Acres of Freedom

MilkweedManiac

5 year old buck +
The purpose of this thread will primarily be for me to utilize as an ongoing journal of the habitat events and experiments surrounding our family's little parcel of land.

This place has been a part of my life from childhood, and I can still hardly believe that my wife and I were given the opportunity to move here, right next door to my parents.

I have already learned so much from others in this section of Habitat-Talk, and maybe this thread can provide someone else out there to benefit from the many mistakes I will undoubtedly make along the way!

I am in the process of collecting photos that have been taken so far, but most of the improvement is in front of me, beginning this spring.
 
Here I stand next to the Willow tree surveying the larger pond and western portion of the property.
 

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Good luck on your "improvements in front of me "
 
To keep things simple, I will call the bigger body of water, “The Lake,” and the smaller of the two will be referred to as the, “The Pond.” When I was a boy of 8 or 9, the lake was much smaller and the other pond to the east was basically a little water hole at the time. I have outlined the shape of the lake as it used to be in the picture below. I wish I had some photos of me at that pond as a kid. Maybe I can come up with a few at some point. At any rate, I know that I have some pictures of my wife and I at the "old lake," taken during an engagement photo shoot in the spring of 2009. I'll try to see if I can come up with one or two.

The people who owned the farm when I was younger invited our family down to hunt and fish anytime. Thankfully, when they sold the property about 10 years ago, very close friends of our family purchased it.

They, too, have a knack and drive for habitat improvement, and chose to expand the previously existing pond into the much larger (about 9 acres) lake.

To the east of the lake is a low spot coming out of the timber that had always collected some standing water when I was younger. So they decided to dig out about 2 acres for a second pond.

This pond functions very nicely as a filter for the bigger lake. The dam between them serves as a great access path for tractors and 4-wheelers when needing to do improvement or maintenance on the 150 acres south of the Freedom 80.

The coolest part about it all is that my parents live next door, the original owners of the 80 live just down the road (they built a new house on about 15 acres when they moved), and the folks who sold my wife and I the 80 are still our neighbors to the south. So I really enjoy and like all of my neighbors, which I realize is often not the case when living in the country.
 

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Great looking place with the added benefit of friends and family all around you and some good previous history with you.
 
Time to tackle some cattails...

I purchased a product called, "Razer Rake" by Jenlis which is kind of a compromise between a cutting and retrieval tool. I couldn't justify buying a separate pole for each purpose. I've only had it out for a few minutes, but it is definitely pulling in the dead cattails. I plan to spray new growth with a product called Shore-Klear. I'm not a big fan of spraying around ponds, but if I don't do something this cattail invasion is going to spread into the larger lake area.

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Hoping to find a few of these with all the warm rain we've been receiving.

I found these last year under an Elm tree that was just starting to lose its bark on the side.

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Food plots were a bit of a bust last fall. Moving in late kept me from doing much more than fall planting. I planted a very well-known company's fall blend (I won't mention the name because the results weren't good). I actually contacted the owner of the company and he told me that his plots were the worst he'd ever had this year due to the excessive fall rain. I'm guessing a compacted crust formed at the top and kept most of the seed from sprouting.


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So around mid-September, I decided to go back in and "intercede with some inter-seeding" if you will. A few rape and brassicas. It ended up producing fairly well and by mid-October there was good traffic coming in to eat the tender tops. Below is a fun picture I took on 10/14 of last year. The treecoy has become a very popular approach in food plots. I found a Sassafras tree about the right size, lopped it off at ground level and attached it via baling wire to a large piece of rebar driven deeply into the ground.

Evercalm on the side and a little tarsal/estrus on the licking branch made the "Sassy-Coy" a very popular spot last season.

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I'm pretty impressed with the health structure of the fish in the ponds. The gentleman who had these ponds dug and stocked did quite well with the varieties he chose, and to my knowledge the fish were stocked about 6 years prior to these pictures so I'm excited to see how the ponds mature. This is the first nice size Largemouth I was able to catch here when we first moved in. It weighed in at just over 6 pounds and was caught on a War Eagle white spinner in the Spring of 2018. This female, full of roe, was quickly released. I had my wife hold it up for size reference; of course, she's no bigger than a minute so it kind of makes the fish look bigger!

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The next picture is a bass taken from the smaller pond. This bass came in at 7 lb. 0 oz. and was caught on a SPRO Frog in August (big male). My wife and I joke about how the fish almost rivals our daughter's (Saydee) size!!!

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Bass aren't on my menu when they are this big, so it was also released back into natural habitat.
 
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This winter was my first foray into the world of dirt-hole set trapping. The coyote klan around here is pretty healthy, so my goal was to catch a few to hopefully rescue a spring fawn nearby. The traps are MB-550s, MB-650s (fully modified and laminated on both sides), and the one in the middle is a Bridger #3 dogless, also fully modified and laminated on one side. By far, the MB-550 is my runaway favorite and preference thus far.

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To coat the traps to prevent rust and enhance the action, I decided to use a generic product from a big box store that is supposed to have the same ingredients as Full Metal Jacket. So far I have been pretty impressed. I just don't have time in my life for waxing|dyeing the old fashioned way, even though I would absolutely love to try it sometime. With this, I just dipped it and let it dry for a couple of days, then dipped again, dried, then put them into use.

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I ended up catching a non-target item for my first predator. I put the set under an old Hedge Apple tree that I have sentimental connection to due to hunting experiences gone by.

I certainly don't think he appreciated meeting me that day.

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Because Indiana does not allow trapping of any kind for Bobcats, he was released via catch-pole until the DNR begins to understand the massive effect this is having on habitat for our state.
 
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The first tree planted (and only tree planted) in 2018 was a Golden Delicious. It was a gift from Papaw to Saydee on her 1st Birthday. The deer immediately began to nip it and a mesh cage was improvised around it until we can make something better/permanent.

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Cattails are very stubborn to get rid of once established, I have had really good luck using Cattplex or Alligare Gly both are equally good and don't hurt the fish. I spot spray for maintenance two to three times a summer and that keeps them mostly out of sight. I'm like you and don't really like spraying unless it's to kill cattails or unwanted locust trees...and jap beetles if they start getting out of hand.

Love the kid pics!
 
You can eat cattails. It's not the most impressive food, but I get a kick out of it.
 
Telemark, I can’t wait to see the look on my wife’ face when I hand her a clump to cook us for supper.
 
That's half the fun. If she says anything negative, just act like she's ignorant for thinking it's weird. Say something like "You seriously don't know how to cook them? Call my mom. She has dozens of recipes."
 
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