J-birds place

[j-bird]

Well it's been an interesting weekend thus far. Friday night I had to play parade dad as my middle daughter represented her class in this years homecoming parade. She was not up for "queen" but she had a blast all the same. She is the "social butterfly" I never was in high school. We borrowed a friends '92 firebird convertible (I don't want to talk about why my GTO isn't done....) I kept telling her I was going retro - I graduated high school in '92!!!!

Saturday I was out with my youngest and prepping stands for her youth hunt coming next weekend in our efforts to get her her first deer. I also showed her the "secrete pawpaw patch" and we had a rock skipping session as well. Trying to teach a lefty while I'm a righty has its challenges!

Also had to have a little chit-chat with a neighbor about his boys and their ATVS and the property line.....that will be interesting to see how that progresses.....he is a county sheriff....I really just want them to stay on their property....they can run the ATV's all they want....on their side of the line!

My plot beans are still green, but I think I have one of my 3 chestnut burrs just starting to open! Looks like a single bur on another tree was aborted as it isn't near the size as the others and just looks sort of "sick".

I anticipate being out getting more stands ready tomorrow.... I hopefully get some pics!!!

 

[j-bird]

Well I got out sunday a bit as well. The chestnuts are just starting to open. Trying to keep close tabs on the three I have as I would really like to collect these and grow them if possible.

The water hole is very low....I will either need to add a liner or some clay......and maybe some rain! It has a lot of deer tracks around it which is good.....I just wish it had more water in it!

And the boy has decided he wants to go "old school" this year for gun season this year and was shooting a rifle that was my grandfathers. Its a sporterized mid 40's British 303 Enfield.......not exactly a known deer slayer, but if he is happy....go for it!

Nothing deer wise of interest on the vine cam, other than the deer continue to visit it and I have really noticed how the deer eat almost anything green along he logging path where the sun reaches. I did find a bur oak dropping some acorns but not much evidence of deer. The acorns are small for what I normally see so maybe these are stressed or something....not sure.

Also noticed this guy on a sycamore leaf as well. Not sure what he turns into but, sometimes we miss the small things.....

 

[Bill]

Get some of that netting they use in Easter baskets and wedding vales and rubber band it to a limb and around the chestnut burr.
That will keep it from hitting the ground. Cool rifle.

 

[KDdid]

Maybe we Hoosiers should start a thread showing which old rifle we might break out of mothballs since the law changed-I've been eyeballing my dad's old Model 14 Remington.

 

[j-bird]

Maybe we Hoosiers should start a thread showing which old rifle we might break out of mothballs since the law changed-I've been eyeballing my dad's old Model 14 Remington.

Cool gun....what's it chambered in? I think a lot of dusty rifles may get a new lease on life with the new changes. I'm still not convinced we "need" the changes, but.....nobody asked me! I will be hunting with my daughter using a lever gun in 30-30 like last year, and my boy wanted something different so I gave him the green light to use the old 303. If I don;t hunt with my daughter I may take the 303 a few times as well.

 

[j-bird]

Get some of that netting they use in Easter baskets and wedding vales and rubber band it to a limb and around the chestnut burr.
That will keep it from hitting the ground. Cool rifle.

I never thought about that Bill, but I like the idea/concept. I thought about removing the burs and letting them finish out at the house, but I wasn't sure if they worked that way or not. I have some window screen around I may try your idea....if I'm not too late already!

 

[KDdid]

Cool gun....what's it chambered in? I think a lot of dusty rifles may get a new lease on life with the new changes. I'm still not convinced we "need" the changes, but.....nobody asked me! I will be hunting with my daughter using a lever gun in 30-30 like last year, and my boy wanted something different so I gave him the green light to use the old 303. If I don;t hunt with my daughter I may take the 303 a few times as well.

It's in 35 Remington. This is one of the models that has the end of a shell casing mounted into the receiver to ID the round it uses. I received a 35 Remington Marlin 336 as a gift from a great friend, which I used with a cut down case to be legal under the old regs. I like having two rifles that shoot the same round.


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[j-bird]

It's in 35 Remington. This is one of the models that has the end of a shell casing mounted into the receiver to ID the round it uses. I received a 35 Remington Marlin 336 as a gift from a great friend, which I used with a cut down case to be legal under the old regs. I like having two rifles that shoot the same round.


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That's cool.... not sure I have seen the shell casing mounted into the receiver thing before. The lever gun I/my daughter uses is a marlin 336CS model in 30-30. It was my "critter gitter" for a long time. Wasn't legal to hunt deer with, but if I needed more gun than that to screw with "critters" on the farm I shouldn't be messing with them. Then I got my 22-250.....now that is a long range "critter gitter"! I almost sold/traded the lever gun a few years ago because it just sat in the cabinet - doesn't have any sentimental value to me. But then the rules changed....killed my first deer with it last year (first deer with that gun). Now I have a 12 gauge slug gun that's collecting dust! But that is a $200 beater that I have killed many a critter with it's good and worn in! I will say one thing....the hole and related blood trail that 12 gauge left is awesome compared to that 30 caliber, but shooting slugs out of that 12 at the range all day will beat the crap out of a guy!

 

[KDdid]

I see them from time to time at gun shows- the ones I see are often in .35 REM. I highly recommend a ballistic tipped hollow point bullet for these guns- I'm going to use the Hornady Lever Revolution rounds this fall. I had a bad experience with round nose ammunition before- no expansion at all.


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[j-bird]

Well it's the free youth deer hunt weekend here in the Hoosier state. As such I headed out this morning with my youngest in our continued efforts to get her her first deer.

We started off the morning with a traditional deer hunters breakfast. She had oatmeal and I have strawberry pop-tarts and milk....I also had to make sure nobody would let the dogs outside while we hunted....because they would eventually find us and disrupt the hunt.

We walked out to the shooting house and had a bit of a late start and bumped 2 deer off the food plot....

Below is facing east as the sun comes up over the soybean field.....

This is overlooking the plot and hour or so later.....

Somebody was n pretty good spirits for not seeing any deer during shooting light.... We gave up after about 9am as the temp started to rise over 70.

We did check my chestnut trees in the plot as they had burrs that had started to open last weekend and I wanted to beat the critters to them.....I was thrilled to be able to get my first actual chestnuts. These trees where planted as 3 gallon trees in 2014. Not sure if the small bits of them will become much, but I plan on putting the larger ones into the fridge and plant come spring!

 

[ghilliehunter]

JBird,
Jacob and I went out this morning also. Saw 2 fawns. Left by 900. We'll try again tomorrow. Wish it was cooler, but this is Jake's last year for youth season so we're definitely going to hunt. Great story of you and your daughter. Good luck!

 

[KDdid]

Wow, definitely the hottest I've ever seen it for youth weekend. 91 here at 1 pm, I was mowing and spraying, wondering who was in the woods.


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[j-bird]

We hunt until about 9 and pull the plug because of the heat.

 

[Bill]

Your kids are cute. You must have a good looking wife. That's all can figure.
:emoji_joy:

 

[j-bird]

Your kids are cute. You must have a good looking wife. That's all can figure.
:emoji_joy:

gee thanks Bill!!!!! I will give her credit for one thing-she puts up with my crap!!!

 

[Bill]

gee thanks Bill!!!!! I will give her credit for one thing-she puts up with my crap!!!

Sorry couldn't help myself :)

 

[j-bird]

With hunting season here....I need to focus on that, but I also need to plan for projects for next year as well. So I have a few things in mind that hopefully I can get accomplished next year and get started on as soon as season closes.

#1 - post season scout the follow tracks in the snow, find bedding areas and scrapes and rubs to learn/confirm how the deer are using my property. (winter)
#2 - Cut the woody brush out of one of my CRP areas as part of it's on-going management. (winter)
#3 - address the johnsongrass in my native grass plantings (spring/summer)
#4 - Tree planting and care (spring)
a - plant and cage my SWO acorns & my few chestnuts
b - plant and protect my 6 crab apples coming from Turkey creek
c - put tree tubes on my sawtooth/catscrath oaks
#5 - make water hole deeper and line with clay or liner or replace with "pool" (spring)
#6 - north triangle project.....orchard or perennial plot? Maybe both. (winter/spring)
#7 - expand my MG screen planting. (spring/summer)

Fall is for hanging stands and hunting....no habitat work in the fall other than prepping for the habitat season....

 

[Bill]

That's quite a bit to do and no food plot work was listed.
I'm kind of afraid to make a list. When I look at it next fall I'll be disappointed at what I never it made it to.

High on my list this winter spring is much more edge feathering to open up some more sun to small wooded plots. Seems like it doesn't take long for the trees to reach out into the open space going for sun and shading the plot.

MG blocked in a field is on the list.

More hinge cuts. Time to go back to stuff I cut 7 years ago and redo it.

Lost my farmer so I have a 17 acre field that I want to make a destination plot with all kinds of different food from beans and clover to brasicas and grains.

Just scratching the surface, thus no list :)

 

[j-bird]

Well I was out over the weekend and needed to take some pics to documents a few things. I like using these threads to document when I do things or when certain changes happen so I can reference back later.

First of all last weekend I had the sidewall of my tractor tire go bad (dry rot) so I had to replace the tire.....that was $120. Not sure what it is about new tires, but I just love the "whiskers" on them!

So with the new tire on the tractor out I went to overseed my bean plots. I'm a little behind because my beans took longer to dry down than normal and then with the flat last weekend it just didn't get done.

I spread a mix of purple top turnips and winter wheat. I prefer wheat because it will survive the minter here and doesn't get nearly as tall come spring and cause as much issue with rotary equipment. I also don't go expensive... this overseeding is simply to add variety to my plots. Cheap cover crop seed varieties are fine. I used 100 lbs of wheat and 5 lbs of turnips.....I think, not sure of the amount of turnips....

The bean plots had dried down and I like the spacing from my broadcast seeding rate of the beans to facilitate this additional seeding. The corn is fine, but I had hoped it would do a little better, but the focus was the soybeans. Below are the 2 bean plots I overseeded. I was then rewarded with a good afternoon rain shower - so I should have some green stuff soon.

I also was trying to keep tabs on my apples trees as well. I had 1 tree that had an apple that as I messed with it fell. I was pretty pleased by it's size....I just need to get a lot more. This tree produced 2 apples this year....but at least it produced something. I then stabbed it onto a T post to see how long it lasts. This was in my SW "orchard" - don't ask what variety it is because I don't know (learn from your mistakes and label and date your trees when you plant them). All I do know it it's a "people" variety.

I was real curious about my tree in my SW "orchard" as it had maybe 2 dozen apples on it last I checked.......Ummmmm, it DID! Not a single apple remained and not a trace of them on the ground either. Not exactly sure what happened to them, but whatever found them really liked them.... My only real disappointment is that these are dropping so early. My hunting season has only been open since 10/1 here and as such these apples will have ZERO influence on my hunting efforts. I have some crabs coming in the spring and we will see how those do....my people apples may become "other" apples when it's all over.

 

[j-bird]

That's quite a bit to do and no food plot work was listed.
I'm kind of afraid to make a list. When I look at it next fall I'll be disappointed at what I never it made it to.

High on my list this winter spring is much more edge feathering to open up some more sun to small wooded plots. Seems like it doesn't take long for the trees to reach out into the open space going for sun and shading the plot.

MG blocked in a field is on the list.

More hinge cuts. Time to go back to stuff I cut 7 years ago and redo it.

Lost my farmer so I have a 17 acre field that I want to make a destination plot with all kinds of different food from beans and clover to brasicas and grains.

Just scratching the surface, thus no list :)

I work better with a list......not saying it will all get done, but if I don't put it down it will never happen....
As for plots - those are pretty much a given even though I want to transition away from traditional plots and move more towards perennials and mast orchards. I think they will be less work in the long run AND be a better long term solution. Since I live on the place I have many weekends I can screw around with these various projects....and like I said they still won't all get done. Just never seems to be enough time.....my hunting season started on the first of october and I still have stands to put up!