Someday Isle - Property tour
- Thread starter Someday isle
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Someday isle
5 year old buck +
Finally got out yesterday in what seems like forever. We’re building a new house and getting our current one ready to go on the market and it’s just taken so much of my time. Both are a labor of love but still time consuming. I loosened straps on my tree stands for the summer and checked them all out for safety. All is good. I took along a rake and cleaned the leaves out of my water holes. I also put my cameras back out. I had taken them down at the end of the season. After I was done working I just did a walk around and cleaned up some small downed trees. I’ve got one big tree across a trail but I need a bigger saw and some help to cut that one up. We’re a small property so we don’t usually find any sheds but I did pick up one laying in the food plot. I also went back into the area that I hinge cut two seasons ago just to see what it looked like. I was pleased to see lots of trails in and out of it. I thought back then that I was being pretty aggressive with my cutting but now it’s obvious I was pretty conservative. Next winter I’m going back in there and working it some more and I hope to do a couple more areas too.
Clover is starting to pop and the rye is greening up. Out of ten pear trees five look pretty good, three more seem to have survived but still struggling, the two dead ones are still dead. I might go grab a couple Home Depot trees and stick in the spots where the dead ones are next weekend and see what happens.
Clover is starting to pop and the rye is greening up. Out of ten pear trees five look pretty good, three more seem to have survived but still struggling, the two dead ones are still dead. I might go grab a couple Home Depot trees and stick in the spots where the dead ones are next weekend and see what happens.
Someday isle
5 year old buck +
Oh it’s too exciting building the house to get frustrated about anything else. I knew it was coming so we’ve got a light plan this year. I have to admit that I really missed being out there though. It was fun yesterday just enjoying walking around. There’s just something about walking your own land.
Someday isle
5 year old buck +
Well I made it back out again today. My plan was to do a little fruit tree maintenance, plant two new trees and remove a fallen tree that wa slaying across one of my trails. High 30s to low 40s, bright sunshine , and a cool breeze. Perfect working weather.
If you followed my fruit tree adventure you might remember I planted ten pear trees from the wildlife group last year on St. Patrick’s day. They arrived already leafed out. A couple were pretty sickly looking too. Immediately after planting we had a hard frost followed by our usual hot, dry summer. I watered them every week and five seems to hang in there okay, two died pretty quickly, and the other three really struggled. I’ve had a busy couple of months so I didn’t get to them until today. Eight out of ten survived the winter. One is about 9 feet tall and a couple are about 8 feet tall. After removing the tree tubes for trimming I noticed that the three that really seemed to struggle last year hadn’t gained any height but they had lots of little branches all around the bottom half of the tree. The tall trees seemed to put all their energy into the central leader.
After some pruning and cleaning out around last year’s trees I replaced the two dead trees with a couple Keifer Pears from Home depot. I don’t know what’ll happen with them. Let’s call it a grand experiment. I moved them from where the other two trees were though. I didn’t see the point in planting a tree exactly where one didn’t survive.
I had to get rid of a big fallen tree that was across a trail and on the way took api true of one of my water holes. We’ve had lots of rain this spring and the rumors of the snow pack up north melting and causing flooding are true. My wet weather creek is full and the little runoff where my water hole is at is doing a fine job of keeping it full.
If you followed my fruit tree adventure you might remember I planted ten pear trees from the wildlife group last year on St. Patrick’s day. They arrived already leafed out. A couple were pretty sickly looking too. Immediately after planting we had a hard frost followed by our usual hot, dry summer. I watered them every week and five seems to hang in there okay, two died pretty quickly, and the other three really struggled. I’ve had a busy couple of months so I didn’t get to them until today. Eight out of ten survived the winter. One is about 9 feet tall and a couple are about 8 feet tall. After removing the tree tubes for trimming I noticed that the three that really seemed to struggle last year hadn’t gained any height but they had lots of little branches all around the bottom half of the tree. The tall trees seemed to put all their energy into the central leader.
After some pruning and cleaning out around last year’s trees I replaced the two dead trees with a couple Keifer Pears from Home depot. I don’t know what’ll happen with them. Let’s call it a grand experiment. I moved them from where the other two trees were though. I didn’t see the point in planting a tree exactly where one didn’t survive.
I had to get rid of a big fallen tree that was across a trail and on the way took api true of one of my water holes. We’ve had lots of rain this spring and the rumors of the snow pack up north melting and causing flooding are true. My wet weather creek is full and the little runoff where my water hole is at is doing a fine job of keeping it full.
Someday isle
5 year old buck +
One last little project today. My wife is a science teacher and she asked me for a couple tree slices. Her class is learning about the rings of a tree and the different layers. I thought there’s a nice little lesson from the cedar tree. It looks like maybe the tree had an injury at some point. While the injury healed and the tree survived it still left a scar. It’s a little philosophical but nature has a way of reminding us of the little things. And yes...that’s my trusty Silky Zubat. Never hit the woods without it on a work day.
Someday isle
5 year old buck +
Blew leaves off my food plot trails today and pulled camera cards. This is why some of us like cereal rye and medium red clover in our fall plantings. Things are greening up nicely. Dates and time stamps are correct. I’ve got a couple bucks still holding and at least one already starting over. 
weekender21
5 year old buck +
Those plots look great! Still holding in April, is that normal for your area?
ghilliehunter
5 year old buck +
Great idea for science class. Also, I bought a silky zubat from recommendations received on this site. Fantastic saw.
Bill
Administrator
I have a plot I need to take your advice on and use a leaf blower. Seems the clover is choked out every couple of years. That or I need to remove more trees.
Don’t leave your silky saw out in the open :(. Mine walked away from my side by side this fall when I left it parked on the side of the road....
Don’t leave your silky saw out in the open :(. Mine walked away from my side by side this fall when I left it parked on the side of the road....
Someday isle
5 year old buck +
I’m not sure if it’s normal or not. Being a public land hunter most of my life I guess I just never gave it much thought. Having my own place through three seasons now though I’ve noticed it seems to be a pretty wide range of when they drop antlers or not. I’d be interested in knowing more of the science of it with regards to genetics, environmental factors, but maybe it’s just each individual deer is different. I wonder if some work at knocking them off and others just let them fall off on their own. Like most things it’s probably a combination of things that determine what, why, and when it happens. It is intriguing though.
Someday isle
5 year old buck +
I was able to get out again this weekend to do a little mowing with the DR. Slow start to the spring this year but the rye and clover have just exploded the last month. I mowed the rye where it was really thick but left it in the areas where it was thin enough so it still provides a little shade and weed control for my clover. I also pulled my camera cards. You can sure tell when the rye become less palatable and the natural vegetation took over. Food plot pictures went way down about mid April. We have our usual groups of does, at least one pregnant doe and a a couple bucks showing some antler growth. We also had several turkeys, which is not usual for us. I keep hoping my clover and cereal grain plots will educate them to hang around but we also get lots of raccoons and coyotes on camera so I think that’s a factor too. And an oddity - two geese.
Someday isle
5 year old buck +
Someday isle
5 year old buck +
Someday isle
5 year old buck +
It’s been a little tough finding the time to get to the property this spring with the new house being built but we’re moved in so I was able to get out and mow my campground this weekend. It’s been a wet spring and mild temps. That comb7ned with being in the third spring on our food plots and trails we’ve got the best looking clover we’ve ever had. The trails are mostly Ladino and Kopu 2. The plots are a blend of medium red and ladino to be dissed under and planted in cereal grain mixes with clover again in September. A couple of the trails and one of the plots need to be opened up to more light. I hope we get a little bit of time in July to work on that. My pear trees are doing okay. 8 of the 10 I planted last year are still hanging in there. The two dead ones I replaced with a couple Home Depot Trees - they both died already. Lesson learned.
Someday isle
5 year old buck +
Someday isle
5 year old buck +
We’ve enjoyed the home building process but even after moving in there’s still work to do. We got our yard sodded last week and it seems like I spend half my day watering. Timing wasn’t great. The daily rains we’ve been getting have stopped so I spend lots of time watering. It’s sure looks nice though. We’ve got six tenths of an acre. It’s enough yard without being too much.
