Blackwater
Twelve Pointer
Went up to Davie Cty. Saturday to help my son put up three stands and cut shooting lanes. Started with an 18' double stand and wound up looking like Laurel and Hardy a good bit of the time. I assumed my son had sufficient tools, forgetting that he's about as mechanically adept as a chimp. He's a fantastic artist and business man, but he ain't no wrench! He had a 12" crescent, a cheap Taiwanese visegrip and a 3/8 ratchet set with poorly made Tiawanese metric sockets, and that's what we had to tighten around 36-40 bolts. The instructions were on a separate sheet telling what length bolts to use at which location so it was: read the first step, measure the bolts, refer to the Illustrated parts breakdown, forgot what the step said so read it again. look at the IPB again to see what the part looked like, look at the IPB to see where this or that part went, assemble that step then move on to the next step, put it together, neighbor comes by and says the foot platform doesn't look right and might be backwards so take it apart and try his way only to find that it was right all along so he leaves to get another beer and doesn't bring us one. Finally got it assembled to our satisfaction and began cutting branches off a winged elm and small hickory, cut down a 20 foot pine, dogwood branches and stood the stand up to the pine target tree only to find that one 5" branch is about 2" inches too high and another comes out from the trunk and passes through the spot where the right seat person's head would need to be so we take off one 4' section of ladder and we're looking golden, considering the probability that my DIL wouldn't be too keen sitting that high off the ground.
My son goes up to tie the stand to the tree but is leaning too far out from the ladder so the stand pulls away from the tree and I learn something else about my son; he isn't too keen on heights himself so Pap goes up and starts the tiedown routine. 5 ratchet straps, two webbing straps, a piece of rope and that things stable enough to dance the shag on. So much for the other two stands and cutting out shooting lanes, it was nearly supper time and I had to hit the road home.
Maybe this Saturday, but I'm gonna take that boy a trunk full of tools!
My son goes up to tie the stand to the tree but is leaning too far out from the ladder so the stand pulls away from the tree and I learn something else about my son; he isn't too keen on heights himself so Pap goes up and starts the tiedown routine. 5 ratchet straps, two webbing straps, a piece of rope and that things stable enough to dance the shag on. So much for the other two stands and cutting out shooting lanes, it was nearly supper time and I had to hit the road home.
Maybe this Saturday, but I'm gonna take that boy a trunk full of tools!
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