Goals for 2008 and what happened.

[EddieWalker]

Last year sometime, I was reading a thread about what some of you wanted to get done over the winter months. I added to it with a project or two that I wanted to get done, but then got to thinking of what I wanted to accomplish here for the year. I thought that if I put it out there, I would be more likely to stay on focus and achieve those goals. It didn't work.

My Goals for 2008

1. Fishing and Hunting with my kids.
2. Build my storage Shed.
3. Put my outside access bathroom together.
4. Fence in a quarter acre for Turkeys.
5. Build my gazebo for my front pasture.
6. Finish back pasture and plant it in Bermuda.
7. Start my food plots.
8. Build a comfortable deer stand for two.
9. Build a wood burning fireplace in my home.
10. New flooring in my home.
11. Build a pasture sprayer.
12. Get my old jeep running.

Goal #1, Fishing and Hunting with my kids, was originally put down last as its something we do all the time here. Since it kept coming up that I had my priorities out of order, I changed it around and put it on top of the list. We have two ponds and 68 acres of land. We keep a feeder going year round with hogs coming to it almost every night. Both kids love to fish and go hunting, so it's always a way to spend a few hours with them. What usually happens is they end up playing in the water after catching a few fish.

With the hunting, they will follow us out to check on the feeder or see whats out and about. Steph and I both prefer to shoot select animals and let most of them go. My brother has been visiting off and on from California, and he likes to take them out squirrel hunting. While they haven't shot anything yet, they love the idea of dressing up in their camouflage and having a gun there for them to shoot. Neither are good shots yet, but they try and we're very careful of when that actually handle the .22 or .410 with ammo.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Goal #2, Build my storage Shed really surprised me in how little I got done on it. Early in the spring, I started setting forms and digging the footings. I can't even tell you how many times during the week I had planned to work on it that weekend, only to do something else. I carried a shopping list for rebar with me for most of the year. In fact, it was just about a month ago that I through that piece of graph paper away when cleaning out my truck.

This goal was a total failure, but something that I really need to get done this year!!!!

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Goal #3, Put my outside access bathroom together, was another failure. In my goal to build an RV Park, I will have bathrooms on the side of my home/shop building for guest to use in my tent sites. These are 8ft x 8ft individual bathrooms with a shower, toilet and sink. No sharing or having to take a shower in front of anybody else. I want to finish off one of them so that we can use it for parties that we have here throughout the year. I remodel allot of bathrooms every year, so it's not a big project to do, but it just never happened. One of my biggest stumbling blocks has bee what type of air hand dryer to buy and who to buy it from. I've looked at all sorts of brands and talked to a few vendors, but don't have a good idea of which are good and which are not. My other issue is whether to put in one piece fiberglass shower units, or tile them. I like the one piece units because of the speed in which they go in, and how easy they are to clean. I don't like the fact that they are fiberglass and easy to vandalize or damage. Tile will also give the showers that over the top, I want to come back here again and again, feel. I'm leaning heavily towards doing them in tile and just dealing with it.

With what I want to do in 2009, I don't know if I'll get to this or not. It's got to get done, I just don't know when.

Eddie

 

[coffeeman]

Last year sometime, I was reading a thread about what some of you wanted to get done over the winter months. I added to it with a project or two that I wanted to get done, but then got to thinking of what I wanted to accomplish here for the year. I thought that if I put it out there, I would be more likely to stay on focus and achieve those goals. It didn't work.

My Goals for 2008

1. Fishing and Hunting with my kids.
2. Build my storage Shed.
3. Put my outside access bathroom together.
4. Fence in a quarter acre for Turkeys.
5. Build my gazebo for my front pasture.
6. Finish back pasture and plant it in Bermuda.
7. Start my food plots.
8. Build a comfortable deer stand for two.
9. Build a wood burning fireplace in my home.
10. New flooring in my home.
11. Build a pasture sprayer.
12. Get my old jeep running.

Goal #1, Fishing and Hunting with my kids, was originally put down last as its something we do all the time here. Since it kept coming up that I had my priorities out of order, I changed it around and put it on top of the list. We have two ponds and 68 acres of land. We keep a feeder going year round with hogs coming to it almost every night. Both kids love to fish and go hunting, so it's always a way to spend a few hours with them. What usually happens is they end up playing in the water after catching a few fish.

With the hunting, they will follow us out to check on the feeder or see whats out and about. Steph and I both prefer to shoot select animals and let most of them go. My brother has been visiting off and on from California, and he likes to take them out squirrel hunting. While they haven't shot anything yet, they love the idea of dressing up in their camouflage and having a gun there for them to shoot. Neither are good shots yet, but they try and we're very careful of when that actually handle the .22 or .410 with ammo.

Eddie

I'm not sure here, but.....was the only thing you got done was fishin?

If I got it right, no need to worry. Just saw some "expert" on on goal setting . Make all the goals you want, he said. Complete them one at a time. Then go to the next one. The way I see it.........your right on the money!! It took all year to get most important goal done.


I have one goal this year. Get back in habit of using my Day Timer. Plan next week on Friday. Check the next days list each evening before. Review and adjust daily list as new things come up. Keep list of long term goals in Day Timer and review often, thus.... maybe keeping on track long range.

2008 was my least organized year in long time. My daily book also has blank pages for last year; sometime 5 or more days in row with no plans. I'm going to change that this year by using the to do list. 10 minutes of planning each evening should save me 100 minutes for that planning session. Seems like a lot of saved time per minute of planning, but I believe planning works.

Happy new year..... Coffeeman

 

[EddieWalker]

Goal #4,Fence in a quarter acre for Turkeys went as far as clearing the area for the fence and creating a materials list. I spent allot of time online when it was cold, raining and dark outside researching this. I bought several books and read allot of forums on raising them. Spring came and went without the fence being built as I was either moving dirt, rebuilding the dump truck engine, or making money. In the fall, Steph and I went to a seminar put on by the Texas Department of Wildlife with biologist and professors talking about how to manage your land. Wild turkeys in East Texas was one of the discussions. It turns out that they are working very hard on doing this in my area and in the last couple years, have come up with a new approach that seems to be working. For the last two decades, the turkey re-introductions that the state has done, have failed. For the first time since they've started doing this, the numbers of the birds are increasing.

I've decided to abandon this idea and wait for the bird population to work it's way here.

Goal #5, Build my gazebo for my front pasture, got started with building up the pad and laying out the footings for the posts. Each post will have it's own footing with a piece of channel iron set into the footing to anchor the bottom of the post. My plan was to have the forms for the footings in place and the iron set when I poured my pad for the shed. I would order an extra yard of concrete and use it for the forms when pouring the pad for my shed. Since I never got my forms set for the shed, the holes that I drilled for the gazebo just filled up when it rained. It's a mess, but one I hope to spend some time working on this year.

Goal #6,Finish back pasture and plant it in Bermuda was where I spent allot of my time. Most of it is documented on this thread,http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/related-topics/116360-creating-my-food-plot.html which turned out to be a much bigger job then I had anticipated. Sanding the engine in the dump truck really hurt. It wasn't so much the expense of the new parts, but in the time and energy that went into having to do the rebuild. While it's not done, it's getting there. I still have some more dirt to remove and grading to do, but I'll be able to plant a good portion of it in Bermuda this spring when the weather warms up. I can't say that this is a finished project yet, but it was a HUGE step towards getting it there.

Goal #7, Start my food plots is on this thread,http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/related-topics/116360-creating-my-food-plot.html which is doing fine. I guess this one is a success in the seed is in and the plants are growing. I didn't fertilize them, nor did I amend the soil like I need to, so in that regard, it's still unfinished. We see deer tracks going through the food plot, but have not seen any deer using it. We also haven't seen any good sign that they are eating it. The tracks are mostly of them just passing through. While the deer can eat and walk, we're sort of expecting to see tracks of them in the same place and sort of milling around while eating. I'm not sure if it's just something new for them and they are not used to it, or if the oats are not tasty enough for them? It might be that the soil needs those amendments like lime and nitrogen to grow better plants. It's something I'll be working on this year to make better when I disk it in and plant peas for the summer.

Goal # 8, Build a comfortable deer stand for two is what I'm currently working on. Here is the thread on it,http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/130843-creating-my-over-top-deer.html I still have quite a ways to go on finishing it, but it's all pretty easy going now. From Thanksgiving day until now, I didn't get anything done on it. Weather was the biggest issue, but the holidays in general just filled up all my free time. I'll have this one done fairly soon.

Goal #9, Build a wood burning fireplace in my house has been changed into installing a propane fireplace into my house. I don't want to deal with cutting and storing wood for the few months of the year when it's cold here. I'd rather spend my time working on other things, so the ease and simplicity of propane makes more sense. We ran into a big delay on our design of how it should look. It wasn't until just a few months ago that we finally agreed on the final look of what we wanted. Now we've been waiting until the holidays ended, because we have a big Christmas Eve party here and it's too big of a job to do and finish quickly.

Goal # 10, New flooring in my home is also part of Goal #9. I couldn't install the flooring until we agreed on what we wanted. Once we figured that part out, I still had to wait on the fireplace design because of the hearth and where it would go. That has to be done before I can lay the flooring, so it's all one big delay. We've also decided to do some other changes in the house while we're tearing things up, so it's been more of a year of planning then actually doing anything.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Goal # 11, Build a pasture sprayer was part two of getting my pastured planted in bermuda grass. I didn't need the sprayer until I had something to spray, so I held off on this. In the mean time, I read allot of threads here on sprayers and decided to just buy a new one. If a used one came along for a fair price, that would work too. I looked at a few used ones and read more threads on the new ones. For the money, the affordable new ones were iffy in quality and the used ones that I looked at were falling apart. It's shocking what people want for them!!! Then a few months ago, I came across a 275 gallon tank that was used for syrup for sale for $100 that I bought. It still has the red syrup residue in it, so I know it didn't hold any poisonous chemicals or oils. You can see in the picture my small trailer that I've been using for storage. In the last three years, the trailer has been parked and everything is just piled up on it. I had to pull it out to get to where I'm going to put the fireplace and it's taken a bit of time to just get it cleaned up from garbage that I've been holding onto. I'll use the trailer for the sprayer and go from there. Not a finished project, nor even close, but I'm off to a good start on it.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Goal #12, Get my old jeep running probably should have been at the top of my list. My first vehicle when I was 16 was a Jeep CJ5, and I've had three other since then. I like Jeeps and really wanted this old one to run around on the land. I bought it from a guy about 8 years ago and have been planning to work on it ever since. This year, I started out early in the year working on it. I striped it down to the frame and had it sitting on blocks in the middle of my shop. Every now and then I'd do a little work on it, but it was something that I had to force myself to do. Months would go by without me doing anything on it. As November came around and I needed to clean out my shop for our Thanksgiving party, I came to the realization that I just didn't like wrenching on vehicles anymore. It's one of those things that I liked in my younger years, but didn't realize until then that I actually hated doing this sort of thing. I like to move dirt now and work on my land. I've grown, aged, or just changed, but whatever it is, I didn't want the jeep anymore. I just sold it on ebay, and the buyer is supposed to pick it up in a week and a half. We've spoken on the phone, but until he shows up with the cash, I still have it. The bids were high enough and I received so many emails on it, that if he doesn't show up, I'll just list it again without any worries about selling it.

Eddie

 

[RobertN]

Neither are good shots yet, but they try and we're very careful of when that actually handle the .22 or .410 with ammo. Eddie

Eddie, I know you have USMC training and can teach all the fundamentals of shooting. You might look in to though, your local 4H.

I was doing well teaching my son to shoot, but found out about the local 4H shooting program. It was great! They worked on the fundamental, shot for scores, and then did fun shooting. There were about 10 kids in the program here. It was good for my son to be able to shoot, but also to be shooting with his peers. He was a good shot already, but still improved a lot through that program.

The beginners program emphasized safety, safety, and safety. Then they worked on trigger control, trigger follow-thru, sight acquisition, breathing, etc. They started on target, practicing, then shooting for a score. Once they did that, they would set up steel silhouettes and have a blast.

The advanced group, Did the above, and three position shooting.

All the kids could participate in a postal match too.

I highly recommend it. I was making good progress with my son. But having an instructor reinforce those skills, and being able to have fun shooting with other kids his age really helped. He is an excellent rifle shot now(we have not done much pistol shooting, but the little we have, he has done well at).

 

[EddieWalker]

Hi Coffeeman,

The goals for 2008 were pretty much a total failure in that I didn't get a single one finished, other then goofing off with the kids. The land is moving forward and I spent allot of money on equipment and attachments that I wasn't planning on when I created the list. I'm also self employed and in the past, have always had some amount of time off between jobs. I advertised in the local classifieds and always kept busy, but from the end of 2007 until now, I haven't advertised and I'm working five, six and even seven days a week. I've had a waiting list four months long and had even been turning down jobs. As of today, I have clients booked into March. Every day that I work on the land is a day that I do not make money, so it's a balancing act on how much to make and how much I get done on my personal projects.

I'm not going to set goals for the year. While it was fun to see what I could accomplish, it's also kind of meaningless in the big picture of building the RV Park. Today I know what I have to do towards that main goal, but there are also allot of things that I'd like to get done. The storage shed is high on that list as is finishing off the dirt removal and grading of the pasture. I have 30 RV Pads that I'm working on right now with thousands of yards of dirt on them that I need to grade. I have to get my sewage lift station cleared and graded, plus get the path for it cleared to the highway where the water district can connect it to their manhole. I want to build a floating dock on Lake Marabou, as well as a bridge over the spillway and a gazebo on the peninsula. I have allot of clearing to do on for all my roads, and over a hundred pads to build for my RV Sites, Cabins and Tent Sites. I have to build up pads for three laundry mats, one huge meeting hall, my store, car wash and then there is the storage units. Each of them need a pad and the land needs to be graded out there for drainage. The list goes on and on....

Thanks to everyone who asked about the goals, it didn't happen, but it was still a great year!!!!!!!!!!

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Hi Robert,

I never thought about that. I have always heard that you should never try to teach your kids to drive yourself because you get too personally involved. I taught Steph how to shoot, but to be honest, she's a natural and a much better shot then I am. At least at targets, she still gets buck fever and has to work through that, but when she calms down, she's deadly.

What age do they start them out at? Peyton is 8, but Alissa is 11. I'd prefer they both go together, but will have to look into it and see if something like that even exists. I'll go to the shooting range and see if they have anything. I've never actually been there since we just shoot on our land, but this is Texas and most people have a gun of some kind here.

Thanks for the suggestion,
Eddie