Realizing A Dream
- Thread starter Natty Bumppo
- Start date
Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
I like the idea about stacking the piles for a year. Good stuff.
What do you do with your poplar? I can't get past the idea that it's just not worth my time and energy to haul it off the land for firewood.
The mature spruce on my property is often rotten at the core. It's funny how you can tell the instant you make the back-cut that the tree is hollow. That will get your attention real quick. Time to lock the bar and start looking for an escape if that tree acts weird.
You be careful too!
Congrats on the Land Natty and great work your are doing. I have some cutting on mine that Im dreading as well due to the proximity to some apples. Once it goes, theres not stopping it!!!
You mentioned the poplar. Its not good primary wood but I use mine for "shoulder" wood in the fall when you just want to take the chill off but dont need an all day fire going and same in the spring. Saves using your good wood for that purpose. I just hate to see wood rot when it can be used so I always try to use mine for whatever I can!
You mentioned the poplar. Its not good primary wood but I use mine for "shoulder" wood in the fall when you just want to take the chill off but dont need an all day fire going and same in the spring. Saves using your good wood for that purpose. I just hate to see wood rot when it can be used so I always try to use mine for whatever I can!
Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
Thanks sandbur. I like it. I actually designed and cut this first food plot with a stand tree in mind...a massive, sheltered spruce at the corner or elbow of the boomerang shape. As you can see in this depiction of the potential plot, I also had to use the exisiting wild apples as a guide of just how to fit and shape the plot.
But yes, using the brush to direct and deter deer movement is good advice. Thank you.
That's my hope THunter. I've been hunting just the wild apples for the past 12 years or so. But in years when we have a bad appple crop, like this year, the deer just kind of evaporate. I saw a total of 4 this year on stand. In a good apple year I will see on average 25 or so in a season and will have opportunities to pass on small spikes and have a decent chance of harvesting a buck. Does are heavily regulated in my zone and are never really an option.
I'm hoping food plots will attract deer during a bad apple year. Also hoping it will facilitate a bit more predicatble lines of movement.
The exisiting fields are on my MIL's land and are not an option for food plots. I keep them mowed to encourage volunteer clover.
Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
Thanks dtabor. Good idea about the poplar. Do you stack it seperately from the good wood so you can access it when you need to?
phil@thesidehill
5 year old buck +
looks good! i cant wait to see more progress pics!
Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
Good stuff. And yes, burning it in my evaporator would be an option, though as quickly as it burns I'd have to load the firebox every 4 or 5 minutes or so. I'd be worried that I wouldn't have time to drink beer? :D
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Good man Natty !! You have your priorities in order !! ^^^^^ You can't feed a fire properly without hydration !!!:D;)
The fields you keep mowed for volunteer clover......... What if some Dutch White or Alsike clover seed blew into them " voluntarily "?? Birds and mice are known to spread seed.
The fields you keep mowed for volunteer clover......... What if some Dutch White or Alsike clover seed blew into them " voluntarily "?? Birds and mice are known to spread seed.
Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
I think it's funny how we all think alike on this forum. Yeah, you nailed it. I've been trying to figure out how to do this for the past few years. My MIL will not let me plow or use gly. I've been trying to figure out how to get something established in her fields. A controlled burn is out of the question. I thought about dragging my disk across the fields real shallow and just cutting up the sod a bit in early spring or fall and then throwing down some clover. What do you think? Will I have any luck by broadcasting clover into the fields with mimimal seedbed prep?
Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
Thanks MBC! I am allowed to hunt on their land, but no TSI or plots. I can make trails. I did release some apples 3 years ago. I can cut a little firewood. But the fields are off limits for plots. I did approach my MIL 3 years ago with a proposition...if she would allow me to cultivate food plots in that single field where the apples and my exisiting stand are I would keep all of her other fields brushhogged throughout the summer. She said yes....then a week later she came back to me and said no.
I like the idea of using the brush to cage in trees that I plant. Thanks.
Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
She pictures a permanent rocky boulder field initially after I plow and disc. It's tough to get her to picture the final product. I mentioned using gly for prep and she didn't like that idea.
chummer
5 year old buck +
Man we are brothers from another mother. My inlaws have the same fetish with their 5 acre field. Last year I finally got them to let me put some sweet corn and sunflowers in about a 1/4 acre. However I did get away with turning a half acre into clover in the back corner that they never noticed. The field is mostly grass with an assortment of weeds. In the spring I broadcast 10 pounds of clover in the corner. I kept the area mowed all summer. Around August I could see a substantial amount of clover in that corner. Next I sprayed to kill the grass and also broadcast WR. As the grass turned brown the WR began to grow and the clover took off. You would have never known I sprayed anything. By mid September it looked great for what it was. I am anxious to see what it looks like this spring. I will let the WR grow until it seeds out then mow it, it will once again look like the rest of the field and I will get a free planting of WR.
chummer
5 year old buck +
Find her week spot. My MIL loves sun flowers so I asked if I could till up a spot for them. Once she thought that was a good idea I suggested sweet corn would be no extra work for me since I was already clearing for the sun flowers. From there I convinced her sugar beets grow great next to corn so those went in too(they never grew). Each project I gain her trust so in return each new project I get less grief over. Same with my orchard, 8 pears year one, 12 apples year two, 25 apples this year. She has pretty much stopped asking what I am up to. The old snow ball down the hill theory.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Dtabor took the words right out of my mouth !!! Frost seeding. " I don't know how all that clover came up. But isn't it PRETTY? ":D:)
Hey Chummer............ Do you rent-out for negotiations??? !!!:D:):):):) You sly DOG !!
Hey Chummer............ Do you rent-out for negotiations??? !!!:D:):):):) You sly DOG !!
chummer
5 year old buck +
I negotiate everything. Drives my wife crazy. My in-laws are easy they start drinking with breakfast, by dinner they don't remember much of what I say anyways.
wiscwhip
5 year old buck +
LOL! Great stuff men! I was thinking along the lines of about a 50yard wide strip of "wildflower meadow" nearest to her house for her viewing enjoyment, then plant the remainder behind it in clover and brassica that would be shorter and impossible to see over the taller wildflower mix.
