No matter what animal I hunt, I always come back to deer.  Hunting predators like bear and coyote are great and I’m eager to check off turkey and moose but I plan my vacations around deer season. 

After getting yelled at last season, we decided to build a permanent structure a little further into woods and close to the same property line.  It was hard to visualize what it would look like and Dad had great plans for our third permanent deer stand. 

He built it in the barn and we tested out sizes, wall height and visibility.  We were going to put it up in late January but time got away from us and February hit bringing about five feet of snow in four weeks.   So instead, Dad used the snowmobile to bring pieces of the stand over to our build spot.

T3 before the roof

Then, a couple of weeks ago, Dad started building. He needed help with the roof so Hubby, Dad and I took the snowmobiles over and lifting it into place.  The stand is a little wobbly but when the snow melts and the ground hardens, we will set some pins and stabilize it.

With the roof!

Roof, porch… what more could you want?

Let me really brag: I will have some shelves, a sun porch, a roof that sticks far enough out in the front to keep any rain away and we will put a heater in there.  Before it’s done, we will have gaps plugged, canvas down and carpeting on the back walls to keep it hard inside and keep some heat in. Basically, once we climb into this stand in November, there won’t be a need to climb out until we either shoot a deer or the season ends.

The first shooting lane that is open.  There will be a few once we are done.

I am a happy, spoiled deer hunter!