[truck engine revving]
- Every family has that one person.
- This is how you get deep in the brush in northern Wisconsin.
[truck engine revving]
[banjo music]
- The one most likely to end conversation with "Watch this!"
[engine stalling]
- Oh!
[gears grinding backwards]
- For the Kauffman family, it's pretty easy to figure out
who fits that description.
[truck engine revving]
Jesse Kauffman is a man with a plan.
- Third time's the charm!
[truck engine revving]
- Deer hunting season is a big deal
on the Kauffman family farm near Springbrook.
With acres of open space, Jesse and his father
wanted a way to see over the brush while hunting.
A simple tree stand wouldn't suffice.
[footsteps on metal]
Jesse built his own deer stand
[footsteps]
which also happens to be Wisconsin's tallest bus stop.
[fiddle music]
- School bus deer stand, I guess.
[fiddle music]
- It all started when Jesse's father
found a 28,000 gallon fuel tank.
He planted a pop-up camper on top,
seen here with Jesse's grandfather.
Jesse, who owns an excavation company,
decided to one-up dad with his own plan.
- I was thinking there a school bus would be just perfect.
You have all them windows to shoot out of.
- Dad put up the stop sign.
- He said, "You ain't never gonna get a bus
up on top of there."
I said, "Well, I'm going to some way or another."
- In other words, watch this.
- We shoved on the bus with the loader there
trying to get it up there.
We destroyed one there.
And the fight was on between me and my dad.
The arguing and screaming and throwing stuff you know,
typical father-son love working together.
- It was the last stop for bus number one.
But as the old saying goes, "If at first you don't succeed,
find another bus."
- The neighbor had a school bus over here.
I got it for I think $400 and that's what it was worth
in scrap iron at the time.
I shoved dirt and shoved dirt until we had a dirt ramp
all the way to the top of it.
Then we pushed the bus up there.
Then I took the dirt away.
Weld her down and she's up there now.
[banjo music]
- Jesse recycled an old hay elevator into stairs.
Wisconsin's first, and only, school bus deer stand
was complete.
- We got a card table and some chairs and a heater.
We bring some food over.
You don't need much other than that.
- Except maybe a TV and satellite dish.
The Kauffman family was now hunting in style.
- This is the emergency exit.
And if you got somebody you don't like hunting with you,
you can give them a tour out here.
[loud squeal as door opens]
There. Yeah.
- Jesse admits he's that one person in his family.
The one full of far-fetched ideas.
- I guess I'm unique about everything so...
just a little different.
Hey! Quit your laughing over there!
That's good your dad's different.
It's original!
- Jesse's pretty proud of his $400 investment.
- Of course!
Why wouldn't you be?
- Because why hunt from a tree stand...
- It's just part of the -- it's a landmark!
[metal door slamming]
- ... when you can take the bus instead?
- Yeah. It's a one of a kind, that's for sure.