Rusty Nail

[Skelly]

Well I’ve read about everyone else’s property thread might as well start my own.

We reference our 15 acres as The Rusty Nail. We have a preference for barn finds & rusty bits of goodness. If it doesn’t have some character I probably don’t want it.

We’ve owned the property for four years and five months. I became addicted to wildlife management and learning how to plant shrubs bushes and trees for wildlife. All that started about 4 years and 5 months ago. As soon as I stepped foot on the ground I was all in. It’s still all I think about. I wish I could somehow make a living tinkering with all this vs it just takes all my money.

I live in Central VA Northwest of Richmond Zone 7A. Grew up in Northwest Pa where like many my Dad started me hunting. Cut my teeth on rabbit and grouse hunting.

It’s mainly just me doing my habitat improvements with help from my brother when he can come out.
I haven’t purchased a tractor yet but boy could a FEL help me out sometimes. I’m saving up putting extra bonuses away so All in good time. So with just me doing the improvements it can take a while and at 45 starts to wear me out after a while

So now to my piece of the dirt.



I live in agricultural country and my 15 acres is a mix of Oaks, Tulip Poplar, Gum Maple and Pines. Heavy dose of Cedar(not good looking thick cedar for cover, growing in the understory and it is just tall and spindly and PITA due to CAR). I started with an open field about a half acre. I have lenthened that field and now accounts for about an acre. I have put in an orchard in the top half of field and just made the bottom portion by the creek into a food plot.

So far I have planted
2 Ayers pear
2 Moonglow pears
2 Bartlett pears
Dolgo Crab
Virginia Hewes crab
Dozier crab
Callaway crab
Blue Permian apple
Red Delicious
2 unknown apples I was told were AB but are not
2 Liberties that I unfortunately let Gly drift into and kill. My plan is to replant a new liberty and an Enterprise and possibly had a chestnut crab due to reviews I have read here.

Additionally I have 2 Dunston chestnuts I planted a little ways away and have plans to add to those in the future. You may have read where I did some road side shopping this year and picked Chinese chestnut in order to grow my own.



So this is is how I look today. My house sits just below the 1 and gives me about 11 acres in the back to work with and 4 in side and front. Not a whole lot but it’s mine.


Red is property lines
Blue is paths around property
Yellow deer travel
Green is the foold plot
Orchard is located with in food plot
Creek running through the middle and north west property line.
Black squares are current stand locations.

I don’t hold deer but they do utilize it as a travel corridor in between bean and corn fields.


This is from this weekend and I’m looking through the woods up into the orchard( only couple years old right now)from the orchard looking down over the creek and into where my other stand is.

The goal for this coming year is finalize my plans. I’m getting ready to start another thread and maybe get some ideas regarding some layout.

I have plenty of shrubs on order for va dept of seedlings. Fridge full Persimmon, Chestnut and various seeds to start to grow my own plants.

I hope y’all enjoy this thread. I am so thankful to have an awesome reference point like this forum. I know I don’t know any of you but I feel like I do through your passion and comments.

Photos to come.

Skelly

 

[j-bird]

With 15 acres...I would suggest focusing as much on cover and low impact access as possible. With limited room I would also only focus on hunting season foods to be planted. I realize most prefer a year round food source, but with limited space you have to make the most of every inch you have. Focus the plot you have on plantings to take advantage of when you want/like to hunt. If the deer eat in the neighbors bean fields all summer long...who cares. They should not be shooting them then anyhow. Small parcels are a real challenge. I like the pics form the stand and from the blind!

 

[Skelly]

This is my plans moving forward. The blue area I plan to eliminate all but oaks there is a fair amount of holly that is pretty thick and then plant pine shrubs and plum around the edge and have pines with switch grass inside. (Size May change I may split in two). Luckily I don’t have neighbors that hunt and I have the blessing to hunt my two closest neighbors land.

Biggest problem I have this time of year is that this weekend starts shotgun season so that means dogs running all over my place. Not a fan of the hunt clubs. The club actually has the ok to hunt a 40yard x 200yard area just north of my property line where my property line comes to a point on the north east corner. So they stand there and let the dogs run through my property and just wait for the dogs to run the deer back to them.

 

[j-bird]

Sounds like you need a good fence! Not sure about how it works there, but here. If you want a fence on the property line - the neighboring land owner is responsible for 1/2 the cost of the fence... Good fences make good neighbors is the old saying around here. Other options for dogs are not so PC.....

Do you NEED the additional food? - reason I ask is that when the bullets start flying cover is king....at least here. Plots get a lot of press and can be a lot of fun...but with limited acres you need to make certain your addressing the limiting factor as much as possible if you really want to see an impact.

Secondly - I like the idea of keeping your oaks, but I am not sold on switchgrass as bedding cover. I have it on my place and the deer will bed in it...BUT they bed on the edges of it. You may want to at least consider opening up the canopy and allowing mother nature to do her think with creating ground level cover and browse for you...or plant what you want. Switch makes a good buffer, but if I was trying to create bedding cover I personally would stick with conifers or hard woods if possible with the switch being more of a screen.

As far as bedding areas go...try to improve where the deer already bed. Trying to make them bed where yo want them isn't that easy...at least for bucks. I would also reconsider improving that blue area if you have dog issues up there...or I would at least wait to work on that area until I had the dog issue resolved. Without knowing the area and the like a potential area for improvement would be east of the current plot between your plot and the east property line. This gets you away from the dog issue, you have food and water and move stands to more of the corners more to the perimeter of the property...

Just spit-balling some ideas....

 

[pinetag14]

I'm with j-bird on the additional cover. I would think if you can get a lot of it focused toward the center of the property and then hunt the outer edges you will be less prone to spooking them when you access your stands. Also, you might want to reconsider how much you open up that blue area, or at the very least put up some serious road screening since that seems to be where the majority of the dog hunters congregate. I bought 43 acres earlier this year in Buckingham so we are in fairly close proximity and have to deal with similar issues. My main goal for next year is to increase the amount of cover on my place by hinge cutting, adding switchgrass, as well as some sort of thermal cover. Your pics look great though and remind me a lot of my place. Good luck!

 

[Skelly]

Sounds like you need a good fence! Not sure about how it works there, but here. If you want a fence on the property line - the neighboring land owner is responsible for 1/2 the cost of the fence... Good fences make good neighbors is the old saying around here. Other options for dogs are not so PC.....

Do you NEED the additional food? - reason I ask is that when the bullets start flying cover is king....at least here. Plots get a lot of press and can be a lot of fun...but with limited acres you need to make certain your addressing the limiting factor as much as possible if you really want to see an impact.

Secondly - I like the idea of keeping your oaks, but I am not sold on switchgrass as bedding cover. I have it on my place and the deer will bed in it...BUT they bed on the edges of it. You may want to at least consider opening up the canopy and allowing mother nature to do her think with creating ground level cover and browse for you...or plant what you want. Switch makes a good buffer, but if I was trying to create bedding cover I personally would stick with conifers or hard woods if possible with the switch being more of a screen.

As far as bedding areas go...try to improve where the deer already bed. Trying to make them bed where yo want them isn't that easy...at least for bucks. I would also reconsider improving that blue area if you have dog issues up there...or I would at least wait to work on that area until I had the dog issue resolved. Without knowing the area and the like a potential area for improvement would be east of the current plot between your plot and the east property line. This gets you away from the dog issue, you have food and water and move stands to more of the corners more to the perimeter of the property...

Just spit-balling some ideas....

Keep spitballing. I’ll take some photos soon of existing cover. It’s ok but it could get thicker and that’s one of my goals.

I think the food plots are probably out of proportion I am thinking just some smaller thin plots. The eastern side is so that I can get NW and SW going into the pasture without getting winded. The other new one will be maybe 10-15 yards wide x 40yds just enough to direct.

 

[Skelly]

Couple pix from young orchard. 11 all together. 2 to replace mistakes and adding a Whitney crab.

Not sure what the tree is in first photo. I was sold an Arkansas Black but nah not so much!! Best tree I have though. Plan on leaving 10 apples or so on it this coming year.

 

[Skelly]

Bottom of the orchard that I cleared all the trees out 1.5 years ago. Old stand I built 4 years ago I have abondoned due to safety concerns I’ve already started planting dogwoods in here and has small elderberry popping up everywhere. Also planted bicolor lespedezia to the left to fill in on this side of creeksilky dogwoods.

 

[Skelly]

I call this the Creek plot. Nice little rub on the cedar.

Planning on planting about 20 25 Persimmons on the right side of the creek. Give them a little candy.

I’m planning on adding plum and some other bushes to thicken up area to the back. I can see too far so so can they.

 

[Skelly]

Thank you to another member that donated these AC to the Rusty Nail.

Tried some some cuttings this year. Dogwoods and Forsythia did great.
I noticed that forsythia leaves stay green and on the bush for a long time. Planning on using them as cover. Moderate use by deer so shouldn’t have to cage.

 

[Skelly]

Looking down the trail just north of my house. I plan to make a small plot going left to right. Should be good for North and Northeast windsJust need to take out 15 trees or so to open it up.

 

[Skelly]

Probably my best trail leading to the creek plot.

Little bit of rubbing going on here.


Finally this is from my garage looking down to my neighbors pasture. I hunt the fence where a tree has fallen across the fence.

Archery only down here.

 

[Skelly]

Most of the crafts I do are like this. Dirty and a little rusty.



Thanks.

S

 

[j-bird]

I like your approach with narrow and long plots. This creates a lot of edge and the deer should use them well. Telling how thick cover is in a picture is pretty tough. That is why you have to depend on yourself to determine how thick is thick enough. If you have some large "junk" trees sometimes just dropping them or cutting them for firewood is all you need to do. A chainsaw is a wonderful habitat tool...as long as you are mindful of what you are doing. Sunlight can do wonders for you. Do you currently have deer bedding on the property? Sometimes woodland type beds can be more difficult to find...look for them in the winter snow OR look of concentrated areas of deer scat. In the colder times they also tend to like south facing slopes if you have any. Winter is a great time to learn about you deer as their activity is much easier to follow in the snow...especially fresh snow and these are the smart deer that survived your hunting season. Work WITH what you have and what the deer are already doing.

 

[Skelly]

I like your approach with narrow and long plots. This creates a lot of edge and the deer should use them well. Telling how thick cover is in a picture is pretty tough. That is why you have to depend on yourself to determine how thick is thick enough. If you have some large "junk" trees sometimes just dropping them or cutting them for firewood is all you need to do. A chainsaw is a wonderful habitat tool...as long as you are mindful of what you are doing. Sunlight can do wonders for you. Do you currently have deer bedding on the property? Sometimes woodland type beds can be more difficult to find...look for them in the winter snow OR look of concentrated areas of deer scat. In the colder times they also tend to like south facing slopes if you have any. Winter is a great time to learn about you deer as their activity is much easier to follow in the snow...especially fresh snow and these are the smart deer that survived your hunting season. Work WITH what you have and what the deer are already doing.

I do have some occasional deer bedding. My southern facing hill is actually my orchard. I’ve seen beds just off of it.

I don’t have consistent deer using my property. I’ve had maybe 8 sits in archery and black powder. I’ve seen deer on almost every sit but it’s maybe a couple deer all day. I’ll either see them morning or afternoon never both.

 

[j-bird]

I do have some occasional deer bedding. My southern facing hill is actually my orchard. I’ve seen beds just off of it.

I don’t have consistent deer using my property. I’ve had maybe 8 sits in archery and black powder. I’ve seen deer on almost every sit but it’s maybe a couple deer all day. I’ll either see them morning or afternoon never both.

I don't on mine either... I average a deer a sit... I work with what I have and have had to shift direction over time. I focus on trying to keep some does as close as I can and keep them happy and the rest is mostly beyond my control. It's just the way it is. My places is essentially 3 parcels with large ag fields with about the same amount of cover as you have on each. I KNOW my deer come from the neighbors. I KNOW in a few spots I can get a few does to bed on my place. I KNOW that I am currently planting more food in my plots than the deer will eat. I KNOW sooner or later the bucks will come looking for the does. Most of this isn't ideal, but it's that cards I have and all I can do is work with them the best I can. My place is mostly a travel path between or along the edge of much larger blocks of cover in my area. Until I'm willing to plant 100 acres into trees and not corn or soybeans, my hands are fairly tied. Even if I did plant those 100 acres...the deer/bucks are still going to wander...

 

[Skelly]

New guy coming through.

Looks to have a little crab claw going on on the left side.

 

[H20fwler]

It's looking great Skelly!
I'm a big fan of small properties, there are a lot of little things you can do to tweak things up and make it very sexy for a nice variety of wildlife and it looks like your on the right track. I agree with j-bird that low impact human activity is very important to try and hold any deer for any amount of time on the property...focus on does bucks are wanderers usually just passing through.

 

[Skelly]

A friend of mine let me dig up a couple Mulberries from his fence line and replant This is a little area that I’m probably going to convert into a bedding area pretty thick from some hinging I’ve done I plant on planting some spruce back there

I finished up my first orchard(well unless I decide to take out some more trees to make it bigger). I planted another liberty, and enterprise and a Whitney crab. Just need to add screen, weed mats cage ....,

 

[Skelly]

I got a good deal 2 weekends ago. Picked up 3 Black Beauty elderberries for $4 a piece. Got them in the ground this week. Put 1 in the yard for us and 2 out in the orchard for the wildlife.


The dark leaves on these guys make them a really cool plant.

Spent a couple hours moving native elderberries along some travel lanes and areas that I am making into thickets.