Someday Isle - Property tour

[j-bird]

Sounds like you need some rain still. I tried to send some to Bill earlier in the year, but I don't think that worked out too well....all he got was a soggy envelope!

As long as the clover doesn't die it will bounce back when the rains provide enough moisture. The buckets for tree watering is something i have done before. The first year or two in the ground they can struggle, beyond that they seem to do OK. I try to limit my fruit tree planting so I only have what I am willing to water. I have a chestnut tree that I;m not sure is going to make it this year.

Regarding your hinge cutting....keep in mind your forming another edge on the back side. I have seen bucks avoid the more open areas, but use these little edges to move from place to place if the ground allows it. Just keel that in mind while hunting as the deer your after may not be exactly where you expect him to be.

 

[Someday isle]

I

Sounds like you need some rain still. I tried to send some to Bill earlier in the year, but I don't think that worked out too well....all he got was a soggy envelope!

As long as the clover doesn't die it will bounce back when the rains provide enough moisture. The buckets for tree watering is something i have done before. The first year or two in the ground they can struggle, beyond that they seem to do OK. I try to limit my fruit tree planting so I only have what I am willing to water. I have a chestnut tree that I;m not sure is going to make it this year.

Regarding your hinge cutting....keep in mind your forming another edge on the back side. I have seen bucks avoid the more open areas, but use these little edges to move from place to place if the ground allows it. Just keel that in mind while hunting as the deer your after may not be exactly where you expect him to be.

I actually have a stand in place to hopefully take advantage of this movement. I’m hoping the hinge cuts will do double duty by bringing more light into the food plot trail and creating a browse edge for deer to follow as they pass by my stand. Time will tell...best laid plans and all...

As far as the fruit trees go the drought has been hard on them. I’m hoping the five stronger ones survive. We’ve gotten a little more rain this week so hopefully there’s enough moisture in the ground to germinate the plots when I seed next week. After that there’s a little rain back in the forecast. I’m hopeful.

 

[j-bird]

If I find any "extra" rain - I'll try to send it your way!

 

[Someday isle]

Monday I went out to disc my plots and put down my seed. We had rain the forecast for mid week and I’m at a wedding over the weekend so Monday was my best opportunity. Things started smooth. I dissed two of my food plot trails and my new 1/4 acre plot. Spread my oats, rye and peas and cultipacked. Then I spread the medium red clover on the 1/4 acre plot and ladino on the trails. After that I spread some rye, oats and ladino clover into my existing clover trail. So far so good. As I was discing my 1/3 acre plot I had a disc issue, which I made work even though it wasn’t a permanent repair, then my ATV developed an issue. I’m still not sure what it is but I think it’s a fuel supply problem. It’s at the shop now. So I ended up not finishing discing that plot. It was a failed second crop of buckwheat in that plot so it was mostly dirt anyway. I spread the rye, oats, peas and medium red clover on the bare ground and started hoping for rain. In my final 1/4 plot (which also has five first year pear trees) I had a lot of weeds. I had sprayed that plot about a week ago so I ended up seeding a heavy dose of rye, oats and peas into the dying weeds and topped it off with more medium red clover and just hoped for rain. Today we got seven hours of this. I think it’s more rain than we’ve had all summer.

 

[Someday isle]

Pear tree update. I’ve got five trees in one spot doing really well. Three are dead and two more really struggling. I don’t think they’ll make it. I’ve never planted fruit trees before but it was a rough year for a first try. Hopefully my five strong ones survive the winter.

 

[Bill]

Farm logs says 2" at my place :)

 

[Bill]

Looks like it may finally have broken. Lots of rain on the radar in MO and more predicted over the next two weeks.
So now if it's typical MO weather we'll be crying for it to stop by mid October :)

 

[Someday isle]

No kidding. Next we’ll be worried about the road washing out. But at least its not a drought.

 

[Someday isle]

Timely rains really have my plots looking good for only being 9 days old (7 days since it rained). We’ve got lots of rain on the way over the next three days from a combination cold front coming from the North and the remnants of tropical storm Gordon from the south. Looks like All of Missouri is going to get really wet this weekend. I did some final mowing today and practiced shooting from a couple treestands just for fun since I was out there. I won’t go back out again until I’m actually doing a morning hunt. The season opens on the 15th of September but I probably won’t go out until the 22nd if the weather cools down a little bit. I’m lucky that I can go out a couple times a week but it’s also hard to stay away. Hopefully no human presence for the next 18 days let’s the deer get comfortable. We really haven’t had much of anything on camera this summer but hopefully the plots and water holes draw them in this fall.

 

[j-bird]

Glad to hear you got some needed rain, looks like it did your plots some good as well. Sounds like MO weather can be similar to IN weather.....one month it's drier than a pop-corn fart and the next month you swear it's never going to stop raining!

 

[Someday isle]

Yeah you’re really not that far from us. Just a few hours straight east. I think we basically have the same weather patterns.

 

[j-bird]

Yeah you’re really not that far from us. Just a few hours straight east. I think we basically have the same weather patterns.

What county in MO.....just curious or give me some sort of general land mark. I used to go to the boot heel region (Sikeston to be exact) for work. Good lord it would be humid!

 

[Someday isle]

Live in St. Louis county. Property is in Crawford county. And humid is what we do best!

 

[j-bird]

Yep - pretty similar latitude.... We do humid here as well, but down in Dexter you got humid and winter and that's about your only choices from what I have seen! I have to remind myself to take the gold bond when I go!!!!

 

[pnulty66]

I'm new to the forum and over the past few days have read through all your posts -- thanks so much for providing all this information. I recently bought some property and plan to do a lot of similar type habitat improvements (plots, fruit trees, etc.) so this (and others on the site) is really great. Unfortunately, I live 6 hours from y camp so will not be able to get there as often as I'd like.

I hope your wife's surgery went well and you will get on stand to enjoy some of your labor.

 

[Someday isle]

I'm new to the forum and over the past few days have read through all your posts -- thanks so much for providing all this information. I recently bought some property and plan to do a lot of similar type habitat improvements (plots, fruit trees, etc.) so this (and others on the site) is really great. Unfortunately, I live 6 hours from y camp so will not be able to get there as often as I'd like.

I hope your wife's surgery went well and you will get on stand to enjoy some of your labor.

Thanks for the kind words. I’m only in my third season as a property owner but I’ve been reading some of these other guys posts for a few years on other forums as I was looking for a piece of property of my own. It’s hard to define what is a small property but those of us who consider ourselves small property owners might be limited in some aspects but we also get to know our land really well. I know this, I’ve loved deer hunting for what is now forty years but I’ve never had as much fun as I’ve had the last three seasons planning, working and hunting on my own land. I wish you all the happiness you can garner from your own place.

 

[Someday isle]

I pulled my camera cards yesterday. We’ve been getting a handful of does and two little bucks on camera off and on all summer. I figured I had about 6-8 regulars using our property. But no bucks other than the two little ones. Yesterday’s card pull showed some new visitors. We don’t have any big bucks but it’s nice to see some new faces. Based on the dates it looks like the bucks have moved in the past two weeks. It now looks like we have about a dozen regular visitors. Hopefully one of the boys will have an opportunity this year. I’ve got a new food plot and a stand that won’t be hunted until opening day of rifle season by TJ. There were 82 pictures of deer in the last 30 days on that plot. Maybe this is the year he gets his first deer.

 

[Bill]

That last pic really shows what timely rains can do.
What a big change from our scorched earth June and July.

 

[Someday isle]

That last pic really shows what timely rains can do.
What a big change from our scorched earth June and July.

No kidding! The cereal grain mix is really thick right now. I was almost hoping growth would slow down a little bit before it gets too tall and isn’t as attractive. They’re obviously in there but they’re not exactly mowing it down either. It does make me feel good about having enoug food though. I remember the first year I planted it was about six inches high and then a week later it looked like every inch of my plots got scalped by a lawn mower. When they turned on it they really hit it hard. I’ve probably got a over half acre more than I did then though.

 

[Someday isle]

Filled an antlerless archery tag last night. Sorry , no pics. I thought maybe I left the gate open last night so I went back out this morning and checked the gate, it was locked, I still get excited I guess. I went ahead and pulled my camera cards for the last time before our firearms season starts on November 10th. I found some nice surprises. We have a buck parade going on the last two weeks. All summer we only had a couple small bucks and a few does. It’s all changed the last two weeks. This is our third year owning the property and we’ve been working on transforming it. The first year we had pictures a three or four does and a couple small bucks. Last year was a little better with one nice buck around. Big change this year. I’d like to think our work is at least partially responsible for all the new traffic.