by JarHeadTed
April 02, 2012 10:28
Check out the slideshow for the story of progress on the cabin at the PSP.
Enjoy.
by JarHeadTed
February 29, 2012 09:12
Shelter, water, food, and clothing are commonly said to be the 4 requirements for life. The retreat is well on it's way to providing just that. This week we drilled a water well and construction on the cabin is now officially underway. The PSP will be a wonderful weekend getaway but if anything drastic ever happened, we would be able to live there if we had to for a period of time. All of this, of course makes it so much more comfortable on the weekends when we are there.
See the pictures below to check the progress:
One wall up (at least the frame).
Another angle.
Water drilling equipment.
In progress.
And we have water. Not a ton, but it stabilized at about 4 gallons a minute.
by JarHeadTed
February 09, 2012 11:03
This week marks a major milestone in the development of the PSP. We have several loads of lumber at the cabin site, all of it milled from out trees on the land. This week construction on the cabin will start. We hope to have a functional, but not finished cabin by Memorial Day weekend. I'll post pictures of the construction as it progresses, hopefully weekly but more likely every other week.
On the garden front, I've started a few seeds. I started the cucumbers, eggplant and 3 varieties of tomato for this year. Hopefully I'll have better luck with them this year than last. I'm still hoping to build a greenhouse but just haven't had the time yet. Between hunting, other PSP projects and chores around the house, the garden type projects have taken a back seat lately. I do have the raised beds extended this year but I still need to haul in more dirt and mix in my compost.
by JarHeadTed
January 23, 2012 09:49
SLIDESHOW in this post.
This weekend I decided to start clearing off a small patch of the forest floor for a food plot. I hiked up the hill with a rake, some drinking water, a machete, and a saw. When I got to my target area I picked out where I thought the borders should be. I took into consideration how much sunlight would make it through the trees so the grasses and other greens could grow as well as how rocky the soil was. I started to rake.
After 2 minutes of raking the forest floor, it was obvious this was either a bad idea or it would take forever and a day to complete. Since I plan to have seeds on the ground in late March, I don't have that long. So, I dig deep into my brain to sections I have not accessed since I was a forestry student at Colorado State University and think..."why not clear the organic material with a comtrolled burn." I look up at the tops of the trees and see no wind, this is good. I take the rake and scratch an 18 (or so) inch fireline down to mineral soil around my intended perimeter. I check the wind one more time and pull out a cigarette lighter from my pocket and light a leaf close to the north fireline. I choose the north border because if any wind did pick up, I expected it from the south. If the "fuel" on the north side of a fire was already burnt, then any potential wind would push the fire onto an area that was already burnt, therefore limiting any chance of the fire becoming uncontrolable.
The fire spread slowly throughout the entire area over the next 2 hours. It created a lot of smoke but was never in any danger of jumping the fireline and easily fit my definition of a low intensity fire. Just what I wanted. I couldn't have pulled it off better had I planned this control burn for months before hand. I decide to add another section to my food plot to make it bigger and scratch out another 900 or so square feet of forest floor and light it.
See the slideshow below for pictures as the fire progressed:
Once the fire was out, I had approximately 2800 square feet of forest floor with about 80% of the organic material removed. Next step is to pick up all of the sticks. Remove all trees and seedlings less than 8 inches DBH, and work the soil to prep it for the seeds in March. I have tree stand locations pread around this food plot and a well used deer trail makes up the west border so I know the deer will find it...if they haven't already. Another less used game trail goes out the north east corner. This food plot is actually sitting right on a game trail junction of sorts.
by JarHeadTed
January 10, 2012 13:35
SLIDESHOW in this post
My dad and I have been busy. Hunting season wasn't successful if you measure success by body counts. I had numerous deer within range of both my bow and rifle. I had 4 clear shots. I passed on all but one. I believe that my 2 mistakes were that 1.) I didn't spend enough time in the stand and 2.) I failed to take the shots that were presented to me, instead hoping for a better shot.
But if you count success in knowledge and enjoyment
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by JarHeadTed
October 01, 2011 13:48
Here are a few pictures I took after the loggers got to work clearing the storm damaged trees from the PSP (Pint Sized Ponderosa). We plan to have these trees returned to us as lumber for a cabin. We have no timeline on when this cabin will be started or finished.
by JarHeadTed
June 01, 2011 13:52
Here's the new place. Ted's Place if you will, even though it is actually my dad's land. It will be used as a family retreat for hunting and relaxing.