The Adventures of CrazyED the beach sand guy

[CrazyEd]

We had setup the ground blind down in our spot about 2 weeks ago. I bow hunt just up the hill behind this spot, there are always tons of turkeys that roost down by the water. Early yesterday we took my decoys and a new chair down to the blind. We also planted about 25 silky dogwoods out in the middle of this pond we were hunting over.

About 5:30pm I took my daughter out turkey hunting. We only spent about 45 minutes in the blind over the 2 days. She is 4.5 years old, it was her first time out ever for anything like this, i didn't even take a weapon. We were delighted to get a visit from a pair of wood ducks that landed in a tree across the pond we were sitting on the edge of. I was able to get a marginal shot of the pair with my 7d/400mm.

Just a couple weeks ago I raised a duck house that badgerfowl had given me. These ducks landed not too far behind the house. I can't say I've ever duck hunted nor seen a duck land in a tree like this before. I've mostly seen mallards in these ponds.

If you look really close there is a female standing behind the male.

 

[Turkey Creek]

Looks like a thoroughly enjoyable couple of days.

 

[bueller]

Funny how the "chores" at the farm really don't seem like chores compared to those at home.

 

[CrazyEd]

Not too far from that duck house in my previous post is a Sandhill Crane nest.

 

[CrazyEd]

And of course a few pics from the orchard.

Front to back (Honeycrisp, Centennial, Enterprise - B118/planted 2012)

A closeup of a different Enterprise tree also 4th leaf b118

I dont remember what this one is, maybe centennial.

Galarina or Goldrush on MM111

Kerr

 

[CrazyEd]

I think Honeygold

Goldrush

Liberty MM111 that needs a few limbs tied down

Might be Black Oxford

Kieffer

Wider shot

 

[CrazyEd]

We like planting our orchards with NWSG. Helps add a little extra cover in the fall and pretty good nesting habitat in the spring.

Winecrisp

Honeycrisp

Chestnut Crab

 

[CrazyEd]

Winter Rye plot

Dunstan's not doing much yet

 

[greyphase]

Wonderful pics of your little piece of heaven. :)

 

[bueller]

I feel like I'm looking at pics taken on my place with the sedge/ jack pine meadows, minus most of the fruit trees though ;):D

 

[wiscwhip]

Yup, looks just like the majority of our old place as well, save for the Little Yellow River bottoms that split ours in half, that and all the apples as well.;)

 

[wiscwhip]

CE, that last pic in post #336, is that a patch of Canada Wild rye, or some other grass, maybe little blue? That patch is far thicker than anything we had on our place that occurred naturally, did you plant that? I think if it grows that well, it would be worthwhile to plant lots of patches like that.

 

[CrazyEd]

CE, that last pic in post #336, is that a patch of Canada Wild rye, or some other grass, maybe little blue? That patch is far thicker than anything we had on our place that occurred naturally, did you plant that? I think if it grows that well, it would be worthwhile to plant lots of patches like that.

That would be switchgrass!

Sunburst switchgrass to be exact. Thats what my father decided to plant, he likes to select species based on their latitude of origin. It ranges anywhere from 5-7' tall in our sand. Holds up very well against the snow - most of the big bluestem is flat as a pancake right now but the switch is still holding very strong. And yes, we did plant it.

 

[wiscwhip]

Looks awesome! I would think the Forestburg and Dacotah would work well in that area also, especially if Sunburst does that well. Also the ascensions developed at UW(WS4U and WS8U) they have on the GRIN site might be worth looking into as well, providing you could get them somewhere in quantity. Was it hard to establish on the sand? Any steps you took that wouldn't necessarily be needed on other soil types, or was it just because the cultivar was that well adapted?

 

[CrazyEd]

Here's what 8 acres of sunburst looks like. 4th year. No burning or tilling. Sadly it doesnt look this good anymore since the local dairy farmers cut this for hay and have so for the past 3-4 years.

 

[CrazyEd]

As far as establishment. The field was disked and the seed was put down with a regular grain drill I believe in April or May, i'd have to check my records. If you are doing on large scale, mow it high the first year. After the first year you could hit it with 2-4d in august or something - again i'd have to check my notes. After that just burn or mow in the spring. Spray with roundup in April or May depending on temperatures - NWSG doesnt usually emerge until June so you can safely spray prior to it emerging.

 

[wiscwhip]

WOW!!! That looks great, considering the soil. I was more interested in what you did to establish those small patches in the woods?

 

[CrazyEd]

WOW!!! That looks great, considering the soil. I was more interested in what you did to establish those small patches in the woods?

Spray once with Roundup and Oust XP, kill all the pennsylvania sedge/turf. Let it cook at least 6 months and spray again with Roundup. Let it cook at least another 6 months and spray again. In our testing it takes a good 18 months for the sedge to complete break down where you can gently slide your boot across the ground to expose the sand. It takes a LONG time for the sedge and roots to break down and rot. Once you start to have some soil exposed we broadcast the seed. We are pretty much doing as much of our farm as possible with this technique. Every orchard gets done this way, we also make clearings just for small prairies. This is pretty much our strategy. When I put an "orchard" in I plant it with a mix of cover (NWSG) and food (wildflowers/forbs/clover/rye/etc) I dont want a pretty orchard all groomed with a lawn mower.

 

[wiscwhip]

Thanks Ed! LOL, I am more than familiar with the tenacity of that Penn sedge and what it takes to get rid of it from an area. The sod it forms is the worst, takes forever to break down with the limited soil microbes in that sandy soil. I didn't figure it would work through just broadcasting into the existing ground cover, I was guessing that it had to be on exposed dirt like you mention. Stranger things have happened, but I figured it took some extra prep in that soil. Did you ever try to burn small areas like the one in your photo to get rid of the initial sod and expose the dirt?

 

[CrazyEd]

No, never tried a burn and probably never will. Just seems to dangerous, too remote, everythings almost always dry or drought conditions even in early spring.