Someday Isle - Property tour

[Someday isle]

It’s been 8 days since I discard and seeded buckwheat and cowpeas (red ripper is what the local grain elevator had in stock). I expanded three of my food plots a little more this year so we seeded a little heavy. I had no doubts the buckwheat would grow but the peas are more of an experiment and I also kind of expect the buckwheat to shade out the peas to some degree anyway even they do try to grow a little. I couldn’t be more pleased with the germination after only 8 days. We had plenty of moisture in the soil, ma6be too much in a few spots, and then we got rain a couple days later. It’s all coming in plenty thick and we’ve got a chance of rain a couple days this week. I’ve never done much summer food plot planting other than a little buckwheat on new plots. Ive Always just kind of let my white clover do it’s thing on the trails and then let the medium red in the other plots serve as a summer food source. I’m excited to see how it goes.

 

[Bill]

I’m assuming sethoxydim is a cheaper version of Clethodim?

 

[Someday isle]

I’m assuming sethoxydim is a cheaper version of Clethodim?

I don’t know if it’s cheaper but it’s all I could find. It’s the generic version of Poast according to what I read and what the guy at the farm store told me.

 

[SWIFFY]

Looks like thats coming in strong! Nice!

 

[Someday isle]

I went back out last weekend to do some much needed mowing of our campground and the road sides. Took a Few pictures of the plots again. The buckwheat continues to look good and the peas have really started to come on. It’ll be a couple weeks before I get back out again so I’ll be interested in seeing if the peas are holding up to browsing pressure. As of this weekend nothing had been touched but I’m sure it won’t be long. The deer keep my winter rye mowed to the ground. So I expect the peas to get wiped out early. Time will tell.

 

[Someday isle]

Last spring (2021) I cleared an area that had lots of downed trees and debris. It was an area that the old owner had done a tree harvest in. He supposedly was going to make a lake site there. It had so much debris and had become really overgrown and entangled and the deer wouldn’t even use it anymore. I cleared out all the downed timber and mowed it in hopes of it either becoming a bedding area or a travel corridor. two weeks ago I took one pass through it with my DR mower and then sprayed the path that I mowed hoping to encourage deer to travel through that area more freely. It’s definelty been getting some deer and turkey use already this spring as it’s starting to really thicken up nd I’m getting some trail cam pics on the edge of the area. It’s less than a half acre but it really encourages me to create several more spots like this throughout the property.

 

[Someday isle]

And of course I always like to share pictures of my clover trails. They’ve been slow coming in this year and the 100 degree plus temps this week and next aren’t going to help them much but they’re still looking okay As of last weekend.

 

[Someday isle]

Summer food plot update - at 4 1/2 weeks there’s hardly any sign of the peas I planted with the buckwheat. I’m glad now that I used both in my seeding. Two weeks ago there were lots of peas and I thought I’d have a nice plot of peas and buckwheat together. It appears the deer have completely wiped out the peas. There are a few areas where there are some peas but there doesn’t appear to be much left. The deer are eating the buckwheat but Its not like they ever demolish the buckwheat when I plant it. My clover trails look okay in spite of the heat and no rain.

For now my plan is to let the buckwheat go until the end of July and then I’ll throw and mow some brassicas in part of each plot. I’ve never had much luck getting brassicas to grow in my soil during the hot summer months. That time of year we’re always in some degree of drought. The radishes in my fall plots usually provide some forage but they get wiped out pretty quick. Then around Labor Day I’ll plant my regular cereal grain combo.
I’ve obviously got plenty of deer around but it’s not like we’re overrun with them either. This was A Summer experiment with the peas and I can’t imagine if you had really high deer densities that peas would last unless there was a lot more available acreage than what I have. It was a worthwhile experiment though and I can imagine I’ll throw some peas out again next summer too as part of a blend.

 

[Bill]

Same thing happens to me with sun flowers.

 

[SWIFFY]

Looks really good SI.

Its always worth trying a few new things in the summer because worse case, you can always start from scratch in the fall with your grains/brassicas.

Did you get some rain today? Heck of a big band that went through MN. Wede have been in trouble without it!

 

[Someday isle]

Looks really good SI.

Its always worth trying a few new things in the summer because worse case, you can always start from scratch in the fall with your grains/brassicas.

Did you get some rain today? Heck of a big band that went through MN. Wede have been in trouble without it!

We got some rain at the house but didn’t get a drop out at our property. It’s shaping up to be a hot dry summer. We’re already a couple inches below normal and have heat warnings most of this week again. Heat index today was already at 111 and we haven’t even hit the heat of the day yet. We’ve got 100 degree temps for the next three days. In our part of the country we learn early that we can’t control the weather - we go from wet springs to dry summers pretty much overnight.

 

[Someday isle]

I thought I’d provide an update on my buckwheat/cowpea plots. I had planned on mowing the buckwheat this weekend but it’s been so hot and dry that between the drought and the deer there’s just not much buckwheat left so I’m not worried about a bunch of leftover seed competing with my fall plots. The cowpeas are hanging In there and certainly being eaten by the deer. I’m already thinking maybe next year I’ll leave the buckwheat out and just seed heavy with the cowpeas. I’m calling this years experiment successful considering our extreme heat and dry weather.

I had a couple trees down that I wanted to clean up so I bought a little purple top turnip and radish seed from the local grain elevator and threw down some strips of brassica seed into the peas while I was out at the property this weekend. I’ve never had any luck with brassicas - usually our Augusts are so hot and dry that they germinate and die. I do include radishes in with my cereal grains for my fall plots and they do okay until the deer wipe them out. I’ve never gotten turnips to grow. We did get several hours of rain today with a chance of rain a few days this week so we’ll see. It looks like our heat comes back next week again though.

 

[Someday isle]

I’ve got a busy schedule coming up and was looking for a way to shortcut my fall food plots. I just couldn’t make myself do it. I spent a full 12 1/2 hour day today getting my fall plots in. My cow pea and buckwheat summer experiment went great so it kind of hurt to disc it all in today but that’s what I did. We’ve got a sixty percent chance of rain tomorrow so I’m hopeful we get a little something. I put down 100 pounds per acre each of oats and winter rye, 5 pounds of radish, 10 pounds of medium red clover, and I overseeded my clover trails with a little Rye and a little extra ladino seed. The clover has had two rough years in a row with pretty serious drought conditions and high heat but it’s trying to hang on. Hopefully it rebounds in the fall.

I usually disc, put down the cereal grains, cultipack, the seed the clover and radish. This year I actually disced, broadcast the cereal grains, light disced them in, then cultipacked, and added the clover and radish seed. This is my second fall having a tractor and it’s sure is better than discing with a 4 wheeler. I’ve got less than two acres of plots, all in the woods, so it’s still a lot of work for an old man all by himself. Fun work, but still work.

Come on Rain! (it’s Missouri so rain may or may not come - we’re used to it)

 

[Someday isle]

I Was getting a little concerned. We had rain forecast every day for a few days after I planted and didn’t get a drop. Yesterday has been about eight days since I planted and it looks like we got a good couple hours of rain yesterday. It’s a little bit of a relief. Drought has caused some food plot challenges in recent years But it looks like we got enough rain to do some good and our temps are a little lower the next couple of weeks.

 

[Someday isle]

Made it out today to check in the food plots and pull some camera cards one last time before the season starts. We got some decent rains the last week and I had some good germination on the plots. Not much on camera again. It’s been a strange summer with fewer deer on camera than in recent years. Hopefully that’ll change as we get into the fall. I’ll stay away now for the next couple of weeks. Our archery season opens on September 15th. I may do a morning until on Fridaythe 16th to get the kinks out and spend a couple hours in a tree.

Hopefully by the time October rolls around we’ll have a few more deer around and my plots will draw them in.

 

[Someday isle]

I went out yesterday morning for a first hunt of the season. We haven’t been getting many morning pics but it seemed like a good day for a hunt to get the kinks out of my system and check on the plots. The woods were quiet and I didn’t see a thing but enjoyed the hunt anyway. The plots look good. I planted two weeks early this year and was a little concerned it might be too early (two weeks before Labor Day). I pulled a couple camera cards and while there appears to be eight different regular deer using the plots they’re not getting hit much at all. I’m sure they’ll get used more over the next couple of weeks. The most fun though yesterday was while I was sitting in the stand it appeared a couple leaves on one of my pear trees were already changing. Then I convinced myself that maybe I was actually seeing pears - we haven’t had our first fruit yet. When I got down I went and took a look - and we have pears! There’s only two, and I lost one Of my best two trees this year and my best tree is really stressed and struggling. I don’t expect it to survive either. But this tree is looking good as are several others, hopefully in a couple years we’ll have an actual ”crop” of pears. I’d rather have harvested a deer, but the pears were a great consolation prize.

 

[buckdeer1]

Are your pears suffering due to drought?I water my newly moved trees every 3 days

 

[Someday isle]

Are your pears suffering due to drought?I water my newly moved trees every 3 days

No they’re all actually doing well except for my two biggest trees.

 

[Someday isle]

It continues to be a different season. I’m still getting very few daylight pictures and not seeing much when I’m out hunting. We seem to have a huge acorn crop and it’s mostly oak forest all around us so that could be a factor this year. we’ve also got a lot of coyotes and A Pair of bobcats showing up on camera. I’m sure that’s a factor too. My food plots have finally gotten better after the recent rains So I’m hopeful for a more active area going into firearms season next weekend. Our oldest son and my brother will be hunting this year and TJ has never killed a buck and my brother has never harvested a deer of any kind so I’ll be more focused on getting them setup than I will be in my own hunting. I’ll hunt the fringes and be close enough to help them out if they harvest something. I’ve had a decent year anyway in spite of it being a more challenging season. I filled an antlerless tag early and harvested a small buck. I also took my first archery turkey, and the first turkey on our property since we purchased it in 2016. I’ve never been much of a turkey hunter. This is only my third one but he offered me a 17 yard chip shot so I took it. I have to admit that turkeys don’t get my heart pumping like a deer would but it was still a fun hunt.

 

[Bill]

Same here. I’ll shoot a turkey while deer hunting but it’s just for some deep fried turkey nuggets. No adrenaline rush in it.