Someday Isle - Property tour

[Someday isle]

I also pulled cards this week and have my first picture of a buck with new antler growth starting. And a bunch of coyotes and my friendly neighborhood dogs are back. There’s at least four different ones that run the property. Drives me crazy but there’s not much I can do about it at this point. They do seem to vanish for a few weeks once firearms season rolls around.

I have a busy week this week and then we’re going out of town for my nephews graduation next weekend so it’ll be two weeks before I get back out there. It’ll be interesting seeing how the buckwheat fares under different circumstances.

 

[Bill]

You must have went around a million times to work the rye in that well with a 4 wheeler.....

 

[Someday isle]

You must have went around a million times to work the rye in that well with a 4 wheeler.....

You are correct. At least it felt like a million times! But if the buckwheat takes hold it’ll be worth it. I know you’re aware of our weather here in Missouri last fall. That particular plot germinated early and then really stalled. There was #10 pounds per acre of red clover in my fall mix and I think most of it didn’t survive the drought. The original plan was to just have the clover do it’s thing this spring. Best laid plans as they say... Since I was putting buckwheat in my new plot this spring I figured I’d just put some in this spot too. The rye was plenty thick though. I’m only two years into this but I’m already sold on winter rye.

 

[Someday isle]

Two weeks ago I disced and seeded buckwheat at #50 per acre into my new 1/4acre plot in the woods. I also put some down on a couple 1/8 acre trails through the woods. It’s growing decent enough on the shaded trails but I’m really pleased with the initial growth in the new area. My plan is to wait until it’s six weeks old and then oversees it with a second crop of buckwheat. Then I’ll mow the old crop on top of it. I’ll let that grow for four to five weeks, mow it and let it sit for a week or sow and then seed my LC mix right around Labor Day.

 

[Someday isle]

I also disced under last falls cereal rye from a 1/3 acre wooded plot from last fall. This was a new plot in the fall of 2017. There are quite a few trees here that still need to come down. The red clover didn’t really do much in this plot so I just thought I’d disc it under and plant buckwheat while I was working on this year’s new plot. Some of the rye didn’t terminate with discing and some just grew back but the buckwheat is doing really well down here. It will get the same LC mix this fall after some more soil amendments and a double crop of buckwheat. I’m pretty impressed with two weeks growth though.

 

[Someday isle]

As I’m continuing on working on developing my three wooded plots I’m converting some of my food plot trails to clover plots. I have six different trails that used to be old logging roads. When I first bought the property I cleared these trails and those were my first food plots. Two trails are already in the process of becoming clover trails and I’ll begin working on a couple more this fall. These trails all connect to either each other or two the wooded plots. One of these trails is relatively close to the property line. I’m turning that into an access trail for now. One of my neighbors put a stand right on the fence line looking down the line within close range of that trail. I’m just removing the temptation for him to shoot down the trail and into my property. Last summer I hinged quite a few trees in that are too in hopes of blocking the view into my property as well. I’ve not had an issue with that neighbor and have actually never seen him out there but I figure why tempt the issue.

 

[Someday isle]

These pictures are from clover that was planted in the fall of 2016. It didn’t look great last year but now in its second spring it’s starting to look good. It started as a mix of medium red and Ladino white clover along with the basic LC mix. I then frost seeded a combination of ladino and Kopu 2 each of the last two springs. So far I haven’t sprayed it at all. I’ve i lay mowed it a couple of times. Next year I’ll probably use a select herbicide since it’ll be more established by then. One of these trails is now part of a strip leftover in one of my newly developed 1/4 acre plots. There are also 6 new pear trees in that plot.

 

[Someday isle]

More clover pictures

 

[Someday isle]

My summer plans are to open up the trails to more light by hinging trees along the sides of the trails. This should create more browse as well. One of these trails runs lengthwise right through the center of our sanctuary area so other than maintenance and hinge cutting it’s an area we do not hunt or go through. It connect in a T- shape to another trail that leads to a different wooded plot in each direction from the top of the T.

I planted 10 pear trees from The Wildlife Group on St Patrick’s Day. They had already leafed out when they were delivered. Then right after planting we had a couple hard frosts. I marked the tree stakes at the height of the tree at planting. Six of the trees have already put on some growth. A couple of them a good six inches already. One hasn’t grown at all and the leaves are a darker green and not showing any new growth. Two of them had the upper leaves turn black and while there’s still some green they aren’t showing any new growth yet. I’m hopeful but guarded in my optimism on these three. The last one of the ten was kind of a puny tree. It was just basically a skinny three foot stick with not much root structure. It’s got two green shoots coming out the base of the whip. One is about six inches up the tree and the other is about twelve inches up. I’m also hopeful for that one. I’d be disappointed with a sixty percent survival rate but I guess there’s not much I can do about it. I was concerned about recovering trees that were already leafed out but I guess it is what it is. Time will tell.

 

[Bill]

Buckwheat is coming on strong! Send some rain North were hurting and temps are in the 90's already...:(

 

[Someday isle]

Finished mowing our road today. Then I finished mowing and spraying all of my access trails. I knew it was hot today but this is ridiculous for June 1st.

 

[Bill]

That’s nuts! It’s this hot up north also and no rain in weeks. How did we get to August already.

 

[Someday isle]

I hear you. Late spring right into instant summer.

 

[Someday isle]

My buckwheat plots are four weeks old today. The new plot with no real soil amendments yet is actually doing the best. I’m sure it’s because it’s the one that gets the most sun. The buckwheat on the trails is growing but it’s much more stunted and more thin than in the 1/4 acre and 1/3 acre plots. It’s just now starting to flower. The plan is to let it grow until the first weekend in July, spread some more buckwheat and then mow this crop on top of the seed. I’ll follow that with the LC mix for the fall. The buckwheat did a nice job shading out the weeds. There are a few weeds and plenty of stump sprouts but I’m happy with it.

 

[Someday isle]

I worked really hard at screening one of my food plots today too. This is a spot that gets plenty of activity but you could see it from the campground, and the campground from the plot, so I wanted to get some hinge cutting done in this area.

 

[Someday isle]

My pear trees are doing okay. I started with 10. I’m pretty sure one of them is dead. Two of them though have grown through the top of the five foot tree tubes. Six of them look pretty healthy and the other three are hanging in there. One of them wasn’t much more than just a stick when I got it. It’s not growing at all but there are a couple areas where there are a couple leaves growing. I’ll do my best to keep them watered and weed free through the summer and just see what happens. If you look close You can see how tall some of the others are by the shadows in the tubes.

 

[Someday isle]

It’s only been two weeks since I last checked my cameras but I was curious if I had any fawns yet. At first glance I thought I had these three does over and over and one buck. After transferring some pictures to my iPad now I’m not sure if maybe these aren’t young bucks instead. The pictures aren’t great but I think I can see little nubs. Maybe the does are hiding in the cover with their fawns. What do you think?

 

[Someday isle]

 

[H20fwler]

Yep, I think all the deer in post #97 are bucks.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

They all found your groceries !!! Keep up the good work.