Getting ready.

The 2003 preparation has started. I wasn't happy with the old 'stand' I used last year. So I built a 4' x 6' x 6' high box with hinge-up plexi-glass windows. This week-end the grandson & I are going to trailer it up to the Hill Country. Who says you have to be cold, wet, and miserable to hunt ? Been there, done that. Bill Van Houten (USA Ret)

Thermopylae had it's messenger of defeat, COME AND GET THEM ! The Alamo had none.

. This week-end the grandson & I are going to trailer it up to the

Hill country ? Texas ? ,maybe? if you are in Texas you must have a lease. Where are ya'll at Bill? I have hunted around the Hill country for a few years myself.

Can I ask what you made it out of ? I am thinking of doing the same here and am toss it around on whats the best way to build it.

#So I built a 4' x 6' x 6' high box with hinge-up plexi-glass #windows.

Bill, Nice size, especially since the ones I built are 4' x 4' which is big enough for a chair, a bucket or equipment and a bit of room to arrange things. But, it really is not big enough to move around. Your units should allow for this.

However, I did make our units 7' high so we could stand up and strech a bit without hitting the ceiling. It also allows for the use of a Coleman lantern on those cold damp November mornings.

I've built and used several 4'x4' ones myself. They are just barely big enough for one person. Even being carefull I was constantly bumping the sides. Adding that 2' somehow makes room for a second person with space to move your feet. There's room for the gr.grandkids to watch and learn. Right now there is nobody in our family that is 5' 18' tall. 8>

Bill Van Houten (USA Ret)

Thermopylae had it's messenger of defeat, COME AND GET THEM ! The Alamo had none.

Menard County, Texas. About 30 miles west of Menard. For a while I had a lease in Llano Co. But it got sold and the new owner had his own 'clients'. I like to hunt the border country west of Del Rio too.

The hill country is has really greened up this year. Not nearly so much brown in the landscape. There looks to be a good acorn crop too. So feeders may not be so attractive to anything but turkeys.

On the way we ran through a couple 'chunk floater' thunderstorms. But the 'stand' arrived both sturdy and dry inside. I just need to add a convenient shelf to set the 'mint julips' on. 8> Bill Van Houten (USA Ret)

Thermopylae had it's messenger of defeat, COME AND GET THEM ! The Alamo had none.

#I guess great minds follow the same reasoning. Being 'frugal' I chose the #chip-board sheets myself. They are rigid enough that the only need for framing #is to have a place to fasten the edges of the sheets.

Well, if you are frugal then I know that you will really appreciate what I found.

At the end of my street is a small industrial shop which makes steel door frames for wherever, single and double doors. The framework that they work with comes on pallats and skids of various sizes. I got permission to take any and all pallets and wood they left outside the gate which I use for heating the garage in the winter and for summer campfires.

Every couple of weeks they leave a sheet or two of chip board 4' x 5' so a bit of trimming and I have the equivilant of a 4x8 sheet of 3/8 sheeting. We will be using it to repair some of the larger blinds and it is possible that we might enclose one or two of the elevated blinds.

What do you have going on that you need so many blinds ? Day hunting ? Area ?

Elevated blinds have never been one of my favorite things. Except for the middle Rio Grande area (Langtrie), where there isn't a vegetable taller than shirt pocket high, from one of those there always seems to be foliage in the way. Down on the Rio my blind was four 2'x2'x5' poles with with steel spikes in the bottom and burlap stapled around for walls, soft wire guys, and bridge spikes for 'tent-pegs'. Course, in my younger days, I'd just sit down with my back to a tree. But I was a lot tougher and dumber then. Bagged a lot of deer though. Bill Van Houten (USA Ret)

Thermopylae had it's messenger of defeat, COME AND GET THEM ! The Alamo had none.

#What do you have going on that you need so many blinds ? Day hunting ? #Area ?

My brother and his dear wife were able to close a deal on 160 acres in the northern part of Michigan's lower penninsula in the mid-90s. It is in the area that is known as the 'hunt club area'.

The previous owner was a contractor who built a pretty decent cabin out of a pole barn, wired it, put in a diesel generator, and a well. It was wooded but not heavy timber with some open fields. The other guy had built about 4 ground blinds and 6 elevated blinds.

Being a contractor each type of blind was identical in size, layout, and materials. However, the elevated blinds are starting to show their age and each one has to be rebuilt or abandoned. One ground blind bit-the-dust when my brother tried moving it. Another has suffered terminal damage from a falling tree.

My brother is a self-proclaimed loner and if he says he is hunting at such and such place then everyone else goes somewhere else far away. It is his place.

We are far enough away from Lake Huron and Lake Michigan that we do not get the moderating temperature from them so the early morning hours can be very, very cold while the city of Alpena, only 20 miles away, is 10 to 12 degrees warmer.

#Elevated blinds have never been one of my favorite things.

A novelty for me. I got over it. I can understand hunting from one under certain terrains. But, in the wooded type of area we have it just does not make any sense except for the edges of some of the fields.

Now, the neighbor to the south, he has some terrain that would be just perfect for elevated blinds but he only hunts a couple of acres of his 600 plus and complains that the DNR has killed off all the deer.

we used to hunt about 12 miles west of Menard, but the rancher decided he would split the ranch and sell 40 acre chunks. Good area, some of the biggest deer I have seen. Not to mention the tiger rumor a few years back.

It's a real bummer when that sub-division takes place. Or when the ranch changes hands and the new owner(s) lease to their own 'clients'. The second happened to me a few years ago in Llano Co. That's where there are a *lot* of deer. Deer in the Menard area do seem to run somewhat heavier and with larger racks than in the other Texas areas I've hunted. The rack from a 4x4 I shot in the trans-Pecos (2001) fits completely inside a 4x4 rack from the Menard area. (2002) And a 5x5 from Menard dwarfs both.

Due to my circumstances, (I'm so retired I don't do nuthin', and I don't start that till noon.) I do a lot more deer and turkey watching than I do hunting. So that lease is more of a year round vacation spot for me than just a hunting lease. A couple years ago I drove down to the Trans-Pecos and spent a week by myself. The only problem was that my family were tearing their hair out by the time I got home. Now I take a cell phone so I can check in with them every couple days before they send the sheriffs posse out looking for me.

Bill Van Houten (USA Ret)

Thermopylae had it's messenger of defeat, COME AND GET THEM ! The Alamo had none.