The Adventures of CrazyED the beach sand guy

[CrazyEd]

I haven't been to the farm in a month but we made it up there today. In our area this is a great sign. In reality, April 2014 saw at least double this amount of rain.

We are starting to build a screen across a field of NWSG in this area. We basically dropped a ton of Jack Pine, Arborvitae / Juniper and Red Cedar across the top of this hill. We will continue to pile trees in here the next few years as we try and basically plant up this whole area which has road frontage on the left. Most of these are just scrubby transplants but I might do an Itasca order next year to help really get this going. Just about anything has a hard time growing on this hill in the sand. We have planted hundreds of spruce and red pine here previously and a majority of them have burned up. Jack Pines and Cedars can hopefully handle it.

Here's a hinge cut mess we have been working on. Black Cherry

 

[CrazyEd]

This area in general is pretty open due to heavy browse line but it is very steep terrain. This particular area is already and has always pretty much been treated like sanctuary, we just never really go over to this area. Hopefully doing some hinge cutting will help it out. Here's a closer shot of this particular area, it has some nice red oaks in here that are essentially released when we hinge all the cherry's around them.

 

[CrazyEd]

Our pond is pretty much at 10-15 year high water levels. It has been slowly climbing back up over the past 5 years but its still a ways off of where it was when I was a kid.

Here is an area we hinge cut about 2 years ago. It's super thick with browse and when it leafs out it will be super thick. I planted a Galarina (B.118) apple in this spot 4 weeks ago. One of my favorite tree stands it directly behind where i'm standing in a giant red oak.

 

[CrazyEd]

I have 3 Dunstan chestnuts, and I think they all survived the winter. This past winter in my opinion was a the true test. If they can make it through that I think they should be fine, this past winter was absolutely brutal. Difficult to see in these pictures but all 3 trees are loaded up with fresh buds.

 

[CrazyEd]

Here's one of my foodplots. It's basically horseshoe shaped and was started about 2 years ago. I've added a pretty decent amount of lime. Last fall I seeded it with winter rye and some radish/turnips. Due to drought it didn't do a whole lot but the rye is up and it's being browsed pretty well. So far I am pretty happy with the results and I think in time it will hopefully just continue to improve. This year I will be planting early to mid june.

 

[SD51555]

Nice update and nice pics.

 

[Deer Kar]

Thanks for the pic. Looks like a great place!!! The 2 year old hinge cuts look like they are releasing quite well and filling in the understory.

 

[bwoods11]

Looks like a great farm!

 

[bueller]

I wish we had hills like that :(. A ridge by me can be defined as a 2-3' increase in elevation :eek:.

 

[wiscwhip]

I know what you mean bueller. Back in Juneau Co at least. The old man tells me, "I saw a scrape up on the oak ridge." It is literally a 10' deviation from the rest of the land in the surrounding area. Now that I live in LaCrosse, "up on the ridge" can be upwards of 600'. :eek:

 

[dipper]

Ed what was that lake level before those high capacity wells were put in? This is just a guess, but I'd imagine those wells were put in 10-15 years ago?

Your "pond" looks just like my lakes, however, they were alot different 20 years ago. It all changed when they started sucking ground water at these modern rates. I've always cherished these bodies of water, I used to catch trout, and warm water fish. It breaks my heart to watch these special places transform into nothing more than a resting place for migrating geese and ducks :(

 

[CrazyEd]

Dipper, the levels of these ponds have always seemed to change, long before the high capacity wells. There are 2 large irrigated fields directly adjacent to our land, probably around 100-140 acres or so. That water is actually piped in from a few miles further away to feed those sprinklers, the wells aren't directly adjacent to us. My grandma told me when she was a child the ponds were at full capacity then they dropped down again over 20-30 years and then they peaked again probably around 1985. The next 15 years they declined a ton but the past 5 or so they have been steadily climbing and I hope that trend will continue. I'm 35 years old and i've seen the levels kind of all over the board so it's really hard to say.

Looking at my GPS it looks like we have about 100-125' of elevation change on our property from the lowest to the highest.

 

[dipper]

They pipe it for miles? I'm not so sure about that one, they will drill hundreds of feet down. You know what the water source is? I don't have a well in about a mile and a half, those babies can suck. Never seen them move the water miles. I guess anything is possible though.

 

[2ndHand]

Nice looking property Ed! What's the current depth in the pond? I've been developing a small pond on my property (little over 1/3 acre) added a bunch of minnows last year, haven't seen any signs of them yet this year. Keep up the good work...;)

 

[CrazyEd]

Nice looking property Ed! What's the current depth in the pond? I've been developing a small pond on my property (little over 1/3 acre) added a bunch of minnows last year, haven't seen any signs of them yet this year. Keep up the good work...;)

Not quite sure. That particular one is not that deep though, maybe 5-6 feet? There are about 7 or 8 of these ponds in the immediate area, 2 of which are on our property, the other one is a probably an 8th of the size. There is one on our neighbors property that is quite a bit deeper but I only saw it once or twice as a kid.

 

[2ndHand]

Not quite sure. That particular one is not that deep though, maybe 5-6 feet? There are about 7 or 8 of these ponds in the immediate area, 2 of which are on our property, the other one is a probably an 8th of the size. There is one on our neighbors property that is quite a bit deeper but I only saw it once or twice as a kid.

Looks very scenic - nice to have water!

 

[sandbur]

Ed-what was the native habitat in your area before the white man arrived? short grass prairie?

is there any record of the habitat changing with different tribes or the arrival of the horse

 

[CrazyEd]

I assume Prairie / Savannah type of some sort but I guess I don't really know for sure.

 

[kabic]

http://www.historicmapworks.com/Browse/United_States/Wisconsin/

If your interested i think you can go to the link above and find the field notes from the original survey that describes the land. If I remember correctly they were not too kind about my area of the state.


Field notes are also here

http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/SurveyNotes/Search.html

 

[wiscwhip]

Not really sure what "bastard pine" and "jack oak" are but apparently it was all over our section of the township. Along with the sandy "third rate" soil and "sandy bottomed" stream that "runs sluggish", I can't imagine why anyone would have thought that farming this area was a good idea. BTW thanks for the link kabic, I looked at this once before but I could never find it again afterwards.