Hunting/Fishing hut

[220]

Decided to build a hunting/fishing hut up the farm.
Just somewhere for a weekend or to hang out and not worry about farm stuff.
Have what I think is the perfect location, a small island in the middle of the creek. Only just and island, about 150' long and 45' wide at its widest' Channels around it are only about 12' wide but never go dry. A good chance of catching fish right around it and I have shot half a dozen sambar deer within 400y.

Overgrown with blackberries woody weeds and a tangle on fallen timber. When son and his girlfriend were home a few weeks ago we were looking for something to fill in a few hours so made a start on clearing it. Managed to hack, pull and pile most of the blackberries woody weeds and smaller timber over over a week. Just waiting for it to dry a bit so I can drop a match in it.

Having made a start on clearing it decided decent access to the island would be a good first step. Water isnt much more than 2 feet deep but cold in summer and freezing at this time of year. We had been keeping our feet dry by climbing over a bit of a choke in the creek but hard enough to do without carrying anything so some decent access is needed before anything really progresses.
A footbridge wide enough for the bike towing cement mixer, trailer etc is what I have decided to go for. Found a nice straight messmate and dropped it on the weekend. Left it at 80' long positioned it and then pushed one end across the creek with the tractor. Once it was landed on the island cut the remainder off lifted it on top of the first log and pushed it across safely landing it on the island. Getting them into their final position was a bit more work, easy on the side with tractor access but had to resort to a comalong slings and chain to drag them into position on the island.

Pulling logs into final position


Next job was to start cutting some slabs for the deck, decided on 5'6" wide and 2" thick, more than wide enough for a foot bridge and will allow me to get the 4 wheeler across but narrow enough to stop anyone thinking about taking anything bigger across.
Ended up with about enough for half the bridge first cutting session


To square up the edges I have just been using a circular saw and straight edge


Things slowed down for the next few weeks, a run in with a ram put me off my feet and on crutches for a little bit. Gave me a chance to watch a heap of videos on chainsaw slabbing and try and improve what I have been doing.
Finally got around to making up a decent rail setup for the first cut, also decided to spend more money and upgrade the milling attachment. I have been using a mini alaskan mill, really only designed for a short bar and with the bar only being supported at the saw end a slightly dull chain or any other number of reasons can see the bar flex slightly resulting in slabs that are tapered from side to side. Hopefully the larger milling attachment that supports the bar both ends solves that issue. The new mill will also allow the use of bar lengths up to 36" if I do decide on a saw upgrade.
With a new milling attachment all the videos I had watched had given me a few ideas on a setup for squaring the sides of logs before cutting the first slab. I made up a skid to slide on the rails, cut the clamp arrangement of the mini mill replace the 1" rhs attached to it with threaded bar and used it to attach to the skid.
Felt up to giving the new and improved setup a run yesterday. The rail and skid worked even better than I hoped for. rails were extremely stable and very easy to level. Skid setup worked really well, having it attached to the skid with the treaded bar in use allows you to pivot the saw on the bar just like you would using dogs on the saw in a log. I didnt take a lot of the sides of the log, will still need to square the sides on some of the slabs but just taking the bow and some sapwood off the logs has reduced the bar length needed to slab by 5-6". Ran the skid with one of my little saws to save swapping the big saw over so ended up a bit short on bar length. Still went well, where I hadnt cut fully through it was easy enough to freehand the remainder of the cut.
Things didnt go as smoothly when I started the slabbing, only got about a yard into the first cut when I blew the nose sprocket on the bar that put an end to the day. Will have to wait until I can give it a proper workout before I can see if it is an improvement.

The new rails and skid attachment in action

[JEBar]

OUTSTANDING .... that is a really nice project that will take a good deal of time, talent and work to complete .... thanks for taking us along, I'm really looking forward to following our progress

[220]

After a broken leg then jumping back on the tools for a few weeks no progress at all on my build for a few months.
I did manage an hour cutting a few more slabs today, log that I squared the side up on a few months ago, new 24" bar and skip tooth chain. I was surprised I did as much as I did in the time, log is 3.8m long and cut 3 slabs off it so 4 cuts with the first to take the round off. Chain was blunt by the end but around 15m of cutting and 2 tanks of fuel.

Using the rails to take make the first cut


Last cut today, no need for rails after the first cut as you have a flat level top from the previous cut


With a bit of luck I might get the bridge done in the next week or so, Want to slab the top of the logs I have across the creek to level them up and get rid of the sap wood so the planks are secured into decent timber and sit squarely on them.

[Sir Henry]

Wow I’m impressed with your talent.

[JEBar]

remarkable .... as already noted, enjoying following your progress .... you sure are giving you Stihl workout ..

[220]

Cant fault the stihls, using an older 381 for the slabbing running a 24" bar with skip tooth chain. That is about as big a bar as it will run in our Aus hardwoods, With the current stihl lineup I would need to step up to a 661 or 881 for an increase in performance.
The arrangement I have made to square the sides first has reduced the need for a longer bar. These slabs were almost 16" wide, without squaring the sides a 30" bar may not have been long enough for the job.
Price of stihl saws is really getting up there and if I go a bigger saw think I will take a gamble on one of the chinese copies. The older 660 copies are less than 25% off the current stihl equivalent.

[220]

Managed to square the top of the bridge logs and start laying some planks, happy enough with how it is coming together.

[Ozarkwoodswalker]

No danger of flooding on this creek?

[220]

Not that will pose a risk to the bridge, 2 channels around the island can carry a fair volume and a flood channel about 25y upstream of the bridge it spills into in a big flood that keeps it below the bridge height.

[220]

Bridge is 95% complete, just a couple of boards that are sitting a little high I will run the plane over at a later date when I have a genny out there.



Couldnt resist having a quick fish off the bridge when I was done. Caught a stick first cast and a little brown trout second cast, would be lucky to be much over 6" but still a fish

[Vaquero]

Lookin good.

RP

[JEBar]

nice looking bridge .... how big do the browns get in your stream ..

[220]

nice looking bridge .... how big do the browns get in your stream ..

Largest I have caught was 19", same with the rainbows, over the past few years average size would be around the 12" mark.

[JEBar]

now that would be some fine trout fishing

[BrokenolMarine]

Color me green with envy. I need about three of those bridges to cross the creeks that run across our place. They are seasonal flows and don't contain fish, but the creek beds are deep and the Ranger will drive down and back up the banks thanks to ground clearance and four wheel drive. But, bridges would make the crossing a LOT safer. I'll try and get some pictures of the locations when I get some time and the rain lets up. WE are finally getting some rain after months of dry weather.

[220]

now that would be some fine trout fishing

It can be fantastic at times, had a quick fish at 5pm yesterday,, first cast a 8" rainbow, 3rd cast a 12" brown. Walked about 100y down stream flicking the lure as I went into anywhere that looked like it might hold a fish.
36 minutes later I was back in the car having landed 9 trout, lost a few more and as many hits that didnt hook up. Biggest was a brown around 15" a couple more browns and rainbows around 12" and the rest mainly rainbows about 10".
Longest cast would be about 15y the majority 10y or less. Thought I would hit double figures on this section of creek given the last spot I once caught 4 fish in 4 casts but it only produced 2 for about 20 casts.
When they are on the bite they are really on 4 fish in 4 casts from the same spot is the best I have ever done but a number of times I have caught 3 fish in 3 casts without moving spots. Other days you can work your ass off all day and be lucky to catch one or two.
This little section is fast flowing and well shaded, with the majority of it less than 18" deep, given my success I thought I would try another spot about 500y down stream. The second spot is much deeper over 6' in places not as fast flowing about 50y long and was in bright light, it only produced 1 fish in 15min. It has in the past produced plenty of fish, I put the difference yesterday down to the light and fish being spooked a bit by me or my shadow.

[BrokenolMarine]

We fly fish a lot, or did. When we were moving from VA we looked hard for a property with running water across the property where we could wade and fish. We saw four or five really nice ones, but something always interfered with making an offer. The one we liked the best was one that could only be accessed by a private bridge when had seriously degraded and the home on the property had serious issues with the HVAC system. I would have made an offer taking those issues into consideration but in conversation with the realtor they said the "Kids" wouldn't consider a lower offer, as the sale would be split four ways. The bridge repair alone would have been very costly.

I have missed the fly fishing and hope to get back to it soon.

[BrokenolMarine]

As promised, I located some pics of the creek crossings I had taken to send to an engineer friend of mind. The South Orchard crossing is now eroded to a point where we can no long drive the UTV across as the shoulders are cut vertical and the channel in the bottom is very narrow. We have a plan to cut that creek bed wider, back from the road, about 100 yards to reduce the power of the flow. We will also add corner reinforcement to the fence. The fence was in place and poorly designed around the creek on our arrival.

Our other option, with more serious consideration for the south crossing, is move farther away from the road, after widening the channel,and install a large bore culvert, 6' perhaps. Then fill around with rip rap and gravel, then pack with clay and soil until the crossing is level or even proud above either side of the crossing. Then pack the upstream side with rip rap to protect the culvert..

This is the South Orchard Crossing....

01 south orchard 1.JPG (975.37 KiB) Viewed 5247 times

This is the same South Orchard Crossing during ONE of the Two floods we have had here. The flood waters actually got high enough that they reached the middle of the orchard on the far side of the creek, and crossed over the road. The pressure of the water flow over the last three years has damaged the culvert under that roadway and turned it 20 degrees clockwise.

fence damage.jpg (1.38 MiB) Viewed 5247 times

This is the West Orchard Crossing.... the UTV is sitting at the top of the high side, it's about 8' over the bottom of the creek bed.

03 west orchard 1.JPG (814.33 KiB) Viewed 5247 times

Here is a view of the approach to the West Orchard crossing from the North pasture, into the Orchard.

04 west orchard 2.JPG (904.97 KiB) Viewed 5247 times

Here you are standing in the dry creek bed, looking west down the creek bed, you cannot see either side of the tops of the bank. The creek banks at this point are about two feet over your head.

05 west orchard 3.JPG (807.92 KiB) Viewed 5247 times

I'd like to eventually put a bridge over both of these locations, but failing that and the crossings eventually becoming unusable, we'd have to go out the gates, onto the road, and into the far gate. THAT is a pain every time you need to check on the Orchard Section. With seasonal flow in the creeks, we have to ford the creek to reach the old barn, and the north pasture. Luckily that is a shallow flow even with the rest of the area full.

[220]

Haven updated this for a while, island is 95% cleared we ended up having to drop about 20 trees on or near the island that were a chance of coming down where we plan the hut. Lots of chainsaw milling cutting slabs and sawing them into timber for the hut.
Son has been home since just before Christmas and has been giving me a hand, we got the footings pourer a few weeks back, piers welded in last week and today made a start on the bearers and joist. Got a good 6 hours in before he had a phone call saying leave is cancelled and he needs to be home tomorrow and on a boat Thursday. 2500km home so flying is the only option, nearest airport that we could get a flight out of to work in the time frame is 200km away and time frame has now moved up and he is on a boat tomorrow so flight is now a 07:20 departure. Will need to leave here by 04:00 in the morning. Nothing serious just disaster relief work after much of Northern Aus go hit with a cyclone and many places are still cut off by road.
Nice we actually made some real progress today before son heads off, got the bearers in and squared up, ended up with a few reject joist so we were short 2 in the end. I will need to cut a couple more but got all the joist down for the cabin that let us lay down the few planks we had cut for flooring.

One of the logs we have been slabbing, photo is a little deceptive, log is 24" wide, the mill will take a 42" bar and the saw actually has a 30" bar fitted.


Some of the sawn timber before we started using it today


Todays progress






You can get a bit of an idea of what we plan, hut will be 12x10, front veranda 10x10, 8" step down to the veranda, we are going with 45 degree pitch on the roof and planning a loft over the veranda. The step down should give us a little more head room in the loft.

[Hatchdog]

What an awesome project. Takes the expression “do it yourself” to a new level.