New Hope Creek Home

[356]

I have a couple of persimmons that I'm hopeful the deer like. Yours looks good!

How many acres of plots are up to?

I plan to plant about 2 acres of fall food plots, ranging from 1/8th acre to 1 acre. This year I am focusing more on bedding, cover, food and access than in years past. In past years I focused more on property improvements and did not give enough consideration to what is happening around me. This year I am trying to consider what is happening on neighboring properties, especially as it relates to bedding and pressure.

 

[356]

These 2 1/2 year olds are showing some great potential. While it is still early, most of these deer will be around during the rut based on historical data. These are the type of deer I hope our neighbors will pass on…we are making headway,. One offer that I will be making to my neighbors during our coop meeting is, “if you harvest a doe, I’ll help you prepare the meat for freezer and table (ground, roasts, sausage).” That offer is NOT good for bucks. Since many “meat hunters” think they must harvest a buck, I am hoping this will help protect some of the younger deer like these.

Another deer (no picture) I call “Eleven 11”—a tall tined deer with vertical G2/G3s in the shape of an 11–is back. I estimate him to be a 130 class 4 1/2 year old. His pattern seems to be consistent.

 

[356]

August 12, 2024 update: Armed with a great soil test and weather forecast, on Sunday afternoon I was able to drill three of our five food plots with a Winter Wheat/Forage Rape/Clover/Winter Pea mix. After planting, 1" of rain fell, which is about as good as it can get.

With the prospect of rain the next two days and little time between now and the end of the month, I went ahead and broadcast a bag of "7 Card Stud Wildlife Mixture" (Forage Oats/Winter Wheat/Winter Peas/Turnip/Crimson Clover/Daikon Radish/Chicory) into a new 1/4 acre food plot located in a transition point. If the forecast rains come, these plots should provide some great browse and hunting action later in the season.


Drilling a Winter Wheat/Forage Rape/Clovers/Winter Peas mix with the Tar River no-til drill.



Broadcasting the "7 Card Stud" mix into a 1/4 acre transition point food plot

On the homestead property I have yet to plan the 1 acre food plot and a 1/4 acre "property line" plot (that will not be hunted) that is designed to focus movement. At the cabin I still yet to put in a 1/3 acre annual "hidey hole" plot. The seed for these projects just arrived, so now it is a matter of time and weather cooperating to complete the fall plantings.

 

[buckdeer1]

Glad you got a rain,is this the normal time you plant your fall plots?If I planted wheat this time of year it would be a foot tall and they wouldn't eat

 

[356]

Glad you got a rain,is this the normal time you plant your fall plots?If I planted wheat this time of year it would be a foot tall and they wouldn't eat

Anytime from August 10-20 is the “ideal” time for fall plots in northern Missouri, however, I have planted as early as August 1 and as late as September 20 depending on the year. The wheat should still be an attraction for the mid-September opener, and makes a good cover for the other stuff. A few years ago I did a broadcast over seeding of the wheat with oats and clover in mid-September and that seems to keep the plot revived…the deer love anything young. The main plot for firearm season will be planted after Labor Day and will have more forage oats, radish and turnips.

 

[356]

While the forecast was for 1.25” on Monday and 0.85” on Tuesday, the total for those two days was 0.0”. The first front went just south of us and the second passed over us. The seeds I drilled Sunday got 1” of rain that evening but those that I broadcast on Monday will be sitting on top of the ground. I will likely have to reseed that plot.

Update: Well after the forecasted time, 0.36” fell. Two miles north of us, 2” fell. Hopefully, a little more will fall this week.
Update II: An additional .21 fell last night. The drilled seeds should do well. I am hoping the broadcast seeds got enough rain to establish and geminate the seeds....it's iffy!

 

[356]

Getting the blinds ready for season. The original Booner 5 side was loaded with wasps (despite the Pemethrin tags) so I went home and got some bug bombs and set one off in both older tower blinds. After waiting two hours, I removed the carpet and cleaned up the blind. A new solar charger for phone/ipad was installed and I put new foam seals on most of the windows.

The summer heat has caused the door and one window to warp, so I need to put some as some window latches and another door latch to seal things up better. Otherwise the blind is ready to go for one or two hunters.


The plots drilled last week are starting to show. This view is from a new ladder stand overlooking small food plot near the house that I traditionally hunt from a ground blind. The new setup is designed for better bed-to-food transition sightings.

I still have two plots to drill and one to broadcast. With no rain in the 10 day forecast, those will have to wait. Until then, I need to focus on doing annual maintenance on some of the equipment, such as the workhorse Mule.

 

[Catscratch]

Think your neighbors will buy into shooting does?

Even with rain forecasted in August it would be a 1 time event, followed by a month of triple digit temps that would fry it. I don't get to plant until much much later in the yr. I'm somewhat envious.

Place is looking great!

 

[356]

Think your neighbors will buy into shooting does?

Even with rain forecasted in August it would be a 1 time event, followed by a month of triple digit temps that would fry it. I don't get to plant until much much later in the yr. I'm somewhat envious.

Place is looking great!

I hope my offer to help process neighbors doe harvests (but not the bucks) along with our upcoming Coop meeting with presentations by the MDC Private Land Conservationist and our NDA Deer Outreach Specialist will promote more doe harvests. Since last year Missouri has held an early and late antlerless season, so we are promoting the benefit of “extending your season” for those who do not hunt with a bow. I’ll be posting the results, for sure.

 

[356]

It’s hard to believe deer season is almost upon us. While I was winterizing the camper, I went ahead and winterized the sprayer. This 25 gallon Moultrie has been a great sprayer. I don’t know who makes it, but it’s been a champion compared to the FIMCO. I like that it fits in the UTV and ATV. A larger capacity would be nice, but I like the portability of this sprayer.

While not at our home property, our team took advantage of some forecast rain to put in food plots for the Senior Deer Hunts. This year we have four hunts for nursing home and assisted living residents planned. Volunteers from First Baptist Church, Viburnum (MO) provided the equipment and manpower for this project.


Back at home I put up new safety ropes for the tree blinds and a couple of utilization cages on the plots planted earlier this month. Despite minimal rain, the plots are coming up. I still have three more to plant…one will be done Saturday (rain or not) at the cabin, and the others will go in when a rain is forecast here at home.

 

[356]

Despite being in a D1 drought, the plots drilled on August 12 are showing signs of life. We had 0.16” of rain during a spot storm yesterday that might help a little. The broadcast plot is not showing much life and I may have to drill forage oats over the plot. No rain is forecast for the next week, so I may be doing some replanting in early to mid-September.

 

[356]

As anticipated, the deer are dropping by the food plot on their way to acorns, which have started to drop. This will be a high mast year the two "island of oaks" based on summer surveillance. The plot is adjacent to soybeans. This will be the first year I have oversewed late season standing beans with winter rye. I plant to test a couple of acres to see how well it works.

 

[356]

While at the cabin in SW Missouri, I was able to get the fall foot plot in. Much like last year I planted winter wheat, forage rape and annual clover. This year I added some purple-top turnips as they help build the soil in these rocky Ozark conditions. I was impressed with the fact that last year’s annual clover was still producing and showed signs of continued browse. While I did not get a picture of the mineral stump, I have one that is seven years old and producing great browse.

The tools for this project are simple—the old John Deere D100 lawn tractor, a hand sprayer with Glyphosate, a hand spreader for the seed and a chain to work the top of the soil and promote seed/soil contact. Now I just need rain!
The food plot and scape at the cabin. This tree was terminated in 2014 and finally fell this summer. The first step was to spray everything with Glyphosate using a backpack sprayer.


After a few hours, I came back and broadcast the fall mix using the hand spreader. I then mowed the remains of last year’s plot.




The final product…a 1/4 acre hides hole. Just add water and it will be ready for hunting season. One forecast predicts no rain in the next two weeks, another suggests a solid rain on Friday. I believe the seeds are adequately covered using the drag chain method to keep them from being easy targets for squirrels and birds. Time will tell. Last year’s plot sat dry for two weeks before rain and eventually did pretty good.

BWTM: This guy showed up a few minutes after we left this morning. The cabin property is in a county that allows minerals, and he is already coming to the trophy rock.

 

[356]

A north wind is dropping the Bur Oak and White Oak acorns steadily. I picked these up while pretending to be dove hunting.
The two green nuts are Bur Oak, the one between them is a white oak and the "flatter one" is a shingle oak.



The drought means I will be likely be replanting two of the August food plots with forage oats.
The "south plots" have more "toasty brown" than "growing green." Much of the green in this picture
is native hemp dogbane, which deer avoid. I have no clue where it came from, but it's growing in the
food plot.

 

[356]

While checking out the blinds on the north side, I noticed the persimmon tree is dropping fruit. I took time to enjoy a couple before they were all gone! I did a little limb cutting to ensure a clean line between the tree, an active scrape and the 4x4 Booner tower blind.

 

[356]

September 7, 2024: It was a full day on the farm. My wife and I started the day by cutting and splitting some firewood. I then serviced the tractor and met with an engineer to work on some erosion issues with our creek. I am hoping to participate in an erosion control/watershed stabilization cost share program, and the first step is to get an engineers report.

Despite no rain in the forecast, I went ahead and no-tilled the last two food plots. Hopefully the seed will sit there just fine until the rains come. The plots drilled on August 11 are not doing well as they had rain right after planting, and we are now at day 20 with no rain. The areas in the shade are still alive, as one of the pictures below, but those in the sun are toast.


The drilled seeds in the partial shade are being browsed heavily and are somewhat growing. A good rain should bring them to life.



This picture shows the edge of a 1/2 acre plot. It’s dry as can be and will need to be overseeded with forage oats once some rain is in the forecast.

I took time to enjoy some ripe persimmons before heading to the barn. I went ahead and cleaned and serviced the drill, as any additional seeding will be via broadcasting just before a rain.

The deer were enjoying the persimmons just an hour before I stopped for a few.

 

[Foggy47]

This is the first I saw of your land tour. Enjoyable for me. Subscribed now. Nice work / nice place!

 

[356]

Deer Season 2024-25 is here. I enjoyed a hot, but fruitful, sit in the "Persimmon" blind on the archery opener. I failed to get pictures of the deer, but they came out of the bedding as anticipated. The past seven years of habitat work are paying off as the movement is getting more predictable.

With the drought, the food plots are toast, but the deer are still moving to native browse and mast, such as acorns and persimmons.

 

[356]

September 17, 2024: Over lunch I finished filling the new water hole on the "Southeast Oak Island." The tank is 110 gallons. This my second water hole. The first was placed in 2022 and was well used by the deer. I moved that one about 30' this season to align with some other changes that will promote more predictable deer movement.

I bury the tanks about 12". This promotes ease of access, limits some critters from getting in and mitigates midge breeding (IMO).

The tank is in bow range of the new blind.

 

[356]

September 21, 2024: This weekend I am at the SW Missouri cabin property. The plan was to enjoy a morning based on a forecasted rain front . At 3:00 am a high intensity storm came through. The storm brought high winds, lots of lightening and just over 1" of rain to help break the drought that has plagued this property since July. Not a drop of water had fallen since planting the food plot on August 31, so the rain was welcome despite keeping me await due to the hail and thunder.

At 5:30 am I was in a ladder stand just off the food plot and staging area. Around 6:00 am I heard deer movement, and by 6:30 am I could see enough to know something was not right. In the growing light I realized all shooting lanes were obscured by fallen trees. The storm must have included a micro-burst as the shooting lanes were filled with fallen trees.


After going back and having breakfast, I cleared fallen brush around the cabin and then returned to food plot and cleaned some shooting lanes and cut some firewood for next year. I decided to head home after cleaning up, but hopefully will return in a few weeks to enjoy a mid-October archery hunt.

Hopefully some of the seeds planted in August are still in the soil. Turkey and squirrels have hit the plots pretty hard in the past month.