Habitat projects for the weekend?

Going to try and build a little ground blind out of old dock “pallets” this weekend. Last weekend in July will be my main plotting weekend. Way too early for that still. Cereals not until Labor Day probably. Didn’t get a frost until October 20th last year. Everything got way too mature. Changing it up this year.
 
So it wasn't quite the weekend, but my awesome neighbor mowed a half acre of my hay field that will soon be turned into a plot....gonna wait a week or 10 days then spray and plant not too long after I make sure everything is dead...putting in mammoth red, aberlasting , jumbo ladino and WI and WI fusion clover along with a brassica mix. Will see how it does then possibly add oats and WR later on (late August/September)..I know its alot of different seeds but I like the "buffet approach" and a similar mix worked very well on the adjacent half acre last year...excited to have around an acre of plots in 1 field!
Before...
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After (ok middle but he finished the block to the right)...existing food plot is right behind the tractor..you can see the green clover and yellowish rye above it..
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All done!-existing FP on the left 1.5 acre hayfield on the right..now we wait for some timely rain to green it up and possibly spray this weekend..
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Well we are in Florida for 2 weeks so I will not be at the farm for 2 weeks. Withdrawals seem to manageable so far ...went to the nursery to help the wife pick out some small shrubs & flowers, that sorta counts as habitat mgmt right?

Changes in latitude changes in attitude 😉

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Got my 3/4 acre plot planted in buckwheat today will see how well it does. Walked some of my spring plantings two of this years fruit trees bit the dust one Sundance and one Yates nether from vendors I’d used previously. Did a little light pruning and cleaning out tubes maybe 100 or so. The 50 Black oak I planted are pretty much toast I suspect. I walked down one of their rows and pulled nearly every tube because the black oak seedling was dead. They do not seem to care for my sight the few that where still alive had light yellow leaves with darker veins. Iron Chlorosis would be my guess as to their issue. I’ll cross them off my list of oaks. Nuttal Oak where doing great I need to get down all the rows but I usually check the fruit trees and chestnuts then a row or two of something else before I’m pretty tired of fooling with them especially in this heat.
 
Yesterday, I cleared a shooting lane and some cross row trails in a corn plot. I jumped one deer in the corn and could just see a bit of a brown back. I figured it was one of the bigger fawns I had seen earlier.

Well, I cleared the shooting lane, and the first cross trail, then started the second cross trail into a small area,about 100 feet square. I had spent a good half hour working around this area on three sides and then a very nice buck got up out of there. That was the deer I had a glimpse of earlier.

They can hide in tiny spots and not move if they know where you are.


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They can hide in tiny spots and not move if they know where you are.


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This is very true growing in Northern Wisconsin deer drives were part of deer hunting. I remember one time in particular that a different group of “hunters” drove out a river bottom we literally walked past them on our way in as they where leaving and said nothing in there today. Well we did the drive in our customary fashion the drivers slipping through the timber like ghosts we ended up shooting a 10 point buck. We discovered many years ago it was much more effective to very quietly and slowly “drive” the deer they get nervous when they know your there but not exactly where you are their much more prone to jump bed and try and slip away. Our driver’s typically shot as many or more bucks than our standers did.
 
I got out yesterday and girdled some trees. Mostly elm, sassafras and lots of hickory trying to feather the edge and release an oak and a couple small persimmons. Sweaty miserable work but should have a decent impact. Since the trees are on the edge, I look forward to watching them slowly die.


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I am planning on digging some rotten stumps out of a small 1/4 acre food plot that I have been planting around for 10 years now, then leveling the plot out a little better. Just to make life a little easier for future plantings. I may set the plot back some, by disturbing the soil, and digging high spots to fill low spots.

Other then that, i have some trees down that were cut about a year and a half ago that I need to get out of the woods and brought over for firewood. Once the weather cools off a bit I will have to cut up all of these logs I have stacked and split them before winter. Most of it is poplar, soft maple, and pine. I have been trying to open the canopy, and I figured getting rid of the low value trees first. I have a lot to cut down yet, which I will drop more this winter. My neighbor has also donated some logs for firewood.

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Sprayed 200 gallons of Escort XP mostly on Seresa Lespedeza this evening found a third small pond I didn’t know was on the new farm this evening also. Will need to clean out that small pond when I get the crawler moved to this farm.
 
Tried replanting my sorghum screen today. Sprayed some broadleafs, planted some brassicas, and fertilized. Here’s to hoping the rain tonight hits as forecasted.

Edit: Rain gauge app is saying i got 0.79" overnight which is great. Almost getting to be too wet out there again with my poorly draining soils. Things were on the wet side to be drilling again yesterday just from a half inch of rain the day prior.
 
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Tried replanting my sorghum screen today. Sprayed some broadleafs, planted some brassicas, and fertilized. Here’s to hoping the rain tonight hits as forecasted.
I planted some buckwheat this past weekend I’d love to see some rain myself.
 
I have been cleaning up my deer trails or sidewalks if you prefer that name. I have one big downed popple to cut up . I will mow them about Aug.1 and then stay out of the woods until the Nov opener.

That plan usually doesn’t quite work out as we get a storm and I need to check for downed trees.


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I have been cleaning up my deer trails or sidewalks if you prefer that name. I have one big downed popple to cut up . I will mow them about Aug.1 and then stay out of the woods until the Nov opener.

That plan usually doesn’t quite work out as we get a storm and I need to check for downed trees.


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I mow my woods trails about that time also. I prefer mowed trails so when I do walk around I’m not spreading scent quite so badly as brushing against so much vegetation.
 
I mow my woods trails about that time also. I prefer mowed trails so when I do walk around I’m not spreading scent quite so badly as brushing against so much vegetation.
we have even raked a few of our well-used paths during the season that are closer to my house or my parents house....I have snuck by deer at 25 yards on those muddy paths (before they freeze anyway...after that there's not too much sneaking about)...
 
This new farm has some walking only paths along the uphill side of the creek bank that nearly look like they are raked from the game using them heavily. Previous owner most of used them some also because I’ve come across branches saw cut on trees along the path so someone was walking them not of the four leg verity.
 
I mow my woods trails about that time also. I prefer mowed trails so when I do walk around I’m not spreading scent quite so badly as brushing against so much vegetation.

I do the same. Stand access trails tend to be dead ends. Deer sidewalks are a continuous pattern or else lead to foodplots.


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Found the water meter on the new farm turned it on filled my spray tank and checked water meter it moved a little bit so I’m thinking there maybe a leak somewhere keep in mind it is a 1/4 mile run from meter to the hydrant so a bit of room for water leaks looks like it may possibly be 1” PVC. I may just put a hydrant at the water meter and call it good I just need to be able to fill spray tanks once in a while.
 
Sprayed several hundred gallons of brush kill herbicides this weekend. Yesterday evening when I took my socks off I had what looked like hundreds of small ticks so small you could hardly see them on mostly my ankles. I jumped in the shower and scrubbed pretty good or at least I thought I did. I got out of the shower and still had many of them on me my wife scraped them off with a utility razor blade took quite a while to be rid of them all. I most of wondered through a whole nest of the nasty little beasties. My wife said she wasn’t sure I was going to be allowed outside to play anymore. LOL
 
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