Murphy's Law vs. The Blind Hog

Over the last few years I have lost almost all of my private land I had to hunt. I was down to 2 spots, one 18 acre spot over an hour away and a 30 acre spot about 10 minutes from my house. I still take deer regularly but it is hard to think about almost 2000 acres I have lost in different locations. Through a variety of reasons years of work were gone almost overnight. Last year I spent my time on these two small spots and had decided this year would be the same. Murphy’s Law it seems was in full affect.

Then the blind hog stepped in.

A huge oak I found walking the Beasley farm. Full of acorns and squirrels.


I had a truck in the drive and someone stopped by to see if it was for sale. As we talked I found out one guy lived just down the street but we had never talked. I found out he not only hunted but deer hunted on a farm 30 minutes away that had 320 acres on it. He hunts alone and talked about how he couldn’t find any more land to hunt near us. Permission is just hard to come by. We talked about deer for a bit, the truck some and before they left I had gotten invited to hunt a couple of times this year on his spot. I was thrilled and told him I would take him to one of my spots to trade hunts. He loved it because no one else would take him. Now I had almost 400 acres to hunt this year just from a random conversation.

Then came blind hog acorn number 2.

 September 1st is the opening of dove season. I don’t go on opening day anymore since I can shoot them in the backyard living as I do in the dove capitol of Tennessee. While I was talking to some folks on Twitter I was asked to check on some shoots near me. I said sure since the fields are just a few minutes. Easy way to help a friend, saves them some gas and time on opening day.

I headed over about 5 since there is usually someone around the barn about then. Sure enough they pulled in just ahead of me. I walked up and introduced myself again since it had been a long time since I had dropped in. Don Beasley and Josh were happy to talk dove hunts and what days they were planning to shoot. In a few minutes Josh’s boss (wife) pulled up and he headed home. Don and I hung out and talked for a bit more.

As I was getting ready to leave Don mentioned deer hunting, I perked up then. He said he had some people hunting but never saw them much last year and wished someone would come and shoot some does. I said I love to hunt does, only take bucks if I see a good one.  He thought for a second and then said that would be fine come on over and hunt this year. I about fell over. This is a 600 acre farm 4 minutes from my house. While not all of it is worth hunting there are plenty of spots that are.

I thanked him and thanked him some more then headed home still afraid to believe I had scored this spot. I honestly was waiting to go back and be told that they had changed their minds. Instead I went back and got invited to Don’s parents’ house where I now have a standing invitation to drop in anytime.

This will be a painting one day.


Without trying I managed to go from 48 acres to almost 1000. I didn't go out looking for a new spot but had them fall in my lap. It’s true a blind hog can find an acorn. I haven’t gotten to go check the 320 acres yet but got taken to a 150 acre section of the Beasley farm where we immediately saw a huge tom and then a flock of about 30 turkeys. It has woods, a creek, along with silage fields that are just cut or about to be. It has squirrels and doves all over to go along with the big critters. I can’t wait to get started there since I can hunt it during the week when no one else is around.

Hard to see but the turkeys are on the treeline.


For those of you that are like me (broke) and can’t afford a lease or only have public land to hunt, don’t give up. There are some nice folks out there that if you do it right will let you hunt their property. Try to find small places other people over look. I have had spots as small as 2 acres and as large as 750 all of them had deer. Hang in there and keep looking that blind hog is still rootin’.

Good luck to everyone this season and be safe.

Past and Future

I wasn’t planning to do another woodworking post but several folks liked this piece so I thought I would pass it along. Most of you know by now I am a firm believer in using what is at hand and this is a good example of going into the yard (well, at my house at least) and making something useful. The parts for this would be considered scrap or firewood by most people, in fact, the walnut was saved from a firewood stack while the Osage orange was laying in my yard. You could do this with hand tools but I have a few bigger toys that make it a bit faster.

As I talked with a couple of friends on Twitter about traditional archery, the subject of Osage orange being used for making a bow came up, this led to @ILCornfed asking if I could do a striker for a turkey call out of it. While I was working at the lathe turning some lures I had time to think about it and realized it could work. I had a small section of Osage that could be split and rescued walnut was sitting there all I had to do was turn the parts.

I took a chunk of Osage to work down first since if it failed there was no reason to do the top. Using a micrometer to check the thickness of one of my strikers I found out how small it needed to be. The one I used as a guide was 8 mm across and about 4-5” long. I chucked the first piece on the lathe and started cutting it down. I was surprised by how easy it worked. It didn’t take long to get it close to where it needed to be. I stopped to check it several times at this stage because it was pretty skinny. The simplest way for me to get it right was to use a parting tool at each end to turn down to the diameter I needed then cut the rest down with a bull gouge. When it was close I used a flat scraper to smooth the ridges out and then sanded it with 100 to 220 grit paper. After sanding I cut the ends off on the bandsaw then rounded one end with the disc sander and padded nail files.

For a first attempt at a top I used a piece of oak I found laying in our discard pile. Neighbor Don had tried to turn this oak but it wouldn’t turn, just made a mess. I tried to tell him to speed the lathe up but he thought slower would work. When I tried I used a faster speed and it cut like butter. After rounding it I measured a section 3 ½” long to taper using my store bought striker as a guide and Mark 1 eyeball to match it I got started. Since it was just a simple taper it only took a couple of minutes to turn and sand. Before I cut the ends off I used a small drill bit to put a pilot hole in the end where the osage would be added by simply drilling where the lathe spur had made a hole. This shows you the exact center of your work piece and makes it easier to enlarge the hole when you add the striker end. I matched the Osage piece to a drill bit then enlarged the hole to fit, cut the scrap ends off and sanded.

After getting the pieces ready I did a test fit to be sure I had things close. With the parts together I used one of my slate calls to see how it would sound. It was cool to hear it for the first time even though it was a bit too deep of a tone. I thinned the tip some by sanding to tune it to a higher pitch and that worked like a champ. This is when I thought about the walnut stacked outside.

I went out, found a likely looking piece and headed to the bandsaw for a bit of trimming. I crosscut a section about 5” long and got it on the lathe to commence with more turning. Since I had done one it didn’t take long to do the second one but I couldn’t leave it plain. I used a diamond parting tool to cut lines then used a bit of wire to burn the lines to darken them. I sanded this piece using 100 to 500 grit paper then drilled and trimmed it like the oak. I used a bit of wood glue to join all the parts and set them aside to dry. After they dried I applied a natural color stain to everything except the last 3/8” at the striker tip. I left this unstained so it wouldn’t affect the sound and could be sanded when needed.

The tip is not lined up in the pic since it wasn't glued in yet.


While I have quite a bit of store bought equipment around I am trying to produce things that I can be proud to say are one of a kind and work. I want to be able to provide the people that order from me items they can show off to friends and say that they have the only one exactly that shape or color. I never use templates when I turn, only rough plans when I build and no formulas when I paint. I couldn’t do two things exactly the same even if I wanted to. As I get older the things that our grandparents or great grandparents had and did are starting to mean more to me as I watch people drool over another mass produced item that anyone can buy. Are they good? For the most part, yes. Are they just alike? Yep. I remember a time when folks were more individual and what they used showed that side of them in its' quality and artistry which is what I want to provide.

I hope you give building something of your own a try. When we are all gone these are things hopefully that get passed along with stories of how Granma or Granpa made this, taught me how to use it and make my own so it all starts again.

If you would like to order an item or if you have a question you can contact me at ghost1066@gmail.com