Wandering at the hang out

I'm in the south side of the county and it's pretty much the same there. The oaks got nailed early with cold temps when the leaves started to break but came back with no acorns. If you see nice bucks at night they should start to move in the next two weeks. It seems like this time of year everyone decides it's the time to be out in the woods banging around and I'm sure that has to do with decreased deer movements. Saturday's are a tough day to hunt.
 
Ditto on the wolves...lots of tracks by me

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I havent updated this thread in awhile, and with spring projects kicking in, I figured I would talk about them. Last deer season was a success as for numbers, but quality wasnt up where I want it. Best in many years though. Last summers food plots had winter rye, and oats in one, radish, and turnips in another, and clover in the 3rd plot. The 2 non clover plots I overseeded in winter rye in the fall, so I am hoping that will come in the spring to keep weeds down, and I wont have to plant anything until July. But I may run a spike toothed drag through it and toss out some candy for them to eat for a couple months. I used sunflower last summer, and they loved it! This late winter I went and did a little hinge cutting, and just opening up the oak trees some.

This summer I am planning on keeping the projects down on the wildlife side of things, and I am going to start working on planning to build my house there. But that doesnt mean I wont keep my plots planted, and do a little more TSI where I want to thicken things up, or where I want to open more oaks up. Mother nature did a little tsi on her own this spring, and knocked down a quite a few pines, but I am not butthurt about it, it will just add to the ground cover I have already.

I was up this past weekend cleaning up after mother nature in the trees she decided to drop in the campsite, and in the food plots. I checked on the apple trees, and they are at the early stages of silver tip buds, with mostly warm temps in the 10 day forecast. In a few weeks I will be planting 7 more apple trees, and fencing them in. Hoping for my first apples this year. I have been planting apple trees now for 5 years, and I plan on adding about 5 more per year for the next couple years, just to have a good age structure, and a decent variety, with early, and late bloomers and droppers. As of last weekend, everything was still looking pretty brown. With maple trees having buds swelling and starting to turn green. Last spring I planted a bunch of white pines, well with the lack of snow this spring, the deer did a pretty good job of wiping all of them out. I was hard pressed trying to find any remnants of them anywhere. I planted them in pockets of 5-6 trees throughout thin spots on my property.

I didnt take any picture last weekend, but I will when I am up planting apple trees. Lots of those little tiny woodticks out, my dogs were loaded with them. I think some call them bear ticks.

I tell you, I really can not wait until we move up there. I am always sad to leave, and I sit and think about it every minute I am away. Luckily my lovely wife is looking forward to the move as well, even though she may not day dream about it all day, every day like I do.
 
I liked it. But not the missing pines part.
 
Sounds like you have a good long-term plan with your planting. Sorry to hear about your pines. That always stinks when deer eat something you plant - actually for THEIR benefit !! Keep at it !!
 
My oldest son and I once planted 100 white pines and staked and tubed each one. Only about three inches of tree top was exposed. The deer would grab the tree by the top and pull them out. They ate 99 of the 100 trees. Hard lesson learned.
 
While I expected them to eat some of them, but out of 100, I found 1. And that one was a stick, with 1 branch off to the side. Now I didn't wander every last inch looking for them all, but I am holding out this year to replace them, and I think next year I will go with 100 Norway spruce. I may even drop a few trees first, then plant them in the downed branches.

Although I have a quite a few balsam that are naturally popping up, that I could thin some of them out, and transplant them around my thin spots.


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While I expected them to eat some of them, but out of 100, I found 1. And that one was a stick, with 1 branch off to the side. Now I didn't wander every last inch looking for them all, but I am holding out this year to replace them, and I think next year I will go with 100 Norway spruce. I may even drop a few trees first, then plant them in the downed branches.

Although I have a quite a few balsam that are naturally popping up, that I could thin some of them out, and transplant them around my thin spots.


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Our deer pluck NS out after they have first been planted. Weird the NS is always laying near the hole. I think they try to taste them, don't like them and spit them out. But in the process they yank them out and kill them. Sometimes the dang deer we are trying to protect just make me mad enough to want to shoot them all.
 
I haven't posted here for a while, but I took a few pictures so I figured I would share some.
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A few pictures from my brassica plot. Most beets and turnips are about baseball size. The radishes are about a a foot long and a couple inches wide.

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Some mineral pits.

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A state fair apple tree. Good taste, but a little mushy.

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And a first year Dolgo that I thinned heavily, but I left about a half dozen to try them. Tart, but sweet.

I also have a Haralson that has about 10 apples that aren't ready yet, they are sour.

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This is just a picture of my apple tree/brassica plot.

I top seeded winter rye, oats, and winter wheat into the existing plots. My normal winter rye supplier said the stuff has been flying off the shelf lately. I guess the word has gotten out.


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Looks great! Where do you get your winter rye?

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Looks great! Where do you get your winter rye?

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Shell Lake Coop, and my back up is Alpha, and they were out, but getting an order this evening.


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Your brassicas look great
 
So that's what a brassicas look like when when they grow right :)

Looking good!
 
I was going to add that the acorns are dropping like crazy, it looks as though it was a very good acorn crop this year. If you look into some of the pictures, there are acorns in most of them. There is one section of my sanctuary that has several large oak trees, and last winter I had went in to the sanctuary to open up the oaks a bit, cutting down surrounding trees that were competing for sunlight, and I noticed there is a very well established trail coming from that area into my apple tree food plot. This trail wasnt there last year, so I assume they must like the thicker ground cover, and the extra acorns. I havent hunted early season in a few years, so I am not very concerned with them staying in there and avoiding my food plots.

I dont think there is as many deer as last year around my area, but to be fair, last year the only ag farmer had soybeans, this year he has corn fields. I am assuming the deer hold tight to them corn fields until they are combined, then they will spread out and my numbers will go up.
 
What have noticed lately is the deer are hammering the beans right now along with the acorns. Once the beans dry up then they move to the corn. As soon as the corn is harvested then I see a huge influx of deer in the woods. Bucks that I have not seen in a month and a half will be back. Once the leaves drop then they hold tight to only the thickest cover.
 
What have noticed lately is the deer are hammering the beans right now along with the acorns. Once the beans dry up then they move to the corn. As soon as the corn is harvested then I see a huge influx of deer in the woods. Bucks that I have not seen in a month and a half will be back. Once the leaves drop then they hold tight to only the thickest cover.

I don't have any beans within a few miles of me, in fact I only have one ag farmer within a couple miles of me, and his fields are in corn this year. I have noticed a lot of acorns this year, so I am sure they are munching on them right now. I am not saying I don't have many deer, just less then last year. I would say it is an average year by me this year. Last year was above average. I have about 10-20 different deer wander through in a couple days. I get about a hundred pictures a day now. I would say from last year where I had at least 20 different deer visiting regularly, and about 150 pictures a day.


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I have a couple old does that I may take out this year. They use to have twins with them every year, this year neither have any fawns. How old do they get before they stop producing? I am not sure how old they really are, but I know one of them has most of her head grey and is turning more and more grey each year. I know the one with the grey head has been around for at least 5 years. This other one has a bad rear leg, and has a dark patch on one of its rear legs. Last year I had to thin a few does, because they know where my stands are and would hiss at me every time. I wasn't really planning on taking more does this year, but I may need to take these 2 to actually improve the herd.

Here is one of them, the one without the grey head. I would need to search a bunch of pictures to find the other one.

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I have no idea how old a doe will get before she fails to reproduce. However if she isn't supply off-spring she is just another mouth you are feeding and like you said may be hampering your hunting efforts. I can see where you would benefit from developing a "hit list" for does in a similar fashion as we tend to do for bucks.
 
I have some Dolgo coming from Turkey Creek in the spring.....any advice?

I have a small orchard where they will be planted with other existing people apples and some new chestnut crabs as well. It's a fairly gentle south facing slope but not a cliff and is 100% sun. The soil is well drained with virtually zero clay and is coarse. I plan on protecting like I do my other fruit trees with screen on the trunk and an exclusion cage of at least 4 to 5 feet tall with weed fabric and creek stone.

I am transitioning to crabs vs apples. I think crabs will do better for me as far as caring for them and disease resistance and the like. My concern is the crabs actually being attractive to the deer from a fruit perspective. I may even convert some of my apples over to crabs if either may apples continue to not perform or if the crabs seem to really do well.
 
I have to say I did t do anything to the Dolgos, and they were thrived, and produced the first year. I would say they have been virtually maintenance free.


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