Kooch 80

[Kooch]

Just starting this thread as a place to document the journey on my Northern MN property. Last season was the first year we hunted it.

I closed on the 80 acre parcel in November of 2017, in the middle of our 3 week gun season. Unfortunately, we had a pretty severe blizzard that weekend so didn't hunt but one day, for a couple hours. We didn't see any deer, but did see a pack of wolves.

I had Jeff Sturgis up to have a look and he gave me a working plan for the property.

There was a single winding trail right up the middle of the property. Having been logged about 15 years ago, everything else was a thick mess of poplar and birch, with a couple stands of older pine that hadn't been cut. I found a couple old stands that were rotten, unsafe, and didn't have good access.

Here's a picture of the area that became the South end of the 2 acre long, skinny, winding plot.

 

[Kooch]

As you see, I put out a couple of cameras. It turns out, there is a lot of life in this Northern forest. Along with the resident couple of does, and a lone wolf running around I got pictures of;

Bobcat


Bears


Small bucks


Undetermined beasts


Scrawny canines, maybe coyote?


And more. I'm happy the place is alive. It's kind of like a zoo!

 

[Kooch]

Since I live a long way away, I decided I needed some sort of secure storage. And, I needed someplace dry to put it.

When I bought the place, there was an old disused trailer home that bears had torn off large chunks of siding. It was a mouse house an smelled like it. I had it removed. I put put about 10 truck loads of gravel in, then had a 40' metal container delivered. Now I have someplace to lock up my things which makes the long drive a lot nicer. I don't have to drag nearly as much stuff back and forth anymore.

 

[Kooch]

Road restrictions didn't get lifted until July last Summer. So I didn't get the gravel or the container in until then. After that, my guy was able to get in with machinery and clear my plot. The plan was to simply follow the existing access trail and open it to 50' wide on average. That he did. I'm not 100% happy. I should have marked it better rather than just walk it and talk about what I wanted. But overall, I'm happy.

Here's what it looked like looking South before I planted. This is about 1/3 of the plot, maybe a little less.


Here it is a couple of weeks after the first round of Winter Rye along with 300Lbs of 19-19-19. I had no soil test yet so I just winged it with the Rye. I felt like it was the one thing I could get growing for sure.



And, here it is from another angle, looking North, in October.

 

[Bill]

Looks like a great start. I like everything but the wolf.
Keep a shovel handy and don't mention the wolf

 

[Kooch]

I'm not very handy. But my son and I managed to cobble together a box blind to give the girls (and us) a place to hunt when it's cold. It's almost always stupid cold up there during the gun season. We put it at the South end of the plot, facing North. It's only about 50 yards from the parking area and access is hidden. We approach it from behind through a skinny trail in the woods. I should have put the door in the rear but didn't. I think I'll figure out a way to conceal our entrance a little better this Summer.

I need to fix the roof. The tin doesn't overhang. I'm not sure what I was thinking. Anyway, it's 4'x8' and only 4' feet off the ground. This is the spot I'll hunt when I'm old. Overlooking the food plot isn't the perfect scenario, I understand. But, with good access on the right wind I think we get in and out undetected. When the wind is from the South, they will smell us in our camp anyway. Maybe if they smell us all the time and we don't pressure them too much they will just get used to the stanky human stink and just get on with their lives. The goal was to have a stand right next to camp that is a 2 minute walk and comfortable.

Here's a picture of my son sealing it up with spray foam. Shortly after I trimmed out the corners and seams with plank wood and silicone goo. Then I added a little ladder from scrap wood. I put a horse stall mat on the floor then covered that with old carpet. It fits two nicely and is warm with a buddy heater. I think I'll put glass in the windows to help with warmth and scent.



The property is bordered by private land on the East and West. To the North is public, lots of it. I'm hoping to pull deer off the many, many acres of public forest to my place now and then. To access it, I've cut border trails. This was a lot of work with a chainsaw and a brush hog. They aren't perfect, but then again, neither am I.

I dropped a ground blind in close to the North border of my property, just in the woods off the end of the plot. Access is just OK. I have to parallel the plot too closely. It seemed OK in the Summer. Then, the leaves dropped and my access was totally exposed. I'll work on that this year too maybe.
Here's the ground blind before we lost all the leaves. I was very proud of this location and was sure we'd see a million deer there during the season. I was 100% wrong. More on that later.

 

[Kooch]

In no particular order. I just realized I should maybe drop a shot of the plan Jeff gave me. As the thread progresses, you'll see I'm sort of following it. Things happen. Plots get cut a little different than you planned. Pieces of the plan get implemented a bit at a time. Trails get cut blindly, then you realize they aren't exactly like you wanted.... You think about it all Winter and plan for the Spring, prioritize. It becomes an obsession. I have never been very good at moderation. I'm obsessed, at least for now.

North is to the left in this image. It just fits better on a computers screen this way.



The green is the plot he proposed. Mine runs North South, and it's long and skinny. What I got isn't *exactly* what we planned. But, it'll do for a start. The yellow is a deer sidewalk. Orange are potential stand locations. Red is natural browse. I've got a good amount of Red Osier growing and we just wanted to highlight that aside from the food plot, natural browse was available and should be nurtured through cutting trees, mowing, maybe transplanting the good dogwood from cuttings. Black spots are potential camera locations. The tan stuff is bedding area/sanctuary.

Just to the West of the plot, paralleling it actually, (down in this image) is a creek that runs year round except when it's full froze. It's drainage from the swamp in the NW portion.

 

[Kooch]

I feel very productive this morning typing away. Just putting this down has helped me organize my thoughts for the upcoming year. I was browsing photos on my telephone and saw this.

They say if you have food next to cover that's hidden, deer will use it during daylight hours. I've found that to be true. When I was placing the North ground blind I decided to putt back to camp on my ATV right down the middle of the plot, like a parade. I came around a bend and these deer where in the plot in broad daylight. I've seen them a number of times. They watched me approach at an idle and wandered off into the woods when I got too close for comfort. I cruised by and before I went around the next bend I looked back and they were already peeking into the plot again. I guess I wasn't too threatening.

Remember this is the first year of the plot. A month or two before this photo it was all thick woods. I had a dozer and forestry mulcher in there for two full days raising a ruckus. I think it'll just get better as the herd figures it out. At least I hope it will.

There were three of them, a mom and her twins, late Summer. I only see two in this picture though. Consider this foreshadowing for future posts about our hunting season. The area is buck only. But, youth hunters can shoot an antlerless deer.

 

[Kooch]

There was a third blind. And I was really excited about it. We placed it on the East side, behind a bedding area that had plenty of sign. I didn't hunt it once. Mother nature had other plans for it. We got snow before the season, plenty of it. And, this ground blind collapsed. I didn't put a pole in the center. The weight of the snow broke a couple of poles. I think it's a complete loss. I was really looking forward to sitting in this blind in the morning with a West wind. I may end up putting a permanent box blind in here, one person sized. Access is good. It's just on the East side of the plot, about 75 yards in. Deer bed between this blind and the plot, those deer I showed you in my last post used the area a lot.

 

[Kooch]

I bet a lot of you guys like being alone now and then too. I don't have a cabin up here yet, so I either stay in town about 40 minutes away, sleep in my vehicle or throw up a tent. My daughter said this picture was, "The definition of lonely." To me, it's just calm and serene. This is how I spend my evenings up there when I'm on my own. Pretty close to perfect way to unwind from living in the city and being in sales.

 

[Bill]

I used to complain about doing all the work alone at the farm and having a bunch of guys show up to hunt. Now I don't invite a bunch of guys and I enjoy working alone....
solitude is a good thing at times.

 

[Kooch]

I've met most of my neighbors, and with the exception of one tweaker that was dealing drugs down the road a ways, everybody is awesome. The drug dealer went away for a long, long time. So, I think that problem is over. The long time land owners have given me a lot of background on the area, historical facts, detail about the people that came before me, traditional land uses, deer population, the ever interesting wolf saga, etc... It's nice to have good neighbors.

Anyway, speaking of historical land use. Toward the end of the season this year I decided to take a chance and do some still hunting. The only deer I'd been seeing were the same couple does and a spike. No matter how poorly I hunted I couldn't seem to scare them away. So, I figured it wouldn't hurt anything. Last Spring I'd walked the land surveying things and found a couple of old deer stands. I took more of a stroll than a hunt and made a picture or two. Old deer stands are like old barns or farm houses to me. I always think about the people that built and used them and wonder about the past. Here are two such old stands in my woods. Access for both of these locations is poor. It'd be tough to get to them without stomping through areas I plan to make into bedding and natural browse plots.

This tall one is pretty rotten. I think I'll just leave it to age and die naturally.


The short one is in a very interesting spot against a mature pine on the edge of a tamarack swamp. I might be able to work this one into a decent stand location with a perfect East wind. Late in the season, if I don't mind blowing out the lower 40, I could hunt this on a North wind too. I need to make a perpendicular access from the West edge of my property for this. I think I'll put a tall ladder stand there this Spring.

 

[Mortenson]

Either you have a lot of snow or you discovered the stand used in filming the music video Pretty Bad at Huntin' Deer. LOL I think that is the shortest stand I've ever seen, but hopefully the location is dynamite!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Nice place you have there, Kooch !! That food strip looks really good. It HAS to be a good draw for the deer. Keep up the good / fun work.

There's a lot to be said for solitude. ( Bill, above ) Sometimes it's just the medicine we need. My thoughts get really clear and stress leaves me. Quiet, peaceful - woods and fresh air. Tough to beat in my book !!

 

[Kooch]

Either you have a lot of snow or you discovered the stand used in filming the music video Pretty Bad at Huntin' Deer. LOL I think that is the shortest stand I've ever seen, but hopefully the location is dynamite!

It's a pretty good hike into that tree so I imagine the previous owners just decided to put some thing there to get them a little more of a view without carrying in a ton of stuff. It's a little taller than a bucket. :) But yeah, it's pretty short.

Here's the view looking North while standing on the short stand.

 

[Kooch]

Nice place you have there, Kooch !! That food strip looks really good. It HAS to be a good draw for the deer. Keep up the good / fun work.

There's a lot to be said for solitude. ( Bill, above ) Sometimes it's just the medicine we need. My thoughts get really clear and stress leaves me. Quiet, peaceful - woods and fresh air. Tough to beat in my book !!

Man, I wish I'd called myself "Kooch" now when I signed up. I'm "Laker" all over the Internet. But "Kooch" is way better. I wonder if I can change that somehow without starting over?

 

[Kooch]

Speaking of the food plot. I'm conflicted. I had a soil test done. The OM is good. PH is 5.3. Very low in Phosphorus. One minute I think I have my plan, the next I have a new one. I didn't put clover in the rye last Fall. I wish I would have now.

Anyway, this Spring I'll go up and put 600 Lbs an acre pelleted lime. If the timing is right, I may frost seed some red clover then. Or, I won't. Depending on how the rye comes back from the Winter I've got some choices. None of my choices include a disk or plow. I have a drag harrow and a cultipacker. I'll put another 600 Lbs / acre of lime down at Fall planting time.

I'm really leaning toward just letting the rye do what it does, and see what weeds show up. Then, mid-summer I could just spray, broadcast and either roll or drag the rye and weeds to cover it up. My mower is a tough DR walk behind. I don't want to mow 2 acres with it so it's roll or drag. I'm just concerned that I planted the rye too thick and if I let it get too tall I will have a hard time broadcasting the seed. So that's one choice. Terminate the rye and weeds early, with an early Summer spray and then another one right before planting? Or, let it ride to get as much thatch as possible, just spray at planting time? I could use advice on that.

The second choice is "what to plant". I vacillate between splitting it in two lengthwise and starting the LC rotation. Or, just going with a full LC grain mix in 100%. Either way, I'll end up going with his fertilization recommendations. There's the second question. Do I go right into the rotation or do LC grains with clover for the first couple seasons while I get my soil right?

 

[Bill]

Man, I wish I'd called myself "Kooch" now when I signed up. I'm "Laker" all over the Internet. But "Kooch" is way better. I wonder if I can change that somehow without starting over?

I can change it. PM me if you want me to. After I do you wont be able to log in as Laker. Password should stay the same, I wount touch that field. (and can't read it)

 

[Telemark]

Awesome thread. And congrats on all the work and success. I am just starting my own such project.

Is that a wolf or a coyote with mange?

 

[Kooch]

Awesome thread. And congrats on all the work and success. I am just starting my own such project.

Is that a wolf or a coyote with mange?

Wolf in the picture early in the post. He's rough looking. But, it's the middle of Winter and life's hard up there for a wolf. Not sure about the skinny Chupacabra looking thing in the night photo. I think I'll stop leaving gut piles in the woods. Both piles we left last season were scavenged quickly and there were wolf tracks in the snow.

I know there's nothing to reference for size here. But these are wolf tracks.


And here's what was left of a gut pile after just one night.