My Central Ky Habitat Addiction

[CentralKyHunter]

As with most of you, I love spring!!! Made a quick trip to farm to check my trees.

Was happy to see my clover in the orchard doing well.






The hillside in the back drop is the site of my hopeful large scale planting in conjunction with the NRCS




I absolutly love seeing these trees come back to life!!!

 

[CentralKyHunter]

yea, im glad the snow is finally gone!!

As mentioned I had the forestry dept out for the 3rd time in the last year to keep the ball rolling on my hopeful TSI and my tree planting project.
I recieved an e-mail today laying out my sites & my specie reccomendations.

Sites:



They said that there will be a total of 4840+- seedlings planted.
They say:

-1000 White Oak
-1000 Chestnut Oaks
-1000 Souther Red Oak or Black Oak
-Remaining 1800 my choice. Perssimon, Chectnut, Pecan, or more oaks. I am probably going to plant a significant number of chestnuts in this group but looking for reccomendations on the remainders?? Also any input on the 3000 oaks suggested above.
of the remain

Little more info for those fo you interested or wondering. According to my projected budget you can do large scale plantings with good quality seedlings for about $400 acre, that is hiring a professional planter. I am also going to put 2x3 weed mats around every tree for an additonal $125.00 per acre. So I am looking @ $525 per acre after mats and hoping to get $300+- back on cost share.

On a side note, I found out last week that I have been approved for cost share to plant 4500 trees on the 8 acres, kill the Tree of Heaven, and do TSI on my standing timber tract. My tree species will be White Oak, Chestnut Oak, Southern Red Oak, and Black Oak as reccomended by the Dept of Forestry. Hopeing to plant all my trees this fall!!!

A: Invasive Species Sites- Tree of Heaven
B: Tree Planting Sites
C: Timber Stand Improvment (TSI) Site

 

[CentralKyHunter]

Well, as I documented sometime back I took on a project of potting 1500 trees this winter including: pears, dwarf chinq oaks, sawtooths, chestnuts, spruces, plums, hazelnuts, strawberry bushes, and persimons.

The project has been over whelming as many of you hinted it would be but I hope the rewards are worth it. I took a few quick pics today of some trees that were starting to take off.

Persimmons from Superior Trees in Fl are just starting to leaf decent:



Sawtooth Oaks also from Superior looking very well:



Dwarf Chinquapin Oaks from Superior were very late breaking bud but have exploded this week:



Will get more pics of other species this week hopefully!!

 

[CentralKyHunter]

Been a little while since I have updated my thread so I will add a few pics of the cabin. It is moving along slowly but surely and we will hopefully start some interior finish work in the next week or so. The loft will be the next thing!!

Got the porch mostly done and the Stucco started on teh upper half & chimney



Also got the metal up on interior wall garage side and got the spray foam insulation done:

 

[CentralKyHunter]

I also layed this big cedar down today to use for my two center post of my loft. The loft will only cover the back 15ft of the finished area. so the loft will be 15ft deep and 35ft wide with some lost head space on each side due to the curves of the building. The front half of the finished are will be completly open and exposed to the ceiling ( 18ft) so that we can use the front wall for out mounts to hang.

 

[CentralKyHunter]

Have also been working hard to cleanup the lot we bought last year that borders us and that the cabin is being built on. It has some very nice white oaks around our cabin & pavilion area as well as 3 pears, 2 apples, and a crab apple. This property had been abandoned for about 7 years. I plan on adding more fruit trees in this area, leaning toward apples, cherries, and plums!!

Apple & Pear Trees:








White Oaks around the building site:



There are quite a few deer that stay in this area and feed on the pears & acorns pretty heavily.

 

[CentralKyHunter]

My time has been extremely limited but I did find time to ride around the property this evening .

Was excited to see the one Apple i left on in the orchard had added some color and the tree is growing great.

Honeycrisp planted last spring:





Few other pics around the orchard:



Orchard nestled in the soybeans.



Now if I can just get around to do my bush hogging .

 

[CentralKyHunter]

Havent got to do hardly any habitat work this summer, cabin has got most of my free time.

Today I finally got my seed ordered to plant the 8 acres that will be my tree plantation in clover and alfalfa, got started rebuilding my pasture sprayer, and finally got started on my bush hogging!!! I am glad to be back in the swing of what I enjoy most.



Uncovered this copperhead while bushhogging, first I have scene on the farm!!



Lots of rabbits popping out while bushhogging the clover in the orchard. There is one in the pic if you look closely.


And our first camera check turned up one prospect!!

 

[CentralKyHunter]

Finally starting to get my tree plantation sites bush hogged and ready for spray.





The reason I love bush hogging:

 

[CentralKyHunter]

FINALLY got my annual food plots in!!! Didnt do the seed mixes I originally wanted to, instead I used some seed I had on hand.

Did these two in turnips & winter peas.



Right handed one in turnips & peas, left side in millet & milo.


Did these in millet & Milo with some soybean. The deer utilized the seed heads heavily in late winter last year and it give good habitat for my small game!!

 

[CentralKyHunter]

I love the color and plant diversity this time of year!!







Best of all, deer numbers seem very strong this year, especially buck numbers!!

 

[CentralKyHunter]

Blackberries still blooming. These are obviously tame ( Black Magics). Check out the size of these dudes!!! And super sweet!!

 

[CentralKyHunter]

Well, as with every spring the warm weather and forum activity has got me motivated!!! With a little help from one of my hunting buddies Mike we got a little bit accomplished.

Almost finished clearing my third & last tree planting site that will be planted next week if weather permits.

Before was mostly this:



After:



And to the rabbits & quail go the spoils!!! They get a new brush pile to hide in!! Pretty bad when I get more excited about brush piles these days than I do planting trees!!!



Forestry Dept got my Tree of Heaven marked now I gotta strap on the sprayer and spray it!!! There are lots of blue dots to hit in this area and a few others.

 

[CentralKyHunter]

Pretty excited about this. Finally took the advice of a few people and did something I had been wanting to do for a while now. Stopped in to round stone seed and bought enough seed to put a couple acres in a native habitat mix with native grass and wildflowers .

 

[CentralKyHunter]

Not much habitat work going here. Just wat hing the plots grow, hunting a little and working a lot!!!

Getting a little bit of cabin work done as time allows.

Kitchen was done with old refurbished cabinets. Back splash and all wood came from an ild house on the farm built in 1800's. Wood is poplar that i planed back down. Still have to build counter tops and finish cabinets.





Hand rail banister that I made from Old square gazebo legs a friend donated, cable, and barn wood. They turned out reall well!!!




Ceiling also painted ( blacked out)

 

[CentralKyHunter]

Kitchen before finish work.



Dining wall finished with the old interior T & G poplar out of the old farm house. Planed just enough to bring the color out but leave some saw marks and wear!!





And one of my favorites. Finally got my mounts moved down!! Not their permanent hanging spot but I am happy they are there!!!

 

[CentralKyHunter]

Thanks Todd, its been a ton of work and is a year behind schedule but its gonna be awesome some day when I get it done!!!


Our youth season is this weekend. This young man got his first buck out of my shooting house!!! Git his first doe last year @ the same stand. Love when youngsters have success and cant wait til my own kids are old enough to hunt,





Only other buck harvested. Buddies wife got her first buck.



And my brother and his son harvested a doe

 

[CentralKyHunter]

Yes CTM, backsplash is old tin roof panels.

Getting Closer!!!







And one of my favorite additions:

 

[CentralKyHunter]

Habitat work has been slow but starting to speed up!!!

I just had my TSI project completed on 20 acres of timber on the farm which thickened the floor up quite a bit.

Have also got most of the site prep done for my 8 acre tree planting that will happen this month.

Got out today and put my wood duck boxes out that I had made last year. Hoping it's not to late to get some use out of them this year. From what I have read I may still b ok.

 

[CentralKyHunter]

Hit 70 here today!!! Motivation enough for me to head to the farm and do something. Got 25 blackberries transplanted by the "deer camp"