Posted on 11/21/2010 9:43:47 PM PST by smokingfrog
Pat Highley is the proud owner of a deer stand to die for.
From its simply superb craftsmanship to the fine aesthetic sense revealed in its interior decoration, it’s clear this lofty platform marks a new high-water mark of civilization in the otherwise rough-and-ready world of deer hunting.
How many deer stands have you seen, for example, with a 360-degree field of fire through sliding double-glazed windows?
“Well, I am really proud of it,” said Highley, who lives amid more than five rolling and wooded acres in the sticks about eight miles north of Shelbyville. The Cadillac of deer stands sits on the edge of the timber, a quick hunting trot from his living room and effectively doubling as a second living room that’s 22 feet up in the air. It’s reached after scaling 31 steps, and the structure — Highley calls it an “elevated hunting cabin” — sits atop a rock-steady network of treated timbers that betray no movement as visitors enter via a trapdoor in the floor.
The plywood paneled interior walls of the 8-by-8-foot, 7-foot-tall cabin are overlaid in a brown paint wash that serves to accent the natural grain of the wood. Highley went that route after listening to his wife, Debbie.
“She said, ‘Oh, that’s such a pretty grain, you are not going to just paint over it, are you?’ ” he recalls. “So I watered the paint down and took a sponge to put it on.”
The windows on all four sides were a special-order item from Menards, and the 2-by-4-foot panels slide in both directions and also pop out. Highley and guests sit on color-matched brown swiveling kitchen stools he picked up from Target, and every creature comfort is catered for:
(Excerpt) Read more at herald-review.com ...
Hmmm. “Creature comforts” in a deer stand. Sumthin’ odd about that.
redneck luxury
Wonder how happy he’ll be about it when Obama’s tax mavens hear about it, decide it’s a house, and tax it at three hundred percent, plus interest, fees, and penalties.
It’s already PART of his house. Unless there was a building code there forbidding deer stand towers on homes, he’s kosher.
This is not about shooting a deer.
This is about escaping a dear.
This is a mancave with a drawbridge. Getting the lazyboy inside will be an effort, but it will be done.
At some point you might as well just go down to the butcher and buy some venison. I mean, is that really “hunting?” Sitting on your ass all day and blowing away Bambi out of an upstairs window with a scoped rifle at spitting distance? Kind of gives me that fishing in the aquarium feeling. Hardly seems sporting. Grab a bow and go still hunting so the furry buggers at least have a chance; it’s not like a guy spending $6k on a stand “hunts” to eat. Oh well...his property and money. Blah, I think my trip to the butcher is more adventurous.
When it’s not hunting season it doubles as his man cave away from his wife.
My son and I built an 11 x 11 foot “cabin in the sky”. We have a woodburning stove, propane cooking stove, propane heater and large windows. For security we built the door in the center of the floor. You have to have a ladder to get up to the padlocked door. I used cedar over plywood in the insulated walls. I chose not to use electricity for aesthetic reasons. We actually camp in it and can keep it plenty warm in sub zero northern Illinois weather.
Just needs a moat....
Now that’s more like it!
“The elevated hunting cabin will be first used in anger after deer shotgun season gets under way Nov. 19...”
What does “anger” have to do with anything? Seems like the writer is exposing his biases. He certainly doesn’t know much about hunting.
I shot a deer in my slippers once...what he was doing in my slippers I have no idea.
Aww, I think wifey will be up there shooting deer along with him. After all, he painted it the way she liked. Now all they need is a dumbwaiter to lower the hunting dogs to retrieve the carcass.
It’s a Bambicide jihad, I say.
OMG, you have to read the comments on this thread. I’m laughing so hard, I’m practically in tears.
Lived on 1200 acres in the Bighorn river valley. One morning we counted 150 deer from the living room windows out in the winter wheat fields. 150 is what we could see. There was easily double that and you can only imagine what happened that morning with 4 boys 16 to 21 and born to hunt.
God bless America!
LOL...you may have seem this written on FR by me before, but I’ll repeat it anyway.
I live in southwest Washington State. Lots of deer wandering about, even inside the incorporated limits of cities — no hunting allowed there (wink, wink).
This story is about a fellow I knew from work who went deer hunting a few years back, leaving his wife and kids at their rural home.
He returned, skunked, only to open the garage and find an eight-point buck hanging in the garage.
His wife had shot it from their back deck. The buck was eating her roses in the backyard garden. And yes, she was wearing slippers.
She didn’t have a deer tag but he did. Good thing he hadn’t shot anything.
My family had a log cabin way off the beaten path. Dirt road led to yet another and another before you arrived there. And this after a long road leading to the top of the mountain. Four picture windows surrounded a flagstone fireplace in the living area. We would watch deer herds, bear, and every other kind of furry critters cross thru the yard. Amazing to see! Winters we’d go ski-doing thru the forest areas. Great weekends away from the business. Bunk area slept eight with main master bedroom.
There is something to be said of escaping to the wilderness...even when you have the comforts of home.
A knothole?
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