Shearwood Forest
5 year old buck +
I just posted to the "who are you" thread and figured it was time to start my own thread with the property we purchased this past summer. My hope is that maybe I can keep my 4000 questions and overly wordy write ups in here and not clog the form with question after question in the sub forms.
Last June my father and I took the plunge on hunting/recreation land in zone 5A near the boarder of NY/PA, it has a 3 bedroom cabin on 33 acres and then negotiated the neighboring 122 acres and pole barn from the same seller.
The cabin had good bones, and the prior owners spent much of the pandemic living there and started working making the place a bit more of a home. ultimately he decided he wasn't done with work and bought back the family business 2hrs away and need the capital. For Years I thought all I wanted was the best habitat and the most acreage I could afford no shelter needed, I've been sleeping in my truck on public for years and spent the last two years using a shed on a permission piece but with a young family and the help of others that went down the road of owning land without a residence I decided that the family recreation side would provide the most long term reward and that I could occupy myself building the hunting property of my dreams. My wife fell in love with the cabin and small pond. We went right to work spending about every other weekend from June through November there. we re-did the bathroom, finished the 2 loft bedrooms, replace the old cracking windows, spray foam insulation under the dwelling, a propane furnace to go with the propane stove to distribute the heat a bit better, added a hearth and faux stone backing for the fireplace, making a mantel out wood I got from the barn, I fixed weak points in the deck, replaced all the leaking old water fixtures and some water damaged cabinets. I splurged on some local Amish log deck furniture for my wife, mother and grandmother who all frequent the cabin.
My kids spent all those days fishing in the pond or wadding in one of the spring fed run offs, I grew up running around the woods as far as my legs would take me and what my kids to know that same adventure.
About the land
Much of the property consists of a long steep ravine corridor that parallels the quiet country road for a mile on our land. The roadside face of the property has 2 old pastures and 2 old hay fields, an out of use dairy barn and refinished pole barn, the farm was last used in summer of 2014. The pole barn is perfect for all our equipment, and we've gone to work filling it. Our timber is dominated by hemlock and white pines along the ravine and around a small marshy area. Our other forest areas are beech, cherry, hawthorn, and maple. There are a few apple trees left producing and no hard mast trees other than 3 young red oaks. There are very few mature oaks in the general vicinity. The back of the property features maybe a 30 acre area that is grown up 30+ year old pasture from the remnants of a sheep farm, its rocky in places and has several wet ditches and gutters that offer some good topo and whole area is shaped a bit like a bowl. there's a lot of habitat features and edge both on and off our property around this area that really tie it together as a major hub for wildlife.
We spent the bulk of the first year working on the cabin for the family so the first hunting year was a bit of an observational year. We placed several small fall food plots throughout mainly where there had been plots about 3 years prior so prepping wasn’t too bad. I feel like a learned a lot, figured out some of the low holes to be addressed and the strong points of the property.
Some low holes -
food, 1/2 acre and smaller plots were chewed down fairly fast by just a few regular deer and didn't have much draw power against standing crops or larger food plots in the area.
woody browse, I don't have much thick cover what I do have is mostly on edges or thicker stands of pine. Areas of mature hemlock have zero woody browse. This effects both food and bedding
serious security cover, I always like to see a few place that you don't even want to crawl through thick and this place currently doesn't have anything Ida call Nasty thick
Wind based bedding, not much I can do about topo but I'd dont have the high ridges, not the low low ground either but my ravine more seperates two hill tops
Open areas, about 10 acres of fields are semi visible from the road and dominated by weedy hay and fescue, by November those fields don't offer much cover or value but they lay of the land has deer in them or traveling through them regularly.
Strengths
lay of the land, the ravine which is bluffed out in places along with several drainage's running into it create travel patterns. It was not uncommon to get pictures of a single buck in the rut cruise the entire length of the ravine and a few hours later have him come back down the other side. There are good pinches next to it as well as good crossing locations making stand locations a bit easier to pick out.
Strength of season, early archery deer were off on better food but we picked up deer as the rut progressed as we offer key travel between larger blocks.
neighbors -
one of our the reasons for jumping at this particular piece of ground was the neighborhood it sat in, the owner of the primary adjoining acreage is a close close friend of my fathers, while he doesn't visit the land often his son and 3 of his friends (all my age) lease it from him and are all stand up guys and hunters. The land next to his that also adjoins ours is his cousins who has put in a bunch of work in build a gorgeous cabin, ponds, and food plot system. The realtor we bought through who we've known for years and has his personal hunting land is only a few hundred yards from ours and beyond that is the 3 generation farm that he grew up on. His retired father operates as our cabin watch and regularly checks on the place when we aren't there. Across the country road that serves as one of our other lines is a local farther that originally owned and operated the 122 acre farm piece we purchased and we are off to good relationship by allow him to coyote after deer season closes. So far everyone that adjoins or is in close proximity has been a positive experience.
For this year we are shifting a bit more to the habitat now that the cabin is finished. We have a local forester with a dozer coming to re-grade our old road system and fix some water turn outs as the roads are bit rough crossing the ravine, ok for foot and atv access but tractor can currently only access from 1 spot. While here he will help prep some new plot areas and expand a few that we started last year. This likely will begin in April, when he's finished I will be faced with figuring out spring plantings in these spots.
I’ve food plotted several properties prior but never had land ownership so timber work and long-term habitat planning is new to me so I will have loads of questions. I think the hardest part is coming up with the overall design, layout and long term plan only to work backwards breaking it into feasible chunks from a time and money perspective. I know I need to learn and implement some timber work, I have some non food habitat work like screening, trees, shrubs, switch ect. Fruit and mast trees are another thing I don't have much experience with other than planting 50 trees from my uncle a few years ago at his request which were a mix of apple and oak.
Last June my father and I took the plunge on hunting/recreation land in zone 5A near the boarder of NY/PA, it has a 3 bedroom cabin on 33 acres and then negotiated the neighboring 122 acres and pole barn from the same seller.
The cabin had good bones, and the prior owners spent much of the pandemic living there and started working making the place a bit more of a home. ultimately he decided he wasn't done with work and bought back the family business 2hrs away and need the capital. For Years I thought all I wanted was the best habitat and the most acreage I could afford no shelter needed, I've been sleeping in my truck on public for years and spent the last two years using a shed on a permission piece but with a young family and the help of others that went down the road of owning land without a residence I decided that the family recreation side would provide the most long term reward and that I could occupy myself building the hunting property of my dreams. My wife fell in love with the cabin and small pond. We went right to work spending about every other weekend from June through November there. we re-did the bathroom, finished the 2 loft bedrooms, replace the old cracking windows, spray foam insulation under the dwelling, a propane furnace to go with the propane stove to distribute the heat a bit better, added a hearth and faux stone backing for the fireplace, making a mantel out wood I got from the barn, I fixed weak points in the deck, replaced all the leaking old water fixtures and some water damaged cabinets. I splurged on some local Amish log deck furniture for my wife, mother and grandmother who all frequent the cabin.
My kids spent all those days fishing in the pond or wadding in one of the spring fed run offs, I grew up running around the woods as far as my legs would take me and what my kids to know that same adventure.
About the land
Much of the property consists of a long steep ravine corridor that parallels the quiet country road for a mile on our land. The roadside face of the property has 2 old pastures and 2 old hay fields, an out of use dairy barn and refinished pole barn, the farm was last used in summer of 2014. The pole barn is perfect for all our equipment, and we've gone to work filling it. Our timber is dominated by hemlock and white pines along the ravine and around a small marshy area. Our other forest areas are beech, cherry, hawthorn, and maple. There are a few apple trees left producing and no hard mast trees other than 3 young red oaks. There are very few mature oaks in the general vicinity. The back of the property features maybe a 30 acre area that is grown up 30+ year old pasture from the remnants of a sheep farm, its rocky in places and has several wet ditches and gutters that offer some good topo and whole area is shaped a bit like a bowl. there's a lot of habitat features and edge both on and off our property around this area that really tie it together as a major hub for wildlife.
We spent the bulk of the first year working on the cabin for the family so the first hunting year was a bit of an observational year. We placed several small fall food plots throughout mainly where there had been plots about 3 years prior so prepping wasn’t too bad. I feel like a learned a lot, figured out some of the low holes to be addressed and the strong points of the property.
Some low holes -
food, 1/2 acre and smaller plots were chewed down fairly fast by just a few regular deer and didn't have much draw power against standing crops or larger food plots in the area.
woody browse, I don't have much thick cover what I do have is mostly on edges or thicker stands of pine. Areas of mature hemlock have zero woody browse. This effects both food and bedding
serious security cover, I always like to see a few place that you don't even want to crawl through thick and this place currently doesn't have anything Ida call Nasty thick
Wind based bedding, not much I can do about topo but I'd dont have the high ridges, not the low low ground either but my ravine more seperates two hill tops
Open areas, about 10 acres of fields are semi visible from the road and dominated by weedy hay and fescue, by November those fields don't offer much cover or value but they lay of the land has deer in them or traveling through them regularly.
Strengths
lay of the land, the ravine which is bluffed out in places along with several drainage's running into it create travel patterns. It was not uncommon to get pictures of a single buck in the rut cruise the entire length of the ravine and a few hours later have him come back down the other side. There are good pinches next to it as well as good crossing locations making stand locations a bit easier to pick out.
Strength of season, early archery deer were off on better food but we picked up deer as the rut progressed as we offer key travel between larger blocks.
neighbors -
one of our the reasons for jumping at this particular piece of ground was the neighborhood it sat in, the owner of the primary adjoining acreage is a close close friend of my fathers, while he doesn't visit the land often his son and 3 of his friends (all my age) lease it from him and are all stand up guys and hunters. The land next to his that also adjoins ours is his cousins who has put in a bunch of work in build a gorgeous cabin, ponds, and food plot system. The realtor we bought through who we've known for years and has his personal hunting land is only a few hundred yards from ours and beyond that is the 3 generation farm that he grew up on. His retired father operates as our cabin watch and regularly checks on the place when we aren't there. Across the country road that serves as one of our other lines is a local farther that originally owned and operated the 122 acre farm piece we purchased and we are off to good relationship by allow him to coyote after deer season closes. So far everyone that adjoins or is in close proximity has been a positive experience.
For this year we are shifting a bit more to the habitat now that the cabin is finished. We have a local forester with a dozer coming to re-grade our old road system and fix some water turn outs as the roads are bit rough crossing the ravine, ok for foot and atv access but tractor can currently only access from 1 spot. While here he will help prep some new plot areas and expand a few that we started last year. This likely will begin in April, when he's finished I will be faced with figuring out spring plantings in these spots.
I’ve food plotted several properties prior but never had land ownership so timber work and long-term habitat planning is new to me so I will have loads of questions. I think the hardest part is coming up with the overall design, layout and long term plan only to work backwards breaking it into feasible chunks from a time and money perspective. I know I need to learn and implement some timber work, I have some non food habitat work like screening, trees, shrubs, switch ect. Fruit and mast trees are another thing I don't have much experience with other than planting 50 trees from my uncle a few years ago at his request which were a mix of apple and oak.