Brute 'N Bottoms

[younggun1849]

Fabco in Eau Claire. They delivered the machine and picked it up. It ended up being quite a bit more than 1,000 because I put about 15 hours on it instead of 8, and they do get you for gas which is a few hundred bucks.

 

[younggun1849]

Things are finally starting to come together, and the property is starting to look how I want it! For the most part the past few months I have been learning the layout of the farm and putting together a game plan.

This ground has not been planted in years, and we got in and tore it up. It will be a 4 acre bean field then overseeded with rye/oats, and will be left for the deer.



This used to be open ground but box elders took over year ago. I knocked them down this winter with the backhoe, and now the dozer came in and cleared it out. We will be planting spruce trees here with rows of switchgrass between the spruce. You'll see in the third pic we piled up the debris to create a screen, and left an opening right where I want them to cross.

 

[younggun1849]

A big priority for me was getting food on the north side of the property, which isn't easy as a lot of it is swamp. First we improved an existing road that crosses a creek that was in bad shape. I could barely get across it with my side by side, now I can drive my truck across it :cool:



This allows me to get food plot equipment easily to 2 different locations on the north side of the property.

Here's the first.



Before Dozer



After Dozer

 

[bwoods11]

Awesome improvements! Will be interested in seeing pics this fall.

 

[kl9]

Things are finally starting to come together, and the property is starting to look how I want it! For the most part the past few months I have been learning the layout of the farm and putting together a game plan.

This ground has not been planted in years, and we got in and tore it up. It will be a 4 acre bean field then overseeded with rye/oats, and will be left for the deer.



This used to be open ground but box elders took over year ago. I knocked them down this winter with the backhoe, and now the dozer came in and cleared it out. We will be planting spruce trees here with rows of switchgrass between the spruce. You'll see in the third pic we piled up the debris to create a screen, and left an opening right where I want them to cross.

What kind of JD is that in the field? Looks like a nice machine.

 

[huntall]

Nice property! I like seeing progress on property like this. A lot of work but a fun kinda work! Keep the pictures coming.

 

[SD51555]

It's cool to see how much work can get done with big machines. Very good.

 

[younggun1849]

I have finished my largest project of the summer and it was a hell of a lot more work than I thought it would be. I'm no expert carpenter, and they might look a little redneck but they should work really well.

I finished the roofs yesterday and I'll take pics of a finished one tonight when I'm at the farm. This pic has no metal roof or windows.



I used Deerview windows on all of them. 4 windows in each blind, 2 on the front wall, and 1 on each side wall. The spots all 3 blinds are located I don't need windows in the back, and I'd rather have less light coming in to keep us concealed in the blind.



On June 11th my wife and I welcomed Jax Bernard Davis into the world. Bernard was my grandpas name and it means brave strong bear, I haven't called him anything but "Bear" so far. Hopefully it sticks. He's been a lot of fun!

 

[wiscwhip]

Congrats on the new addition Jake!

 

[younggun1849]

Instead of making a new thread for our other 105 acre farm I'll post those updates here as well. I put in 2 water holes last week, and with a few good thunderstorms they are full already.



This one is at the base of a hill, and I built a trench to direct water to the blind. Little did I know we had monsoon rains for about an hour and look what happened.



I dug the excess sand out, and it looks a lot better now. Hopefully no more rain like that.

 

[scott44]

Congrats on the new addition to your family.

 

[bwoods11]

Nice pics of habitat and the little one!!

 

[younggun1849]

Some screenshots from videos I pulled on Sunday. This first one is a big deer. He's one to keep an eye on and see if he continues to hang around.

 

[wiscwhip]

Looks like you have a couple of studs there YG. I really think that first buck will be filling in nicely by the time Nov rolls around. "Brute" for sure!

 

[younggun1849]

Long skinny plots leading by a box blind. I put this method in place at a few different locations on both farms. Beans are looking great, and EW has a hell of a screen going already.



Below you can see the pile of box elders the dozer placed, and then EW where the we ran out of trees building the blockade. There is a 5 acre corn field on the other side of the blockade. Deer should feel pretty secure feeding in this plot.

 

[bwoods11]

Looks like a slam dunk spot!!

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

That's a great looking property. You also have some really nice bucks there, it should be a fun fall.

 

[phil@thesidehill]

congrats on the little one! My son is Jackson...but he gets called "Jax" often. He's almost 21 months old and yesterday was the first time he said his name....he ran around randomly yelling JACK SON!!

 

[kabic]

How is the new property dealing with all the recent rain we got? I know the Buffalo is flooding between Osseo and Eleva and I think that is the general area where you are located.

 

[younggun1849]

How is the new property dealing with all the recent rain we got? I know the Buffalo is flooding between Osseo and Eleva and I think that is the general area where you are located.

The flooding and water damage in the eleva-strum-osseo area was incredible all week. We got 10" of rain overnight on Sunday and it was devastating. We have a small creek running through the Eau Claire farm which is just a few miles from Eleva, and the creek turned into a river. You can see everything that couldn't withhold the water resistance was flattened, bye bye bedding cover in some areas, and it washed out my neighbors culvert and I'm sure many more downstream. My property is right where the creek starts so it definitely got worse as you got downstream. I live a mile south of the Buffalo River and my road was underwater where it crossed the river with pretty extreme flooding over the banks. I've heard horror stories of peoples houses being basically destroyed, and nobody has flood insurance. The Buffalo farm is about 20 miles downstream from where the rain happened, my farmlogs told me the buffalo farm got only 1/2" of rain that night. The problem was all the rain was going to end up there. From talking with the neighbors there it took until Tuesday for the water to come up, but it did come over the banks. After seeing what happened in Eleva I was concerned that our bean fields and higher ground could possibly be underwater. I went there and that was not the case. The river is about 100 yards over the bank into my property, but it had the potential to be much farther, but I didn't know what to expect, this was the first time flooding has occurred since we owned the property. They say it was a storm that happens every 100 years, and nobody has ever seen the river as high as it was. On the Buffalo farm the parts that had water running through was mainly just reed canary grass and tag alders. 2 small brassica plots I planted I'm sure are history, but I still have plenty of food that didn't have any flood damage. The river is back in it's banks in the eleva strum area so we'll see when it clears at the buffalo farm. I'll take pictures when I can get back to where the flooding was on the property. I might swing down for an evening hunt tomorrow. Beans are still green and a few good bucks are frequenting the bottoms. I'll post trail cam pics up later on. Nothing that I will go after, but take the wife or brother and see what comes out. This cold front will help things. I wish tonight was the opener and there would be some bucks hitting the ground no doubt.