The Maple Mansion

My spring break was a different week than my kids, but it did overlap the Thursday and Friday before Easter. Luckily, my son and I were able to make it up there for a couple of days.

Clearing a New Food Plot

We’ve had a pretty unseasonably warm winter in Michigan. Back in February enough snow had melted that my dad and I were able to get up to The Maple Mansion and scout out a new 1 acre food plot I am hoping to get in this summer. I had it plotted (no pun intended) out via onX, but I really needed to get out there to make sure what I thought I was looking at on the satellite image matched up with the reality on the ground.

It was close enough, so while we were up there I started cutting down some of the smaller trees. I’ve found the best way to clear out a thick area like this is to start with the smallest trees. That way there is space for the next sized trees to fall all the way to ground instead of getting hung up on the other trees around them.

The daytime temps were in the teens and there was about 8″ of snow on the ground at the time so I didn’t get all of the small trees, but I got a bunch of them. The plan of action during spring break was to clean up as much of the debris on the ground as we could.

In addition to clearing out many loads of wood with the forks, I also had a bunch of small stumps to cut flush with the ground. Remember the 8″ of snow? That meant I couldn’t get all of the way to the ground when I cut them down back in February. It was time to get out the trusty Husqvarna 450 Rancher so the tractor could make it’s way through the woods.

After a day’s worth of hard work, a decent part of the new plot was cleared out. Well, cleared out more than it was when we started at least.

Clearing out a 1 acre food plot from the woods is a lot of work and takes a lot of time. Personally, I like doing the work myself. There is a sense of pride that comes with hard work. Even if I could afford to have someone with heavy equipment put my food plots in, I don’t think I would. At least that’s what I tell myself!

Splitting Wood

Anyone who heats with wood knows, there’s always wood to be split. I already had a sizeable pile waiting back at the mansion for me, but while clearing out the food plot, I cut down a smaller maple that I thought would be the perfect diameter for my son to split.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the bed of our Terx is just deep enough to fit 16″ long logs and a chainsaw. My son has messed around a little with splitting wood in the past, but this was his first real taste.

He did pretty well the first day. He finished the day with all his fingers and toes, and only stung his hands once from hitting the log with the handle instead of the ax head. After splitting a few logs my son was feeling pretty good. Some how that evening we got talking about splitting wood and he said he thought he could split that whole pile of wood we had outside by himself.

I told him that was crazy, there were simply too many big logs out there for a 9 year to split. As we all know, parents have NO IDEA what they are talking about, and he assured me he could. The conversation went on, and ended with me promising to buy him a phone if he was able to split the whole pile of wood the next day.

With visions of finally getting the phone of his dreams, he was chomping at the bit to get outside and split some wood the next morning! After he took care of a couple smaller logs he was ready for a break, so I showed him how to tackle a couple of the bigger logs.

He got back to splitting more wood, but by this time he found a few small knots and was starting to slow down.

After taking a stab at one of the bigger logs himself, reality started to set in. “Well son, I’m not as dumb as I look.” If he’s heard that phrase once, he’s heard it a thousand times. It wasn’t until I was 18 that I finally realized that about my father. I hoping if I keep saying it to him he’ll figure it out sooner than I did. I’m not holding my breath.

*Ideally I’d like have a 6 or 8 lbs. splitting maul for bigger logs. It’s on my list of tools to get, so if you have a suggestion on which one to get, I’m open to it.

Driving Around and Killing Batteries

Both of my kids get a kick out of driving around on the side by sides and tractor. My son is old enough that we let him drive the old side by side himself, as long as we are in the passenger seat. Obviously, the tractor doesn’t work that way. He has to sit on my lap and steer, while I work the petals. It’s kind of a tight squeeze, but he likes driving the tractor, and this is how we got to and from the new food plot.

It was about 11 PM the evening after we worked on the food plot and I went outside for a few minutes. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a light flashing from behind the garage. “What in the heck?” I thought. It took me a minute, but I finally convinced myself there was no way someone was prowling around with a flashlight over 1/4 mile back off the road in the middle of the night. I walked down there and sure enough, the lights on the tractor were slowly flashing on and off. When I turned off the flashers and tried to start it up… nothing. The switch must have got bumped while my son was getting out and we didn’t realize it because it was light out at the time.

It’s never a dull moment at The Maple Mansion, and my son got to see how you can use a pickup truck to jump a tractor.

Time Together

Most fourth graders don’t dream of going up north to clear out a food plot for spring break, and my son is no exception. I’m sure he would have rather been on a beach in Florida with the rest of the kids from West Michigan. Me on the other hand, I was just where I wanted to be. My wife and I dreamed of owning a property because of the adventures it would bring, and the memories we could make. Spending part of my spring break up north with my son is a memory I will always cherish.