The list is haunting me, that's for sure!!! LOL
This is where I'm at as of the end of July.
My Goals for 2008
1. Fishing and Hunting with my kids.
No hunting yet, but we've been fishing quite a bit. We've had five parties so far this year with 30 t0 40 people over and had some great fishing for catfish in our small pond. The kids usually catch one or two fish and then want to go play in the mud along the shoreline. For them, I don't think it's about the fishing, but in just having fun being kids.
2. Build my storage Shed.
I have the forms set and need to buy the rebar. I'm holding off on buying the rebar since I don't want it to rust on me and I'm not sure when I'll have the time to pour the cement.
3. Put my outside access bathroom together.
This is going to be the first of many that I'll have for the RV Park when it's built. I've sort of got it figured out, but can't make up my mind on a few things. My goal is to have them all the same, or at least, very similar. I want to be able to fix them and maintain them with a very limited number of parts and suppliers. Air dryers are giving me fits on what is good and what is crap.
4. Fence in a quarter acre for Turkeys.
I cleared the fenceline and have it pretty good, then sort of got behind in other things and never got around to putting in the posts. I have a materails list and had it all staked out, but have since taken out the stakes so that I could mow. My motivation on this one isn't what it was when I first thought of doing this.
5. Build my gazebo for my front pasture.
The dirtwork is done, and I have the holes drilled for the footings of my posts. I'm doing this a little different then most gazebo's that I've seen and have to create my own brackets to hold the cedar posts on their footings. Two footings are poured with the brackets in place, but I need to drill and weld up the rest of the brackets, which are sitting on my shop floor.
6. Finish back pasture and plant it in Bermuda.
This has taken on a life of it's own. I've removed over 2,000 yards of dirt that I've used for an area of road that needs to be wide enough for two way, RV traffic, pedestrian traffic and a manhole for me sewage lines. It's over 16 feet tall and just now starting to take shape. The field is coming together, but my dump truck started blowing smoke and eating up oil. After trying to find all sorts of easy fixes, I had to remove he heads and have the valve stems redone. I'm going to put them back on today. I have about a thousand yards of dirt left to remove to get it where I want it.
7. Start my food plots.
I did the soil samples, but until it gets level, there's nothing else I can do.
8. Build a comfortable deer stand for two.
I've taken out the trees where it's going to go and come up with a plan that I think will suprise allot of you. My long term goal of opening up an RV Park has led me to build a deer blind that can later be used as part of a kids playground fort. It will be over the top for hunting out of, but a big attraction for the kids when done. To do this, I'm clearing an area shaped like a triangle near my big pond, Lake Marabou, that is over 100 feet long on each side. It slopes downward from the road, so I'm building it up to be level with a gentle slope on the access side. The other side is my main drainage from the big pasture to Lake Marabou, so I'm also doing allot of dirtwork to get that all tied in together. When it's all said and done, the dirtwork will look natural with gentle slopes that I can easily mow.
9. Build a wood burning fireplace in my home.
I'm leaning towards propane on this. My wife has the final say on what we use and she's hesitant on propane. She wants the look and smell of a real fireplace, but doesn't want the bugs inside the house. Money wise, I told her that we could do more with finish if we spent less on the actual fireplace. I can't find an affordable wood fireplace that compares to a propane one.
10. New flooring in my home.
We have it picked out, but I don't want to do anything with the floors until I know what we're going to do with the fireplace.
11. Build a pasture sprayer.
I priced it out just about every way that I can think of, and for something that I'll only use twice a year, I've decided that buying one is the way to go. I'm still looking for a used one until I get the pasture and food plot in. Once that happens, I'll make a descision on which one.
12. Get my old jeep running.
This has really been kicking my but. I'm converting the original 1942 front axle to use the disk brakes off of my 1988 chevy s-10 blaser. I have it all together, but need to do some more welding and grinding before putting it into the frame. It's my rainy day project, but with summer here, it only rains at night and the days are dry enough to either go to work, or move dirt here. It's just sitting there and taking up room.
Over halfway through the year, and I've accomplished nothing. I've got a good start on some things, but not even close to where I thought I'd be when I wrote the list. What really kills me is that I'm researching things for next years list!!!! Somebody stop me. hahahahhaha
Eddie
