The wife & I acquired 50 acres of private wooded land in a fairly remote location early in the winter months of this year. 2 sides border state land that goes on for what seems like for ever.
We have prepared a building site & have started building our hunting cabin. 24 x 32 cabin with 3 bunk rooms, kitchen/dining area, small living room type area & an attached sauna room. Wood and or propane heat, propane range/oven, probably the lights too. No electricity, no running water. Thinking about putting a sand point in & a hand pump for water to wash up with.
It's accessible by truck but it's a slow trail a good 3/4 mile off the closest decent gravel road.
The most notable part of this new camp is a new member to our hunting group. My best friends son, 16 years of age. My best friend, also my cousin, lost his life recently in a plane crash. I invited his boy to take part in the building of this new camp & asked if he could come up & hunt with us as well.
He's taken to me, taken to the project & taken to the idea of calling it his hunting camp with the passion & enthusiasm that only a starry eyed young hunter could bring. It's a true blessing and a wonderful thing. The bond between us is strengthening and it is helping me deal with the loss as much or more than it could possibly be helping him. Me & his dad were only about 12 days apart in age & have been best friends since before we could talk. I suppose we are as people would often say "like brothers". Looked alike, talked & thought alike, I suppose that makes it easier for his boy & I to bond so well.
We're trying to keep things pretty rustic, we like the absence of electricity, the hand pumped well idea�. Wood stove� It's going to be quite the place, a foundation for many memories to come. I have 3 kids of my own, 1 girl & 2 boys, all are already or at least show promise of being hunters. My wife likes to hunt, I have brothers� I'm sure my dad will take part. It's the beginning of something good, the birth of what will be a sentimental memory factory.
I'm standing at the beginning looking forward, and I know well enough to absorb it all, soak it up & live in the moments, because they move so fast.
Well, there's the intro, lengthy, but there it is. Any shack/cabin tips and or considerations from those that are past my point & looking back are certainly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave
15 years. 15 years.
How is it even possible that it has been 15 years since this thread started?
It's crazy to sit here and think back on all the things that this thread has seen come and go.
I, myself, have been through a wedding, a birth(she shares Ryan's birthday), and a divorce in the the last 10 years.
Posters, real/virtual camp members, family/friends, some have simply just disappeared, while others we have truly lost.
I say "we", as I don't know how others who have interacted on this thread feel, but I've just always felt like kind of a long-lost Uncle to all the kids that we've watched grow up through this thread/journey.
I mean, some of them even have kids of their own now, and that wasn't even a thought back then, as they were just kids themselves.
Wheezy, RWS, PWM/Preacher, Captain, Runs in Darkness, Falls in Water, Kennedy, Jackson, Cale, Sylvia, White Bear's Ben, Dean's Lauren and the twin boys, Cole, wabo's daughter with all the heart issues, noduck's kids, Bill's grandson, and a bunch of others I can't remember off the top of my head.
Dusty, Grizzly Bill, SSB and many others that just seem to come to mind whenever I open this thread. Which I do quite often and pick any random old page number and read a few pages to reminisce.
I have/had so much more I'd like to say/include but I'm running short on time for now.
I do have a few questions though:
How many boats has tzone owned since the start of this thread?
Is Earl(I seem to remember his name being Earl, or was it Gene, or similar) still enjoying the Road Runner? (I don't have the time to dig around and find it at this moment)
Did Pam's truck from her Dad ever get into the restore rotation? Carlos?
What about Black Betty and Yeller? They still around?
Are we EVER going to see the pics of that fragile 'luminum trailer that was deemed too difficult to talk about SO many years ago, or is Dave still pushing those feelings down deep inside? Seems I remember hints of a ice cream sandwich wrapper being some part of the equation somehow?
Last but not least(for now)............................................
Did Muffy ever get married?
That is quite a write up. I was thinking about Grizzly Bill just this weekend. It's been sometime since he passed. But I was driving by the area I was when his wife told me he'd passed. Man I miss Bill.
15 years is a hellova run. We've had our family grow and change, and grow again. Job changes, house changes, marriages, divorces, college, death, life, hunting, fishing, getting old. Wow what a trip we've been on through this thread.
