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Big Holla's 2017-18 Journal

Time to get going on this. I haven't had time to get back to Ohio like I had hoped by this point. Have a travel trailer there that needs attention and a bunch of trail cameras that need checking. In the meantime we have been swamped with softball and baseball. Been soaking in the HS softball season since it was Jenna's last year, now we are on to travel softball for her. Allen's baseball is really starting to get good now as the team seems to have morphed into a hard working grind it out team.

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In the meantime it was Allen's 13th birthday yesterday. He had a game last night so we didn't do a whole lot and plan to stretch it out over the next couple days. One thing I wanted to get done so I could give it to him was his deer mount from this past season. It got done about 3 weeks early so I had to stash it away til last night. He was absolutely STOKED!

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Thanks everyone!

I was thinking the same thing [emoji23]

Nice deer for the young man!
I wonder how many times that house in right field gets drilled???

I know of 2 times for sure. A boy on our team has hit it twice, luckily it was brick that got hit and not the windows. I want to say the fence is right around 260 there but would have to check. Brand new homes going in right there, sure hope they got tempered glass LOL!
 
It's been a long time since I've updated this. I've been to Ohio a few times this summer, mostly to do some odd jobs for my dad and keep the trails cleared out on the farm. Had to repair a part of his roof that was leaking and I must have done something right there because it hasn't leaked since and they've gotten some monsoons in the meantime. One big project I decided to get going on is clearing, cleaning up and preparing the Cabin on the Northern end of the farm. With my dad having that blood clot over the late winter he has been having a real hard time doing just about anything without getting out of breath. So bad that he can't even do any of his tinkering in the barn like he used to. The heat might be most of it so time will tell as it starts to cool off. Anyways, the cabin has been in it's spot for a long long time. My uncle who owned the farm had placed it there for a meeting place for the hunters when we would come for gun season. He put a large porch on it, even put a tin roof over the porch and added a big table and chairs. Many memories are in that cabin for me alone, let alone my uncle and others that have since passed.

With my dad not being able to do stairs well and getting out of breath we decided he should hold off on hunting out of our elevated shacks. That's where the cabin comes in to play. Unfortunately about 5-6 years ago a tree that stood next to the cabin fell and hit the porch roof, twisting and pulling it away from the cabin as well as shifting the porch away. My dad had started working on it the following year and got the tree all cut up, however we just kind of let things go from there. It had sat that way for several years now, with all of us saying yeah sooner or later we need to fix it back up. Well that time is now.

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Over grown was an understatement but a few hours of cutting and dragging I made some progress.

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Inspecting the floor and all I found that it was still structurally sound for the most part. The only rot was where the porch roof still was attached to the front wall and pulling it out away from the main cabin. Surprisingly the floor was still in great condition with no rot. Just filthy inside.

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I ended up using a come-a-long out the front window and out the back side window to pull the wall back in. Man it took a while getting it to start moving right. Had a thick oak rafter fall in the meantime and hit me right on top of my right shoulder. Man I thought for sure I broke something as the pain shot down my fingers. Just stood there a while with my eyes closed wiggling my fingers then slowly moved my arm. Thank goodness nothing was broke and after a while I was right back to working without thinking about it. Finally I ended the day with getting the wall back in for the most part. I will have to jack the door frame back up some and even the roof a little to get things to line up more but it is definitely stuff that can be done.

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I ended up quitting for the day on it since I would need power tools and wood to get things further along. I had a big oak that fell in the big holla last time down that needed cut up as it was right over the path through the bottom. On my return back around to the cabin I was happy to see the fruit of my labor was rewarded with a good sight as I pulled back alongside the cabin.

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A few more weekends and I think I can get the wall secure and at least the porch and ramp (can't see but it's on the backside of the cabin) back in place and secured. The porch roof I will have to disassemble as the logs it was made with are rotting and I don't have a tractor or any way of putting it back up in position. Maybe some day I will get that done. For now I think my dad, and any others that come to visit him, will be able to hunt in comfort this year. Will make for some good memories meeting him for lunch or just sitting there all day chatting about old times.
 
Thanks guys. I figure I will work on it every weekend I make it down. Little by little we will make it easier to get into. I think he could hunt out of it even with the porch down like it is but I have a cousin who lost his leg a while back that may end up coming to spend time with my dad so I have extra incentive to get it done.