Someday Isle - Property tour

[Bill]

What a differance rain and just a few days makes!

 

[Someday isle]

With the warm temperatures I've only been doing morning sits. The first day I saw three does but the last three times out I haven't seen a thing other than a coyote. We've had abiut six does on camera off and on all summer and just three or four buck pictures total. Truthfully I was feeling a little discouraged after yesterday morning. I hadn't pulled all camera cards or changed batteries in a while so I did that before I left. My mood changed entirely. October 6th was an interesting day. I have this buck spending about 18 minutes making a scrape at 1:00 in the morning. And then there are multiple pictures of a young buck and several does visiting that scrape and licking branch over the next couple of hours. That same night I have three small bucks and I believe the same four does hanging out in one of the food plots at different times. All at night. While we're not covered up in deer I have five different small bucks and what looks like two doe groups, four in one and a momma and twins in the other. That's all since September 29th. For whatever reason that's when activity picked up. That's a week after I disced and planted - it also coincided with our hot dry spell. Maybe a connection?

The good news is that our food plots have only been growing anything for less than two weeks. Since September 29th our deer activity has really picked up. Hopefully daylight sightings will start happening soon. I still blame the acorns and the unusual heat a little bit too.

It's going to be windy tomorrow but there's a cold front coming through so I'm going to try my first evening sit of the year. I'm still trying the low impact hunt the edges approach and there's probably 25 of our 36 acres that we've been staying out of completely since probably July. I'm the only one who has really been in there at all and it's only been for habitat work.

 

[Someday isle]

I'm not a head hunter. I've only ever shot one "nice buck", a decent eight pointer years ago. Being a small property owner and a former public land hunter with limited time to hunt I've never been too choosy. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to have a crack at that guy. Truth be told I shot two smaller bucks last year and am more than okay with it. It would be nice to shoot a doe in the next week or two and then try and hold out for this guy during the rut. Missouri is a two buck state but we can only shoot one with a bow until firearms season starts. After firearms season we can shoot both with a bow if we haven't taken any yet. Last year I shot a small buck early and was doe only after that until firearms season. We only had one decent buck seen all year last year so it wasn't a concern. Knowing this guy is around and that we have a couple doe groups might make me wait around on a buck and see what all shows up. Time will tell - but I do only have two pounds of deer burger left from our three deer last year. The boys can shoot anything they want.

 

[Bill]

He's a nice one for sure. Good luck on him!

 

[Someday isle]

I went out today and put up a couple pop up blinds for the boys to rifle hunt out of. Our firearms season opener is in three weeks. TJ's plot is pictured here. This is the new 1/3 acre plot we cleared and planted this year. It's rye, oats, peas and clover. It's really doing well. The deer are using it but not destroying it so its growing nicely while they continue to feast on acorns. I put a camera on it for the first time last week and while it's not covered up in deer there was a picture or two every day of a deer in the plot including a 2 a.m. Picture of our lone nice buck. Maybe TJ will be that guy whose first deer is a wall hanger. That would be cool. He never saw a deer last year while Austin and I both had successful harvests.

I have two stand setups for each one of the boys. They can choose to sit in a ladder stand or a pop up depending on their moods and the weather conditions. I'll be hunting out of a ladder stand where I can get to,them easily if,they shoot something. I'm hunting and playing guide at the same time again this year.

 

[Someday isle]

I saw four scrapes today on the edges of our plots and trails. One of them is about four feet in diameter. It's the one I had a series of pictures on October 6th where that buck was making it for the first time. The other three were smaller efforts like this one I took a picture of. We had a couple in the same area last year. We seem to have four young bucks hanging around a little bit and I wonder if these are their attempts at making their first scrapes. Any thoughts? I didn't look too close so I didn't see what size tracks might be in it. That's a small cedar that was a rub last year. You can't see the overhanging licking branch in the picture but it's there.

 

[Bill]

Setting up spots for kids is the fun part.
Probably the smaller ones starting to scrape. I'm noticing signs of the smaller bucks starting to pester the Does on cams so their getting there. Another week or so and I hope some chase action starts. Hopefully it won't be as slow as last fall.

Freezing temps the end of next week and maybe a snow flurry. So I'm also hoping it's not hot like last November.

 

[Someday isle]

I’ve got a couple pics of yearling bucks sparring too. I think the young ones are getting antsy. I’m doing an evening hunt tomorrow after the front moves through in the morning. We’ve got a prediction of 29 degrees for the low next Saturday. That will be my first all day hunt. I’m kind of looking forward to cold toes.

 

[Someday isle]

Deer season is officially over and habitat season has begun. I went out today and blew some leaves off of my trails and plots. The ground is really in January thaw right now. I heard on the news tonight that we’re offically considered in severe drought. We’re due to get some storms tonight so that will help. Surprisingly there’s still water, albeit mostly frozen, in my water holes.

I have one more trail and one more plot to blow off later this week, time willing. After that I’ll firm up my plans for the coming spring and summer.

The rye is eaten down almost to the dirt. A little rain and some warmer temps this week so maybe there’ll be enough growth to help keep the deer fed a little bit..

 

[Someday isle]

I made it back out again yesterday and finished blowing the leaves off of my plots and trails. I walked around a little and planned some projects in my head. I’m working this year on expanding another food plot trail into a more conventional 1/4 acre plot. When I first bought the property two summers ago we worked hard at clearing trails and planting them with food to draw the deer in. That worked well but it really spread the food out and made the deer hard to pattern. They can go eat anywhere. I’m working now on keeping the food more centralized into three distinct plots that will prvide at do loactions for the three of us (my two sons and I). All three of the plots will be connected by Two interior trails that will remain in clover. The perimeter trails will now be used as access to stand locations and for working.

My next project will be cutting down the trees I left in last years expanded plots. I just ran out of time last year. I really want to try som fruit trees too. I have a bunch of sawtooth oak acorns that I was going to try and get to grow but after seeing just how many acorns I have in my woods I’m not sure that’s worth my time. My woods are mostly oaks anyway. Then of course there’s creating cover....so many projects. I really do love this stuff!

 

[Bill]

That rye will be bouncing back when they need it the most. Just before everything else starts turning green.
You know it but it will look like a manicured lawn by mid to late April.

 

[Someday isle]

That rye will be bouncing back when they need it the most. Just before everything else starts turning green.
You know it but it will look like a manicured lawn by mid to late April.

Yeah. It was pretty amazing last year and it turned off just as quick when they were done with it too. Then it grew like crazy.

 

[Someday isle]

Making some changes this year. Adding another 1/4 acre food plot and turning a couple of my food plot trails into just access trails. I really feel like we plead our food out too much in our first two seasons on the property. It worked out okay and we just wanted to get a draw of some sort going. I’ll end up with the same amount of area in food plots but it’ll be more centrally located. A couple interior trails will just become clover trails and then we’ll have three distinct hunting size food plots between 1/4 and 1/3 of an acre each. We’ll also end up with maybe 3/8 of an acre of clover on three trails that will actually connect the plots. I’ve also ordered 10 pear trees and 6 crab apple trees that we’ll plant over St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

I started working on the new plot area today. I didn’t take any pictures because while I feel like I got a lot done it really didn’t look like it.

 

[Mortenson]

Great looking place! You're putting in some good hours. I'll tag along on your thread.

 

[Bill]

I started working on the new plot area today. I didn’t take any pictures because while I feel like I got a lot done it really didn’t look like it.

Isn't that always the way it seems.

 

[H20fwler]

You’re place is really developing nicely!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

^^^^^ Agree. It's looking pretty good. All your critters have to like it.

 

[Someday isle]

I was able to get a couple half days of work done again this week. It sure is nice being just an hour or so away from my property. When I was looking originally I wanted to be within a couple hours of home. One time I looked at and even hunted a similar sized property that we were considering. It was a three hour drive. My son and I drove three hours, hunted three hours and drove home three hours in one day. It was a fun day but a long one. It’s about the time when I was starting to get impatient and was close to buying. It convinced me I’d rather have less property closer to home than more property far away. I’m glad I held off. I didn’t realize then how much more time I’d spend working compared to hunting. I couldn’t do that if I was any further away.

I adjusted my fruit tree order to just 10 pear trees. I decided I won’t be quite ready for everything I wanted to plant this year. My order should arrive two weeks from today and I still have some work to do. I want to get a little lime put down, I want to precut and put together my cages. I’m going to do 5 feet high and 4 feet diameter. I’d like to even like tp pre-dig the holes next weekend if time allows.

I took a couple pictures to share with my son. He always wants to know if I see any fresh sign. I saw two deer on the way in and took some photos of fresh sign for him. We’ve had a lot of rain lately so all the tracks are just a day or two old. They’re all over what rye is there

 

[Someday isle]

This is the new area I’m clearing. It’s at the edge up f one of my food plot trails. I’m expanding it to about a 1/5 of an acre plot. The existing trail runs about 125 yards from here and connnects to another 1/4 acre plot that we put in last year. I still have a few trees to clear yet but you can see a litttle but where the trail runs as of today. The deer have it pretty well eaten to the ground right now. It’s leftover rye from my LC mix. I should’ve taken some closeups because you can see some baby clover just starting to come through.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Nice amount of sunlight in there. It should grow pretty green for you. Have any trees picked out for stands yet ??