Wandering at the hang out

We also tore down my sons deer stand and one of my old stands, and rebuilt my sons stand into the same spot my old stand was.

The old stand.
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My sons new stand. That isnt completed yet.

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Stands look good. Did you hire out for the gang graffiti on your stand? ;):p
 
From far away my lovely painting looks better !


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Cat or fox?

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I think fox.
 
I'm thinking Fox too. Stands are looking great.
 
I thought fox, then someone mentioned cat, and I could see how it was possible.
 
I vote fox too.

Your blind looks great!
I'm going to build something similar in a few years.
 
It has to be a fox.
 
Fox all the way. I get lots of cat pics yearly and none have a snout like that.


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Excellent tour! You've got a great looking property. I have to agree with you on the significance of a fire pit. It's one of my favorite things at my property.

Don't let the big woods intimidate you. No matter how open or big a place is, there are many things you can do to steer deer where you want them to go. My farm is basically flat with no elevation changes to affect deer movements. I'm working on making more edge and cutting junk trees for blockades to steer the deer where it it convenient to hunt them.

You have the right outlook and expectations for all that you do on your property. Big bucks will never hang around with all the human pressure you put on the place with shooting, ATV riding, etc. But who cares if that's not your priority.
 
They are in there non stop right now. Over 100 pictures a day of deer. All day and night.


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With the summer coming to an end very soon, I have a few loose ends to finish up, and I also need to plant my last plot for the year with oats, winter rye, and sunflowers. My brassica plot has been getting hammered every day still, and it is losing height. Mostly down to less then 6 inches throughout the plot, with the majority down to a couple inches. It is too late to add N to give it another boost, because the end of the growing season is fast approaching. So I think I am going to toss a bag of winter rye over it, maybe it will give the deer something else to eat, and hopefully carry the plot into deer hunting anyhow. My plan for the brassica plot next year was going to be winter rye, and sunflowers anyhow, so some fall planted rye will just give it a boost!

My camera for my clover plot died, so I am not sure how well the clover is being browsed. Looking at the tops of them, I would say not much. I was going to plant clover into the brassica plot next year, but if the deer arent keeping up with the clover from the one plot, I dont see the need to add another plot with clover.

My projects for this coming long weekend will be planting my sons food plot, finishing up hanging one more wall on his stand, and mounting a chair in his stand. I need to put a hand rail on my stairs to my stand, and mount the windows, if they show up before then. I ordered them from Deerview, and got confirmation of the order August 4th, their website said 10-14 business days for delivery. I called them a couple weeks ago, they said they should ship before the 26th, and I should get a shipping confirmation email, I havent received anything yet. SO right now I am just hoping I get the windows before this weekend, so I can mount them. I emailed Deerview Saturday, with hopes I would get a call from them this morning, telling me they will make sure to get them to me, but I havent heard anything yet from them. I personally think if you cant fulfill the order for a month, you shouldnt be able to withdraw the money from my account until it is ready to be shipped. OK, I am done with venting about them. I know they are a small company, and I am sure there is a good reason, but I still want my windows by this weekend! I am not sure if I can make it up there again until deer hunting, and I dont want to be mounting them during hunting season. I also need to tear the blower motor out from my furnace in my camper, it is very noisy. I am not sure if something crawled in there and is rattling around, or if the blower motor is going out, and I need to find a replacement before hunting season.

I will post an update after the weekend, hopefully with windows installed in my stand.
 
One thought, do you think my new stand will need tie downs? I would hate for a good wind to blow it over. The 4 posts are cemented 2 feet into the ground, and it is in some pretty thick trees. I was thinking it should be ok, but after reading stories of peoples stands blowing over, it made me think for $20, or so, I could add a couple tie downs.
 
Overseeding your heavily browsed brassica plot with winter rye will definitely add attractiveness to it, at least until the snow covers it. I do it all the time. How is the ground where that stand is located? If it is real wet I could see strong winds pulling up your 24" of concrete and tipping it over. I have sand and uprooted trees seem to occur more often when the ground is really saturated. I have heard of people having success holding stands down by pounding a metal sign post into deep into the ground right next to a leg or two. Attach the post to the leg with a couple big screws. It stops the stand from "lifting" and as long as it doesn't start to lift or sway it shouldn't tip.
 
This past weekend was all about finishing up projects. I installed the new Deerview Windows in my stand, damn I am sure glad I went with the Deerviews rather then making my own. I bought 4 tinted, and 4 clear Windows, 2 on each wall. You can't see in them from any distance.
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I finished up my sons stand.

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I opened up shooting lanes, and planted my last plots.


I found that the acorns are dropping pretty heavy right now, and my turnips are between golf ball, and tennis ball size for the larger ones, and the radishes are maybe 1/2 inch wide, and 4-6 inches long. But most are smaller then that. Not overly impressed, but better then last years, they got totally wiped out last year, and weeds took over the plot. My clover plot is being browsed, but not heavily.

And of course you have to mix in some fun with all the work, to keep everyone happy.

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Played some ball, and spent some important time playing with the hardest most loyal workers.

Then some relaxing times as well.

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A picture of the next generation of hunters that will some day be hunting the land.

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Since I planted on Friday the land got a little over 2 inches of rain, with chances about every day this week. I have my hopes up for this planting to be successful, and hoping my season is as well.

Something to aim for

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After a few days last week of ample rains, and a day of sunshine, it looks as though the winter rye I tossed out there on Labor Day is coming in fairly well. image.png
 
Great looking future hunter!
 
It has been awhile since my last update, mostly because I havent been to the hunting land lately, and I had a couple cameras go down on me, so not much to update on. I was up last weekend, and my observations were, my clover plot is getting hit hard right now. They have it mowed to about 3 inches, compared to 10+ inches on labor day. It seems all of August they nailed the greens of my turnips, and radishes, then in September they had hit the clover hard. As of right now, the winter rye isnt being touched much at all. I am thinking after a couple hard freezes they will go back to the turnips and radishes, and start hitting the winter rye as well.

In my area there wasnt much for acorns at all, and there isnt much for ag in the area, other then one farmer and he had soybeans planted this year, but they are gone already. If this ends up being a long snowy winter, it could be hard on them. I also heard the wolves have moved back into the area recently. Which would explain the lack of deer pictures I had for a few weeks in late September, early October.
The deer have been coming back as of late, so hopefully the wolves moved back into the swamps to the north and east of me. Not much more I can do as for food this year to help feed them, but late winter, early spring I plan on doing some more TSI work, and that will help some, and put some tree tops to their level, and let some sun in, to help get things greening up quicker. Last spring they were in my clover and winter rye early, and kept it mowed to the dirt. So this fall I seeded winter rye into the turnips, and radishes, so come spring, they should have another plot greening up early.

From camera pictures, lots of does and fawns, and not much for daytime bucks. A couple shooters wandering through at night time, but no regulars. Which for my land, has been the case since I bought it.

This is the first year in 10 years I wont be bow hunting the land, so hopefully that makes it a better gun season. But I will be bow hunting around home once it temps cool off a little more.
 
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