Prairie Valley Farm

[Ikeman]

That is the biggest acorn I think I've ever seen!

That larger Bur Oak acorn is about average. We used to have one on my parents place that dropped acorns that made that one look small… probably 30-40% larger. So big, that they aren’t eaten by deer because they can’t get them in their mouths.

That is why I like the smaller variety in the picture above. Very large white oak variety acorn, but not so big that deer can’t eat it.


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[TreeDaddy]

Here we go, let’s see if the video will work.

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I got up to the farm today to plant the food plot.
The burn is just as green as can be, like it never even happened. You can definitely tell what parts burned and what parts didn’t. The burned areas are MUCH darker green than the areas that didn’t burn. The camera doesn’t pick it up well, but you can easily see the exact pattern of the burn when looking over the grass.

I was able to put in most of the food plot, but it ended up a little smaller than previous years because it was too wet to till. The far west 30 yards or so went unplanted. I would have liked to have planted with the “throw and mow” technique I used the last few years, but after catching CoVid and blowing an ankle out last fall, the field sat fallow for the winter and didn’t have enough growth to mow down a good enough thatch to ensure germination. I ended up at around an acre and a half instead of 2, but I have MUCH more food plot than the area can justify with deer density anyways.
I didn’t have a drag or cultipacker, so I just seeded the full 2 acre rate on the 1.5 acres assuming lower germination.

The plot is Justin Seed Company’s spring deer mix with some vetch and clover that I added in.

When you don’t have a drone, you improvise…

The entrance to the plot where I usually plant screening had HORRIBLE pig damage. I would have had to work for several hours with the bucket to repair it, and didn’t have that kind of time, so I just skipped it for another day. Some of the holes are 2 feet plus deep. I only let a tire drop into one once before deciding I would give myself plenty of space to avoid them. It was so deep that once the back tire slid down into it, I had a hard time getting out because the fully lifted tiller was bottomed out behind me.
The below picture is before I ever started tilling, but the camera doesn’t show the depth very well. This area was probably 1/8th of an acre just turned into a moonscape.

I did video the beehives that arrived a few weeks ago, but it is taking forever to upload to YouTube. So, once that has uploaded, I will post that. I have yet to count the hives, but there are SEVERAL hundred. They ring the edges of 3 different pastures in pallets that have 4 hives. One of the pastures is exclusively 5 frame nuc hives that I am assuming were split this spring. If even half of those do well enough to transfer into full hive boxes, the whole north half of the place will be white boxes.

(Edit: Heard from the bee guy and he said these are pretty much all split hives growing out for either sale or to go into his honey production. He will only leave a small percentage of of the 1,000 or so hives currently on the place.)

The below 2 pictures are just the hives added this week, and this is by far the smallest set on the place.
From our old hand-dug well looking west

Looking east, remember, each patch of white in this pic is 4 hives.

The bees have definitely settled down in the last couple of weeks. They were VERY active when they first arrived and were fairly aggressive for domestic bees. I’m guessing that was just stress from being shipped from california almonds back here to Texas. My aunt lives on the property next door and said all the neighbors in the area had called her and asked what the heck was going on, because of literal clouds of bees in the area. Haha.

There will be some productive gardens in the area this year!


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That larger Bur Oak acorn is about average. We used to have one on my parents place that dropped acorns that made that one look small… probably 30-40% larger. So big, that they aren’t eaten by deer because they can’t get them in their mouths.

That is why I like the smaller variety in the picture above. Very large white oak variety acorn, but not so big that deer can’t eat it.


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Not sure how I've missed this great thread

Great score on the bees and acorns

I'm jealous as hell

bill

 

[Ikeman]

I have been struggling with pigs on the place. They started showing up 2 or 3 times a night, and the doe groups have been about non-existent since they got so frequent. I should have known they would show back up after the heat of the summer was over. They often times move out of the big creek bottoms once things cool down.

I have had 2 BIG bucks show up.
That 10 I posted above, and a nice mainframe 10 that has a couple extra points on his brow tines.

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[TreeDaddy]

Have you tried trapping them?

I have a jaeger type corral trap built by a neighbor with a shute and ramp

He backs a trailor up and hauls them off and sells them

I also fence all my feeders in east texas

bill

 

[Ikeman]

I haven’t tried trapping yet, but plan to later in the winter after the rut settles down. I have access to a “pig brig” trap that I will give a try.

Until then, it will be opportunistic shots with a rifle. I might borrow my dad’s 300 blackout with thermal and sit an overnight waiting for them. I think with subsonics and a suppressor I might have a chance at getting more than one at a time. Especially with that thermal making it easy to pick pigs out in the darkness.


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[Ikeman]

I sat at the farm opening morning Saturday before heading to a family get-together. Saw a young 8-point that wouldn’t have quite made antler restrictions (13” inside spread), and a doe.
That is a GREAT first sit coming from seeing zero deer on it in 2 decades growing up.

I also got a surprise on Sunday. A friend of mine’s wife works at a local nursery and called asking if I’d want a couple of free 5 gallon apple trees before they went into the dumpster.. my answer was “absolutely” and it turned out to be 6 and not 2 trees. They are all over 6 feet tall, and about 1.25-1.5 inch caliper. They have been in their inventory for almost exactly a year, and have gotten root bound. They are all the “Winesap” variety, rootstock unknown.

I am up-potting them to 20 gallon root trapper bags and babying them another year before planting. I’m surprised they are still holding leaves after our good freeze last week.

Any idea on fixing the root bound issues? Maybe vertical cuts on any circling roots?

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[Ikeman]

Well…
I’m kicking myself for passing what I thought was a young 8-point on Saturday. It was only 7 minutes into legal light (legal light here is 30 minutes before astronomical sunrise), and in a light fog, when what I thought was a 2 year old 8-point walked east to west along the south fenceline 150 yards from me. The buck i THOUGHT I saw is only about 12” wide, which is 1” narrower than this county’s antler restrictions. So, I “passed” him to stay legal and because I assumed he was too young. BUT.. I pulled the card from one of my cameras today and I was completely wrong.
Not only did the buck take over 40 minutes to walk the 300 yards to the game camera, but he was a beauty of a 9-point.
In the video linked below, I included a previous night time video of him at the feeder for a better idea of size and width. The daytime portion is the morning I “passed” him accidentally.

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[356]

That is a nice buck. From the camera data it looks like you has some great hunting conditions.

 

[Ikeman]

I did… that was the last day of the late October cold front that came through. It has been 80° plus this week. It has made for hard hunting, especially for my public land stuff that I have to hike multiple miles in to.


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[Ikeman]

I found this little gem at my grandmother’s house this weekend…

This is my great grandfather (Joseph Tucker “Tuck” Sudderth) cultivating the very same farm I’m currently restoring. He ran a team of mules until the early 1940’s. I’m guessing that the picture was taken in the late 1920’s or early 30’s.

And, I potted up the apple trees I was given to save from a dumpster. It might have been a little overkill, but they are in 20 gallon RootTrapper ii pots. I did pick up more potting mix to fill the front three pots to the original soil level on the tree. I was just a couple cubic feet short on my estimates and had to go back to the nursery for more bags.

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[buckdeer1]

I was told that alot of nurseries thrash the trees that aren't good enough to sell for yards,mostly oaks and fruit trees.I haven't checked around to see if true.I will say I bout some balled oaks on sale maybe 10 years ago and planted and I put a ladder stand in one of them last year.They are close to 12 inches across

 

[Ikeman]

Wow, oh wow…

A lifelong dream of mine came true today. I took the first buck (or deer of any sex) off the family place in at least 100 years. My grandmother knows that her father never got one on the place, and she has no memory of anyone taking one in her lifetime.

Not only did I take the first buck on the place, but he is a DOOZY of a 3 year old.

The change in deer usage of the place this year has been night and day. I consistently have a doe on the place, infrequently have a group of 3 does pass through, and this is the FOURTH legal shooter to show up on camera this year. (Legal in this county is 13” inside spread, aka outside the ears).

Until I turned 30, I had never heard of, seen, or seen tracks of a deer on the farm. And I grew up using the place as my playground. What a turnaround in 7 years!!!!

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[Telemark]

Great deer and excellent job on your habitat work. You certainly earned that buck.

 

[Ikeman]

Another new buck swung through this evening just after dark… that makes 5 total legal bucks (13” inside spread) on camera this year. That is astonishing compared to the previous 30 years!

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[Ikeman]

Swung by the farm today and did a bit of work. First up was filling the feeder and adjusting the throw times for December’s sunrise/sunset times.
The pigs seem fairly consistent, so I’m hoping to shoot one or two to finish filling up the freezer.

The second task was planting acorns. I had 2 gallons of sorted and float tested Chinkapin acorns, a gallon of some REALLY nice Bur Oak acorns, and about half a gallon of Post Oak acorns.

I bought a 2 inch diameter auger style bulb planter that is designed to be chucked into a cordless drill. I ran through 3 batteries on the drill planting acorns, and once the batteries went dead, I broadcast the rest. I doubt the broadcast acorns will survive the fire I plan to do about a month from now, but you never know.

I put 2 of my older cameras out on the place for a total of 5 cameras at 4 locations.

And then I spent about an hour collecting seed from the stands of native grass that have started coming up. I started them by doing the same thing on public land, so figured it would work on the family farm just as well!

Species collected were…
Big Bluestem
Little Bluestem
Switchgrass
Yellow Indiangrass
Sprangletop
Curly Mesquite Grass
Sand Lovegrass
A little Echinacea
And a little bit of PurpleTop grass.

The collection was probably 80%+ bluestem, as that is FAR and away the most successfully established so far. Well, aside from the switchgrass, but that has already dropped most of its seed.

Some of the Big Blue was 5 feet tall, and the clumps will be less than 5 years old. We had zero clumps when I started this in 2019.

I can’t believe how tall this clump was. I’m 5’7” and it came to my nose.

The clump below came to my brow. I made sure to collect off of all of the tallest clumps. I would LOVE my fields to have a good base of this kind of cover! As you can see in the picture, I have an issue with annual ryegrass. Not sure what my plan will be for that yet. I’m wondering if Clethodim will work in winter without harming the dormant grasses. All that green sure makes burns hard.

It is kind of hard to see in this picture, but this area was probably 4,000 square feet of little bluestem, with a couple Big Bluestem in the mix. I can’t believe it has done so well. The topsoil is about a half inch deep here, and the substrate is degraded limestone. Not a great growing medium.

I could barely close the gallon bag when finished. This makes 2 gallons of native grass seed I have collected this year. One from public land, and one from the farm. I plan to spread it after the prescribed fire.

That 8-point that showed up right after I killed my 9-point has stuck around. I have videos of him as recent as 2 days ago. This is the best angle of him, I think.

I am excited to get the tractor out, next week I hope, and mow the fire breaks. After that, I will need to find a disk to get the breaks to bare soil and then all I will need is a mild southerly wind with the right humidity.
I do have to clear a small section of cedars and cut 20-30 feet out of an old interior fence to put one of the breaks in, but that will just be an afternoon with a chainsaw.

Before leaving, I had to stop and admire the last of the fall colors. Our mild November has trees and grasses still going that would normally be dormant.

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[Ikeman]

Well… I did a poor job of prepping those two skulls for boil, and ended up boiling the heads too hot/long. The nose came apart on my family farm buck. I turned the head upside down on the antler tips and nose to try and scrape away some meat on the back of the skull and the bone gave way. Frustrated to say the least.

This is the second nose I have lost in the last few years, so I angrily went to Lowe’s for a pressure washer so it hopefully doesn’t happen to the second skull, and definitely doesn’t happen in the future.
Asked an associate to unlock the cage so I could grab one, and he said “let me check, I think we had one come in yesterday that the guy returned because he couldn’t figure out how to assemble it.” YEP!!!
And to top it off, they assembled it, filled it with oil, and put a little gas in it to verify that it would operate properly. So, I got an assembled and ready to go pressure washer (started on the first pull) for 55% off!

So, things to remember in the future…
1.) do a MUCH better job trimming BEFORE boiling.
2.) remember to pop out the bone in the back of each side of the skull (below the ear connection) to make the meat in the back easier to remove and make cleaning inside the skull a breeze.
3.) DO NOT over boil
4.) empty the brain cavity first


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[Bill]

They can be a pain. Make sure to turn the pressure down on the pressure washer. We use a cheap walmart electric pressure washer so it "can't" over do it.

I have a super glued nose on one myself...

 

[Ikeman]

Well, not too bad on the nose repair. Considering I mount my skulls up high on the office wall, I think it will pass. This is before whitening.

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[Ikeman]

Oh yea…
After 1 round of whitening, they go VERY well up on the wall! They are the two on the right.

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[Ikeman]

I made it out to the farm today to mow the fire breaks for the burn I have planned later this winter. I was able to get the entire perimeter mowed, plus cut and remove some cedars from an interior fence corner that I cut through to extend the fire break through.
The red perimeter below is the fire unit.

My younger brother came out with his drone and took some pictures and videos while we were out there. It sure is nice being able to get such a different perspective.

This is about half way through cutting and removing cedars from this corner. That were by far the largest we have cut on the place so far.

The cut through ended up nicer than I could have hoped. I still need to take the trunks down to the dirt, but I will let my dad do that. It is his chainsaw, after all, and he has much more experience taking a flush cut that low without destroying the edge on a chain.

From the high perspective of the drone, the game trails REALLY pop. And I expect them to be even more obvious after the burn. It is nice to have the cattle off enough to know what actually is a game trail or not.

This is the area I am most focused on this year. The red area is where I am planting all of the native grass seed I have collected (from both the farm, and public land pieces I hunt). I have several gallons of tightly packed seed. Mostly Bluegrass, but several other species as well. The green is where I planted about 12 pounds of the Bur, Chinkapin, and Post oak acorns. Even if I only get 1 or 2 percent success, I think I will end up having to thin… which would be a GREAT problem to have.

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