Allgood Acres

[nateb440]

Glad to see another KY member here. Looks like a great property and I love you’ve got your kids out there helping. I have 3 boys and a little girl and they’re growing up fast. I keep telling them they’re going to be the ones enjoying all the fruit and nuts and great hunting that I’m helping to promote. Just a matter of time.

 

[BenA]

Glad to see another KY member here. Looks like a great property and I love you’ve got your kids out there helping. I have 3 boys and a little girl and they’re growing up fast. I keep telling them they’re going to be the ones enjoying all the fruit and nuts and great hunting that I’m helping to promote. Just a matter of time.

It's all about the memories. I like to make my most cherished with my family.

 

[BenA]

Due to not being able to get to the property, I had a local outfitter do my plots this year. He used his blend of turnips, radishes, and crimson clover. I'll probably overseed red and arrowleaf into it before spring greenup.

I'm also trying some new locations for my plots this year as indicated on the maps. Those may need to be tweaked some as I see how they affect movement this year.

Still waiting on my pollinator contract to be finalized with the NRCS so I can get those fields going. He told me everything was done, and I've signed the contracts. Just waiting on the go ahead from them.

 

[BenA]

The kids getting ready for the 2020 Kentucky youth hunt sitting downwind of a foodplot.


Success on my middle son’s first deer. He dropped her in her tracks with a .243 Handi-Rifle. She came in with a yearling buck and doe (probably her fawns from last year). She had a tiny bit of milk left in her udder but didn’t have any of this year’s fawns with her.


Old traditions not forsaken.

 

[scott44]

Congrats to your son! It looks like it was a good time for all.

 

[BenA]

Our attempt at a DIY haybale blind. I would definitely do some things differently, and it needs to be re-covered with a black inner layer first, but it will have to do for now. At less than $150, though, it was ok.

The kids and wife were a huge help.

Basically, we build it with 2 50" x 6' cattle panels and cut one part off to use for side structure and make it 6' wide. We wrapped the whole thing with a whole roll of pallet wrap. Then, we covered the outside with a 6' x 16' reed garden fencing. We used 2 of those as well. We staked all 4 corners down with rebar.

Deer didn't seem to mind. We got pictures that next day of deer 20 yards in front of it.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I've been wanting to do a DIY bale blind for quite a while now. Another one of the things on the list that never seems to happen.

 

[BenA]

This satellite view was from the September 2020 planting of my 3 plots totaling about 2 acres. They are the 3 brown areas inside the black outline. They were done with conventional tillage this first year but will not for the foreseeable future. The crimson clover, radish, and turnip mix did well except for the deer eating all the radishes before they could develop tubers. They loved the turnips from late season into spring. The plots were frost seeded with red clover at 25lbs/acre. I will not do anything to the plots until September 2021 when I top sow with oats, brassicas, and more clover if needed. I'll also spray if necessary at that time.



This satellite photo was from last week. The light tan areas show the results from my initial burndown. One more will be done in the the next couple of weeks and then 11 acres of it will be planted with a pollinator blend. There is a band I am not planting but was still sprayed. That will be left to grow as an experiment and will also include firebreaks and the areas next to the woods will be allowed to grow up and maintained as mid successional woody growth for edge feathering.

 

[BenA]

I was able to buy the 6 acre field on my west border. This will give me 47 acres in total. I'm not sure exactly what I'll do with it yet. It does lie flatter than the rest of my fields which are a combination of pollinator plantings and 3 food plots, so cropping it might be an option. What it does give me, is great access, which I desperately needed on that side. I'm also bounded on 3 sides by roads. On my east border is a great neighbor who also manages his property.

 

[Bill]

Congratulations.
I do see where that opens up some great ways to sneak in.

 

[BenA]

I've been needing to catch up on this thread and need to do a better job in the future especially when it comes to photographing all the work. It's hard to make myself stop to do that when I'm trying to get a lot done in a short window. But, that's my fault, and I'll do better. So, this post documents some highlights from Thanksgiving until now.
I didn't have a target buck this year, but the property is working its way to the point where I could see one using it regularly pretty soon.

My middle son had a fun season. He shot two does and I had to hold him back from shooting a third. I don't want to take out too many on the property:

My daughter had her chances, but for one reason or another couldn't make it happen. She still had fun though. There's always next season:

We used an old pool ladder to make an easy access route over a fence:

I did some hack and squirt to set back some succession in some bedding areas:

I got a new chainsaw. This little bugger is a beast. I wish I had taken some good pics of the edge feathering I did with it this past winter:

This is a shooting lane I cut in to the backside of a newly developed bedding area across the holler:

We helped my neighbor burning his native grass patch:

We only found one small shed this year. I have to think it's because I didn't have the turnips and radishes like last year:

My farmer/neighbor disked and mowed some firebreaks for the upcoming burning of my pollinator planting:

I was able to get KDFWR and NRCS personnel to burn my fields for me. For some reason, the burn plan was left out of my contract, so I couldn't do it when we were up there and burned my neighbors. So, they were kind enough to do it for me. This has been a great group to work with:

Some scarlet oak seedlings. I picked up some acorns from around the shores of Lake Cumberland and potted them:

And, the thing I'm most excited about is the new acreage I picked up. I got my farmer/neighbor to plant corn with a wheat cover crop after harvest. He managed to get about 6 acres planted. This should be a huge draw for next season. He's keeping the corn in exchange for doing some mowing for me. It's awesome having great neighbors like this.

So, this is what the property will layout like for next season. Possible tweaks will come up as always:

Well, that's it for now. I'll see if I can get my butt in gear and do better with the updates.

 

[Bill]

the pool ladder is genius

 

[BenA]

My pollinator planting is entering the year of creep. Planted in June of last year, it is slowly getting there. All the species planted have been identified in the field along with some other beneficial bonus ones. With the major johnsongrass problem last year, I'm going to get ahead of it this year. It and the thistles will be spot sprayed and/or weed wiped around the middle of next month. Vernal sweet grass is another problem seeming to come on like gangbusters. I missed my opportune spray time for it this year, so I'll make a note to catch it in early spring of next year. The last problem is tree of heaven sprouts. I've got to hit those with triclopyr. Top priority for those though, is finding those mother trees along my field edges and killing them late this summer/early fall.

 

[BenA]

My pollinator planting was spot sprayed with imazapic for johnsongrass and triclopyr for tee of heaven and a couple more undesirables. It's definitely looking better than last years invasion of johnsongrass.

 

[BenA]

Made a quick trip to the farm to take advantage of my new corn field. Right at 4 acres of my new piece is planted in corn. When it's picked, wheat will be overseeded. I didn't plant my plots this year because of this. I wanted to concentrate movement in one direction across the property. I have two sets now to take advantage of that movement depending on wind. (Thanks to @Native Hunter for pointing me in the right direction of where to find ladder stands for sale around there).

My middle child at the front of the corn field.





They sure do like the pokeweed here. Next to cover, it's getting hammered.



Made a pathway coming in from behind the stand to where we can popup into it without the deer in my newly established prairie seeing us.





My son with the weedeater cutting a narrow path through the new prairie leading from the hollow and a newly constructed bedding area to the corn/wheat field. The path passes along the woodline and 20 yards in front of the stand nestled into a cedar. A blockade is laid down in front of the stand. (Yes, the cut tree of heaven was dowsed with liberal amounts of herbicide.)

 

[BenA]

While it doesn't hold a candle to @Native Hunter garden of Eden, my prairie is starting to come along nicely. I was amazed at the growth since the early spring burn. It was over my head in places. There were deer beds all through it, which I wasn't expecting just yet. They are definitely using that trail coming from the holler up to the corn field too. I do wish the grasses weren't so thick in spots in order to give more room for forbs, but we'll see how it goes.

 

[Bill]

If you mow a narrow path through that, they will follow it.

Looks good.

 

[Native Hunter]

While it doesn't hold a candle to @Native Hunter garden of Eden, my prairie is starting to come along nicely. I was amazed at the growth since the early spring burn. It was over my head in places. There were deer beds all through it, which I wasn't expecting just yet. They are definitely using that trail coming from the holler up to the corn field too. I do wish the grasses weren't so thick in spots in order to give more room for forbs, but we'll see how it goes.

I can just look at that and smell them laying around in it.

 

[Troubles Trees]

Love the pool ladder for crossing pasture fences man, that is a solid idea! I agree with Bill in that if you mow a path deer will use it, I was able to redirect deer past stands in my field of goldenrod at my place the same way.

Looks great Ben! Love seeing the kids smiling bud, great job bud!

 

[BenA]

If you mow a narrow path through that, they will follow it.

Looks good.

In July, I had my son weedeat a path from the hollow to the corn field. It passes about 20 yards in front of a double ladder stand tucked into a cedar tree. You can see a faint outline of it in the picture. They are wearing it out.