Who's working in the woods this weekend?

met up with jchunter, Jeff, good to finally meet up, great place and amazing effort so far, that is some chunk of land, work will pay off big time, quicker than slower. Let me know if changing the plow settings that bit helped, should help the blade glide through instead of acting like an anchor.

went from his place and ran my disc on a cut oat field and put in 3 acres of ptt, and collards. right in front of my tower stand. I probably should have plowed it first, but the time just wasn't available, and I think they will do just fine.

other plots I have ghr up to 7 inches tall already, turnips about 4 inches high, crimson coming in nice. The corn plot is getting hammered and ears are at about 75% full growth, coons and deer are putting a hurting on them as there is no other corn real close. bmr corn, oats, sunflower and lentil plots are a grassy mess, great cover with the planted items dispersed so should be fun to see how the deer use it this fall/ winter. Med red clover pots are germinated, and should be great in a few months. Mixed clover plot has all the foxtail dead of a very perfect clethodim death, but smartweed is at ground level and will need to be dealt with, that one is going to be tough to control without killing the covers. I need to cage my persimmons that I planted, pears are a disappointment this year, as are apples, need to plant more of both to get better polination.
off to a graduation party on what looks like a perfect plotting day, enjoy guys and be safe.
 
Spent the day cutting down trees in the new plot I showed yesterday. After spraying and mowing then cutting down the trees we now have a quarter acre that looks like this. We left a few trees for structure and uses the cut down debris to create a fence around the perimeter only leaving a few ways in and out - although I'm sure the deer will find their own paths too. I've got a similar area I'm still working on. It was another good day.

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I've been a small property habitat manager for just over a year. Closed on my property in June last year and started working in July. The text I sent my wife today was "We're getting so much done today - I love this stuff!" And it's true. I can't wait to hunt but I've really grown to love the habitat work just about as much. It's such a great feeling knowing that you're making changes that will benefit both your own hunting and pleasure as well as benefiting the wildlife as you're being a good steward of the land and its resources. I know most of you already feel that way but I just thought I'd share how I feel too.
 
it is a good feeling, but I must say, those structure trees are great, shade from them not so much. besides that, looks great.
 
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https://goo.gl/photos/PYyTQcFNFMSLxsuW9


bumper crop of crimson clover coming in, there are turnips and collards mixed in as well, just hard to see in this pic.

no woods work for me this weekend, headed up near Rosco NY to build a deck, get some RBC flowing.


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Heading up this afternoon after work to help a friend get his plots finished, hang a couple stands and get his wood stove in place and ready to go. We installed the stacked a couple weeks ago. We'll head over to my place tomorrow then to cut grass and hang a new stand. Hoping to be back in time to get some meet on the grill and watch the Packer game at home
Seeing a lot of acorns on the driveway at home from my white and red oaks. Hoping my ridges are loaded this year. It was poor last year and the hunting reflected it.
 
Well the day finally dawns, as this weekend is the final push to complete the last of the projects for the year.

Have a 16ft disk ripper lined up for 8am Saturday morning to turn over some 20 plus year old sod for next springs major project.
1 580ft offset/alternate cedar/juniper planting, think zigzag pattern with 6 ft tree spacing offset 4ft.
1 750ft straight cedar/juniper planting with 8ft spacings, with fabric
1 750ft straight cedar/juniper planting with 10ft spacing, with fabric
1 750ft hedgerow of elderberry, no fabric
The three 750ft rows will be to the north of our main food plot, an slough. With the idea of one day keeping deep drifting snow out of the plot an cattails that the pheasants an deer call home in the winter. The Single alternate row will guard a major transition area from bedding to food, while also protecting my newly planted thrown an roll food plot an apple trees.

Fingers crossed everything goes to plan,
Outside of that just a few minor projects, like move trail cams to final position, and mark a few tress to cut next spring.
 
Well the day finally dawns, as this weekend is the final push to complete the last of the projects for the year.

That's where I am too. I've accomplished a lot this summer but I'm working hard at clearing two additional areas for new food plots. One is 1/4 acre and it's mostly done. The other one is 1/3 of an acre and I've made a lot of progress there the last couple weeks. I've said numerous times that if I don't get it done it's no big deal and we'll work on it over the winter and next spring. That's only partially true though. I'm really pushing to get it done this weekend. I did a lot today but there are several trees that I need to cut down yet and I really need help for those. Hopefully this weekend will bring good things. I'm working all day tomorrow and Sunday afternoon. If all goes well I'll end up with an acre and a half worth of plots moving forward in coming years.
 
Be careful pushing to hard. Nothing's worth getting hurt over.. Unless the hurt is sore muscles and such.
 
Be careful pushing to hard. Nothing's worth getting hurt over.. Unless the hurt is sore muscles and such.

Excellent point - not that kind of pushing at all. Just going to work with a purpose. To many people depending on me to take chances.
 
Well we got out today. Two of the boys (they're men now actually) went along. We cut down some trees and finished clearing our newest 1/3 acre plot. It still has a few trees in it that we'll need to cut down at some point but they're beyond my pay grade and comfort level. It will be a very acidic spot like my food plot trails were last year, and rocky, but I'm pretty sure the cereal grain mix will grow a little bit like it did on my food plot trails last year.

Then as we were leaving we saw two fawns and a doe. That was a nice capper for the day. Next week I'll disc in some fertilizer and lime and then we'll spend the next couple of weekends getting our cereal gran mix planted everywhere. With all the nice weather and plenty of moisture lately it'll be a shame to disc in my clover but that's been the plan all along as we try and build our soil. I'm convinced now thing that at least one, if not two, of my trails will become long term clover plots in the next year or two.
 
Out at the farm yesterday morning, most we have seen in one morning this summer is five - two sets of twins and one single.

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My wife has always complained that I see turkeys and deer up close all the time and she never does, I tell her that I don't talk all the time or wear perfume when I go out to the farm...last week while walking along the front pond we had the wind in our face and I spotted two fawns watching us. I put my arm out and stopped my wife and hissed Shhhhhhhh.....the little buck fawn in front kept stamping his foot and walking toward us trying to get us to move, neither fawn had a clue what we were. Wife got a minute long video of it..and was very pleased. Mama deer must half been just inside tree line and said something to the fawns because they blew out like shot out of a cannon at the same instant running across the pasture and laying down along the been field. We "quietly" walked back to the back pond and almost stepped on two more smaller fawns that jumped up at our feet one almost running into the wife..they ran fifteen yards and laid right back down...finally she got to see fawns that weren't three hundred yards away!

Here is a pic from her video of the first two, fawns are in center top..sorry pic isn't better.

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Couple weeks ago a hen turkey flew up out of the grass a few feet from us along the woods...I told the wife if your a little more quiet you see things, she said she just has lots to say.
 
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Got out yesterday and today working on getting our food plotting for the year done by labor day weekend. While not much moisture in the forecast we have had a lot of rain the last couple of weeks. I'm hoping there's enough moisture in the soil to get things going. It's not been too hot and isn't supposed to be either so there's some morning dew every day too. I finished everything today. We ended up with 1/3 of an acre of brassica plots on our trails from last year. I put the LC mix and a ladino/Kopu 2 mix in another 1/3 acre of trails for the purpose of turning two trails into long term clover plots beginning next year. I then seeded an LC mix into our newly created 1/4 acre plot and our new 1/3 acre plot along with 1/4 acre area from last year. I have limited expectations on the new spots for the first year. So we have an acre and a half of plots now on 36 acres. That along with our two new water holes and hinge cutting has us on the right track for the future. We had a good summer. I've got two stands to put up next weekend and then we'll stay out until the bow season opener on the 15th of September. Bonus - I saw three deer today (one was across the road but we're planning on recruiting it).
 
I think someone wanted to see pictures of my spray rig with the new 50 foot retractable reel and spray gun,

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We got out over the weekend and checked out some plots we had planted 10 days prior. Good growth it looks like, and 520 game pictures on the micro plot in the location I've never seen a deer before from the tree. Looks like these micro plots might be all they have been bragged about.

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I laid that rye and clover down HEAVY.

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Different micro plot:

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For this process we cleared the areas out with a chainsaw in April. We did 4 in about five hours. Only 15 yards by 15 yards or so. I then made sure and cut a few larger trees down towards the south so the plots would get some sunlight.

Then we waited for a mid august rain. During the rain we spread rye and clover. We then ran it all over with our mini Honda TRX90 ATV that I've had for 10 plus years. I bought that to ride with my little brother. It's been a lifesaver and I'm making a cultipacker for it this winter. It's so skinny to get through the woods you almost don't even need a trail, and it's light which is nice when compared to my Outlander.

I'll add some 19-19-19 to those plots just before the next rain. Just enough to evenly spread it on the ground. Can't wait to grab the next chip!


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Coming up great! ^^^^^^^

You northern guys with your ferns....something I never see here.
 
Coming up great! ^^^^^^^

You northern guys with your ferns....something I never see here.

You are welcome to come on up and take as many as you want. Hell, take more then you want.


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Ha! No thanks.
 
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