Emily and Stuart went fishing in the big pond today and caught two decent size channel catfish that we stocked a few years ago.  They gutted them and ate them for dinner, Emily says they were delicious, flaky white meat.

Showed Patrick how to sight in a rifle today.  We did both my SCAR and Remington 700 308.  After they were zeroed at 200 yards I set him up for a long shot at 515 yards.  Incredibly he was putting shots on target!  Bullet drop at that range is about 56 inches for a 308, and there was a slight wind.  Here are some picts of the action.

Thats only about 3 inches from the aim point at 515 yards!

Had the barn painted today, looks great now, really made the roof look great.  Supposedly it should last 8-10 years before the rust starts to come back through, we shall see.

The guy who did the painting was incredibly nimble on the roof, no safety line, just walking up and down the roof like it was nothing, impressive.

I think its a black snake, didn’t get too close to see.

FINALLY finished trimming the leyland cypress hedge along the driveway.  They just were totally out of hand, 15-20ft high, completely blocking the expansive views of the property.  If they don’t end up filling out and being a nicely tamed hedge I’m going to end up ripping them completely out.

Beepa was a big help taking the tops off to the brush pile with the grapple on the tractor.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught a large groundhog scurrying down into this hole.  I immediately grabbed a shovel and 3 road flares.  There were FOUR entrances to the den, I filled in 3 and then lit the flares and threw them down the last large hole.  I filled in the hole and that was it…a long dirt nap.

The second picture is from 3 days later, none of the holes were dug out so I think I got them.

This guy showed up on the game camera.

Storm last week must of had at least 60mph winds.  Big branches down, tv antennae bent in half, barn tin roof rolling up, heavy deck chairs thrown about, and worst, AND the hinges on the new gate were bent, which was very frustrating.

After three months, the gate is mostly finished and it’s just needing a few more extra touches from the initial landscape design. There are a few configuration items in the gate mechanism that still need to be addressed, but the structure and landscaping are complete and the gate mechanism is functional. We had to rent some tools and equipment for the landscaping job such as a horizontal grinder equipment to get rid of the tree stumps because of our location.

One item not installed yet is a video camera tied into the homes real-time video recording system.  We’ll be able to see who is at the gate and monitor the system if necessary.  I’m going to install the wireless network system to bring the home network up to the gate.  You can see the red barn in the distance, I’ll mount one wireless transmitter there and another on a pole at the gate.

Here are a few pictures looking at the gate from different angles.