Dream to Reality: The One Sixty

[WalkieTalkie]

Dream come true

[wingnut]

Not sure how i missed your original thread! Just read every single post. Great looking place and nice job on taking Hollywood. He's a stud. I may have missed it, but do yall have a running thread on the second new property?

Congrats again, yall are living the whitetail hunters dream. Its also my dream to one day have my own piece of ground strictly for my families recreational use.

Thanks, Bloodstick! Yes, the property you are referring to is Coal Creek. When you decide to buy a piece of property give Oklahoma a hard look you want be disappointed. Darton, can help you find your dream place!

[Split_Brow]

***Long post warning, pics are in the next post***

Walking out of work Friday, at 2:30 in the post meridian, I stood on the sidewalk, closed my eyes and let the warmth of the sun soak into my cheeks. It had been 2 hours since I had completed my 7 mile run in this heat, Texas, July heat. Now albeit, not as hot as years past at this time, but there was a dryness in the air that I could smell as I stood there. We need rain. Days of it. You see, building food plots consumed my thoughts at this particular junction in time. I drifted in and out of thought as I drove home to gather up the last of my things, so that I would be ready to load the protein and corn into Bryan's truck. Long before I saw him, I heard the squeaks and pops of his gooseneck trailer coming down the oil-top road. We were headed North, and wouldn't be back until Sunday. Due to his wife and daughters being out of town, we had the esteemed honor of having his two dachshunds ride shotgun. Molly, the 30+ pound wire-haired dachshund sat lazily in my lap as we ambled along northward at a quickening pace towards Coal Creek. Shart! That's the word of the day. It was not a new word to me but I guess it was a word that Bryan's wife educated him on recently. You see, the much smaller dachshund riding in his lap, Maggie, gets nervous on long road trips and occasionally sharts. Now we're not talking about a big shart, or an all out "blowing texture on new sheetrock, no, nothing like that. Just a cute little dime sized shart, on his leg. His leg mind you, not mine, that's why I can say it was cute. But he was ready for this, as evidenced by the large bath towel in his lap that she sat on. But, shart-juice do what shart juices do, and penetrated through the towel and onto his blue jeans. I laughed, hard, he scowled, didn't think it was funny, I did. We resumed talking about the next 48 hours, planning and strategizing our food plots, what would be on the cameras, the adjustments made to the protein funnels, what's going on over on the neighbors place, what the new place is going to have, and on and on and on. We picked up the dozer from Coal Creek and arrived at The OneSixty just before 10:30. We were up before the sun rose so that I could get my Phantom 4 Pro drone in the air for some nice sunrise video. While I was busy navigating my drone around the country side, Bryan was greasing the dozer and blowing out the radiator. After fluids checked and diesel topped off, he began the SLOW trek to the first food plot that we call the Gas Well. It is no longer active and is nothing more than a few pipes sticking out of the ground, but did provide the basis for the first food plot that Bryan would be creating today. It was an extension northward off of the dormant pipeline that runs east and west. Work began, and the dust flew, trees were pushed, rocks were moved and very quickly, the landscape of The OneSixty began to change. By lunchtime, a new food plot location had been created, where dense woods had been just hours before. After a great lunch and one of the local diners just 5 minutes from the gate, we were back at it. On the way to the soon to be "West Plot," he used his D5 CAT to fix the drainage and the dam of the large pond on the property. The beavers had been busy over the past year but nothing a shot of yellow metal couldn't make quick work of. Slowly moving southward down the west fence, he finally arrived, driving under me as I sat high in the game tamer stand that would soon overlook the northwest corner of the West Plot. Bryan got back to work and once again, the dust flew. The drone went back in the air and videoing commenced. On a side note, we as outdoor enthusiasts have dealt with mosquitoes, ticks, spider webs to the face, and an array of other nuisances in the field, but on this trip, it was medium sized horse flies. Oh My Gato, OMG, these things were tenacious, relentless, and out for blood. If I killed 1, I killed 50. The only good thing is that they were slow, but dadgum did they hurt. When you have both hands on the control of your drone and navigating through trees and got two sum beeches trying to fill a year's quota worth of blood on your back and arm, it gets pretty serious. Swat the little demons and risk a $2000 drone meeting it's demise, or hold steady and take it like a man. Well, I'll just let you know, if you're still tagging along, man, and I donated blood that day, so Carter's mobile blood bank can quit calling for donations for a month or two. I filled protein feeders and corn feeders, hung lock-ons at most of our spots, checked trail cameras, scouted new areas, and just enjoyed the day. Bryan put the finishing touches on the West Plot and wrapped up the dozer work. The two new plots looked better than imagined. We will spray round up some time in August to catch any new growth and knockout what didn't get turned over by the blade and plow and plant sometime around Labor Day, just before a rain. Saturday evening was sure to not disappoint as Bryan and I had plans of meeting up with Darton and Booner Sooner for supper. We had never met Booner Sooner (Micah) and were eager to meet up. Now to say these fellas were a bit antsy is an understatement. We had no more made it back to the house to take showers and clean up, before we were already getting the "we're already here where are ya'll at?" call. Bryan and I's saving grace was that the restaurant that we were intending on meeting them at was closed for a funeral (hope they didn't die eating the food there), so Darton (Jay) said that Roy, or Rob, or something like that had referred them to the Catfish Shack in Porum, Oklahoma, and boy did it not disappoint. After stuffing our faces and discussing the management strategies of three different places, we decided to meet back up at the OneSixty to show Jay and Micah the new food plot areas and to show Micah the house. Two hours later (which only felt like about 30 minutes), Micah and Jay left to go back to Micah's 80 acre slice of heaven. Now just know that Bryan and I met Micah for the first time at the Catfish Shack, and like when we met Jay for the first time, we felt like we already knew so much about him because of this small little community known as TexasBowhunter.com. We've been following Booner Sooner's posts for years, just like we'd been following Darton's post for years. After Friday night, it felt like we had been old high school buddies that were getting to see each other after a few years. Peas in a pod. I could tell you that Jay and Micah are as good as gold but that would be a lie, because they are better than that. When measured next to gold, gold looses value. These guys are platinum, as good as they come. To hear Micah's story on how he acquired his 80 acres, how his wife instantly fell in love with the place, and how this was only the second trip since buying the place that he'd been up there alone, spoke volumes about his family. His kids are in love with the place, and that is worth it all. That's why we get up and go to work, and finish Master's degrees, and put in the hours, long after dark. People often ask me why I hunt, how I could kill the deer in my office. I was hunting last weekend. I tell them that the killing is only a very small fraction of the whole process. Getting into bow hunting at the age of 11, and 30 years later still being in love with it, has very little to do with the killing. It’s the scouting, stand hanging, Ranger riding, dozer working, tractor shredding, round-up spraying, protein filling, Taco Bob/Catfish Shack eating, new friend meeting, campfire building, grilling, beer drinking, sunrise/sunset watching, rain on your face, laughing, crying, camera checking, road tripping, Whataburger stopping, bow shooting, and so much more that sums up "hunting." The weekend was July 26-28, 2019. Not a bow was drawn, not an arrow released, nor an animal killed. And we were hunting. As I write this, there are now 62 days between today and October 1.

[wingnut]

Had a great weekend at the 160! Got to hangout with Cody, Darton and finally got to meet Booner Sooner! We arrived at the 160 Friday evening but we needed the dozer from Coal Creek. So we dropped the ranger and fuel trailer then off to Coal Creek. This trip we were going to clear us two new spots for food plots. After season last year we decided that we needed to add two good size food plots. Nobody around us has any food plots so we thought that would help attract and hold the deer on us more.

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Bryan servicing the CAT

In route to the Gas Well

Pushing things around

View of the Gas Well Plot in progress

West end of the Gas Well Plot

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"Baby Blue" - the 11 foot diameter, 7 foot tall fiberglass tank that we will convert into a heckuva ground blind
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Dozer pic through some gas pipe
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pic of the house and dozer
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New Road Protein feeder with stand in the background

2.5 last year showing considerable growth as a 3.5 year old this year

[fordsuper08]

awesome write up living the dream guys one day I hope to buy a place as well

[Darton]

Great time as usual fellas! Love the new additions and can't wait for the results

[Split_Brow]

A drone pic of the Gas Well Plot with the house in view. House is in the northwest corner of the place.

[DZM]

Awesome love this progress

[Iamhooked]

Food plots will be golden come fall. Looking forward to the updates.
Sounds like it was a gathering of the minds this weekend. Maybe this fall we can all get together.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

[Booner Sooner]

Outstanding write up, Cody, even by your high standard. You have a gift.

Dinner with like minded friends followed by a detailed tour of the 160 was truly a treat and something that I don’t have the opportunity to do very often. Career, faith, and domestic responsibilities leave little time these days to enjoy this kind of camaraderie. You two are going about developing the 160 the right way and it inspires me to press on with my own place knowing it is a worth while investment. Bryan and Cody, thanks for a fine evening and I look forward to reciprocating when our schedules allow. I really enjoyed it! Your place is taking shape and looking good.

The photos that you have posted don’t do it justice. I look forward to following along with you both this fall and seeing what surprises the 160 will surely bring.

Also, my estimate on Saturday night was off. Door to door the 160 is a little over 10 minutes from my place. The better part is that there are a couple of quality dining establishments half way between us! Next time you are up, the sweet tea is on me. [emoji6]

[Split_Brow]

First drone video is up, more to come from the footage captured last weekend. This was my first so hope it only gets better from here.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQvzLxUDiJo"]The OneSixty Gas Well Plot part 1 - YouTube[/ame]

[Split_Brow]

for some reason, my youtube url is not posting when I submit the post. I go to edit and it shows that it is there. weird