Outdoor Practice has hit a snag

[Doc]

Well, the flood last week kind of put my archery range out of business for a while. It's going to take a lot of digging, re-leveling and hernia building grunting to get that critter back in order. That thing is a whole lot heavier than it looks. The ravine creek jumped the bank and sent all thaty water down across the butt area and out into our driveway and lawn. I've been working everyday cleaning up the mess, and now we have another week of continuous rain coming. forget the garden this year too. There's no way I'm going to be able to get the tiller out there in time for planting. Also I still have big areas of the lawn that have standing water. Is this all part of "global warming" or "global cooling"? ...... lol.

[sweet old bill]

take it easy and no overwork with the heavy lifting. Get some young guys to give you a hand and or those that have equipt to do the task...I have never in my life seen so much rain day after day. I live on the side of the mountain and the water just flows past...the creek in back is still oppen and flowing for those that would like to try white water rafting.

[fasteddie]

Yeah , don't overwork . I have been dismanteling a rear deck and my shoulders ache . The deck is 12' X 34' and is pressure treated . I used a 22# pry bar to pop the boards loose and then pulled the nails out . I still have to tear the framing apart but gave it a rest . I couldn't sleep one night as the shoulders hurt . I keep forgetting that I will be 70 in September .

My next project will be tearing out a hedge row of Tall Hedge but that can wait .

I had a plastic resin 8' X 6' tool shed on the deck but got 2 of my sons and a friend to help me lift it off and move it to another frame . At least I had some help there .

I mowed last night and it's still wet out back . The ground is just saturated . It will dry up eventually and then we will be crying for rain ...... My sump pump has gotten a workout this spring .

Oh wait , this is a Hunting Site ............. :

[sweet old bill]

I will hit that 70 mark on Nov 5.....

at times we all think we still are that thin, long hair, gill chasing young fart....not the bald eagle with hurting back and several other places and did I say I also have been married on May 15 of this year for 46 years to a great women who put up with all my man toys, hunting and fishing....had to say that as she came in as I was typing...

[fasteddie]

Getting old sucks but , it sure beats the alternative !

[Doc]

So far I haven't done anything other than look at it in disgust. All my time has been taken up moving mud-packed leaves and gravel off the lawn. The entire face of the hill was just a wall of water which dumped everything in my grass. Quite a mess to clean up but I finally have gotten the last of tons of mud, leaves, sticks, stones, logs, gravel removed. I also have a picnic area at the other side of the house that was in the same condition. This is where we are having a family reunion this July, so that had to have priority over the archery butt too.

I'm getting close to tackling the archery project now. I'm not looking forward to it but I have to get at it pretty soon. I hope I can get some help moving it. If not, I will have to get creative with a come-along and some leverage. The first phase is to dig out a flatted pad for the thing to set on. The 2nd phase is to get it up on it. It hasn't been a great year ..... lol.

[fasteddie]

This was my project . Tearing down the deck and moving the shed . The outfit that would have removed it would have charged almost $1000 and the lumber would have been trashed and put in a dumpster .

[WNYBuckHunter]

So far I haven't done anything other than look at it in disgust. All my time has been taken up moving mud-packed leaves and gravel off the lawn. The entire face of the hill was just a wall of water which dumped everything in my grass. Quite a mess to clean up but I finally have gotten the last of tons of mud, leaves, sticks, stones, logs, gravel removed. I also have a picnic area at the other side of the house that was in the same condition. This is where we are having a family reunion this July, so that had to have priority over the archery butt too.

I'm getting close to tackling the archery project now. I'm not looking forward to it but I have to get at it pretty soon. I hope I can get some help moving it. If not, I will have to get creative with a come-along and some leverage. The first phase is to dig out a flatted pad for the thing to set on. The 2nd phase is to get it up on it. It hasn't been a great year ..... lol.

Hey Doc if you want a hand with it, let me know, I might have some time. I dont live all that far from you and will have a winch on my wheeler in the next couple of weeks as well.

[Doc]

I think I will enlist the services of one of my sons and my brother-in-law. They owe me a few favors ..... lol. Thanks for the offer though. I really appreciate it.

[skyhunter]

I feel for you, I have lost a few trailcams but that's nothing compared. Wishing you well getting back.

Mother nature sure has been kicking some serious butt for a while now. I'm going with warming and cooling just as has been going on here for billions of years.

[Doc]

This was the worst storm I have ever seen here in all my years here. My wife described it best when she said that the whole hill behind the house was a sheet of water flowing down and bringing all kinds of leaves, stones, logs, and mud with it. Somehow the bulk of it missed the house but my archery butt was right in the path of the water that jumped out of the banks of a ravine crick. You can imagine the force it took to push that thing that far. It's super heavy, but if that storm had kept up any longer, It would have pushed the butt right on down into my yard and it might have smashed into the cars.

[WNYBuckHunter]

I think I will enlist the services of one of my sons and my brother-in-law. They owe me a few favors ..... lol. Thanks for the offer though. I really appreciate it.

No problem, the offer is open and standing. 

[Doc]

ALL BETTER!!

I drove myself crazy trying to figure out how to get that thing back up the hill and onto a pad that was half washed away. Finally I got smart and decided that instead of trying to get the thing uphill, I would just move it a about a yard or so forward down onto level-ish ground in front of where it used to be. Sounded easy ..... ha-ha. I've got to say that those two barn beams that it is all built on and that compressed cardboard butt weigh a ton.

I had a good heavy iron bar to lever that sucker around, and after a fashion got it where I wanted. All that shoving around and everything still stayed together. Not bad for something that was built almost 40 years ago.

Now all I have to do is move all the stakes and start shooting.

[WNYBuckHunter]

There ya go! Good work!

[fasteddie]

Git 'r done Doc !

[Fantail]

Years ago when I worked for an lift & installation outfit we helped the owners dad move a garage with a tractor & a whole bunch of sch 80 pipe. We just used it as a rolling platform and swaped out the lengths to the front. Almost took out the power lines for the whole street by the peek but I caught that in time.

[Doc]

I got the yardage stakes re-painted and set back out and christened the rebuild today. I was surprised at how much the indoor practice over the winter (15 yards in the basement) helped out my outdoor debut this year. Pretty good groups out to 30 yards. I'll be checking out the 40 yard pin next time out.

I was surprised at the lack of bugs this year. No black flies, no mosquitos, no gnats, just lots of deer flies. But even they weren't too much of a distraction. I thought with all the rain we had this year that the bugs would be ugly, but so far, no problem. Maybe all the larvae got flushed with the flood.

Things are pretty comfortable in the woods where my range is. It's been kind of ugly-hot the last couple days, but up on the range it's not really all that bad.

Anybody else getting out and shooting the bows? I'll be dusting off the shooting bench for the rifles pretty soon too. I'm finally getting ahead of the flood damage repair and the early spring yard work so it's getting to be time to play.