Hunting Camp from 2016 Hunting Plan thread

[27hand]

Instead of loading up the hunting plan thread with pictures of where we plan to hunt out of, I decided to post a thread specific to the camp and progress we make in updating it.

It came furnished with 4 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, a kitchen, dining room and bathroom.

Here is a pic I took in 1982 which was the first year both my buddy and I hunted together there ( I started hunting there about 5 years earlier).


I don't have a current pic but an addition was added at some point after that.

First and foremost, we had to stay caffeinated to perform any and all upgrades. Since it was furnished, quite a few items were left including the 2 old style drip coffee makers, a couple Mr. Coffees, a regular aluminum perker, and a couple kettles


Kitchen.


Bathroom. We were used to a 6 gallon water heater in my trailer.


One living room.


Other living room.


Dining area with oil furnace space heater.



Have to go get a bathroom faucet now.

Will continue after some more work.

[Qtrborecrazy]

Pretty cool, looks comfy. I bet there's lots of stories in those walls.

[mmi]

you people must like Coffee with that much how do you keep your rifle steady ???

[Gyoas759]

Looks like a great start. Gotta get some gun racks and taxidermy mounts on the walls though.

[God's Country]

Looks like a real nice camp.

How much land?

[arjohnson]

Nice, just up past the saw mill on 666, I know exactly where it's at and know the area pretty well.

[27hand]

Just spent 5 days at camp.
Had a few projects to look at.
I fabricated a couple angles, predrilled them to mount onto the concrete blocks. I didn't see any support for the tank enclosure and should have thought to extend the block out far enough to catch the framework of the enclosure.
Hind sight, Oh well.
I drilled 4 anchors and ran 1/2" cap screws into the anchors. I also ran 2 lags up and into the framework as well.


Another issue we had was that during water heater drain down, water was infiltrating the water shut off pit. Grey water was doing the same so I figured a break in the pipe. I chopped some concrete with an 8lb sledge and found the problem quickly. The previous owners were not very plumbing oriented so instead of ferncos and / or rigid couplings, they opted to make a few fittings out of thinwall PVC pipe.

To finish it off, they put some old siding shingles over the top. I suppose to prevent dirt from entering the pipe.

After removal.


After repair.
I put a 4X2 fernco on top and a 2" cleanout plug eventully.

After that, my buddy was happy that nothing leaked. I wasn't so sure so told him to keep water flowing for a while, not knowing where the grey water sewer terminated.
As I thought, the line filled and started backing up.
Shovel time.
I lined up 2 points where I knew the pipe was and dug about 50 feet out, hit the pipe and water gurgled up out of the ground. It was another one of the home made fittings.
Dug again near the rain gully figuring they ran it out to contaminate the runoff trench.
4 holes later, I found the end. they ran it within 10 feet of the gully, backfilled it with rocks , covered it with shingles and let it semi filter the grey water. The trouble was tree roots grew 8 feet into the pipe and clogged it solid. Damn.

I suggested not contaminating the ground water or runoff water and redirecting it into the septic.
I know that it will cause the septic not to work as designed and would require additional pumping but we both agreed it was better than polluting the water we fish out of.



Backfilled everything. Easy part.

Installing a 3 way switch was next. I crawled into the attic, found the power feed and switch wires. I noticed all the ground wires were cut off, probably to help fit the 6 14/2's into the 3 1/2" box. Ha.




I didn't have any electrical testers or tools so drilled the plates, ran some 14 / 2 to use as pull wires and opened up the walls where the new switch boxes would be.

R&R was next on the list.
I made the best of it.

Another nice productive trip.
We had a chicken / zucchini in olive oil over pasta.
I made a crock pot roast with potatoes and carrots the next day, a porkloin with sauerkraut and kielbasa another day and roasted red peppers on hamburgers another. Still maintained my girlish figure at 184 lbs when I got home. Think Ill shoot for 180.

[27hand]

I researched the cure time for the concrete mix and the mortar. We decided to use the 28 days normally associated with 90% strength.
It's been a week for the concrete. He's not going up this weekend so will use no oil. The 6" of oil in a 275 horizontal tank equates to about 52 gallons of oil. Hopefully he doesn't have to carry a couple more 5 gal cans till we can get a truck in there to fill it in a few weeks.
Closest kerosene supplier is Titusville or Warren, each about a 1 hr round trip.

The dead truck and subsequent State Police follow up to the deer collision went south for me.

#1. The trucks inspection ran out in Oct 16------- Citation Got a warning ticket for this. Only bonus to be had
#2. The registration was also out of date.---------Citation This one cost me $179. What a dumbass I was.
#3. I had only outdated insurance info with me.----Citation The summons for this totalled $404. Waived because I did have it but
had to print it out and Fax it to the Magistrate.

I didn't use this beater truck very much but brain farted on the inspection and Reg.
I had the last 2 inspection reports with the truck but screwed up on having it when I needed it.

I finally downloaded the State Farm App which lets you pull up your Insurance info and is acceptable as a sub to the actual paper version.

Well I'm torn now on whether or not to get a newer 4 WD mini truck ( 2010 through 2104) or an older Ranger / S10 / Tacoma in the $5K through 15K range.
Wife doesn't think we need 3 vehicles but our kiddo has hers for the duration of his car repair so now we are sharing my Forester.

[GrumpyBear]

The concrete work looks great, sorry about the deer and the dead truck.

Been lucky a couple of times with the registration & inspection thing and caught it myself before being caught by the law.

[27hand]

We are up at hunting camp now.
I secured the 6 pieces of 2" styrofoam to the 2 plywood bases.
I had to do 3 pieces to each base due to limited space above the housing and under the house.

2019-12-01_02-08-29 by poofy27, on Flickr

I bought a thermometer with a remote sensor to check the temperature within the pit.

The heat trace around the inside keeps the temp at about 45 degrees. Perfect.
2019-12-01_02-08-43 by poofy27, on Flickr

The armaflex insulation around the lid keep any possible air infiltration at a minimum.
2019-12-01_02-08-57 by poofy27, on Flickr

The 17 foot high deer pole was finally used as my buddy scored a 7 point about 930 yesterday.

2019-11-30_03-50-41 by poofy27, on Flickr

I made the guys an apple pie too.
2019-12-01_02-09-08 by poofy27, on Flickr


Camp is good.