My Land Tour...The Big Woods

[Bowsnbucks]

Well, H20, you've got a wildlife paradise growing there. EVERYTHING looks good. I can see why the state biologist loves what he's seeing. Diversity is great. What you have planted isn't just for deer - but everything - including all sorts of pollinators & birds. Nice of you to allow tours by school / college students & pics for engagements / graduations.

Orchard looks good, and caging trees really does help get them established without deer beating them up. Your evergreens prove that. That one pic of lavender flowers looks like "dame's rocket." My wife and I were on the way to a local winery yesterday (Memorial Day) and the country roads we were travelling were lined with dame's rocket. She stopped to take a few pics of some patches. Dame's rocket is a great wildflower for pollinators AND the looks of them in spring. Mrs. H20 must be having a great time riding the trails to check her bluebird houses - nice scenery all the way. Pond looks great too - bass spawning, ducks hanging around, birds nesting everywhere .........

Hopefully those young students will LEARN some things from their visits to your place - that the VALUE of healthy habitat is great for critters of all sorts ........ and US too. Great work!!

 

[H20fwler]

Well, H20, you've got a wildlife paradise growing there. EVERYTHING looks good. I can see why the state biologist loves what he's seeing. Diversity is great. What you have planted isn't just for deer - but everything - including all sorts of pollinators & birds. Nice of you to allow tours by school / college students & pics for engagements / graduations.

Orchard looks good, and caging trees really does help get them established without deer beating them up. Your evergreens prove that. That one pic of lavender flowers looks like "dame's rocket." My wife and I were on the way to a local winery yesterday (Memorial Day) and the country roads we were travelling were lined with dame's rocket. She stopped to take a few pics of some patches. Dame's rocket is a great wildflower for pollinators AND the looks of them in spring. Mrs. H20 must be having a great time riding the trails to check her bluebird houses - nice scenery all the way. Pond looks great too - bass spawning, ducks hanging around, birds nesting everywhere .........

Hopefully those young students will LEARN some things from their visits to your place - that the VALUE of healthy habitat is great for critters of all sorts ........ and US too. Great work!!

Thanks Bows, my wife and I try and share the property with others as long as they are respectul and it's not bothering our hunting season.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Thanks Bows, my wife and I try and share the property with others as long as they are respectul and it's not bothering our hunting season.

Excellent !! I would have the same expectations as you and your wife concerning respect for the land & hunting seasons.
With all the varied habitat you have there, I can only imagine what a survey of birds would reveal - let alone reptiles & amphibians!! Not just a deer, ducks, and rabbits property.

 

[H20fwler]

Took a look at the orchard today. Fruit is doing pretty good. Pears are better than I thought last month.

I was surprised at how clean the fruit is looking with my zero spray regime.








First fruit on the Franklin’s


First apples ever on the two Firecracker crabs at this farm.


The chestnuts are flowering like crazy


And the highlight of my day…
An oriole nest in one of our pear trees! Second I’ve seen this year at this farm.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Lookin' great, H20!!!

 

[H20fwler]

One of my favorite times of year to be in the pasture, when the native grasses bolt and the seed heads are full.

View of pasture today.



Goldenrod is in full bloom


Native grasses are putting on their show



We put up a new stand yesterday, a double so I can hunt with grandsons a few years from now.



View from new stand


Deer come straight up from river And go into the woods right here.

 

[H20fwler]

Continued;
View from new stand


Apples and pears are thin but what is on is nice, it’s been a very dry summer.


Gala is the best tasting this year


Royal Limbertwig did well And apples look showy


Clover in main trail came in good but needs rain, Ladino and Durana.


Chestnut burrs are really fat but still a thin crop this year.


Hit just a couple miles from this farm the other day, has to be close to 130


One of my favorite views…now that we have moved I drive by our farm twice a day coming and going from work.
Always makes me smile!



The orchard

 

[H20fwler]

A current update at this farm;

A couple apples still holding just a few, Granny Smith and Golden Russet.


Golden Hornet DropTine and a few other crabs still holding about a third of their fruit.

The pines planted in clumps in pasture for future thermal bedding are doing great since caged a couple years ago.


Trails mowed in pasture are deer highways, besides being handy for the four wheeler.

Cont;

 

[H20fwler]

Cont;

Some pics from hunting season.

Deer from stand




Youngest son’s buck, shot it from the new double stand. It was really broken up on one side.


Darcy had a great season



Late season goose hunting on the front pond.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

You've got a great place going there, H20. All pics look good - habitat to deer to Darcy to pheasants & honkers. Only gonna get better, too!!!

 

[H20fwler]

You've got a great place going there, H20. All pics look good - habitat to deer to Darcy to pheasants & honkers. Only gonna get better, too!!!

Thanks Bows!


And a first of the season, but has to be a last years….Darcy doesn’t care.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

How are the fish progressing in the pond?

 

[H20fwler]

How are the fish progressing in the pond?

In the ponds on this farm there was a good sized die off last summer due to no no rain and level dropping so low. The bigger bass died first then the medium sized fish, hopefully enough smaller fish survived to replentish the front pond. The back pond usually only has minnows and mosquito fish in it along with frogs and turtles. They are almost back up to full pool now.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Sorry to hear of the drought die-off on the fish. Good to hear the ponds are back up to normal levels now. Hopefully they stay higher this summer for you. It seems rain / snow / moisture is either feast or famine anymore.

 

[H20fwler]

Have had a very busy spring, just now getting a bunch of habit work caught up and crossed off my to-do list.
The shrub strips are really starting to fill in and jump now. They finally are providing some decent cover and producing some fruit and nuts. I am still direct seeding different acorns, pecan nuts and chestnuts in fall along with planting a few more crab apple and hazelnut when I can.
Again the original goal with the strips was to create a wide old school fence row type strip of nothing but fruit/nuts/browse when they all grow together along with blocking the view of the pasture from the north and west.




Absolutely everything in the strips gets browsed. Anything deer can reach looks like this with tips nipped off.


The pasture has exploded with whatever these flowers are..it’s a first for this early bloomer. I had seen random groups of them in the past but nothing like this. A little over a month from now it will be mostly cone flowers.



The fruit trees in the orchard are really loaded this year, we didn’t get any late frost and have had what seems like an inch of rain a week all spring.



First decent year for our cherry trees too, we actually had enough for the birds and us.
Grandson was eating them about as fast as grandma was picking them.

 

[Brian662]

Foxglove beardtongue is the flower.

Your place is looking nice this spring!

Can't wait until my shrubs are to the "bushy" stage. Have some volunteer Grey dogwood in the road ditch that have formed a nice thicket but my planted stuff hasn't filled in yet.

 

[H20fwler]

Foxglove beardtongue is the flower.

Your place is looking nice this spring!

Can't wait until my shrubs are to the "bushy" stage. Have some volunteer Grey dogwood in the road ditch that have formed a nice thicket but my planted stuff hasn't filled in yet.

Thanks!

 

[Native Hunter]

Everything looks great, and your plant is one of the Foxgloves - possibly Foxglove Beardtongue.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Things are looking good there. I hope the periodic rains keep up for you .......... and the rest of us. Fruit loads look good on your trees.

 

[H20fwler]

Things are looking good there. I hope the periodic rains keep up for you .......... and the rest of us. Fruit loads look good on your trees.

Thanks Bows, forcast looks like no rain and hot for the next ten days.
Good growing weather I guess....