My place......

[BuckSutherland]

Just got back from 3 LONG days of work. Corn planting was shutdown here Tuesday night with the cold rain coming so I went to plant my tree order and started first thing on Wed morning and worked all day through the rain. The field across the road from my 40 was loaded with deer this week, especially at dusk. Thursday night I estimated close to 100 deer out there. And I finally got a chance to take the Boy River rattle reel.

I planted:
100 Norway Spruce ABP
50 Cannan Fir ABP
20 White Pine ABP
15 Swamp White oak.
150+ Burr oak acorns

 

[BuckSutherland]

I caged all 15 swamp white oaks, all 20 white pines, and several other white pines that I had transplanted. I did 50 cages in all and cut down enough stuff so my new trees should be seeing 8+ hours of sun per day. I think I will mulch the swamp white oaks to try and get them going. Those 35 trees and 50 cages took me all day on Wednesday. I cut quite a bit to make sure they have full sun. I probed the soil quite a bit until I found deep well drained black soil. Hopefully they will thrive. The cannan fir plugs were superior to my norway plugs. Wire worked good to roll out all 100 feet at once and measure every ten feet and then cut it all once after it was marked.

 

[Bill]

Wow that’s a lot of work in a short amount of time.

 

[BuckSutherland]

Last fall I collected acorns from the cemetery in Hutchinson. They have some MASSIVE oak trees there. Also took some from a friend of mine. They are white and burr oaks I think. I left the acorns in a bag in my garage all winter and forgot about it. Saw it sitting there the other day when I was gonna leave and couldnt believe all the sprouts on the acorns!! I thought they were garbage.


I took them with me up north. I found a couple mounds full of deep rich black soil from when we made trails with skid loader. I cleared the grass back on the berms and just pushed the acorns into the moist soil at various depths. I planted them in 6 different spots around the property. I have no idea what to expect. If they start growing I will cage them where they are and eventually transplant them around the property.


I REALLY HOPE THIS WORKS!!! They are laying in the best dirt we have. I dont know if they are any good though anymore. Should know more when I get up for Memorial weekend.


If each one that sprouted produces a tree I would have about 150 to transplant.

 

[BuckSutherland]

Also went out this morning and got another 25 transplant spruce before they mow them down and I also got about 75 dogwood cuttings. A few weeks ago I took some dogwood cuttings and shoved them into the ground and almost all of them are budding out right now. I planted the ones from today and in some progressively wet ground. The spruce went to a spot that will eventually be a great bedding area. I could barely crawl my ass in the truck to drive back home. Ended up having to stack a bunch of wood too since the frost heave knocked a big wall over.


Felt awesome to get that much done. Sure helped seeing all the deer driving around at night.

 

[sandbur]

You were busy. Still not much corn going in from what I hear from Hutch area.

I was up in the other corner of our hunting zone on Monday. I marked a few caged apple trees hoping the loggers won’t get them and I moved one deer stand.

I don’t even try and get as much done as you young guys.

Keep at it!



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[Bill]

I don’t even try and get as much done as you young guys.

I m tired just from looking at what Buck got done in short order....

 

[BuckSutherland]

I m tired just from looking at what Buck got done in short order....

Monday and Tuesday of last week I heaved over 10,000 lb of fertilizer into the corn planter with a plastic tote too. I'm 40% done on corn. Average for my county is probably under 20%. Starting to get late for top yields. I hope to be all done planting corn and beans if rain can hold off until Thursday night. I did an insane amount of physical labor last week. I can sure feel it on my body.

 

[sandbur]

I m tired just from looking at what Buck got done in short order....

Monday and Tuesday of last week I heaved over 10,000 lb of fertilizer into the corn planter with a plastic tote too. I'm 40% done on corn. Average for my county is probably under 20%. Starting to get late for top yields. I hope to be all done planting corn and beans if rain can hold off until Thursday night. I did an insane amount of physical labor last week. I can sure feel it on my body.

I would estimate we are two weeks behind where I live judging from lilacs and flowering crabs. About the same for you?

Corn is going in on the Anika Sand plain.


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[BuckSutherland]

The FIL and I went to Grand Rapids the other night to get some supplies. I picked up some new boat oars for our 12' boat, some bottled water and a 20lb bag of Antler King. At about 6pm I set the Antler King on the deck right next to the front door and the boat oars. About 930 I heard the oars bang into the open screen door. I thought it was just the wind that had knocked them over. Guess I was wrong. He hauled the bag about 30 yards from the door before he set it down.

 

[sandbur]

The FIL and I went to Grand Rapids the other night to get some supplies. I picked up some new boat oars for our 12' boat, some bottled water and a 20lb bag of Antler King. At about 6pm I set the Antler King on the deck right next to the front door and the boat oars. About 930 I heard the oars bang into the open screen door. I thought it was just the wind that had knocked them over. Guess I was wrong. He hauled the bag about 30 yards from the door before he set it down. View attachment 24223View attachment 24224View attachment 24225View attachment 24226View attachment 24227

That looks like a good one!


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[BuckSutherland]

The neighbor gave us BOXES of 16" x 24" calendars a few years ago. There was close to 100 left and the FIL wanted them gone. I ripped them in half and placed them around the base of some of my new trees from Itasca. Hope they can keep the weeds down for a few months. The caged white pine looks spectacular, the swamp white oaks look like complete shit. Not sure if they took a hard freeze or what the issue is. The cannan fir trees look very good too.

 

[BuckSutherland]

I love getting stuff done. The grass didnt grow under my feet this weekend.

What a slop fest at the hunting shack for Memorial weekend. We split up a whole bunch of firewood for our wood bunker fire pit, cut up a big balsam fir tree and a red pine for the campfire too. We have enough wood cut and split to last for a long time. We have a great pile of red oak cut/split for the wood stove too. Planted some white pines and caged them right at the front of our hunting shack for the kids. Did a little fishing, and planted some more trees. Got to see a fawn, watch a deer swim across the lake, and one swam out of the Chippewa forest across the mississippi river into a big stand of white oaks. We are gonna check out that spot for hunting.

Sadly I think over half of my swamp white oaks planted a few weeks ago will die. Gonna call Itasca and see what they think.

 

[BuckSutherland]

My white pines planted and caged about 5 weeks ago have an average of about 8" of new growth already. I mulched a few of them, removed all weed competition and made sure they each have at least 8+ hours of direct sunlight per day. Really liking laying cardboard or paper down around these trees. We get plenty of cardboard from amazon prime.

 

[BuckSutherland]

Just got back from mowing the old food plots. Lots of thistles. Every since we cleared them off a few years ago the thistles have exploded. I plan on trying to turn big clumps of the plots into switch grass bedding. I spent about 8-10 hours walking behind the damn brush mower again. Getting awful sick of that and the heat. I spread a bunch of rye in the areas that I mowed down. Just happy to be rid of the thistles.