Well, I guess I’m not much of a suspense writer with a title like that, but I’m just very happy that it is back on top of the hill, and in one piece. It took plenty of work and some creative thinking, but it’s done.
I got a little cocky when I was able to get there early by myself and get the floor loaded up on my pickup, haul it up the hill and get it setup and leveled out by myself. I figured that if I could do that by myself, then the rest would be easy with a helper. Here’s the floor back up.
I talked my friend Ben into coming down to help me, and his wife Tabitha came with him as well, and it turned out to be a very good thing because there were a couple times that we really needed her help. I put a pop-up blind on top of the floor that I had setup and we were hoping that some hogs would come in, but we struck out. Saturday morning started off with a flat tire and getting the spare lock to release is always a joy when changing out a tire on a pickup. The we started out collecting pieces of the blind from the bottom of the hill and hauling them back up to the top. Here’s the first load.
After we got everything picked up and hauled up to the top of the hill, we sorted out the broken and unbroken pieces and started putting the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle. We would set the plywood down on the floor and then line up the pieces and assemble the frame, then flip it over and screw the plywood back to the frame. Lots of bent and broken screws and the reciprocal saw got quite a bit of use sawing ends off of screws that we couldn't get out. Lots of liquid nails used as well on some of the cracked and splintered wood. The worst part was just getting started, once we got going we had all the walls repaired in just a couple hours.
After we got all 4 walls repaired, it was a pretty simple matter of putting them where they went and screwing them into the floor and then screwing them together. 
The easy part was now done! I had been counting on the hunters that lease the property to the north of me to be on their place working on setting all their feeders up and getting in some dove hunting over labor day like they have for the previous 3 years that I've owned the property. I figured that with 3 or 4 of them plus Ben and I we could simply pick the roof up and set it on the top of the blind. I was a little worried when they didn't show up Friday night, but when they weren't over there by lunch on Saturday I was concerned. I figured we would just finish the walls and leave the roof for some other time, because there was no way we would get it put on assembled with just the two of us. We decided to see if we could even move it, and did manage to get it flipped over and we could actually pick it up about a foot off the ground, but once we had it picked up we couldn't move. We put a 2x12 laminated beam I had brought under it to see if we could slide it, but it was a no go. We could move it a few feet at a time, but it was going to take all day to get it the 30 yards or so back to where the blind was. We were stuck.
After talking it through, the only other option was to try to get my tractor up the hill to help out. I had actually brought some pallet forks with me that attach to the front of the bucket, but I had never had my tractor up on the hill before and wasn't so sure that I wanted to attempt it. The hill is pretty steep and tractors have a short wheel base and a high center of gravity and they can and do tip over pretty easily. I decided the safest way was to actually back the tractor up the hill since I had my shredder on the back and that would act as a counter weight to keep it from tipping. I made sure the tractor was in 4 wheel drive and started for the top, backwards! Things went really well until right near the top and the rear wheels started to spin a little and it started bouncing. I had the loader bucket set low so if it started to tip it would hopefully stop it, but after an anxious moment I was at the top! Once on top I was able to hook up to the roof and using a strap around the top, I used the tractor to pick up the roof and set it up on top of the rock outcropping on top of the hill where the blind was. This gives a good perspective on the size of the rock outcropping at the top of the hill.
The problem was that there was just no way to get the tractor up n top of the rock and get next to the blind. I got it as close as I could and set it down. After setting the roof on the laminated beam I had brought, we were able to slide it over in front of the blind. Now the work was really about to begin.
The next step was to get the roof tilted up and resting on the plank so we could slide it up onto the top! It sounds a LOT easier than it was. This was the first step where we couldn't have done it without a 3rd person. Ben and I picked up one side of the roof while Tabitha moved the beam underneath it. We took a break after this step!
Here’s a picture of the tractor at the top of the hill. Not sure if I will ever have it up there again so I went ahead and took a picture of it up there. Yes it is as steep as it looks!
This is where I just decided to man up and put the roof on! Actually this was the first spot where one of us wasn't required to keep the roof from crushing the other while we were lifting it up and we could get a picture taken. It is amazing what leverage can do, with just a couple feet of the plank sticking out the other side I could hold up one side of the roof pretty easily while Tabitha cranked on the come-a-long on the other side.
Here's Tabitha cranking on the come-a-long while I'm holding the other end up to help make it easier. You can see the extra 2x4 screwed onto the outside of the top of the wall, the top 2x4 broke on the first attempt to wench the roof up, and we had to reinforce it for the 2nd attempt.
Here it is all put back together and ANCHORED! It is a little worse for wear after taking a tumble down the hill, but it actually went back together really well and still seems to be plenty sturdy. The windows and door ended up in the worst shape and I've been planning on changing out the windows anyway so that won't be a factor for much longer. I used 3/8” eye bolts and 1/8” steel cable to anchor it in. The rock on the left is the smallest anchor point out of all of them.
I brought a masonry bit for my drill and was able to get a hole drilled in the rock outcropping to put an anchor in for the predominant Southwest wind. If the blind comes off this time it is going to take a tornado.
And my last picture. The finished blind up on the hill with my pond in the foreground. It’s about as full as the pond has been in a couple years, everything sure is green for early September in West Texas.
When it was all said and done it ended up costing less than $25 in supplies to repair it. I didn't do a good job of really looking it over to know what I needed and lucked out bringing 5 2x4’s and that ended up being exactly how many I needed. That and a few tubes of liquid nails and the eye bolts were all that I ended up spending in dollars, but it was a pretty hard day of labor getting it back together. Still, overall it did go together pretty smoothly and it probably took about 6 hours of actual work time getting it back together.
VERY happy that it is back up and very thankful to have friends willing to help out!
That’s it for now. Nathan
I talked my friend Ben into coming down to help me, and his wife Tabitha came with him as well, and it turned out to be a very good thing because there were a couple times that we really needed her help. I put a pop-up blind on top of the floor that I had setup and we were hoping that some hogs would come in, but we struck out. Saturday morning started off with a flat tire and getting the spare lock to release is always a joy when changing out a tire on a pickup. The we started out collecting pieces of the blind from the bottom of the hill and hauling them back up to the top. Here’s the first load.
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