Well…the wettest Spring (2018) I have seen in over a decade has passed and now it’s time to play catch-up on range maintenance. Everybody is way behind: tenet farmer can’t bale hay if it’s wet. Dozer guy can’t push up new backstops if it’s slop. Dump trucks can’t deliver gravel since we don’t have gravel roads in yet. And the shipping containers can’t be delivered since the giant flatbed would get stuck in the fields. See previous reference to gravel.
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- 4 Wheeler buried.
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- The shooting benches.
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- Initial path into the “Briar Patch”.
Good times.
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- Work done.
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- Briar Patch Cleared.
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- Obviously…we need gravel.
The bulk of what you see here has grown up in the last 3 weeks. Honorary mention goes to a Ryobi 40W weed trimmer that knocked most of this down. Some say a battery powered tool can’t get the job done. And while I wouldn’t want to use them professionally 7 days a week, the Ryobi does a great job cleaning up shooting positions, around shooting benches and target stands / steel impact zones.
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- Upper Range is a hay field.
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- Upper range / Hay Field.
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- This patch of hay runs 700 yards.
Oh. Sometimes it has rained. Sometimes it has stormed. And with that, we have had multiple trees knocked down on some of the more important access trails. Currently these trails are UTV / ATV only because of the wet conditions. Chainsaw time.
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- Do you see it?
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- Didn’t see where I picked him up at.
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- Spring is here.
But on a more social note, “the neighborhood association” has added a new member to the board: toads. Lots of toads. Typically near the ponds and creeks. Which is cool. The wildlife tally is big deer, bobcats, turkey, otters, box turtles, toads and coyotes as permeant range residents. We’ll need to charge rent.
Here’s the fire pit. Yeah, that won’t do.
Now might be a good time to bring up another wildlife subject: the legend of the mountain lion that was spotted by the DNR about 15 years ago. It apparently made the news then dropped off the radar very quickly. Too quickly it seems. Local residents suspect the DNR has never been completely honest about the subject to try to dissuade folks from trying to locate this mythical creature.
This is the bad lands trail from the 360 range. Doesn’t look like much of a trail right now.
Read into that what you will. Every town has it’s ghost stories. That seems to be ours. More to come in the next couple weeks as we push through some hills with the 40 ton dozer.
Marky
“Shooting Guns & Having Fun”
Marky Mark
Areas of focus: Defense and National Security, Modern Light Weapons, Small Arms, Weapons Training.
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