Only 173K??? 
Seriously though, God bless and keep you and yours on the trip. Enjoy!
I am looking forward to a weekend outing with the kids very early in thier hunting lives. Building future memories and keeping the traditions alive.
Just returned to Pennsylvania after several days down in North Carolina.
Site locations finalized for the house and the detached garage. Architectural plans in the final draft stage. In a couple of weeks, they will run under ground utilities out to the site (electrical, cable, phone). I will am out well beyond the range of water and sewer, so will be doing septic. A couple of reliable springs exist uphill from me, so I may run a water line from that. Altogether, it will be a tad over 3,400 square feet. There will be a full ground floor, full first floor and a partial second floor.
I will be heading back down in December for deer season, looking forward to that.
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That sounds sweet! Having spent hunting time in several places in the Blue Ridge, I can vouch for the spring water, the potassium salty type not the iron heavy type. Makes me long to go out east.
If you plan to hunt blind (without scouting) there is a strong theory of “treestand via Topo” based on topographic maps and deer transit habits. December should be well after close of the rut, so you will probably be looking to hunt deer entering thier winter habits.
I have done some scouting of the area. Much of the property and the land around the property is old growth forest, much of it untouched since colonial times, so it will be quite a challenge.
The water quality and quantity is very high for each of the springs and the elevation from the springs down to the location of the house will make for a good gravity fed system with good pressure.
This will be a brand new system, so not expecting any problems. When I was young, use to stay down the road from time to time with an Aunt and Uncle that had a farm, with a 100+ year old brick house not far from the barn. Both were fed by a spring, with the line dividing about halfway down the hill, one going to the barn and one going to the house. You always knew when the cows were drinking in the barn, because the house water pressure, already very low, would drop even more. Trying to take a shower there with the bathroom on the second floor was an ordeal. 
And because of the age of the piping in the house, nothing could be done to boost pressure or the lines would have burst.
Neither of them ever did anything about it, even though they were very well off and could have done so. It wasn’t until both died and a cousin bought that house that the piping was ripped out and replaced in the house top to bottom and a new dedicated line run from the spring to the house.
And you really have to stay on top of your spring setup, because it can go to **** in an instant. I have a spring and a well setup here in Pennsylvania, because the spring is not always reliable in late summer. But I think I will be fortunate enough to be able to forego a well down in NC.
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Washing hunting clothes and tightening shooting skills.
I need to hang a couple new stands, cut some shooting lanes, and put out the blinds.
I can’t wait to spend a quiet evening prepping the weapons, sharpening the edges, setting out the gear, and getting the scent suppression in place.
Man I love this life!
It’s been a long summer and I’m ready.
I picked up a new custom 6.5 LRM this year. It’s a .375 Ruger necked down to 6.5.
About all I’ve done so far is work up some custom loads for it and it will probably getting the major duty this season, it should prove interesting seeing 140gr custom Peregrine Bullets running at near 3400fps perform.
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My early season looks to be all about the kids, hunting needs a future.
Personally, I have been working on consistent 3" arrow groups at 30 yards.
I would be surprised if the high energy cartridges that you are working up do not throw off flyers. The Physics of what happens at the end of the rifle barrel have always interested me.
Fliers in my hundred yard groups tend to run less than .5:". We’re not talking cheap stove pipes flinging .50c bullets.
Too bad you and the kids can’t come down, I’m literally overrun with pigs right now and need to have a major thinning soon. I’ve killed 168 since the first of Oct 2017 and I haen’t even caught up with the new production.
My place over by the river can be shot clean and two weeks later will have two or three new herds bedding on it.
We had a pretty severe drought here most of the summer and having both great cover and a my own spring feeding 1,100 yards of creek ensures no matter what I’m never out of pigs for more than a few days at most.
TNG means one thing only.
I was hoping this thread would be about hunting Wesley.
Wow. Pigs are such a pain. I have not hunted them, and they are not threat here.
I am most likely to encounter them back east on a hunt as they are working thier way north.
BTW: What do you do with all the meat, and are they any good to eat? I have heard wildly varying opinions of their edibility.
I appreciate the invitation!
Nah, Weasel Boy, while being a double face palm on Trek, suffers sufficiently from being the worst Star Trek character since Harvey Mudd.
I added TNG to meet a Thread title limit, but it also connotes that I had a well attended Hunting Season thread on the old Hannity site.
Unfortunately a lot of them just end up being coyote bait. I simply don’t have the time or money to process them all.
Whatever I have leftover from that get’s donated to a group in Wichita that feeds the homeless and distributes donated food to needy families, two local churches and of course about 500lbs of smoked sausage and ham will go to the VFD for their annual fundraising barbecue.
About the only store bought meat we’ll use at all is we buy cheap hamburger when it’s on sale to mix with the venison just to give it enough fat to stick together and make a decent patty.
Well if it brings in money for the VFD, it must be pretty good!
Lots of free beer helps.
I like to just fix a big pot of beans, steam up the sausage, slice it up and eat it with the beans, or just take a whole ham and throw it in and cook it with the beans.
The Suburban now has over 175,000 on it, ran perfect and wow…what a fantastic trip. In only the second time in my life, I saw a wolf. This one was close and was trying to hide. When we pulled up, it ran out from behind some cover and was only 25 yards away. Instead of spending the day hunting, my brother put us all to work clearing roads, fixing leaks and repairing odds and ends. It was an excellent, excellent trip.
Thank you Lord.
Glad that you had fun but brush clearing and road repair sounds a little like bait and switch! 
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Scent-free washing hunting clothes tonight.
Scouting tomorrow.
Archery hunting camp tonight.
Brought some Venison to make chili, and some hotdogs to make it interesting. Venison chilidogs, it’s a pre-hunt ritual.
I repacked the hunting/survival pack for the year (short some jerky for backwoods food).
Last thing is sharpening knife and broadhead edges. I enjoy the detail work prep.
Vaguely hunting related.
The installation of electric/phone/cable lines (underground) is complete. They are now up there tapping the springs, which will be a dual spring setup and setting up the water supply system
There is a temporary electric panel setup, so when I go down in December to go hunting, I will actually have electricity and fresh water available on site. Looking at mid-December for the trip.
I did something similar 20 years ago. I tried it with a travel trailer parked on the land. I was too young, too distracted, too well employed to actually figure out all the details.
I hunted a couple days and went back to work.
The mice eventually took over.
I don’t see your efforts as vaguely related to hunting. Hunting is a life process. It is a willful movement toward a primal drive to live off and with the land and the flora and fauna.
Good hunting.
