Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
Sorry to see what happened. Mother nature is not very nice at times. She can deliver some whoop ass anytime she likes.
Sorry to see what happened. Mother nature is not very nice at times. She can deliver some whoop ass anytime she likes.
j-bird
Moderator
It wouldn't be so bad....but she fights dirty! If it's not too much rain...it's too little. If it's not the deer eating it it's the bugs. If it's not the deer rubbing it to death its the coons breaking off limbs. If it's not groundhogs nipping off your beans, it's the turkey walking the rows of your freshly plant corn picking the seed just as they sprout. She has some powerful 1,2 punches to throw at you...and then they gang up on you as well!!! Oh well, we go out and do it all again...Sorry to see what happened. Mother nature is not very nice at times. She can deliver some whoop ass anytime she likes.
j-bird
Moderator
So I have lost at least my second Dunstan Chestnut tree to root rot. I bought them as 3 gallon trees and they where roughly 5 feet tall. They grow to 8,10, 12 feet...one even started to produce nuts. Then they have a bad year and then boom dead as a hammer the next. So I had one that died and I was talking to some folks and I am trying to figure out what is possibly wrong.
So yesterday I pulled the dead tree. (I did cut back as far as I could with looper looking for signs of life before I pulled the tree with no luck).
One of the things I keep seeing is this lichen type stuff that grows on the chestnut trees that die. I don't know if it is connected or not...but I don't have this on other healthy trees in the same plot not 10 yards away. And it has been present on the last to dead chestnut trees...so I am building a pretty strong case that it is connected. I am also aware the vine is poison ivy...
Once I pulled the tree....which I was able to do with my FEL on my tractor with no digging or cutting....the root rot was obvious. The white on the bark at the soil line, that actual rot, and the last two trees that died seems to have this "club" mass that I show instead of real nice root formation....I am assuming this may be due to it being a containerized plant. IN either case...it doesn't look good.
The other 2 pictures are of the hole I dug out and the soil from the hole. I have taken pictures of odd stuff before, but not a hole and ...dirt! Anyway I was told that root rot comes from too much moisture in the soil. Ummm...well....I dug down a good foot to 18 inches and there is no sign of red or grey clay, no sign of a high water table. You can see by both the hole and the dirt I have a coarse loam soil that tends to drain pretty well. So I am puzzled how I get root rot without excessive amounts of water. It's not in a flood plain, the area is flat and doesn't even puddle water. I am so confused!!!
For another topic... I was told saturday that I need a bigger tractor... My son had decided he was going to mow for me since I was having back issues. No he didn't roll it or get it stuck or even break it in any way. He "ran our of places to put his empty beer cans"!!! So, I am not sure if those shows a lack of experience on his part or experience on my part.
#1 - I like the ingenuity to attach the cooler.
#2 - you don't put the empties on the "floor board" - you have an FEL (and I do) OR you can put the empties back in the cooler!! He was smart enough to not just toss them aside or run them over (he knew I would kick his behind for that)
#3 - if your going to drink beer - drink something decent...he likes that rocky mountain goat p1$$, which is bad enough...but he has also been drinking some apple flavored Busch light crap as well... Closest thing I want to fruit in my beer is a lime in my Corona.
#4 - I guess I should say something about drinking and operating equipment...I don't do it...NEVER have (seriously). But he did me a solid and he didn't break anything OR mow off half the bean field and he is 25...so he is free to make his own dumb choices I guess. I wasn't home at the time either so there really wasn't much I could do to stop him.
So yesterday I pulled the dead tree. (I did cut back as far as I could with looper looking for signs of life before I pulled the tree with no luck).
One of the things I keep seeing is this lichen type stuff that grows on the chestnut trees that die. I don't know if it is connected or not...but I don't have this on other healthy trees in the same plot not 10 yards away. And it has been present on the last to dead chestnut trees...so I am building a pretty strong case that it is connected. I am also aware the vine is poison ivy...
Once I pulled the tree....which I was able to do with my FEL on my tractor with no digging or cutting....the root rot was obvious. The white on the bark at the soil line, that actual rot, and the last two trees that died seems to have this "club" mass that I show instead of real nice root formation....I am assuming this may be due to it being a containerized plant. IN either case...it doesn't look good.
The other 2 pictures are of the hole I dug out and the soil from the hole. I have taken pictures of odd stuff before, but not a hole and ...dirt! Anyway I was told that root rot comes from too much moisture in the soil. Ummm...well....I dug down a good foot to 18 inches and there is no sign of red or grey clay, no sign of a high water table. You can see by both the hole and the dirt I have a coarse loam soil that tends to drain pretty well. So I am puzzled how I get root rot without excessive amounts of water. It's not in a flood plain, the area is flat and doesn't even puddle water. I am so confused!!!
For another topic... I was told saturday that I need a bigger tractor... My son had decided he was going to mow for me since I was having back issues. No he didn't roll it or get it stuck or even break it in any way. He "ran our of places to put his empty beer cans"!!! So, I am not sure if those shows a lack of experience on his part or experience on my part.
#1 - I like the ingenuity to attach the cooler.
#2 - you don't put the empties on the "floor board" - you have an FEL (and I do) OR you can put the empties back in the cooler!! He was smart enough to not just toss them aside or run them over (he knew I would kick his behind for that)
#3 - if your going to drink beer - drink something decent...he likes that rocky mountain goat p1$$, which is bad enough...but he has also been drinking some apple flavored Busch light crap as well... Closest thing I want to fruit in my beer is a lime in my Corona.
#4 - I guess I should say something about drinking and operating equipment...I don't do it...NEVER have (seriously). But he did me a solid and he didn't break anything OR mow off half the bean field and he is 25...so he is free to make his own dumb choices I guess. I wasn't home at the time either so there really wasn't much I could do to stop him.
j-bird
Moderator
Caught you know who from the earlier post on trail cam....
I was hoping for a good card pull....but when I got back to the house after pulling 4 cards....I only had 3 in my pocket! And of course it was the one where I had seen some decent bucks already that was missing....it couldn't have been the one where ^^^^^^this happened!
I was out for some social distancing since I drew a positive covid test just a few days ago....nothing major....just felt like a nasty cold and I'm getter better already....
I do have a question about something though....I STILL have a set of twins as of yesterday that still have spots on them....is this normal? I realize this may mean that the doe was bread late....but season opens up here on Oct 1st....
I also found something I had not seen before.... I know oaks often times don't follow the "ideal" leaf pattern.....but I have a white oak that is showing very different leaves on the same tree and branch! I even triple checked because it was so odd..... There was 2 or 3 places on the tree I could see where this was happening....and it is a VERY mature and old tree. It's almost like is said it was tired of being a white oak and wants to be a swamp white oak now!
Like I said....no new decent pics of bucks....my other cams just captured the smaller ones and the ones with some messed up racks. I have more goofy racks this year than I have seen in a while....hopefully they grow out of it!
I was hoping for a good card pull....but when I got back to the house after pulling 4 cards....I only had 3 in my pocket! And of course it was the one where I had seen some decent bucks already that was missing....it couldn't have been the one where ^^^^^^this happened!
I was out for some social distancing since I drew a positive covid test just a few days ago....nothing major....just felt like a nasty cold and I'm getter better already....
I do have a question about something though....I STILL have a set of twins as of yesterday that still have spots on them....is this normal? I realize this may mean that the doe was bread late....but season opens up here on Oct 1st....
I also found something I had not seen before.... I know oaks often times don't follow the "ideal" leaf pattern.....but I have a white oak that is showing very different leaves on the same tree and branch! I even triple checked because it was so odd..... There was 2 or 3 places on the tree I could see where this was happening....and it is a VERY mature and old tree. It's almost like is said it was tired of being a white oak and wants to be a swamp white oak now!
Like I said....no new decent pics of bucks....my other cams just captured the smaller ones and the ones with some messed up racks. I have more goofy racks this year than I have seen in a while....hopefully they grow out of it!
Bill
Administrator
Ha, say hi to your son.
Not uncommon for us to have spotted fawns in early October.
I had a tree like that at a property I’ve since sold. I swore it was something special. Red oak and white oak type leaves.
No Clue what it was. Maybe someone else can help there. Mine never amounted to anything. It was always sickly looking.
Not uncommon for us to have spotted fawns in early October.
I had a tree like that at a property I’ve since sold. I swore it was something special. Red oak and white oak type leaves.
No Clue what it was. Maybe someone else can help there. Mine never amounted to anything. It was always sickly looking.
j-bird
Moderator
this oak never has amounted to much as far as a producer is concerned and it plenty old enough....it's right at the edge of the woods and gets plenty of light and the like. I had just never seen a change in the leaves like that before...
MilkweedManiac
5 year old buck +
I thought I would comment on your fawns with spots comment since I live pretty close to you. I have had a doe on camera carrying in early August before. If a 201 day gestation period is accurate, that would be a mid-January conception which I have also seen (heavy rutting activity with multiple bucks and one doe) on camera. It only happened once that I can verify but the numbers certainly allow for it.
Someday isle
5 year old buck +
I’ll piggy back on the fawns with spots as well. I’m in east central Missouri. Our property is an hour west of home. At home we have two sets of fawns running around. The twins have very light but discernible spots. The triplets are tiny and still fully spotted.
At our Crawford county property we have a set of twins barely spotted anymore and a lone fawn from what appears to be a yearling doe that’s small and very spotted. I suspect the secondary rut is a factor but I’m no biologist.
And yes, we have lots more deer around home than we do on our hunting property. They’re more friendly with people too!
At our Crawford county property we have a set of twins barely spotted anymore and a lone fawn from what appears to be a yearling doe that’s small and very spotted. I suspect the secondary rut is a factor but I’m no biologist.
And yes, we have lots more deer around home than we do on our hunting property. They’re more friendly with people too!
Last edited:
j-bird
Moderator
Actually our kids got this for us for our 25th anniversary….. I am not sure how… but somehow I have put up with her for 25 years!?!
Bill
Administrator
I’m sure that’s a 2 way street weighted heavily to her side. Your son didn’t get his reckless side out of thin air
Nice Buck. I like the spades G2.
j-bird
Moderator
What?!? I’m a saint, and such a joy to live with! I am the perfect…. Ok, so I have a funny feeling you ain’t buying it so I’ll stop. I am sure there are some things she would claim I could improve on…. But we ain’t asking her!I’m sure that’s a 2 way street weighted heavily to her side. Your son didn’t get his reckless side out of thin air
Nice Buck. I like the spades G2.
j-bird
Moderator
It’s that time of year again here…. I figure they will harvest my 100 acres of beans by the end of the day tomorrow. Harvest and planting time always remind me how we plotters can be so similar, yet so different. We both want the best “crop” “yield” possible….but, there is a big difference between feeding deer and doing it to feed a family/make a living at it!
Attachments
j-bird
Moderator
So I have been away from the forum for a bit. Life has just been busy. Trying to land a new job, kids, family drama and the like all going on. On a good note I put my second doe down this morning so we are half way to filling the freezer… nothing special just a doe. I have yet to see a buck to my liking while hunting. It has been an odd year here. My lack of summer annual plots I think has hurt me and I have a neighboring property that WAS a bedding area got hunted this year as well. Couple that with some standing corn still around and we see deer - just not the big ones. General firearms closes the Sunday after thanksgiving so I still got some work to do!
j-bird
Moderator
Well, today started with some promise but ended in disappointment. My boy shot a doe last night. He had struggled thru rifle season to find a decent sized doe. Well we went to look for it last night and didn’t find any conclusive evidence so we backed out and waited until morning. We got started and was having little luck but we spotted the deer at a distance. Problem is/was…. The yotes found her first. This is the first deer in nearly 20 years that we have lost to a yote. We did confirm a good shot placement on the deer and we then back tracked the blood trail. We needed to learn from this as much as we could to get the most out of the negative outcome. We tracked back to the POI with deer hair on the ground and found that we was off by about 15 feet and the deer went in a different direction as well. The cloud of smoke from the muzzleloader was part of the problem. I messed up and we didn’t search a larger area for POI…. If we had we would have found more positive sign and recovered the deer last night.
