Your roads as bad as mine - but for a different reason. I cant make myself stay off them six months a year. Doesnt take much imagination to know what happens to this trail when you drive down it a few times in conditions like this.
How Hard Is Your Place to Work - and Why?
- Thread starter SwampCat
- Start date
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
Probably not so much huntability cause I traverse it with an electric bike and on foot but man does it ever otherwise. I have been ditching and planting in millet to try to get some stabilization. I have stayed off a big section sense Memorial Day and plan to stay off till the fall. I hate mud on my equipment! I spend so much time pressure washing. It’s such a waste of time
b116757
5 year old buck +
I really like roads/trails to get around a place just makes life a lot easier but some of those really wet conditions you guys are dealing with would suck quite a bit guy would go broke hauling in rock. I use large 3-10” ditch liner I think they call it for my seasonal creek bed crossings most times these things are dry but when we get excessive runoff they can move a lot of water. We used to use smaller 1-3” rock but the stuff I use now doesn’t move much
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
Ugh that would be tough. Not much you can do there in terms of construction to fix that
The first photo looked like a long steep hill, but that looks like a bottom. Do you have water bars to get the water off the hill? The difficult parts are where the road has become cut into the slope, in which case water bars don’t actually convey the water off of the roadway.
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
No hogs - No bears - No armyworms - No floods - So, I must have it made - but why do I find myself constantly working my rear end off? I think it's because I love doing it.
It does take some work to keep my native prairie going well, because you are fighting natural succession - however, when deer season comes and it becomes the best cover in the area, I feel like everything was worth the effort.
It does take some work to keep my native prairie going well, because you are fighting natural succession - however, when deer season comes and it becomes the best cover in the area, I feel like everything was worth the effort.
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
Yeah the two are about a 1/2 mile apart. Here’s a better pic of that washed out hill. It’s a disaster. I’ve worked on it to make it temporarily passable but it’s gonna be a lot of work to keep the water from running down the road. You’re right the middle is lower than the sides which makes it very difficult to work 
You know how sometimes when you consider your plight in the context of others, you don’t feel so sorry for yourself.
Thank you everyone!!!
I have wolves, bears, coyotes, bobcats and a mountain lion or 2 in the area, neighbors who shoot the first buck they see over illegal corn piles on my boundary lines, 2 historically bad winters in a row along with an equally historically low deer population, and a sore back.
You know that meme where the frog is halfway down a storks throat but still choking him out with his hind feet? NEVER GIVE UP! Is the caption. That’s me and habitat work. Love it!
Thank you everyone!!!
I have wolves, bears, coyotes, bobcats and a mountain lion or 2 in the area, neighbors who shoot the first buck they see over illegal corn piles on my boundary lines, 2 historically bad winters in a row along with an equally historically low deer population, and a sore back.
You know that meme where the frog is halfway down a storks throat but still choking him out with his hind feet? NEVER GIVE UP! Is the caption. That’s me and habitat work. Love it!
Bill
Administrator
Got many mosquitos?
Only on days ending in Y Bill. It’s so bad this year I’ve run out of words to describe it. Quiet resignation? Capitulation?
‘tried keeping one for a pet once……till he bit through the Chain’. I just love that old tv commercial.
Did I tell you about all the rocks in my food plots yet?
‘tried keeping one for a pet once……till he bit through the Chain’. I just love that old tv commercial.
Did I tell you about all the rocks in my food plots yet?
So many bugs - including mosquitoes - we actually have a bug zapper just INSIDE back door
I have a local and a Midwest- which is 6 hrs away and lodging can be a challenge. The differential between the two is substantial. Local I have everything needed and only have weather issues it the occasional equipment limitation. Maybe a 2 on the pain scale and positive 8 for workability. The far one has the proximity, the need to rent equipment, haul materials, bring water for spraying, it has topography and is an invasive jungle. I would say a 7 on the pia spectrum and a positive 3 for workability. Then there is the wife and kids multiplier, the blue collar budget subtraction and ….,
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SD51555
5 year old buck +
Can you move your road to the side and let the water go where it's going? A day on a rental excavator might fix that for good. I'd even scoop out that gully a little and use the dirt to raise up your new path. Then maybe backfill that gully with any debris you can find to slow down that water. Stumps, logs, rocks, etc.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
How long is that trail? I might put a pencil to put out a roll of geotextile to cover that road, and then a skid steer/excavator combo to cover it. Those thin trees would pop out quickly along that road, and you could dig some borrow pits to source fill to put over the top of that geotextile. Looks like you'd only need a couple feet of lift to get out of that.
I've had spots like that, and it just take diesel fuel and a little time to fix. If you can run that equipment yourself, you're gonna save a ton of money.
The bigger question is, with water like that 6 months out of the year, do you have a fish pond yet?
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
Yeah it’s definitely an option and actually my route when it gets bad. I think the middle is too far gone. Heck I own an excavator. I just need to get time!
I have about a mile of road like that. No deposit of fill is allowed because it is in a flowage easement
PatinPA
5 year old buck +
Here's a pic of one of my woods plots. Note the rocks. For the longest time I made it a point to pick 10 rocks out every time I was there. And I swear they would multiply by my next visit. I have a theory on that now. I think there are so many rocks underlying the topsoil that when I pick one rock it just allows the top soil to filter down into the next rock layer and exposing more rocks. Either that or someone is walking by and throwing more rocks into my plot when I'm not there. Also note the mile-a-minute that made it past my first gly torching of it. What a miserable plant and a battle I fully expect to lose at some point. Just can't track it all down.
Triple C
5 year old buck +
Boys - For someone that didn't know much at all about all this stuff, I feel like I've owned a 10 since the day I bought it in Jan 2011. The longer I own it the more I still feel that way. Good mix of mature hardwoods, bottom land, wetlands and planted pine and gently sloping from north to south. 600 ft elevation at the high point where the cabin is located and drops to about 500 ft elevation in the bottoms. No erosion issues or impassable interior roads due to weather, large landowners surrounding me and secluded to the point that I get up to check any vehicles that happen to pass within hearing distance of the cabin. Have to hunt to find a rock on the place.
drycreek
5 year old buck +
Dammitboy ! I’m gonna stop complaining about anything after reading and looking at some of these pictures ! I’ll rate mine about a 9, I seldom lose a crop, but sometimes dry conditions shorten the effective life of one or hogs can be a problem. I guess I’ll change that to an 8. On the other hand, I have no good ground to plant a perennial clover plot, and I really like white clovers. Make it a 7. My pond leaks, and if my son didn’t have a well I could pump from, my fish would have ticks on them. I think a 6 would be about right. I have invasive behia grass that I fight constantly both on my road frontage and on my place, so that takes it to a 5. Yeah, a 5 is about right after thinking on it. Thanks guys, I needed that !
