Habitat out loud

I’ll stick with wood chips for garlic mulch. I had 100% emergence in wood chips last year.


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Weed free oat or wheat straw works best
 
You don't have ferns there, SD? I didn't see any in that 2nd pic of nice re-growth. Ferns smother re-growth here - unless we treat for them.
I do, just not everywhere.
 
Ok, I did not film while I was working. I was going like hell to try to get everything done. Still, I did do a drive around to show all the projects I got done. Those include:

Rut filling on trails
New firewood salvage trail
Salvage a bunch of black ash from previous years habitat work (it was thick in there)
New deer trail up the middle of the property to the new plot
Moved a ground blind to the new plot
Raised up another ground blind
Expanded the yard and started the Robert Underfoot Simons Enduring Resilience Garden

Here it is:

 
That video looks like far more than 40 acres SD. Either that or you got more trails than anyone. (good video)
 
That video looks like far more than 40 acres SD. Either that or you got more trails than anyone. (good video)
It looks bigger through the fisheye lens of a go pro. I do have a lot of trails though. It's so damn thick, it takes machinery to get anywhere new.
 
With the new plot in, I have a head count now on what I all planted:

YSC
WSC
Balansa
Alfalfa
Chicory
Plantain
Ragweed
Phacelia
Sunn hemp
Black eyed Susan
Bee balm
Jap millet
WGF sorghum
Dwarf BMR sorghum
Collards

This weekend I need to get my lime and gypsum down, and hand plant a bunch of pumpkins and squash in the good soil spots. I don’t know how that’s gonna go. I intend to throw winter trit in around Sept 1st and roll it flat. If I have a good crop of pumpkin and squash coming, I’ll have to make a decision to let it go, or give them the squish.


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With the new plot in, I have a head count now on what I all planted:

YSC
WSC
Balansa
Alfalfa
Chicory
Plantain
Ragweed
Phacelia
Sunn hemp
Black eyed Susan
Bee balm
Jap millet
WGF sorghum
Dwarf BMR sorghum
Collards

This weekend I need to get my lime and gypsum down, and hand plant a bunch of pumpkins and squash in the good soil spots. I don’t know how that’s gonna go. I intend to throw winter trit in around Sept 1st and roll it flat. If I have a good crop of pumpkin and squash coming, I’ll have to make a decision to let it go, or give them the squish.


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Nobody will ever accuse you of not putting some effort into your place! Kudos
 
Nobody will ever accuse you of not putting some effort into your place! Kudos

I’ve got lots of cleanup to do now that the dig is over. I need to get some new canopy down this winter because I used all of last year to get that plot ready to demo. I plan to clean up all the trail demolition debris, get it cut up and piled so I can burn it. Those tag alder stems make an awful fence that will make the deer feel trapped. There will be lots of winter burning the next couple years. Hoping it makes for some mushroom hunting locations in the future.

I also have some big holes that need to get filled with debris by those blind locations. Lots of balsam poplar are gonna get taken down, chunked up and thrown in those holes. I’ve also got brush piles I forgot to deal with. Those will get moved and thrown in the hole, and then heavier wood on top of them. I imagine I’ll keep filling them with balsam poplar as they rot down, and some day it’s gonna be a hell of a rich spot with all that rotted wood down 5-6 feet.

Where I expanded the lawn, I need to go snip off all the saplings remaining so I don’t destroy my mower blades. I’ve got overhanging branches on trails where I demo’d stuff.

Lots to do. Lots of exercise ahead, which is good for me. I’ve also got lots and lots of ash I didn’t reach with the excavator on the firewood salvage area. I’ll give my neighbor the easy stuff and I’ll fish out my own for campfire cooking.


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With the new plot in, I have a head count now on what I all planted:

YSC
WSC
Balansa
Alfalfa
Chicory
Plantain
Ragweed
Phacelia
Sunn hemp
Black eyed Susan
Bee balm
Jap millet
WGF sorghum
Dwarf BMR sorghum
Collards

This weekend I need to get my lime and gypsum down, and hand plant a bunch of pumpkins and squash in the good soil spots. I don’t know how that’s gonna go. I intend to throw winter trit in around Sept 1st and roll it flat. If I have a good crop of pumpkin and squash coming, I’ll have to make a decision to let it go, or give them the squish.


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Do you find you have to squish your pumpkins for deer to eat them? Or do they bite into them somehow if left go?
 
Do you find you have to squish your pumpkins for deer to eat them? Or do they bite into them somehow if left go?
That would be illegal sir.

And yes.

Usually only takes one or two to get them oriented to it.
 
Around here the vines don’t last long enough to make pumpkins
 
The vines survive at my place

The flowers, however, are a delicacy

bill
 
One of the little projects I didn’t mention was that I piled up the topsoil that was over my east plot water hole.

I’m gonna plant that into pumpkins and jumbo squash this weekend and then cover it before winter to keep it weed free to next year and try to repeat.


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That would be illegal sir.

And yes.

Usually only takes one or two to get them oriented to it.
Illegal to squish pumpkins at your location .... seriously?

Around here, a busted pumpkin is a gone pumpkin - deer love 'em. Never saw evidence of deer being able to take a bite into a mature, unbroken pumpkin. It's possible other foods are available, so they go for the easier stuff. Maybe coons get started into our local pumpkins, then deer take over? I have a local pumpkin grower right down over the hill from our house - deer don't seem to bother them - until broken in some way. I've put out busted jack-o-lanterns after Halloween, and deer hammer them overnight. Gonzo.
 
Illegal to squish pumpkins at your location .... seriously?

Around here, a busted pumpkin is a gone pumpkin - deer love 'em. Never saw evidence of deer being able to take a bite into a mature, unbroken pumpkin. It's possible other foods are available, so they go for the easier stuff. Maybe coons get started into our local pumpkins, then deer take over? I have a local pumpkin grower right down over the hill from our house - deer don't seem to bother them - until broken in some way. I've put out busted jack-o-lanterns after Halloween, and deer hammer them overnight. Gonzo.

In the land of 10,000 laws, there is a rule that says once something is done to a crop that is not a normal farming practice, it becomes a crime, you become a criminal, and you have attacked state resources.

Now, if I can come up with an agricultural or silvicultural reason to happen to run a couple over with a suitable ag or silvicultural machine, I would be in the clear. For example, if I am making a pass in October to apply gypsum thru a spin spreader on my ATV, I’m in the clear. If I’m driving by and just stomp on one, I have committed a crime.


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Illegal to squish pumpkins at your location .... seriously?
If they can prove you did it intentionally to attract animals and then hunted over them it could be considered illegal baiting, if not a typical agricultural practice.

Can’t mow a corn plot to hunt over either.
 
In the land of 10,000 laws, there is a rule that says once something is done to a crop that is not a normal farming practice, it becomes a crime, you become a criminal, and you have attacked state resources.

Now, if I can come up with an agricultural or silvicultural reason to happen to run a couple over with a suitable ag or silvicultural machine, I would be in the clear. For example, if I am making a pass in October to apply gypsum thru a spin spreader on my ATV, I’m in the clear. If I’m driving by and just stomp on one, I have committed a crime.


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If you are farming for pumpkin seeds, then just cut the pumpkin in half and take the seeds.
 
Illegal to squish pumpkins at your location .... seriously?

Around here, a busted pumpkin is a gone pumpkin - deer love 'em. Never saw evidence of deer being able to take a bite into a mature, unbroken pumpkin. It's possible other foods are available, so they go for the easier stuff. Maybe coons get started into our local pumpkins, then deer take over? I have a local pumpkin grower right down over the hill from our house - deer don't seem to bother them - until broken in some way. I've put out busted jack-o-lanterns after Halloween, and deer hammer them overnight. Gonzo.
It took a while for the deer to realize pumpkins are a food source, but now I have deer taking bites off pumpkins while they are still green. It is like they are taking a little bite to see if they are ready, then the next night you come back and half the pumpkin is gone.
 
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