Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Birth of a deer camp

Looks like you guys had a great time. I'd probably have died laughing at the ATV riding, and then missed out on the ribs.

Dave, what do you use for a rub on those ribs? - they look excellent.

Hi Wayne, yes we drove a sand point down. It plugged the fine screen with light silty sand, couldn't draw any water. So we pulled it up and I dug a hole with the tractor, then got down in the hole with a shovel and dug it deeper, then we buried a new plastic garbage can filled with rock to keep it from collapsing. The can was drilled full of 1/4" holes. The idea was to create a rock cavity as a water reservoir and draw from that with the sand point. It does work but the pitcher pump seal dries out really fast being out in the weather with no roof over it. Also we run out of water during dryer periods because it's not deep enough. I really need to redo that whole well thing a 3rd time and hopefully get it right this time. It's hard to dig anything very deep because it's all sand and the water starts coming in and the sides cave in faster than you can dig. I need to rig up a drill that can put a casing down around 16'. any deeper than that I believe you need a little better pump than the little pitcher unit.

But if we need some wash water, we can prime that pitcher pump and draw up some fairly clear water for cleaning up around the cabin.

For the ribs, it's never really the same twice. We use what ever we have on hand, usually end up making something with the best rib friendly seasonings we have on hand. I try really hard to stay away from "seasoning salts" because they really are like 99% salt and it's way too easy to get the pork too salty. I've used a mix of things like old bay seasoning with some additional paprika, maybe a little dry mustard and a bit of garlic and black pepper.

But this batch was easy as we had a bottle of "famous dave's rib rub". So we just shook a light coating of that on both sides and started slow cooking/smoking. I slowly ramped up through the smoking temps into around 220 F and held there. These ribs got about 4 hours that way bone side down before I flipped them and placed them in foil with an apple cider bath in each pack. They simmered in the apple cider for 2 hours before I opened the foil packs, poke a hole in each pack so the cider drains down into the coals. Then I brushed a coat of sweet baby rays bbq sauce on the back sides, then carefully flipped each rack leaving them in there foil packs, then brushed on a coat of sauce on the meat side. I let them go like that for another 45 minutes to an hour to glaze the sauce a bit.

Welcome Kenna.

We had a storm roll through that took a top limb off a dead tamarack out by the deer pole. This bat was found out by that limb on the ground, stunned but alive. (seemingly unhappy I might add)



We set him out on a stump and he was gone after a while so we're assuming he made it.

Pam got these firey sky pictures after the storm rolled through.

One of our projects over the weekend was to improve our fire pit seating.

We�ve had some large trees go down north of the cabin in recent years, I had cut this log out of a big jackpine that went down over one of our trails a couple of years ago. I have been meaning to skid it up to the cabin and split it in 2 halves for benches. We decided it was time to get that done this weekend.

Surfacing a side of the log to make it easier to rip.




This was kind of a lengthy and unskilled process. Lol.





�pine noodles�







Finally�

[img]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e364/northerndave/album%202/bench7_zpsb6ed1e7d.jpg[/img]

Meanwhile, Missy is taking apart the old �benches�

[img]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e364/northerndave/album%202/bench8_zps8e141e27.jpg[/img]

The boys do the heavy lifting.

[img]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e364/northerndave/album%202/bench9_zps4958aaaa.jpg[/img]

And there we have it, 2 new fire ring benches.

[img]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e364/northerndave/album%202/bench11_zpsa3c4bc81.jpg[/img]

This guy was a good helper as always, but he's thinking "can we go riding now?"



yeeeee-ha!!

Nice benches Dave. The last step is butt sanding to make them smooth! That gives me the itch to make some for our fire pit.

A great weekend it was. A little bit of everything, including...my first hunt of the year. Got out to do a bit of goose hunting and although it wasnt too productive, we got 1. Just to be out was fantastic with temps in the 50s. Oh man, the air smelled so cool and fresh! I love fall!

I trued the flat surfaces up a bit after we got the log open in 2 halves. But it's still a chainsaw cut.

A friend of mine is going to loan us his band saw sawmill so we can make some posts and lumber out at camp. Maybe then we'll throw these logs up on the rack and cut them flat and straight.

I haven't been seeing any geese migrating south yet.

ummm....where did you go grouse hunting? You're a few weeks early on that.

goose, geese.

Ooops...sorry BM!

If you're a goose whacker, boy do I have a place for you to try. How do you feel about shooting them off sidewalks?

Great pictures Pam.

We need to start a pool on who is going to be the first one to get a sliver in the butt.

Those ribs look Chickenbuckalicious!

Fallsinwater, pleased to make your acquaintance. If memory serves, your handle comes from a Boundry Waters adventure? Good stuff up there at Chickenbuck.

You fellers placed that bench awfully close to Preacher's peein' rock. Now that he's older, I think he's got range on you guys.

Good call, we didn't think about the rock.

That's really funny !!

Looks like a great weekend was had, & work done to boot.

Yep, you guys are doing it right.

Keep up the good work/parenting.

Bow season opened here Sunday, but still way to hot to hunt. Rode my wheeler into our double stand on Friday night to check the trail cam. Got off the bike, walked to the tree where the cam is located, took it off the tree & was minding my own business, checking out the photos, when a spike buck & small doe walked outta the bush & started using my salt lick.

There I am, standing beside a tree, trail cam in hand, less than 25 yards from these 2 young deer. What to do. I stand there, fire the camera back up & hand hold it pointing at the 2 deer.

5 minutes takes forever, when your sprung like that with no where to go & nothing to do but stand still. Eventually, they sensed me, or that something was not right & casually made their way back the way they came in.

Pretty damn cool experience !

Paul.

Preacher is more than likely at maximum range. I could shoot a stream with the best of them at his age.

The problem with getting with getting older is going from an overbore to an underbore. Volume increases but velocity and distance decreases.

I'm feeling bad about missing out on more of the Chickenbuck activities (especially ribs) but I did get my new pole shed done on Sunday so that is a relief.

A couple of trail cams went up on Monday as well.

Plenty of weekends this fall.
Then comes...
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ICE FISHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, it was goose huntin' not grouse. And it wasnt as much about the harvesting as just getting out. Man, did it feel gooooooood!

The geese are actually down here locally. and part of that is our past few seasons as we have done well locally. They wanted to reduce the population, so we did!

Dave, How big of a tree is necessary do ya think for the bench? I might have some that are around a foot in diameter, but that seems kinda small...?

On the big end of this one I barely got through with a 20" bar. I would think 16" would be ok.

Just got news that we can start moving into our new home tonight if we like.