Someday isle
5 year old buck +
So after a little over a year of owning our own property and having a working plan I thought maybe it was time to start my own property tour. I've posted different things on random threads, and will still continue to do that, but I thought having all my projects in one place would be a good way to journal what we do moving forward. The property is 36 acres.
I have one of those fitness/smart watches that links to the GPS on my phone. Yesterday I took a detailed walk around the property lines, all of my access trails (which we've worked really hard at developing), and my food plots.
The first picture is a google earth shot of the property. The second one is from the map my walk capability of the smart watch/phone. I then took the picture on my IPad and marked it up.
Black lines are property lines - I can walk the entire perimeter of the property but the whole east side is where the easy access is. The north boundary is a little tougher to access but I'm working on that. We avoid the west side as much as possible so as to avoid scent going through the whole property. Prevailing winds are out of the southwest, west, and northwest in that order. Occasional South and East winds but those are rare. This was a factor in purchasing this piece of property.
Purple areas are the access trails we've created.
Green are the food plot trails we created on existing logging roads. Green areas 4 and 5 are 1/4 and 1/3 acre food plots that were newly cleared this summer. They still need some more work but that will have to wait until after the season. Green area 3 is where I tried a brassica plot this year. Results are yet to be determined on that one. Green areas 1,2,4 and 5 were all seeded in an LC mix last weekend. At the time we had lots of rain in the forecast. None was to be had however. We have had morning dew every day and cooler than normal weather. There was also apparently enough moisture in the soil to at least get some of the rye germinated already. I guess that could be good or bad depending on moisture the next couple weeks. I'm hopeful.
Orange is our driveway and campground. The easement road runs the entire east side of the property but only one other landowner has access to that section of the road and they are not hunters. They own the 80 acres behind me.
Black dots are our five stand locations. We'll probably keep it limited to those five for now. Too many stands on 36 acres might take away from our low impact hunting approach.
Blue dots are the two water holes I put in this year.
Yellow circles are areas where we want to continue to create bedding areas. Circle number 1 is where I tried my first hand at hinge cutting this year. It turned out great but I was probably too conservative with it. Circle number 2 is an area that the previous owner clearcut four years ago in a failed effort to create a lake site. I was going to clear it this year and put in a food plot but it was getting so thick that I thought I'd leave it for bedding. That was a good choice. It's being used already. Circles 3 and 4 will be my main hinge cutting projects for next year. I really want to thicken those areas up. They have lots of four and five inch trees growing too close together. Circle number 5 may not be the best location for a bedding area but it will at least get some hinge cut screening done to blockade the view into the campground and alongside the road.
The red lines are the paths I actually walked yesterday.
When they created the road they put all the downed trees and tops along the edges. It's all grown up with brush and black berries. While the road runs the whole length of the east side the two of us that border each other on that side are completely screened from each other. His access to his property is a quarter mile before mine.
I'll add to this thread as I continue to work on things. The property is only a little over an hour away from my home so I get out there just about every week at least once. I'm headed out again tomorrow just to check on food plot progress and to check out my 3 existing stands. We'll be putting the other 2 up on Sunday.
I have one of those fitness/smart watches that links to the GPS on my phone. Yesterday I took a detailed walk around the property lines, all of my access trails (which we've worked really hard at developing), and my food plots.
The first picture is a google earth shot of the property. The second one is from the map my walk capability of the smart watch/phone. I then took the picture on my IPad and marked it up.
Black lines are property lines - I can walk the entire perimeter of the property but the whole east side is where the easy access is. The north boundary is a little tougher to access but I'm working on that. We avoid the west side as much as possible so as to avoid scent going through the whole property. Prevailing winds are out of the southwest, west, and northwest in that order. Occasional South and East winds but those are rare. This was a factor in purchasing this piece of property.
Purple areas are the access trails we've created.
Green are the food plot trails we created on existing logging roads. Green areas 4 and 5 are 1/4 and 1/3 acre food plots that were newly cleared this summer. They still need some more work but that will have to wait until after the season. Green area 3 is where I tried a brassica plot this year. Results are yet to be determined on that one. Green areas 1,2,4 and 5 were all seeded in an LC mix last weekend. At the time we had lots of rain in the forecast. None was to be had however. We have had morning dew every day and cooler than normal weather. There was also apparently enough moisture in the soil to at least get some of the rye germinated already. I guess that could be good or bad depending on moisture the next couple weeks. I'm hopeful.
Orange is our driveway and campground. The easement road runs the entire east side of the property but only one other landowner has access to that section of the road and they are not hunters. They own the 80 acres behind me.
Black dots are our five stand locations. We'll probably keep it limited to those five for now. Too many stands on 36 acres might take away from our low impact hunting approach.
Blue dots are the two water holes I put in this year.
Yellow circles are areas where we want to continue to create bedding areas. Circle number 1 is where I tried my first hand at hinge cutting this year. It turned out great but I was probably too conservative with it. Circle number 2 is an area that the previous owner clearcut four years ago in a failed effort to create a lake site. I was going to clear it this year and put in a food plot but it was getting so thick that I thought I'd leave it for bedding. That was a good choice. It's being used already. Circles 3 and 4 will be my main hinge cutting projects for next year. I really want to thicken those areas up. They have lots of four and five inch trees growing too close together. Circle number 5 may not be the best location for a bedding area but it will at least get some hinge cut screening done to blockade the view into the campground and alongside the road.
The red lines are the paths I actually walked yesterday.
When they created the road they put all the downed trees and tops along the edges. It's all grown up with brush and black berries. While the road runs the whole length of the east side the two of us that border each other on that side are completely screened from each other. His access to his property is a quarter mile before mine.
I'll add to this thread as I continue to work on things. The property is only a little over an hour away from my home so I get out there just about every week at least once. I'm headed out again tomorrow just to check on food plot progress and to check out my 3 existing stands. We'll be putting the other 2 up on Sunday.
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