For the last couple years, Magicman and PatD has been working at getting Tammy and I down to their place and out to the cabin, but we just had not been able to work it out. This year, around pigroast time we started really trying to figure out a way to do it, and just about pulled it off, but some Family stuff on Tammy's side and her work schedule put the skids to our plans. However! For Christmas, Tammy gave me a great present. Her blessings to go ahead and go on down by myself. There would not be a better time, due to my currently having a truck that had a great likelihood of making the trip there and back and the fact that gas prices are currently not so restrictive.
So, the day after New years I started the trip early in the morning to Mississippi. The first day I made it to Memphis by about 7pm and was able to stop and take a brief tour of the Basspro shop at the Memphis Pyramid. What a place! I didn't stay long because it was NOT a good time for that to be due to the Liberty Bowl and all the associated traffic and people were crowded into town, and seems like, in the Pyramid, so, I got back on the highway and drove on down the road a bit to Hernando, Mississippi and spent the night. The next morning I was up early and on the road. I had a Garmon on the windshield, my smart phone and google maps running on the dash, and a print out of directions given me by Lynn in a Forum PM. Turns out, even with all three of those, I had to Call Lynn when I was almost there because of some confusion. I'll let him tell you where that came from! :D
Anyhow, when I got off at the exit I got off on, I was excited because I noticed some awesome looking beautiful trees in bloom! I pulled in this Chinese Buffet place to await Lynn's rescue, and to admire these trees. Turns out this northern boy had just driven 1100 miles to the south, and first thing was fooled and impressed with PLASTIC TREES! :D :D
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Lynn drove in just in time to see me out in front of the parking lot taking pictures of the plastic trees. It was good to see my friend after not seeing him since Pigroast time. :) We went from there to Lynn and Pat's home, and then went to meet Marty and his wife and son for lunch. We had a great Lunch and then went back to Lynn's to pack up my truck with supplies for Lynn and I to head to his cabin for a week of hunting and visiting. That first day I took a video tour of the Magicman Cabin. I can't understand why he ain't living there full time! It is simply awesome.
https://youtu.be/PSuxRpdWSLY
I want to add something from something said in the Video. Magicman was HEATING UP Shrimp Gumbo. Not making it. :D Miss Pat had made this and I can tell you unequivocally that I had not enjoyed a meal more than I did her Shrimp Gumbo in recent memory. I needs me some more Gumbo!
More to come later!
It is good to see you had an enjoyable adventure. :)
It sure is nice to head south and see green this time of year. ;D
I cant think of a better time of year to go south or a better host. That sounds like a great time!
Well if there could be heaven on earth who else but Lynn could've created it? I agree, I'd be living there, safe travels and have a great time!
I have visited at the Magic Cabin and enjoyed Pats cooking and I know that you had to enjoy yourself, wonderful place and hosts.
If its possible to take memories to heaven, this part in your life will surely go. :)
Thanks for the tour! That is a lot of mounts... What's up stairs? I've don't remember, I'm sure MM had it in a post somewhere.
Started out watching the video with Cowboy Bob looking over my shoulder, but by the end, he'd leaned me right outta my chair and had drool all over his face looking at that cabin and those mounts!
What a wonderful tour! :)
Outstanding video. Almost like I had been there before. Every thing is in it's own place, and always looks good. The mounts keep the haints away. Jeff done good with that tour. Thanks, Andy
Here is another tour for you. A short ride on one of Lynn's trails between hunts. DISCLAIMER: WE DO REALLY KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TOOTHACHE TREES AND HACKBERRY! We just screwed up on this one :D
https://youtu.be/ScZB33lWOIE
Loved the tour. The cabin is amazing!
that looks like a very enjoyable time, nothing like a get away in the middle of winter time south, good friends, good food, and something else, cant think of it, oh yea good memories,, thanks for sharing, on both yalls parts,,
It was a wonderful opportunity for Pat and I to host Jeff for a week's visit.
QuoteI had to Call Lynn when I was almost there because of some confusion. I'll let him tell you where that came from!
Yup, I gave Jeff the wrong Exit#. I have no idea what I was thinking about so obviously I was not thinking. :-[
To a large extent, Pat had planned and prepared our meals, so we only had to decide what to eat and heat it up. We did not have Grits and Jeff only ate one slice of Claxton Fruitcake. We did have homemade apple pie and pecan cobbler though.
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Jeff mentioned Gumbo and as you can see here, his bowl is empty. He also discovered Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning.
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The Cabin upstairs is arranged a bit differently now, but it is one ~12X24' room with a closet as seen here looking from the stairs.
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And seen here looking toward the stairs.
Thanks for the tour of the land. I'm assuming that is all MM's land? Got a little turned around but, how much land is that? I like the WIDE, FLAT trails! Nice. No wonder there are so many deer mounts!
I own 346 acres but most of the trail ride was on a parcel of land that has been leased by my family since the early 50's. It was select-cut logged last year. My land was select-cut logged in 2005.
You did notice that there are no rocks or anything to prevent erosion. Tree roots are the only thing that holds this land together and trees are constantly giving way and falling. The water also spreads Walnuts which is why a majority of my Walnut trees are along this creek. It is also why they too are constantly washing away and falling in.
Jeff, did you get to see the room Okrafarmer slept in?
Not just mounts. There are antlers everywhere! :) I did not shoot a deer while I was there, but I did see several bucks. We had a detrimental north wind the entire time I was there and the deer were not moving. I didn't go with the goal of shooting a deer however. I went with the goal of having a good time with Lynn and Pat and that was totally accomplished. To those that Hunt, they know that the best part of hunting has nothing to do with killing something.
I did not get a deer, but we were successful in bagging the other quarry we stalked the entire week, minutes before I had to leave for home. I'll let Lynn tell about this. IT WAS AWESOME! :D :D :D
A picture from the shed showing just part of the racks out there. :)
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Quote from: POSTONLT40HD on January 17, 2016, 03:23:56 PM
Jeff, did you get to see the room Okrafarmer slept in?
No idea.
Okrafarmer did not go to the Cabin.
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He slept in the guest house here.
You have a nice spread Lynn. I hope you get as much time as you can at that nice cabin. Love your woods to. :)
Looks like a good time!!!
Magic Man has a nice spread.
Very enjoyable to see, thanks. 8)
Great tours documenting your southern visit.
Here I am making Lynn's champion Cherry Bark Oak looking smaller :)
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This is a good picture. Did you take your pocket and carve "Jeff was here" on it? :)
Very cool tour. I saw some cherrybark oak leaves sticking to the mud on the tire of the vehicle :D.
Quote from: WDH on January 17, 2016, 09:02:17 PM
Very cool tour. I saw some cherrybark oak leaves sticking to the mud on the tire of the vehicle :D.
Uhhh, you're missing the point Danny. :D This was a visit trip, not a show and tell for WDH. ;D
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth :D :D :D (old saying).
Quote from: WDH on January 17, 2016, 09:15:32 PM
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth :D :D :D (old saying).
You'er my
goat horse of knowledge. smiley_thumbsup
What a wonderful place Magicman has! That cabin is where I would be living for sure. I really appreciate Jeff taking us all along on his trip to God's Country. The videos were excellent. And now I'm craving some gumbo.
THANKS Jeff.
Glad you had a good time. Lynn and Pat have a nice place and are great hosts.
Quote from: POSTONLT40HD on January 17, 2016, 09:05:28 PM
Uhhh, you're missing the point Danny. :D This was a visit trip, not a show and tell for WDH. ;D
Au contraire monsieur goat!
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/2016-01-17_21_49_36.jpg)
https://youtu.be/Fpp0qmgztCo
WDH, I may be wrong but I think Lynn and Jeff were hinting at a Walnut Project to be held on the Davis farm. :)
I believe I would drive to that one.
This was a really good video also.
I'm not thinking that is the case. Too much would be going on harvest wise for a social gathering if things came together for what Magicman is thinking. I could be wrong.
Looks like it was a good time! Beautiful chunk of land, Lynn! Say, Lynn, you mentioned something about hanging up your spurs, was that figuratively or actually?
Dose all that land flood from time to time?
Very nice, thanks for taking us with you.
Magic Man I am amazed at the racks you have, well, racked up!
Jon
A plan is hatching. There is going to be a walnut incident in Mississippi I hope :).
That vine needs sawing too :D.
The leaf will tell us whether it is slippery elm (AKA red elm) or cedar elm. Slippery elm leaf is twice the size of cedar elm. Nice shot of the mock orange at the end, the green one with the thorns. Good old Poncirus trifoliata.
Very interesting ride, really enjoyed it.
I am enthralled with mock orange.
Quote from: Peter Drouin on January 18, 2016, 06:45:35 AMDose all that land flood from time to time?
That creek is "blessed" with a drainage area that is ~2 miles "square" so a huge amount of water passes through. Yes, the bottom land and the bridge that we crossed will go up to ~2 feet under water. Twice I have had poles and bridge decking to wash off before I could complete a rebuilding project. That is also why I continually have trees to give way and fall. The strange thing is that as the water swirls it deposits silt and tree seeds/nuts somewhere else and the cycle continues. The creek doesn't get larger, but it is continually changing.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/2410/pluslease2%5B1%5D.JPG)
Here is a map of my place outlined in red and the yellow is my leased land. The Cabin is in the extreme NE corner. The "Straw Field" is the brown area in the center, and the "Back Forty" is the NW corner. Most all of the "open" land is now Pine plantations. The pin map on my profile shows a much later picture of how it actually is now and the food plots in the Straw Field and Back Forty are green instead of brown.
Jeff mentioned the North wind that we had to deal with while hunting. The deer normally bed in the 150 acre block in the SE corner which makes hunting with a North wind a serious challenge at best. We had one afternoon that things were finally working when a puff of wind sent them running with their tails up. There was one day that we did not see a single deer, but I do not recall that it hampered our visiting and fellowship. Heck, maybe that is why we did not see anything. ;D
Quote from: Weekend_Sawyer on January 18, 2016, 07:12:57 AMMagic Man I am amazed at the racks you have, well, racked up! Jon
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/2410/DSCN0312.JPG)
This was my last "season limit" in 1997 when I decided that one would be my future limit.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/2410/DSCN0663.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/2410/DSCN0664~0.JPG)
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This board (from left to right) is mostly my "one per year" board since 1997.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/2410/DSCN0666~0.JPG)
Yup a few prior to 1996 and none of them are sheds.
This year has been very unusual with only one "good" buck and one cull taken.
Quote from: Jeff on January 18, 2016, 07:40:03 AM
I am enthralled with mock orange.
Mom's uncle and aunt had two clumps of it for years out on the front lawn near the road. Smells nice when in flower.
Will it grow up here? You seem to be about the same latitude as us.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/2016-01-18_11_46_43.jpg)
Jeff. a lot of the time the camera was on the ground, so were you looking down for snakes? 8)
Jeff it is good up to planting zone 5 . They are winter hardy to -10° My family call them wild orange or flying dragon.
Trifoliate orange show up unexpectedly, and plant a thorn in your head.
Ours is different Jeff. It's Philadephus in the Hydrangeaceae family. Not thorny.
I would hate to see it spread to anywhere. That stuff is nasty.
I have seen thickets of it in a bottomland in San Jacinto County Texas that you could barely walk through.
A lot of thorny stuff in Texas, including some of the people. There is one old Texas Ranger there in Polk County that is pretty thorny :). Cooks a mean steak, though ;D.
Thanks for the info.
Mock orange grows good here just west of you across the lake on the border of zone 4 and 5.
My Tractor tire would find everyone of them.
They have a bunch of prickley stuff down there we don't have.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/2016-01-18_22_12_02.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/2016-01-18_22_12_29.jpg)
https://youtu.be/avFQhSEKyY8
There spanish moss down there like they have in jawja?
Yup
That stuff is purdy cool, although it'd prolly annoy me if I was logging it.
very cool.
Lynn,
My 20 year old daughter and her boyfriend watched the first of the videos narrated and filmed by Jeff of your place. She killed her first deer ever yesterday morning and when Jeff began filming the bucks killed by your wife, she stated that Ms. Pat is her hero and was in awe of the mounts.
I appreciate having the opportunity to watch it as well.
As so many topics wind up mentioning food, I regret not being able to sample the gumbo but Sunday night, we did prepare a low country boil in an 80 quart pot with crabs, shrimp, sausage, corn, potatoes, onions and even a few carrots.
Kyle
Thank you. Check the "Animals" album in my gallery. There are many that did not get mounted. :)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/2016-01-19_19_16_09.jpg)
Looking at the last Pic. It can't be that cold down there to have to put on all that clothes . :D
It was in the low 20's. Yes, it was that cold.North wind as well.
Young trees have a tough time there on magicman's place. I saw dozens of rubs and lots of scrapes. One morning we walked out to the pond and a buck had waded the shallows rubbing up the volunteer cypress trees on the far shore. He had not been gone long because there was still mud stirred water in his underwater tracks.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/2016-01-20_13_14_10.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/2016-01-20_13_13_42.jpg)
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Pretty day, pretty country,
Thats a good picture of you and Lynn, Jeff. I am assuming your bellies were full. ;D
Is that a fat face crack there goat boy? ;)
Quote from: Jeff on January 20, 2016, 01:51:51 PM
Is that a fat face crack there goat boy? ;)
My Dad says you can tell happiness by the smile on a mans face. I think I see a little gumbo in that beard. :D
That Gumbo was too good to share with my beard!
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/DSCN1843.JPG)
Gumbo, did someone mention Gumbo (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,80098.msg1217505.html#msg1217505) ??
Hey thars shrimp in that gumbo!
I was gona remark that I almost turned one of those golf carts over at the tree farm when they loaded me in the wrong spot. They called me ballast the rest of the day.
Looks like you fellas had a great visit. MM and Pat D have a gift of hospitality for sure.
PC
Paul, I actually described that event to Jeff while we were standing beside the "Meadows Miller" stump. You made a very good ballast. :)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/2410/DSCN0456~0.JPG)
Here you are with Bill Gaiche and Willie Steele preparing the ballast.
I think it was mentioned again when I had to bail off so the cart would pull a hill. :D
Quote from: Jeff on January 20, 2016, 06:35:34 PM
I think it was mentioned again when I had to bail off so the cart would pull a hill. :D
smiley_ignore
To be fair to myself, there were three of us in the golf cart and it was a long steep hill. :D
Quote from: Jeff on January 20, 2016, 07:33:50 PM
To be fair to myself, there were three of us in the golf cart and it was a long steep hill. :D
Ain't that funny how all of a sudden there is 3 of you. :D :D :D :D
There was only one of me.
Actually Jeff and I had pulled that hill a couple of times without any problem. This particular evening, Pat was.....why do I get the feeling that I should just shut my mouth ??
Quote from: Magicman on January 20, 2016, 08:51:24 PM
Actually Jeff and I had pulled that hill a couple of times without any problem. This particular evening, Pat was.....why do I get the feeling that I should just shut my mouth ??
You better type smaller than that. :D
There were 4 of us on one of them carts when we had to reconfigure the ballast. Slim pilot sarge couldn't keep the front wheels on the ground.
We made it to live another day.
PC
With all them deer rubs at Magaic's place, he has a good idea what moose does to softwood, especially pine, and then there is aspen and red maple. But usually the softwood tops are snapped off and chewed like hay. :D If they get into a fir thicket, they just chew and spew. :D
The deer have no concern whatsoever about the Cabin's existence. The bucks are rubbing my Longleaf Pine saplings and Cypress sprouts as Jeff pictured and have a nice ground scrape less than 100 yards from the front door. One gave Jeff a start one night crashing through the Pines within "spitting distance" of the Cabin door. We laughed and wondered if we needed to hunt from a chair on the porch. :)
Quote from: Magicman on January 21, 2016, 08:15:28 AM
We laughed and wondered if we needed to hunt from a chair on the porch. :)
It has been done.
Quote from: POSTONLT40HD on January 17, 2016, 10:36:33 PM
WDH, I may be wrong but I think Lynn and Jeff were hinting at a Walnut Project to be held on the Davis farm. :)
I believe I would drive to that one.
This was a really good video also.
I would come!
There will be a Walnut sawing and there will be another Chickin Crispin, but not at the same time. One will be work and the other fun. :)
Quote from: Magicman on January 21, 2016, 07:38:30 PM
There will be a Walnut sawing and there will be another Chickin Crispin, but not at the same time. One will be work and the other fun. :)
I don't know, but that Walnut sawing just might be the most fun even if it is work.
Probably so 'cause sawing Walnut can not all be work. :)
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Back to food, Jeff found a new spice while he was visiting. food6
Walnut and gumbo! Hard to beat ;D.
Got Bait?? ???
Quote from: Magicman on January 21, 2016, 08:35:28 PM
Got Bait?? ???
How much bait does it take to make a Gum bow?
What a nice place.. was any of the land farmed at one time? Wow.. w/ all those racks.. what is your favorite venison dish? I like flipping some choice cuts in corn meal and gently fry them in peanut oil.. put them on some toasted bread w/ mayo & hot sauce.. I can eat 4 sandwiches before I realize I'm full. Looks like you guys had great time.. you probably should hook up to a mule goat to help pull you up those hills.. just dangle one of those gumbo shrimp in front of him. ;D
My Dad farmed ~350 acres which was everything except the 150 acres in the SE corner. I planted trees on all of my open land in 2005. I do have some fairly steep hills, but they are in that wooded SE corner.
Another thread carried me back to this Cabin Addition (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,47709.msg686238.html#msg686238) this morning. It has been 5 years since I started the living room and bedroom additions that Jeff took the video of. :o