Cabin in progress

[JMax510]

Last September the wife and I bought 88 acres in Meigs county. It is raw land and backs up to 2500 acres of public land. My goal is to turn it into a whitetail paradise. I hunted it very little last season due to the fact that I was hunting a 160 class main frame 8 at home which I ended up getting in late season with my bow.

So far on the Ohio property I put in a 1 acre food plot and a gate to keep people out. It wasn't the handiest to hunt because I didn't have anywhere to sleep unless I drove my motorhome out and parked it there. I had the idea when purchasing it that I would put up a pole barn and make some living quarters inside. Another idea I had was buying a shed and making it into a cabin. Buy chance I mentioned prefab shed/cabin to my brother and he said he knew where there was a cabin for sale. Turns out that he knew an Amish guy who just got shunned by the church who built a cabin to live in less than a year ago. He was renting the land under the cabin for a dollar a day from the church deacon.

I went and looked at the cabin a few weeks ago and really liked it. It is all sawmill cut hemlock. There isn't any store bought lumber in it. I struck a deal with the guy and gave him a cash down payment with the understanding I would have a month to get it dismantled and hauled away. The first Saturday came along with some snow so I pushed it off. The following Monday the ex Amish guy called me and said someone broke a window in it and left him a note that they wanted him out. He also told me that the amish wanted to burn it down so I figured I better get it out of there asap. I assembled a crew and we got it taken down and stacked on my trailer that Friday and Saturday. I was relieved when we pulled out of there. Only one Amish guy came up and said anything to us. He wanted me to settle a debt that the ex amish guy left but I said that was between them.

This past weekend I ran out to the property to get a building permit and I hope to start the build in the beginning of May. I'm planning to run out this Friday to get sewer permit and meet with excavator and block layer for the foundation.105421054310544

[mrbb]

well sounds like you have a good base plan
as I was eading this, I kept thinking, where I used to stay in Ohio, all the cabins in the area were all Amich build's and the prices were super reasonable, made me wish they were closert o me here in PA<> I would have had them build me one here L
and was going to suggest you try to contact them and see if they would build you one LOL
so you beat me tyo that idea, buy finding one pre built
looks like a nice cabin too
and my advice to you on your new lands would be to post the crap out of it where it borderes the public lands,
like a sign every 20+ ft, but the aluminum sigh's they last 20+ yrs, and can be had pre signed too
( http://www.vosssigns.com/OA1.htm )

as hard work on building a great hunting spot, don't leave anyone the chance of saying they didn't know it was private
I get that excuss here all the time and I even have it posted like crazy!
but have to think it stops some!, and Ohio, the sate will help you, unlike here in PA

and last, how about a pic of that buck you killed?? sounds like a dandy of a buck!
best of luck on it all!

[nomad_archer]

Stan,
It is one heck of a dandy buck.

Jim,
Sounds like an pretty interesting experience with the Amish. That is a really nice looking cabin. Now you have a second home away from home. Let me know if you need any help. Hope the rest of your winter wasn't too bad.

[JMax510]

Trevor,
I'm glad winter is over, I have so many projects to do here in Pa and in OH. Hope you'll get to go up to my cabin to hunt with me sometime.

Stan,
Ask and you shall receive. I shot him 1/3/13 when the temps were in the single digits with 20-30 mph winds. It is the first time I ever shot a deer while wearing gloves. I had to stand motionless for 20 minutes with bow ready to draw before he allowed me a shot. Even with gloves on my hands felt like they were frostbit till I could get shot.
10545

[ranger175a]

Nice buck and nice cabin

[mrbb]

yup that's a great looking buck for sure and one I bet you will never forget
congrats

[Mikebaker]

What a stud! Love the cabin as well. Looks like you got yourself a little honey hole.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk (http://tapatalk.com/m?id=1)

[00buck]

Nice buck and cabin

[nomad_archer]

Jim,
I hope I will be able to make it out there with you as well. I hope the permitting for your cabin goes well. Hopefully they dont make it a painful slow process.

[JMax510]

Part 2:
I went back out to Ohio this past weekend to start getting the site prepped. I decided I am going to dig a daylight basement and put a garage door in so that I can have a 16 x 20 garage under the cabin to store a 4 wheeler, treestands and any other clumsy gear that I don't want to cart back and forth to PA.

My skidloader has been broken down for several months and I have been scrambling to get it fixed so I can haul it out to Ohio. I finally finished it up about 2 pm Saturday afternoon. I talked my brother Kurt into riding out with me since he hasn't been to the property yet. He doesn't hunt so I have to bribe him with money. While I was working on the skidloader I asked Kurt if he would mind running my truck and trailer over to the tire store to get 3 of the tires replaced that had some dry rot. He precedes to look at the tires and tell me I'd be throwing my money out because the tires have plenty of life. Well we didn't even make it 15 min down the road and had a blow out right in the middle of the concrete jungle in Harrisburg. The concrete jungle is the name the locals here aptly gave to the maze of highways coming together in Harrisburg. It took us about 11 minutes to throw the spare on as cars and tractor trailers whizzed by 3 feet away at 70 mph. Other than that the trip went smooth as my worked over Cummins dragged the trailer over the mountains in Maryland.

We got to the property just after midnight today. My brother put up his tent and filled his air mattress up. I threw my sleeping back in back of truck and slept under the stars. I slept pretty good but my throat got sore from cold air. We got moving around 7 am. Todays objective was to clear trees out of the site cabin will sit in. I left the Cat out in Ohio and I'll head back Thursday night with my Kubota tractor with backhoe attachment.

First pic is right before leaving my house in PA. Second pic is clearing spot in Ohio

[Big_Holla]

Good stuff JMax!! Will be cool to follow your cabin story this summer!

[nomad_archer]

Jim looks great. Sounds like you will be plenty busy this spring and summer putting the cabin up. Can't wait to see the finished product.

[JMax510]

Part 3

This week I planned to dig the basement for the cabin. I enlisted the help of my buddy Rich who is a professional dirt digger. All week long I prepared my gear and watched the weather. Rich and I both used a vacation day Friday so we could do the majority of the work on a weekday and Saturday in case of a breakdown and needing supplies. Rich Didn't get home from work until 6 and till he got showered and to my house it was 7 pm Thursday till we left for Ohio.

I hauled my Kubota with the backhoe attachment on this trip. The drive out went without any problems and we arrived in Ohio at the property at 1:30 am. My brother Kurt drove out in his car ahead of us and had the gate unlocked and a campfire going and his tent all set up when we arrived. I set my tent up and we got to bed around 2 am. Rich came completely unprepared so I let him sleep on my cot in my 2 person tent (which really should be called a 1.5 person tent) and I slept on ground beside cot. Between his snoring and lumpy ground I got about 3 hours of sleep.

I crawled out of bed around 6:45 and started making coffee on my cook stove. Next unloaded tractor and all the tools. Rich jumped on the skid loader and started dressing up the driveway and my brother Kurt and I ran to a nearby ag store to rent a lime spreader to put some lime on my food plots. I put 4 tons down on my original acre plot and another 4 ton down on a 1 acre grass field that I plan to make into a plot this year.

Rich started working on the basement dig around noon on Friday and I wrapped up liming about that same time. The guy doing the poured walls stopped by to get an idea of what he will be encountering on the job. His helper lives right down the street and he told me it is an excellent area for big buck so that was encouraging. Rich ran a whole tank of fuel out of the skid steer around 6 pm so we had to load it on trailer and run to town to fill it up. While we were loading up the rain started coming down. It rained off and on all night and by morning it was a steady drizzle. Rich said he had about 4 hours of digging left to complete basement so he got started around 7 am Saturday. He finished up around 11 am and the only thing left to do was dig a frost footer 3' deep along daylight end of basement. Right at finish grade on basement Rich started hitting rock so we were a little worried about digging trench. I jumped on my Kubota and started trying to dig the footer. I was getting nowhere fast. After scratching around for 15 min I had a trench 2" deep 4' long. Rich told me I needed to give up and rent a mini excavator to do it. I told him it would cost me $300 to rent a machine plus go pick it just to dig a 20' trench 3 foot deep. Rich is used to running brand new serious equipment but I like making do with what I got so I kept at it and finally I was started to make a little progress. Six hours later I had my trench dug and we were done. Just as we started loaded up to come home it started thunder storming and pouring cats and dogs.

We got home about 11:30 last night and I was real happy with what we accomplished. Not sure if I'll make it out next weekend because it's the wife and my 1 year anniversary. If it dries out and the poured wall guy can get to it this week I'll have to drive out for that day.

Another cool thing this past trip was I got a trail cam picture of a deer with a collar on.

[00buck]

Good progress not sure why a deer would be wearing a collar though are you around any deer farms

[mrbb]

sounds like you got a lot done
I would even check with local game warden and ask if the state is doing any studies on deer, thus the collar on that one
might be cool if they would share the info with you
here in PA< they have been doing studies for a many yrs now, and even offer rewards if you manage to kill one and trun the collar in
they will give you history on the deer, , like how heavey it was,age and so on, at time they collared it

[nomad_archer]

Looks good Jim you really are getting a lot done out there. May want to take the wife out for a really nice dinner if you are going to be working on the cabin next weekend.

[Big_Holla]

Some great progress for you there JMax!!

[hortontoter]

I can't wait to see the end result. You are going to love having that place.

[JMax510]

10582It's been awhile since I was able to report anything on cabin build. Finally I am able to get this project really rolling. I have my truck loaded up and I'm rolling out at 3 am tomorrow morning. I don't have out of state tags so hopefully I don't get hassled by DOT when I'm out of PA even though its legal to drive my rig for personal use out of state.

The poured wall company finally got good enough weather to form and pour the walls. I have a crew of 4 buddies and myself ready to rip and tear till the cabin is up. As long as I'm home by Sunday the wife will be happy. I'll give plenty more updates and pics when I get back.

[nomad_archer]

Looks like you will be busy. Can't wait to see it standing

[Big_Holla]

Excellent!! Glad to see your progress!!

[JMax510]

Well the time had finally came when I was ready to do the build. My cousin and I drove out to Ohio last Tuesday in the early morning and my brother and 2 other buddies drive out Tuesday night. I got there early enough to go pickup 3 loads of stone to backfill the poured walls and get everything set up. Tuesday night it started torrential downpours which lasted on and off for almost 24 hours. The whole build site was a muddy mess and it definitely slowed progress and lowered workers moral. All we got done Wednesday was the floor joists and floor boards put down.

Thursday we got all the walls up and started on the roof joists. Friday noon time my cousin and my other buddy had to go home so it was down to 3 of us. Friday we finished the roof trusses and started putting all the roof boards on. The biggest obstacle in that was the Amish didn't have any of the trusses on 4' centers and every board was cut to fit so we basically had to lay every piece out to see what number was on it when we tore it down.

Saturday we started putting the foam board insulation on top of the roof boards and then sheeted with OSB plywood so when the metal roof is screwed down there wont be any chance of a screw hitting between roof boards. We came up 3 sheets short on OSB so we had to wait until Monday to get the plywood to finish.

I made a jib boom for my skidloader to lift the walls and the gables into place. It id its job but at times the square tubing on boom was flexing like a fishing pole. It was high stress when I was in loader placing the walls. The other scary thing was being up on the back roof without the proper safety equipment but it had to be done.

I have a contractor coming in to put a dark green metal roof on within the next 2 weeks. Next for me is putting in the sewer system, digging a 300yard line ditch to street for electric, gas and water and all the interior work.1059210593105941059510596

[JMax510]

Here are a few more pics. Everything turned out great and I'm very excited to get back out there. 105971059810599

[nomad_archer]

Jim it looks outstanding. Really nice job.

[mrbb]

looking good, love the fact you did it on a full basement/garage!
I am sure that part will get tons of use, stays cooler in summer, and a great place to clean deer in the fall
plus all the other million uses a garage gets

keep up the good work!

[Mikebaker]

Love it! That's a busy wknd for sure. And I have to agree about the basement/ garage. Great place to butcher up some deer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Big_Holla]

Holy smokes that is turning out GREAT!! You'll make a ton of memories in that cabin!!

[Stumpy]

Good job. That's a great looking cabin.

[offtheground]

Great looking cabin, we all are jealous!

[Weasel]

That's fantastic, nice job. You will be glad you put that basement under it. I am in a similar situation. I sold my old farm and bought a bigger place last year with no buildings on it. I went the pole barn route for a quick, cheap and easy build since I'll be doing the work myself. We set poles as soon as the ground thawed and I'm putting in windows, doors & siding now. Had to take a break to put fall plots in but I'm on schedule to have it done before archery season.

Keep us posted as you get all the detail work done and start enjoying that beautiful cabin.