JLA's playground

livinadream

Yearling... With promise
Hey fellas, and ladies, the names Chase. Not so much a new guy, just hang around in the shadows for the most part. Avid outdoorsman, ate up with just about all things hunting and fishing related. I am for the most part bow only, but not opposed to rifle hunting, just like to get as close as I can to them. I've dreamed all my life of owning my own land that I could hunt. Not so much a large ranch, but something manageable. I've been eyeballing a piece of land for several years that butts up to my dad's place, it came available this year, and now between the 2 of us we have a bit shy of 200 acres. Ive never even thought of naming the place, but for a title for this thread, lets call it JLA's playground. I have 5 kids and all of their initials are JLA. Dad lives on the southeast corner of the property, and my wife, 5 kids, and I will build on the northeast corner. Mine is about 23 acres of pasture and 32ish mature woods. The woods are a mix of pine/wateroak/swamp chestnut oak/and a mix of trash. (Sweet gum, magnolia, talla etc.) There is about a 2-3 acre low spot that floods in the wet season (winter) and I think should hold some wood ducks. Dad's land is mostly wooded with about 12 acres cleared. 20ish acres of 12-15 yr old growth, and the rest mature. Same mix as mine.

Shortly after getting the property I stumbled across a guy that overbought whiteoaks and I bought 50 bare roots from him for $25. I had I think 23 swamp chestnuts in 1 gallon pots that I previously planned on putting in some national forest but with the newly acquired property they had a new destination. So this spring I put about 75 trees in the ground out there. I lost a few to drought, and a few to hogs, but for the most part they're doing well. I have also planted about a 2 acre food plot and with timely rains its looking pretty good. My overall plan is to make it as desirable to deer and small game (rabbits, squirrels, and hopefully some quial) as possible. Work will probably be pretty slow this next year due to the house build (if current house sells) but plan for it to be a lifelong project.

I've got about 500 seeds in the fridge right now that I'll plant this spring to be moved out there in the fall. (Chestnuts, persimmon-local and store bought, burr oak, and swamp chestnut oaks)

I made my first sit last Wednesday out there on a transition between the mature woods and the above mentioned low spot and shot a respectable for the area 9 pt that had busted a brow and 3. We have fairly low deer numbers and my plan is to take no more than 1 a year off the place, at least for a few years. Anyhow, I think that pretty well gets us to current status. I hope to keep this thread updated for years to come. I'll try also to get some pictures , right now I don't really have much to show.

First picture shows dad's property, u shaped around another guy's property. He's a good guy to have around. My property is the next strip to the north of dad's.

Second picture is the deer I thought I shot, ended up being a different deer, but similar looking.

3rd is the food plot when I planted it, don't have a picture of it since it broke ground.

Next is just a deer I've got a few pics of.

One of the kids with a set of sheds my cousin found about 30 yards from where I shot my buck.

The buck I shot
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Cool stuff my man. Love that you’re next to your dads place.
 
Having land near your father is something you and your family will cherish. We will be looking forward to periodic updates on how the property is progressing.
 
Feast or famine around here. We were in a terrible drought pushing our plots to late October. Now it seems like it rains 4 days a week. Anyhow I did get some fertilizer in the mud on Monday and it seems to be responding. Plot came up about 2" and stalled for a month. Hopefully the fertilizer brings it on.
Also had a guy bring me loads of swamp chestnut acorns the day before I left for my kansas hunting trip. Threw them in the shop and left for a week. The bags they were in built up some condensate and most acorns sprouted. I've been trying to get them in buckets so I don't lose them. I've planted 316 so far, about 100 to go today I think. I have about 500 other various seeds to plant in the fridge, hoping for a spring planting so they don't have to go in buckets that can be moved. I need a greenhouse.
Kansas trip produced a doe, I did see this guy the last hunt, but never came close enough for a shot.
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Atta boy, congrats on the land and the buck! Already picking and sowing acorns.... you will fit right in here with the rest of us addicts 🤣
 
Got my buck hung with some of the others this morning. He's on the bottom right.
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This is a busy time of year for us, we have 5 kids, 4 girls and a boy. (17, 15, 3, and twin 1yr Olds. Boy is the baby) 2 girls on H.S. dance teams, and with the transition from football to basketball, soccer ramping up, competition cheer, the holidays etc. It's hard to get much done. I did take a quick walk Thursday after work to look at a low spot in the woods that I thought may hold some water and found exactly what I was looking for. Ducks, and a decent number of them. I love duck hunting, but around here it's a rich man's game. The outfitters lease up the good stuff for $10k+ per hole. So you either work your butt off all night fighting crowds to get a decent pond on public, or pay a guide a couple of times a year. I now have my own little honey hole in the woods. Anyhow, I found it Thursday and hunted Friday morning and Monday morning. Our season ends Sunday and I should be able to get one more hunt out of it before it closes. Good times ahead. I can't wait to raise my youngest 3 out here, wish I could have raised the older two out here as well.
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Great thread!!! Love the duck hunting and the kids.
 
This time of year is always a tough one for me. It's the time of year that I LOVE doing everything that I enjoy doing. Crappie spawn, then bass spawn, can take off waders and wet wade the salt flats, bull frogs bunch up for mating season, shed hunting, habitat work, tree planting, all of these things are better this time of year. Work has me working 14 and 1. I've done very little of any of it so far. I did go catch a few crappie a little over a week ago, have planted 400+ swamp chestnut oaks, 102 sawtooth oaks, 300+ persimmon, 10ish wild peach, and 14 chestnuts. These will be planted in the ground this fall, what I don't plant, I'll try to sell. Found 1 shed on a quick walk about, and scouted a few frog holes. I need to be cutting, hack/squirting some trees out at the land, but might not ever get to it before it thickens up too much this year. Also have plans on getting a mulcher in the woods to open up my little duck hole a little bit. I made a quick trip to the land yesterday to check on the trees I planted last year. Think better than 90% have made it. We had a bad drought last year and I was a bit worried about them. Anyhow, super busy time of year, and it's my favorite. Need to do a little pig Killin, they're trying to take over. I just taught my 15 year Olds boyfriend to shoot a little bit, might let him bloody up some critters.
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Not much to report here, did a little cutting in the duck hole to open it up some. Had trouble seeing the birds until they were right on top of us. Also released quite a few white oaks around the place. Today me and my 1 year old went and sprayed the trees that we cut in the duck hole to try to keel them from stump sprouting and coming back thicker. I put his life jacket on him and tossed him in a decoy sleb and pulled him around while I sprayed. Wish I would have got some pics, he was in hog heaven. We also checked a feeder and hung a camera on a pile of corn. I do this kind of to take inventory. It seems to work pretty well. After the "work" we caught a couple perch. When we got home we had a little ice cream with the twin sister and middle sister.
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