My Land Tour...The Big Woods

A few pics from this past Saturday.

We have been getting a couple white heron or cattle egrets in the ponds, first we have ever seen on the farm. We get quite a few Great Blue herons stopping in and I've seen one small brown heron last spring.
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The native grasses are doing well in the pasture.
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And there is some clumps of bluestem in the lane along woods.
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The Goldenrod is really turning on all along the woods.
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All kinds of gray dogwood loaded with berries on the edge of woods.
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A couple of the cherry trees I was sure the Jap beetles had killed have come out of it pretty good.
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And some random pics
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Everything's looking great out there. Green and growing. Your effort of creating wildlife paradise is definitely working. That was a heckuva nice buck you posted on the trail cam thread, too.
 
Looks like a great magnet for all kinds of critters - big & small. Nice. I love pix of old farm equipment, too.
 
Everything's looking great out there. Green and growing. Your effort of creating wildlife paradise is definitely working. That was a heckuva nice buck you posted on the trail cam thread, too.

Thanks, I should start getting some nice buck pics at this farm about October. For some reason the big ones don't really use this farm in the summer but really move in hard during the fall. This is the second year we have gotten pics of that buck he seems to be an older one, would love to see one of my boys put him in the back of the truck!
 
Looks like a great magnet for all kinds of critters - big & small. Nice. I love pix of old farm equipment, too.

Thanks Bows, I really like the old farm equipment too. My wife didn't quite get why I put a few pieces out originally but now she likes seeing it there and planning family pics with it.
 
Was out at the farm with the boss Monday so she could give her two cents on what I am doing wrong......

A fawn was peaking at us as I drove along woods, sorry for bad pic it was through dirty winsheild,
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Swapped card out on camera and had this right under stand, first I've seen this fall;
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Had around ten turkeys flush from along back pond and fly into woods, looked like two adult hens with poults. There was turkey poo everywhere and lots of feathers for the wife to pick up, clover and weeds are short so turkeys must be spending a lot of time there chasing grasshoppers dusting and eating clover.

Looking through the card there was over 2000 pics from last two weeks all deer and turkeys.
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The native grasses that have been in the ground two summers now really shot up in the last couple weeks with the rain we have had, seems like the heads grew two feet overnight. There is switch/big&little bluestem/indian planted ...hopefully it will out compete the foxtail.
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Still getting wild flowers blooming too;
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My wife the designated fruit tester sampled a few of the pears, she like Bartlett the best I think they are a little gritty. The keiffer is about a month from being ripe and the Moonglow was crazy sweet but too soft. We also sampled one of the honeycrisp I liked it the wife thought it was too tart, I'm not 100% sure it really is honeycrisp the fruit is almost completely red the taste was just like a Granny Smith...maybe it changes as it hangs longer.
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Lots of does with fawns on camera all times of day and night;
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A doe I thought was just a pretty girl
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Starting to get bucks moving in, first hard horn we have seen wish the higher racked one had brow tines it's an interesting rack.
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Also got the bees tucked in for winter, drew honey off last week. What a great experience they have been with a ton of benefit to the farm.
Of course the wife is taking the total credit now for the project and is the self proclaimed "Honey Queen" at our house.
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Some of the honey that we harvested.
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You have a cornucopia of wildlife and plants!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk
 
You have a cornucopia of wildlife and plants!

Thanks, it's a work in progress always adding new small projects and constantly tweaking here and there...especially after reading through everyone's land tours and sweet ideas I see on this site that can help my properties. I'm looking forward to seeing how it will look in ten years after everything is producing nuts/fruits/berries.
 
I think it was maybe Mortenson that put up the link to look over old vintage aerial farm pics back this spring? If so thank you...I was able to finally find an old pic of the place from back in the day, pretty neat to see a little history of the place.

Here is what the old homestead on the farm looked like in 1968

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Here is what it looks like fifty years later in 2018

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One of these days I'm going to see how far back of a title search I can do, it would be sweet to get a copy of the original deed and see who exactly owned it first and when. Then try and track some of the previous owners and find out some of the history of the families that owned the property and spent time there working it and enjoying the place before my family bought it.
 
I was doing some thinking and reflecting yesterday after sharing the morning out at the farm with my oldest son, it was awesome being able to spend time with him he lives fifty miles away and works out of town a lot.
I think my technique to farming is about polar opposite of how my father did it, to him the only thing prettier than row crops was the smoke of a bulldozer and he would say that often. He would buy land and if it had a small woods or fencerows he would doze them right down and burn the piles...if there was a small pond he would drain it and fill it in.
I'm not sure if he would think I'm stupid or like the way I steward the land plugging tiles/planting trees/planting grasses/foodplots/flowers/digging ponds.
I would like to think he is looking down on me smiling getting a chuckle out of what I am doing.
 
I was doing some thinking and reflecting yesterday after sharing the morning out at the farm with my oldest son, it was awesome being able to spend time with him he lives fifty miles away and works out of town a lot.
I think my technique to farming is about polar opposite of how my father did it, to him the only thing prettier than row crops was the smoke of a bulldozer and he would say that often. He would buy land and if it had a small woods or fencerows he would doze them right down and burn the piles...if there was a small pond he would drain it and fill it in.
I'm not sure if he would think I'm stupid or like the way I steward the land plugging tiles/planting trees/planting grasses/foodplots/flowers/digging ponds.
I would like to think he is looking down on me smiling getting a chuckle out of what I am doing.

I'd say he's happy you're happy!
 
My Dad didn't hunt. He always thought I hunted to much. I'm willing to bet he now looks down and thinks it's great I'm doing what I want with the time I have.
 
My Dad didn't hunt. He always thought I hunted to much. I'm willing to bet he now looks down and thinks it's great I'm doing what I want with the time I have.

My Dad hunted some, I think he hunted a lot more when he was younger.
Some of my best memories are being allowed to skip school for the first day of rabbit season, I think most of the boys in school did the same. We also bunny/pheasant hunted Thanksgiving morning...I could hardly sleep the night before all excited about going out with my Dad, Grandfather and uncles chasing rabbits with beagles.
By the time I hit high school and was crazy about hunting and trapping Dad was only hunting bunnies about one morning a season and deer hunting the first couple hours of gun season he was just too busy with work. He did get the chance to see my oldest son shoot his first bunny, it was sitting and he shot it with a 22.

I only have a couple pics of Dad and I after a hunt, we didn't keep cameras around on the ready like we do these days.

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Thanks for sharing all this, very cool!!
 
Glad to see you found the old farmstead. Really cool seeing the big pond there now. I like how you mentioned your dad getting a chuckle as he smiles down. I think about things like that, too. My dad and grandpa were conditioned to despise the deer, considering the incredible crop damage. My grandpa didn't hunt. He didn't have the time. But he did enjoy eating lots of game that was either killed by my dad or given to him. I think he'd approve of most of what we're doing now, but probably not the planting of shrubs. He was more of a plant hardwoods, and clear the brush mentality. I never thought it would happen, but dad has come around on the habitat stuff. He still doesn't like seeing a huge deer herd, but he's realized that hunting is our biggest hobby, and we do it together, and so I think he also kinda chuckles at most of it. Finally, where can ya get a pair of those Miller Lite sunglasses?!
 
Glad to see you found the old farmstead. Really cool seeing the big pond there now. I like how you mentioned your dad getting a chuckle as he smiles down. I think about things like that, too. My dad and grandpa were conditioned to despise the deer, considering the incredible crop damage. My grandpa didn't hunt. He didn't have the time. But he did enjoy eating lots of game that was either killed by my dad or given to him. I think he'd approve of most of what we're doing now, but probably not the planting of shrubs. He was more of a plant hardwoods, and clear the brush mentality. I never thought it would happen, but dad has come around on the habitat stuff. He still doesn't like seeing a huge deer herd, but he's realized that hunting is our biggest hobby, and we do it together, and so I think he also kinda chuckles at most of it. Finally, where can ya get a pair of those Miller Lite sunglasses?!

Thanks. I think family history, upbringing and traditions has a lot to do with our habitat addictions and the choices a lot of us have made with how we are managing our properties.
I think the wife swiped those from the youngest boy, he got them at Country Concert in the last year or two... am I going to need to send you up a pair with scions this winter?
 
This last card pull was the first time we have ever had more turkey pics than deer pics!
No real nice bucks to show but lots of thunder chickens. Here are a few;

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I am going to repost this here and ad some more pics so I have it in the land tour;


I went out for the first time this year Monday night, I had been up in the tree about a half hour when my youngest son texted me on his way home from work asking if I was out hunting. I texted him back where I was at and he said he would just go over to the other farm...I told him to come on over and he was hesitant not wanting to mess me up. I told him come on over and hunt the south stand with the wind we had.
About forty five minutes later he texted me that he had just bumped a couple deer that were bedded under the stand, he was in a tree around sixty yards from me over my left shoulder. While I was reading his text two does galloped under me no doubt the ones he bumped they went about forty yards past me settled down and started back towards him. It was a very crisp 41 degrees with about a fifteen mph breeze from behind me, beautiful typical early fall evening with plenty of fat squirrels to watch. Visibility this time of year is almost limited to shooting lanes or open spots with all the leaves still on. After about twenty minutes I noticed some movement around fifty yards in front of me, a decent buck was working a scrape and hooking little trees. I could tell he had a taller rack but that was all, he started slowly heading my sons way through the brush and scrub. I texted him to get ready a buck was headed his way.
About a minute later or so later I heard a "THWACK". Then all is quiet,.......son texts I double lunged him!
I text him telling him I heard the shot and started asking can he see his arrow, did he mule kick, was he spraying blood? He says no to all...I told him sit still lets wait for a good forty five we have plenty of time he will stay on the property. I watch more squirrels and various birds extremely happy that we happened to be hunting together. We are texting back and forth trying to decide if we knew what buck it was..I told him I didn't get that good of a look at it he says once he saw a taller rack he never looked at rack again he said it was at thirty yards with head behind a tree hit it a little high hoped he didn't gut shoot it and started all doubting himself. I told him the hit sounded perfect no belly "thunk" sounded like chest hit not to worry. I texted my oldest son to get him in the loop and texted a couple buddies.
After a long wait I texted him and said I was going to come down and sneak over to him in a loop away from where deer went, about that time I hear footsteps and here comes a buck from behind me. It was walking slow with hair up all along its back like my dog when the door bell rings. It stops directly underneath me...for minutes...at first I wondered if it was the buck he shot? But it looked to small a basket eight, it kept looking back over its shoulder so I sloooowly turned and looked over my left shoulder. There was another basket eight just standing there looking at the first. After about five minutes they both ambled off towards my sons stand..I texted him the info.
About that time I notice some movement in the picked corn stubble out front to my right...about three hundred yards away coming from the river at a slow trot is three does with a buck following. I look through my binos and the buck in back is nice, they are going to come into the corner of the woods about 80 yards in front of me. Now I'm thinking...what a predicament to have? I did not want to end up with two blood trails potentially crossing over each other and maybe spooking a wounded deer off the block if I shot bad.
It is crazy early in the deer season and I took about the whole month of November off this year for vacation...I lowered my bow and started looping over to my boy very slowly. He texted me asking what was going on and I filled him in. I bumped a big deer that I never spotted on the way to him, I got about forty yards from him and he started giving me hand signals from the stand where to look...I could not find his arrow or any blood and I looked slow for a long time. He slowly got out of stand and when he got to the bottom another deer spooked over in the direction his had run. We whispered lets back out and just go back to the truck its getting dark lets get flash lights and give things more time, we looped out of the woods and way around to the truck. The whole walk back he was full of self doubt now about his shot...I told him I heard the hit good and it was a dead deer we will find it. We got to the truck and waited awhile and I talked to his older brother on the phone and the wife and a good deer hunting buddy just small talk telling them what all had gone on. Jordan was getting very antsy so we grabbed the flashlights and headed back, I kept having to slow him down and calm him down on his doubts.
We got back to the stand and started looking for arrow, hair and blood...nothing. After about twenty minutes of that I said lets go slow from where you last think you saw him in the direction he went in a slow zig zag. Didn't find one spot of blood, I told him don't worry about it if you hit him a little high his chest will have to fill up with blood then he will leave us a trail. After about fifty yards...THERE HE WAS!

He had reverse ground shrinkage..better than either of us thought!

It was just to cool to even describe, watching my sons face light up and all his doubts just melt away and I was able to be there and share the whole moment with him. So far it is his personal best...and off our own farm!

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He drilled one lung, clipped bottom of other and center punched liver. Body cavity was full of blood.

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Field dressed he weighed #225 hanging. I found the arrow right off the bat yesterday blood from tip to nock about twenty yards back further over than Jordan thought, still no blood trail from it, he got sick fast and must have laid right down.


And I got the old planter behind him in the good pic!
 
Hunted Friday evening in a slight drizzle saw a bunch of big fox squirrels, could hear what sounded like a deer breaking branches off to my left somewhere in the woods.

This is the view right now of what I can see of the back pond, it's fun later on as leaves start to come off when ducks start using it more giving me something to watch.
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And it is always nice to grab an apple or pear from the orchard for a stand snack as I pass through.
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With about a half hour of shooting time left my buddy is texting me about his fruit trees and he is sending me pics of scrapes and his chestnut trees...I just finish texting back and am starting to put phone back in the pocket of my rain coat when I hear a soft "crunch, crunch, crunch"... I look down to my right and twenty yards from me a nice shooter buck is sneaking along nose to the ground!
He is about to enter a shooting lane so I drop the phone in the noisy rain coat pocket like a dumbass. Buck freezes...I cant see his head good but he is on alert..instead of sitting still I reach for my bow, the buck whirls around runs thirty yards stops and blows very loud. I cant think of anything better to do at this time so I figured I would mouth grunt at him once. He didn't like that at all starts bounding towards the back of the woods..blows crazy loud three more times then stands back there stomping.

I so messed that completely up!
 
This morning I took a few quail out to work Darcy with, I planted three in the pasture she pointed up four.

This is her picture perfect pose locked up hard like a statue, they aren't all like this;
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Another rock solid hard point;
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And I always love her goofy twisted up points when she seems surprised that there is a quail all of the sudden....butt up in the air frozen on point;
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I was lucky enough today to video all four of her points and flushes, wish I was smart enough to be able to post them up to share.

On a side note the keiffer pears are really dropping now, deer and bunnies seem to be eating them right up.
 
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