be safe. They did get their limits the last day in 28 minutes, but only after having to load their guns a couple of times.

The corn should be all picked in our area by next weekend, that has really made the deer more visible, if the rut gets going strong, it should be a great hunt. We have seen a nice 7 point down in my slough, does anyone have a buck tag?"

Mobile refrigeration...

This is in response to SB's comments under the "crystal ball" post.

I like the idea. Maybe in at a future date. I think right now the plan is to butcher as they come in. Time is a major factor for Pat and I this November.

I bet PP could build us a box like the one in this picture on top of a trailer bed. Like SB said, all you need is some thick ass foam (not ass-foam), some FRP, (industrial kitchen/bathroom paneling) and a condenser/fan. I like the ones in the picture 'cause they're tall enough to stand in. You could hang meat in the back, and have side-door access for butchering in the front. In fact, I'd put fold-down tables on the front and side walls, so you could have more table room as you emptied it. Great idea for early hunts.

I actually like the exact opposite of this idea for January. The problem there is not cooling the meat, but keeping it from freezing. We could easily take either SB's or OGH's little trailers and put a milk-house heater or a kerosene heater in it.