bueller's blotter

[scott44]

It's great to have a place like that, enjoy it.

 

[browndog]

Weekends like that are way better than sitting in a stand.

 

[bueller]

Finally got back up to the property for the first time since gun season. Trimmed some branches off the oaks around the homestead. First time using a gas powered pole saw, should have bought one years ago. Got a good workout wandering through the woods with about 10" of snow on the ground. Pulled trail cameras that I had left out. Good number of baldies still hanging around along with a couple of our typical scrub bucks. Looks like the good ones pretty much came through here for the rut this year and then vanished again. I'll put up some videos/photos in the trail cam forum.

 

[Bill]

And today you're probably sore. :)

 

[bueller]

And today you're probably sore. :)

Funny I wasn't sore yesterday but today I am. For a second I felt younger :(

 

[bueller]

Saturday was a perfect day. We made it up too and did some chainsaw work on shooting lanes. We were able to drive into our field which I was a little surprised with. More snow in the woods but still not bad at all. Tough to beat 41 degrees and no wind. Not much for deer tracks at our place, everything a week or more old. Did see quite a few canine tracks. I think the trapper is going to come back this month so hopefully he snags some of those as well. Probably won't be back up til mid to late March now. Hoping the snow is gone by then. Lots of work to do!

Is the lack of deer tracks in the winter normal for your land? I surprisingly did not see any canine tracks, even on my perimeter trails which they love to travel on.

 

[bueller]

We still have about 6-8" snow in the woods, and about half that in the open areas. It's going to get real sloppy here in the next couple weeks with this warm-up. Deer are keeping the scrub oak trimmed with their browsing. Rye is green but still covered with snow and has zero feeding activity as of now.

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[bueller]

Got the wood duck house up today.

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[bueller]

View of the water from the box.

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[bueller]

The snow is melting :)! A spot has opened up in my rye field and it didn't take long for the deer to take notice. Twice today I rode the ATV up on a group of doe feeding on that exact spot. Didn't have the phone ready to snap a pic.

 

[bueller]

On Sunday I pulled a camera over a foodplot that hadn't been checked since November. Pre-dawn hours of 11/29 I had a couple doe being chased around by a buck, 2nd rut??? The best part is the buck looks to be the big guy (avatar picture) we feared might have been killed by a car just down the road from us in the middle of November. It now looks like that may not have been him that was hit AND that he made it through another gun season!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

That's good news, Bueller. He'll be one to watch for as the summer progresses. I hope he hangs for you.

 

[kpj5br]

Wow what an awesome 21 pages of reading! Kept me up WAYYY too late on a Sunday night but worth it!

 

[bueller]

Got my pear trees fertilized and pruned this weekend. Of the eight I planted a few years back 4 of them look good while the others have struggled. I hope the four good ones really put on some growth this year!

Rye plot is getting hammered by the deer. Pictures all throughout the day and night heads to the ground. We look to have a fair number of doe right now and a couple large bodied shed bucks :D.

I should've taken some pictures of the eastern wahoos growing in my yard. The deer browsed the heck out of the tops the last couple weeks.

I'll be planting pine and spruce plugs next trip up in a couple weeks.

 

[bueller]

I wasn't able to get my apple trees fertilized this weekend. Will get to it in April sometime. Had to wear waders around anywhere in the woods this weekend. Cleaned out the wood duck houses. One had 3 eggs in it already. That seems early. Woodies and mallards all over. Kicked 8 deer out when I first drove in to our field. Clover is about 1" and green. Lots of activity in our clover field and in-woods plot. Also found a front shoulder leg bone/shoulder blade on the edge of our field. Not sure what brought that in. No other parts nearby. Damn near got stuck trying to get out. Thank god for 4-lo.

I figured you would be under water. Both the Wisconsin and Yellow Rivers were at the highest levels since 2010, and one of the highest I've ever seen. The wood duck house I put up a couple weeks back is still empty. Very cool that you have eggs already. If you have the opportunity to grab a total egg count in a month or so you can then predict the jump date.

 

[bueller]

Planted plugs this weekend, 112 white pine and 60 black hills spruce. This was my first time with plugs and I will NOT be doing bareroot pines/spruce again. So much easier and faster with plugs. Worth the extra expense.

Also put in another 25 dappled willow cuttings to replace some DOA's from last year. The survivors are coming to life with little green buds all over them. Hybrid poplars are a bit behind the willows but showing signs of life also. Pear trees look like they did a couple weeks ago, barely any sign of life yet this spring.

The rye plots are green and feeding hungry deer. Trail cameras show lots of activity although pretty boring to look at without antlers or fawns. Bucks are still hanging with the doe groups.

Weather forecast is a bit concerning for everything I planted. Next 7-10 days have lots of sun and no rain. At least the ground was moist when they went in.

 

[bueller]

In the week following planting we got no rain and temps up to and above 80 with low humidity and a steady breeze. Our sand dries out very quickly, some of the trees were visibly stressed already. This weekend we watered all the plugs we planted. Sounds worse than it really was. Pops has a 15 gallon drum rigged up that we strap to the back rack of an ATV. We fill that and drive it out to where the trees are planted. Using the water from the drum to fill a sprinkling can is very convenient. With the roots in the plugs being contained in a vertical form it didn't take much water to give each tree a drink. And the indentation left by the plug helped the water pool up right at the trunk allowing it to soak straight down onto the roots instead of running off. The forecast for the coming week is looking better with cooler temps and chances of rain.

The shrubs have woken up and are leading the way to greening up the woods.

 

[bueller]

Oh yea, forgot to mention that some of the bucks have begun growing this year's antlers. Only an inch or two at this point but it's a start. Lots of pics and videos of them doing their best to keep the rye browsed down like a putting green.

 

[bueller]

Winter rye is starting to outpace the browsing.

Another rye plot with red clover included.

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[bueller]

Dappled willows cuttings that survived their first year have woken up. As have the replacements planted a couple weeks ago for the ones I lost. Hybrid poplars still haven't leafed out.

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