My "SmallChunk"

[SmallChunk]

I've been meaning to post one of these ever since the site started. Loved getting feedback from everyone when I posted on the "other" site. I took pictures all summer of the things I was doing, but never got around to posting. Now that I have the initial post done, hopefully I will just hop on and post some pictures (probably mainly what I will be doing since I am zero help when it comes to these habitat enhancements, just like screwing around)!

I hunt two different spots in my area. One is a 112 acre piece that gets pounded during the rifle season, but they let me and my brother out there to bowhunt. I am unable to do any habitat projects out there(hoping to get a plot in this coming year tho) so I wont be showing anything from that spot. This thread will deal solely with my "SmallChunk". It is my grandparents old farm with my grandmother still living there.

Details of the "SmallChunk":
22 acres
2 small apple orchards with 7 trees remaining from the 60's and the rest I have planted
Sandy ground by the buildings and slowly turning to peat as the terrain drops to the river
Neighbors hunt hard to the east, fairly hard to the west
I have very little equipment to work on things
North end butts up to thousands of acres of public land
I only Bowhunt it, cousin bowhunts it occasionally and uncle muzzloads it occasionally (none last year)
The last two years have been brutal for deer numbers in this area
Saw only 7 deer on stand all year
Shot one coyote while hunting

Looking to improve:
Winter Cover
In need of a sancuary-Will the state land work? No hunting allowed
Doe bedding areas
Access
More screening along west fence
Better plots in my sand
Earlier deer movement up by buildings
ANY INPUT WOULD BE AWESOME!!!!

The Land:
Green-Plots
Blue-Orchards
Red-Stands
Tan-Attempted screening
Blue Line-Freshwater Streams
Lime Green Line-Trail through the woods


Close-up by buildings:


Far away shot to show the area:

 

[dtabor]

Looking forward to seeing what you are doing. I own 30 acres which I also live on so that cuts it back even further. I love seeing the threads of other small properties. They are in the process of logging the large area two properties away from me (they own a couple hundred acres) so Im betting the deer that hang around on my piece will move over there once it starts growing back up. My two little plots arent going to compete with all that new browse!

 

[SmallChunk]

I am just going to run through photo's from last spring until now. I'll try to keep them chronologically ordered and say something about each photo....here we go!

Here was my first ever order from Cummins Nursery. Man they sure send quality looking trees! Hoping they all made it through this winter!

Here are my 3 pear trees: Flemish Beauty(OHxF 97), Harrow Crisp and Harrow Delight(OHxF 87)

And here are the four apples I got from them, all on B118: Enterprise, Frostbite, Macoun, NY 35(Bonkers)

This is an example of my best soil. About 3-4 inches of loamy topsoil and then feet of sand. Water table is +-12 ft and sand all the way to it. Tough go of growing things. I add a handful of chicken litter, pell lime and backfill with half a bag of manure/topsoil stuff from menards

 

[SmallChunk]

My winter rye coming to life

Dolgo seedling was eaten up top in winter so I cut it down to the base


Checked it after a few weeks and the new growth was on!

Cool picture of Trillium while turkey hunting!

 

[SmallChunk]

My Liberty didn't make it through the harsh winter, but eventually it did start to sprout from below the graft.

My two American Chestnuts made it through their first winter. Anxious to see if they make it through this one too!

My "pig pen" crab in bloom

I found this in my grandmothers barn at the SmallChunk. Asked her if she knew where it came from and she thought it was the last buck my grandfather had shot from many years ago. Thought it was kind of cool it's still around!

 

[SmallChunk]

I got together with a couple of the members from here and tried my hand at grafting. Ended up with a Chestnut, Cortland, Connell Red, Centennial and NW Greening of varieties I didn't already have. Thanks again, Dan!

A couple of the first leaf trees from cummins



I wanted to establish a clover plot so I decided to plant buckwheat as a cover. I went with ladino and red clover and it came up okay throughout the year. The drought mid summer hurt it. My deer and turkey enjoyed nibbling on this plot all summer!

 

[SmallChunk]

I believe they call this "chicken of the woods". Awesome looking thing, lol

Pig pen crab mid season

The clover plot after weed whipping mid season

Some volunteer rape from last year in a field I planted brassica in this year. Interesting thing to note, there were 4-5 of these in my field. All of them were sought after once we had snow and cold temps. I liked having these large plants, I might plant my brassica at the beginning of July now

 

[SmallChunk]

Some of my old trees with apples. Pictures are from around September 10th

 

[SmallChunk]

The apple theif/limb breaker

The only two decent bucks I had at the farm all fall. The tall skinny ten is a 3 1/2 that I have tons of pictures of from last year and this year. The other I don't know much about but he showed up 5-6 different times throughout the summer/fall.

 

[SmallChunk]

Some of you know I work on a farm. Here is our cover crop machine. 60 ft toolbar that blows on the seed. Our mix consisted of wheat, DER and Berseem clover on half of our PP acres and cereal rye, radish and Berseem clover on the other half that we did. Maybe I should start a custom food plotting business with this bad boy ;). Check out the second photo, lots to learn from it. Here we left our side dresser run past the end of where the corn was planted so fertilizer was incorporated into the ground there. A month or so later we broadcasted our Cover in this area because there used to be a burn pile there. Check out how much better the cover grew where here was fertilizer available to it!!!! Don't forget to fertilize your deer plots, you will lose out on a lot of tonnage that the deer could be eating! Also note what a low area will do to the plants(towards me).

 

[SmallChunk]

My grafts

I ended up planting three of them and sinking three of them below ground in their rootmaker bags to see which I prefer. I wasn't impressed with the roots on my trees from a summer of growth :confused:



Going in the hole

 

[SmallChunk]

I only bow hunted this year due to the terrible lack of deer in the area. I was fortunate to be able to have a tote come walk past me right after rifle season had ended. With one week left in the archery season, my uncle was nice enough to allow me to hunt on his land. The deer yard up there every year and the neighbor farmer always wants more deer gone so I harvested this nice doe. She sure has tasted good this winter :).



And the latest.
Deer have been pawing a bit at my brassica plot.

I got lucky with this find the other weekend!

 

[SmallChunk]

There, now I'm all caught up. Hope you guys don't mind the blast of photo's!

Stu, I remember from the old site that trillium were a good tool to measure how populated your deer herd is. Trilliums everywhere here due to the low deer population in 225!

 

[tooln]

Great pics and story. Keep up the good work.

 

[SD51555]

Don't ever feel bad about dumping too many pics. Us habitat loonies enjoy sifting through them. Very cool update. I have to ask, did you eat that giant chicken of the woods mushroom (your ID seems correct to me. Hard to mis-ID a chicken)? I haven't found one yet, and that was on my list for last year.

It was also neat to see the cover cropping you get to do. I got all of my base knowledge and ideas from no-till cover cropping books.

Well done.

 

[sandbur]

Do you have any idea what variety those old apples are?

Which graft grew the best?

 

[wiscwhip]

Thanks for sharing SC! The pic of the cover cropping equipment was :cool:, none of the farmers I help out have anything like that, but then again, you'd have a hard time with that rig on some of the slopes around here.:eek: Trillium pic was awesome as well. If you want some large leafy brassicas like the one in your pic, try some of the forage brassica varieties like Pasja and Hunter, as well as Rangi and Winfred forage rape, Appin and Barkant turnips, and Kestrel and Caledonian kale. These brassica varieties are taller and leafier than most of the standard types, like PPT and DER that most plotters can get at the local seed house. You may have to mail order some of the more oddball stuff. Great looking place!

 

[Greta&Gus]

If you could block of deer access on your borders and funnel deer from the north straight south to your plots you might have some good action. Great look spot.

I would do a nice antler mount with your Grandpa's buck. That is a classic trophy you can tell your grandkids about some day.

 

[shawnv]

One thing that stands out with the three plots is how do you hunt the stands to the North and get in and out without bumping the deer. Can you mark what is state land on another image and does it have usage like from hiking trails or anything? If left alone it might be all the sanctuary you need. A spring scouting trip should reveal how much bedding occurs there too.

 

[bueller]

no need to apologize for all the pics, i thoroughly enjoyed them