chummer
5 year old buck +
I finally got up to my place to try and get some work done and check on some things. Bad news first. I was walking the back edge of the field and saw some tracks in the snow followed them for about 10 yards and there was the deer. Fresh coyote kill. All consumed but the hide and stomach. That was the only set of tracks I saw the rest of the day. Still 3' of snow in the woods and I couldn't even walk it with snow shoes. Light crust then break through a foot or more. Any deer will be very easy prey for Yotes for the next couple weeks. Out it the open was more solid, I could stay on top till about noon. Good news. It appears all my apples and pears made it through this winter. There were a couple pears to worry about because they are still completely covered with snow. There is none of the bark cracking they all had last year so hopefully they will be ok. Could not check on all my tubed trees because the 2.5' tubes are all still covered in snow.
This is my $3 dollar ayers pear. No sign of winter damage and not one branch nipped.
This is a wild apple I stumbled on last fall. I staked it up. I didn't see any browsing on any of the wild apples. I really think I could be down to almost 0 deer. These wild apples usually see heavy browse as the snow pack grows the deer can reach well up into the tree. This tree is close to 10' tall.
I dropped some trees on the edge of my plot to expand my orchard. I think I can squeak out another .5 acre. I will use a backhoe to clear everything back to those pines
I have about 15 apples I want to add to this area. It is real glaring how wide open the front of this area is from the road with all the snow. I think I am going to try to transplant all of the shrubs and hawthorns that are in here with the backhoe. I am going to put a camera up next week to see if there are any deer using these tops.
This is my $3 dollar ayers pear. No sign of winter damage and not one branch nipped.
This is a wild apple I stumbled on last fall. I staked it up. I didn't see any browsing on any of the wild apples. I really think I could be down to almost 0 deer. These wild apples usually see heavy browse as the snow pack grows the deer can reach well up into the tree. This tree is close to 10' tall.
I dropped some trees on the edge of my plot to expand my orchard. I think I can squeak out another .5 acre. I will use a backhoe to clear everything back to those pines
I have about 15 apples I want to add to this area. It is real glaring how wide open the front of this area is from the road with all the snow. I think I am going to try to transplant all of the shrubs and hawthorns that are in here with the backhoe. I am going to put a camera up next week to see if there are any deer using these tops.
