Recent content by Jerry

I have had a trace of rain at best since the 4th week of July. I never got a single drop the whole month of August. Watched it always go around me or dissipate right before it got to me. Put 3 plots in on 2 properties with good chances of rain during that time and got none of it. And there is...

I’ve lived and hunted in Illinois my entire life. I’m not sure a “blue collar guy” can buy 75 to 100 acres here anymore. Maybe deep southern Illinois - maybe. Most of the popular deer counties here are going to run you around $6000 an acre for rec ground now. I don’t consider $600,000 to be...

I've got experience with this very thing. I put 25 chickasaw plums in the ground back in March 2020. They were bareroot seedlings from our DNR. I put them in 5 foot tubes knowing they likely wouldn't like the tubes. Those trees have done tremendous over the last 5 years. I took the tubes...

I vote "bad." I murder everyone I come across.

Bastards got me good late last summer as I was direct seeding acorns in a feral field. I went back with protective clothing and gas and wiped out 2 very large nests. Grizzly bears and these little assholes with wings scare me the most. Thank goodness we don't have grizz in Illinois!

I am wanting to do this as well. Mine is switch that I want to thin. It's 6' tall which will make it difficult to spray. So if I wanted to spray switch later this fall, would it hurt spraying effectiveness if I mowed it first to a height I can work with?

I am a big fan of the XOP hang on stands. They are lightweight, comfortable, easy to hang, and always quiet. They are a little cashy nowadays - about $200 around me.

I kill all of them I can. They tend to have several stems and thorns which make it difficult. They cast alot of shade. I am okay with a couple of them but kill most in the long run. They are not fun to deal with. I do not personally consider them to be much benefit to wildlife. But, I know...

100 swamp white oak, 25 black cherry, 25 Chickasaw plum, and 25 hazelnut. Picked them all up this afternoon and got 50 in the ground before dark. Hope to finish tomorrow. I am tubing 75 of them.

Great stuff there. Thanks for sharing. I am always thinking about stuff like that. I wonder if diesel fuel and their "bark oil" are similar enough to get the same results? I hit 3 very large honey suckle with a low dose of triclopyr and diesel fuel early last spring to compare effectiveness...

I've owned 3 small (40 to 47 acre) hunting farms in different parts of the county since 2006. There are lots of neighbors touching these 3 places combined. There hasn't been a single acre of any neighbor that has been for sale in the time I've owned them. And I see nothing in the near future...

Midwestern Illinois rec ground will bring $5500 to $6500 right now and I've seen at least one place bring way more. Virtually no inventory. I bought 47 acres in November 2019 with 17 tillable for $3300 an acre by comparison. I bought a 40 with 12 acres tillable back in 2006 for $2600 an acre...

I terminated a really nice rye field in the summer by mowing it as high as I could. I then sprayed the field with gly one time and broadcasted turnips, rape, and radishes in the thick thatch that was left. I ran a cultipacker over it and called it good. No amendments. We got a real nice rain...

Okay, so I get bored easily and don't really like to watch TV. That usually has me coming up with dumb ideas. Sooo, I live in the middle of the woods and have deer and turkey in my yard all the time. There are 2 fawns laying out my bedroom window now in fact. I have this small prairie remnant...

The plan would be to follow with brassicas in a rotation. Just trying to park the disk more and more.