Good-old-days

November 18, 2006 (1:29pm)
36º F, Warm clouds, NNE wind 6 mph.

Good afternoon,

So .... I am using the newer version of WordPerfect for this. Can you tell the difference? Actually, other than a couple of new gadgets - like a suite for editing video recordings from a camcorder (which we don’t have), or a lot of "templates" for mostly businesses or other such things we really don’t have a use for. No kids to save educational money for, or starting to build a "nest-egg" for retirement. Bot are pretty much done with at this stage in our lives. Actually there are a couple of things I do like about the new program. One importantly is the "revel code" window at the bottom of this has a larger font size and different background. I actually can read it more easily.

The season of deer began this morning at sunrise. I did hear a few shots in the immediate area between 6:30 A.M. and 7:30 A.M. but not much since. Not too sure if they were on target or not. It sure has been a bunch quieter than I expected though. Next year the DNR will be opening Kewaunee (with this new program I also have to start a new dictionary, the old words didn’t transfer it seems) County will be opened to rifle hunting instead of the shotgun now used. Not too sure that is a really good idea. While this is a rather small number of folks living in the county, there seem to be too many buildings too close together. Hope there are no folks or buildings with added ventilation in them. Time will tell.

I keep wondering what is going on in camp at various times. There are a lot of really good memories from there. Life pretty much had a pattern to it there, but changed, maybe I should say matured, over the years. As new technology came on the scene, we tried it to see if it would work for us. Often times it did and often times it didn’t.

Our method of hauling supplies to the top of the hog’s back during the first year or two was by a "sled" made from the hood of a 1948 Chevrolet pulled by an Allis tractor. That was a hard time to get things to the cabin. Most of the kit came in on our backs, over a mile, to the cabin. Only the really heavy things went on the "sled" as it only made one or two trips pre season to the top. We still had about ¼ mile to stagger down the hog’s back and to the cabin on the bottoms. Always fun rolling the barrels of beer down too. Tried to control the roll, but never were able to for the entire hill. Then it was a real chore to carry a full barrel from the hill bottom to the cabin. Being slow learners, after a couple of years we switched to ¼ barrels, making the trek much easier.

After the "sled" came the Jigger - a 6-wheeled ATV. Very temperamental, slow, and under powered, but it did get the job done - eventually. To get the Jigger to the cabin, we built the Jigger Trail. One of the side washes on the hill was cleared of blow-down trees and several huge rocks got moved, but it sure beat walking and carrying. About the same time, one of the sons, Rex, bought a Caribou. It was a twin track snowmobile without steering skies in front. Turning was accomplished by braking one track and/or reversing the other. It worked rather well as long as there was snow and it was much faster, but could not get down the Jigger Trail to the cabin. Well, that is not really true, it could get down, just not back up again unless there was about four feet of snow on the ground covering the rocks.

As 4x4's improved, we were able to get them in to the top of the hill, as long as the ground was frozen. Many years the conditions were very questionable, so only went in once and out once - beginning and end of the season. Eventually we had two, one a Blazer and the other a pickup more or less built to do the job. Both had huge tires on them and winches at the front. One year, the weather really turned hot and we decided to bug out of camp early. It was a good thing. We had to use the winches to move the vehicles in the woods. Stretch out the cable, tie to a tree, then drag the vehicle to the tree - only to start the process over again. After about the second pull of each vehicle, the front vehicle’s winch died! Of course it would be the first one! From then on we used a come-along, by hand, every 8-10 feet. The woods were so thick we could not get the rear vehicle around the front one to pull itself and the disabled one. It took us about 8 hours to get both vehicles to the field through the woods, a distance of about an mile, before we again could use the 4x4's as intended, leaving a track of 24" deep wheel ruts behind us. We were a group of very tired puppies for sure. After that experience, we built corduroy road in the worst parts and a bunch of bypasses along the way.

Using the winches gave Frank, the patriarch of the camp, the idea they could be used to lower and raise our kit up and down the hill in a cart. He found a relatively straight portion of the hill and cleared the trees and brush from it. The cable on the truck was only 50' long, or about ¼ the necessary distance. Well a ¼ of the way was better than none! The next year, another son, Leo, put an oversized drum on his winch to hole 100' of cable and borrowed another 150' of cable from the foundry he worked at. The idea was to hook the length of cable to the cart and the end of the truck winch cable. Drive forward for the first 150', the use the winch for the last 100'. The idea was great and almost worked the first year. Problem was the road was not straight! Left to right or up and down. We eventually did get it to work the first year, but with a lot of Rube Goldberg engineering and sweat. After that the road was straightened. The cart also changed from what had been more or less a concrete mixing tub of sheet metal to one made from half of an oil tank salvaged from a gas station somewhere.

The final solution has lasted many years now and I suspect it is still being used. The cart has brought everything into and out of the cabin, from beer to people who could no longer walk up the hog’s back. The last couple of years I was up there, Leo had purchased 6x6 Polaris ATV with a dump box on the back. That is a slick rig and really works well, using the Jigger Trail and going almost anywhere on the bottoms we need to go. Really made dragging a deer out of the woods MUCH easier too. Also tired hunters to the cabin at the end of a drive.

Guess this is enough of reminiscing for today. Guess there still is a lot of me which wishes to be there again. I must admit, it is a lot easier for this old man to crawl up those hills than to walk up a stairway of the same height. Not sure why, but probably has a lot to do with what is between my ears. Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><