Cool Hand Luke
5 year old buck +
Howdy gang!
Just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to this wonderful forum. I've learned a lot the few short months since discovering this site. My wife and I recently had the opportunity to purchase her family farm that's been in her family's name possession since 1884. It's been an incredible blessing, especially with us only being in our 30's/40's with two young children. I can't say we haven't worked for it, this is our 5th move in 6 years. I'm a carpenter/builder by trade and have flipped/built houses to get us here. I grew up on a 50 acre hobby farm and have never been a stranger to hard work and hard hunting. I believe my first deer was with a bow at 10 or 11 years old. My dad passed away shortly after and I fought tooth and nail to maintain a property for my mom and I, that ultimately just wasn't meant to be ours. Too long of a story to get into.
Anyways,
Here I am again, after a 7 year hiatus of being on family owned dirt and now have 40 to call ours! It's been in cattle and row crop production (originally 160 acres) since 1884. When my wife and I met, I initially saw no potential in the property but after doing some work on the house last summer her aunt and uncle joked around about swapping for the new house I had built for us in town. I thought long and hard and put some cameras out last fall, hunted a handful of times and began to seeing not only deer but decent buck movement along the fence lines. Her aunt and uncle said they had never seen a deer on the property in 35 years. Needless to say, my wife was looking to move toward the homesteading life and we just fell in love with the history of this place. We rolled the dice this summer, made an offer on the land and low and behold, here we are. The history is unbelievable, already uncovering early homesteads on the property that predate her family.
Now the fun part, a blank slate:
The property has nice rolling hills, even an old stone quarry from the early 1800's that has now grown into a mature cedar border with silted in flats at the base. (Picture a horse shoe shape with half an elevated rim, tapering into a bottom. Spring fed creek runs the length of the property east to west. North and south ends of property taper down toward the middle where the creek lies. Very old mature oaks, some huge elm and old white cedar along with 40+ yr old red cedar dot the property along the creek and borders. No bedding or thick cover to speak of but now that the rented pasture no longer has cattle, I've immediately seen deer movement on the property since October. I've also been able to establish relationships with adjoining land owners over the summer and deer numbers as well as big bucks and habitat management are on the list. One family owning 3 of the largest parcels holding deer to the northwest of us.
I've got a good plan, trying not to get overwhelmed but habitat for increased bedding and roosting for turkeys and pheasant is on my agenda year one. I planted around 60 Norway spruce along borders this fall and looking to do much more next year. But I need to be present for my family, especially since I'm working so many hours running a contracting business. I've taken a liking to everything Craig Harper preaches and nuked the 14.5 acres of pasture after the second frost this fall to kill the fescue and jump start early successional growth. Got a good kill! I'll share some of my ideas of steps towards a "haven at the end of the line" so to speak and hope you guys can chime in with advice! I may be young, but been around land management since I was young helping my dad in the early 2000's. This property in big AG country will be another challenge all together.
I'll post pictures as time allows.
Thank you in advance, and appreciate all you good stewards!
Just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to this wonderful forum. I've learned a lot the few short months since discovering this site. My wife and I recently had the opportunity to purchase her family farm that's been in her family's name possession since 1884. It's been an incredible blessing, especially with us only being in our 30's/40's with two young children. I can't say we haven't worked for it, this is our 5th move in 6 years. I'm a carpenter/builder by trade and have flipped/built houses to get us here. I grew up on a 50 acre hobby farm and have never been a stranger to hard work and hard hunting. I believe my first deer was with a bow at 10 or 11 years old. My dad passed away shortly after and I fought tooth and nail to maintain a property for my mom and I, that ultimately just wasn't meant to be ours. Too long of a story to get into.
Anyways,
Here I am again, after a 7 year hiatus of being on family owned dirt and now have 40 to call ours! It's been in cattle and row crop production (originally 160 acres) since 1884. When my wife and I met, I initially saw no potential in the property but after doing some work on the house last summer her aunt and uncle joked around about swapping for the new house I had built for us in town. I thought long and hard and put some cameras out last fall, hunted a handful of times and began to seeing not only deer but decent buck movement along the fence lines. Her aunt and uncle said they had never seen a deer on the property in 35 years. Needless to say, my wife was looking to move toward the homesteading life and we just fell in love with the history of this place. We rolled the dice this summer, made an offer on the land and low and behold, here we are. The history is unbelievable, already uncovering early homesteads on the property that predate her family.
Now the fun part, a blank slate:
The property has nice rolling hills, even an old stone quarry from the early 1800's that has now grown into a mature cedar border with silted in flats at the base. (Picture a horse shoe shape with half an elevated rim, tapering into a bottom. Spring fed creek runs the length of the property east to west. North and south ends of property taper down toward the middle where the creek lies. Very old mature oaks, some huge elm and old white cedar along with 40+ yr old red cedar dot the property along the creek and borders. No bedding or thick cover to speak of but now that the rented pasture no longer has cattle, I've immediately seen deer movement on the property since October. I've also been able to establish relationships with adjoining land owners over the summer and deer numbers as well as big bucks and habitat management are on the list. One family owning 3 of the largest parcels holding deer to the northwest of us.
I've got a good plan, trying not to get overwhelmed but habitat for increased bedding and roosting for turkeys and pheasant is on my agenda year one. I planted around 60 Norway spruce along borders this fall and looking to do much more next year. But I need to be present for my family, especially since I'm working so many hours running a contracting business. I've taken a liking to everything Craig Harper preaches and nuked the 14.5 acres of pasture after the second frost this fall to kill the fescue and jump start early successional growth. Got a good kill! I'll share some of my ideas of steps towards a "haven at the end of the line" so to speak and hope you guys can chime in with advice! I may be young, but been around land management since I was young helping my dad in the early 2000's. This property in big AG country will be another challenge all together.
I'll post pictures as time allows.
Thank you in advance, and appreciate all you good stewards!
