Stand(s) Up!!!!

Thankfully the tractor debacle is over!

So we set out to put up our buddy ladder stand.  I got it last year to allow two of us to be in the same stand. It is a great way to hunt with my buddies!

At our food plot there is a double tree, that is two big trees growing from one base.   They run nearly straight and are only a couple feet apart.   Last year I put my climber in one and screwed a hook in the other to hold my gear; that's how close they are.   So, we decide to place the ladder stand in the second tree that way all three of us can be in the same"tree".   I like this so I can be with both of my girls and feel safe and with big huntin' buddy doing an awesome senior project this year (hunting!) we will hopefully be able to get some video footage of her hunting with this stand set up.

Now setting a ladder stand can be tricky!   We had 3 men setting one last year, on the edge of a clear field and we had all sorts of issues getting it up there.   So with me and huntin' buddies and a not so clear approach....I was preparing for disaster.   We decided to tie a rope to the topmost part of the stand and then throw the rope over the gear hook already in the tree and have little huntin' buddy stand back in the woods to, what I thought would happen, keep tension on the stand so it wouldn't fall on me and big buddy.

Well we started out good but got hung on some trees so we hollar to little buddy 'can you give it a tug to help clear these trees?'   I really can't describe what happened next...she tugged the rope and BAM!    The ladder stand was up against the tree in perfect position!   And little buddy acted like it was nothing!   It was the easiest ladder stand set up ever!   I used the climber to go up the other tree and secure the straps and VIOLA!(that's French for wa-la) we're done!

Now fast forward a couple days Labor day morning and... well let me put that in a separate post!

Labor day afternoon we head back up to the food plot to set up a ground blind on the other side of the field opposite the tree stand.  I was able to get some free, painted green, lattice so we cut it up, drove some stakes in the ground and built a decent blind to hide in.  We attached some sticks to the lattice and transplanted so tall grasses in front and left it for the deer to get used to.   Pretty much uneventful unless you count the all of the fire-ant bites we suffered and the tick I found while in the shower!!!!!!

Good news is as we showed my brother the other stands we found a nice big, active, buck scrape on the ground and several trees with fresh antler rubs on them as well as tracks all around and trough our food plot!

This has the makings of being one great deer season!