Mohican Land Tour

[roymunson]

On to the doe managment side:
We hunt about 330 acres between 3 land owners. We consider it a small co-op. The farm to the south has huge grain fields, and we're the bedding. It's pretty fun and doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that if we have the bedding, and he has the food, sit in between there and we're cooking.

Because we have the bedding, we've got a lot of deer.

So we needed to go on doe patrol.

We may kill a doe or 2 yet, but this year we've killed 24 antlerless deer, and 5 antlered.

My 8 year old got to witness shooting a deer en route to the stand. He thought it was the coolest day of his life, especially since it was with grandpa who had come in from out of town. Those are good memories.

And I got to have a dandy of a day, once again, on that edge of the sanctuary, tagging out during muzzleloader season.
Based on the fetuses, we have breeding from October 30 to November 11.

 

[roymunson]

As posted before, we did some good habitat things this year too.

300 red cedars planted, some apple trees, food plots, TSI work, all in the name of managing deer and honestly, probably having more fun with that than we did hunting.

A couple pictures of time outdoors with my wife and 3 boys. Climbing rocks, planting trees, fishing in a downpour,

In spite of all the nonsense going on around the world, 2020 was a rousing success as far as family, hunting, and habitat managment goes, at least for me. It taught me to control what I can control, and let God take care of the rest. As well as to appreciate the times we do have.

 

[roymunson]

2021 plans:

1. Have a pond guy lined up for March/April. There's a bowl on the property that is almost naturally set up for a good sized pond/lake.

2. Local seed supply place needs someone with a drill and acreage for some experimental/different kinds of plants. So I've got at least part of my food plotting paid for this year. Buckwheat and clover, followed by 5 or 6 different kinds of plants, on the same field, to see what gets eaten, when, and how it grows to get there.

3. Cut some junk trees to make a small/specific bedding island in the woods that'll help with how I'm planning on hunting deer on a certain portion of the farm

4. lay down some trees along the road where you can see right up into the timber, it'll also pinch down where the deer are crossing the road, and the tree is already picked out for how we're going to exploit that pinch.

5. kill the biggest deer of my life in 2021, I don't see how it can fail :D

 

[H20fwler]

Love the kid pics!

 

[roymunson]

Love the kid pics!

Me too. There's a lot to like about those guys.

 

[Troubles Trees]

What a beautiful family you have there Roy, and top notch parenting bud! Not enough people do these kind of things with their kids these days and it shows in our society. Love what you are doing with your property and working with your neighbors like you are, it will pay off huge in the end! Great job all around bud, you are a shining example of incorporating family, parenting and habitat management to benefit the wildlife which in turn benefits yourself and your family.

Hat's off to you and your family! *insert American flag emoji*

 

[roymunson]

Yesterday I took my middle kid with me out to check snares. Nothing in the snares, but we decided to go check a turnip plot where I'd put out some supplemental feeding from last week.

200# of corn eaten since wednesday. We also almost drove over a small 1 year old shed. Told my 7 year old "lets go look for the other one"
Little guy eagle eyed picked the match pair off from 40 yards away in teh snow. They're hangin in his room now. He was pretty proud.

Also, they're tearing up my turnips.

 

[roymunson]

Had ourselves a day yesterday. Fried the fox tail and hopefully there is some switchgrass in underneath there somewhere.

Learned a valuable lesson about how to back burn and do some things differently, but all in all, things ended up well. Thank goodness for extra guys, a disk, and backpack blowers.

 

[roymunson]

We checked things out the other day. Pond is coming along. and the St Lawrence trees that were so small last year... All of them made it and are putting on wood. They were probably to small to send out, but they're gaining ground now.

 

[roymunson]

This plot was planted as alfalfa and chicory, but the clover is strong... Beautiful looking plot tho.

 

[roymunson]

And the pond...
Excavator is having dozer issues, so it's about 1/2 done. Some gravel and sand, but enough clay mixed in to make it work.

Here's the core

And we'll have enough structure in the giant sandstone that we may not even need to make fake structure

 

[roymunson]

Dirt was sliding today. had the JD 850 and the Case 650 putting in the pond. Should finally have some nice weather and the can keep at it.

Getting excited to see it start filling up.

 

[H20fwler]

Any updates on the pond work?
Did you seed the dam in yet, if so with what?

 

[roymunson]

Any updates on the pond work?
Did you seed the dam in yet, if so with what?

He un-diverted the water source/spring friday. So while there's still some work to be done, we're accepting water. It turned out to be about 3-3.25 acres total. He still has to put the overflow in and final grade the top soil yet.
I'm trying to decide if I should broadcast seed, or if I should just take the no till and go where I can. I think that may be the most efficient way to do it.

He told me Friday morning, "I didn't like how the 1 area came together. It was too narrow and not rounded off, so I pushed a little bit and opened it up. Now i've got a 1/3 or 1/2 acre area that'll be from 18-36" deep and it'll be perfect spawning for the panfish. It'll also be a good place for vegtation to grow, but we'll have to keep our eyes on that. Also have a bunch of big rocks that he's going to push into a row and make a pier out into the shallows for fishing off of and the small fish can live in the rocks under water.

Dock project is next. I'll try to keep taking pictures as I go.

 

[H20fwler]

Super update!
It really looks awesome, those huge rocks are killer wish I had a few of those for structures.
Your boys will be full on Huck Fin in that pond real quick, adventure after adventure to be had there.

 

[roymunson]

Super update!
It really looks awesome, those huge rocks are killer wish I had a few of those for structures.
Your boys will be full on Huck Fin in that pond real quick, adventure after adventure to be had there.

There have been a lot of conversations amongst little boys regarding their intentions on that pond.

 

[roymunson]

The pond is adding water. Checked it Monday and set a sandstone that was about 18" tall at the water's edge. Checked yesterday after a couple of hard rains, that rock is nowhere to be found

Giddy Up!

We probably have 6' in there right now. There's a long way to go, but it's coming...

 

[roymunson]

The Dock Build...

Went with a 30' walkway that's 4' wide, and a 12x20' platform on the end of the dock.

Local co-op electrical company gives away their condemned power poles. So I got a trailer load, some pressure treated lumber, and for decking got SunWalker poly tiles. Heard good things about them and am very glad I did it.

Friday, myself, my hunting buddy and my dad set 12 of the 13 poles. He's pretty good as a builder, and dad and I are good as unskilled labor.

So we set the poles as square as we could.
Rented skid loader, a 24" auger, sac-rete and some benseal...

 

[roymunson]

After I was sufficiently shot, whooped, and sore, it was time for Day 2. I had 6 men helping on Saturday. 5 young bucks in our 30s, and my dad running the skid loader

While we worked, he and the grandkids/my nephers rolled out chain link to deter muskrats from taking up a home here.



We got most of the frame built by lunch time, here are some pics as we went.

 

[roymunson]

Then it was lunch time. There were a bunch of kids, hungry dads, and moms/grandma rooting us on.

The kids got into the mudhole that's starting in the bottom of the pond and went swimming. It wasn't a clean endeavor.

The grinning 4 year old with the arnold palmer and giant creamstick at 9:00 is my youngest. He was living the dream.