Who's working in the woods this weekend?

[Livesintrees]

Not exactly habitat related. But going to take advantage of a night schedule and warm weather. Last year we started adding pipe to a section of the road/trail that was a mud hole mess. And that was before and foot or truck traffic. We did two pipes last year and it dried the section out immensely. This year we are adding two more and where two large trees uprooted next the the trail. The uprooting just invited all run off to collect. In addition to the two pipes I’m going to add some RCA as a base to a 100 or so yard long section. 4” worth compacted will completely eliminate the standing water/tire rut issues. It’s the only section on the property that takes a huge beating. Snow cover is down to 3” now, rode the excavator back and forth over the trail a few times the past week and the trail on this area is clear. Scraped the mud layer away and we have gotten 27 yards worth of material down so far. Looks to be roughly another 40 yards of material left and then I’ll better grade it. Should be done by weeks end.

 

[j-bird]

I did a little woody brush management Saturday....it was getting to the point it was shading out the ground and loosing its effectiveness as cover. Buzz, buzz, went the chainsaw. I got additional pockets to do, but at least I got started!

 

[ksgobbler]

We have been getting freezing rain and freezing drizzle every other day it seems like. Too dangerous to run the saw right now. I tried, slipped, turned it off and went back to the house.

 

[ksgobbler]

Rabbits love to chew on the hedge branches

 

[roymunson]

Spent friday afternoon and saturday on the farm.

cleaned up some ice damage limbs in the yard, then saturday we sealed off a corner where some deer were using the property line. Neighbor had a stand 20 yards off hte line and was watching into our plot. Nothing illegal about it, but laid a bunch of trees down and tried to re-route the deer onto our side. I haven't been so sore in a while, but it was a lot of fun.

 

[Adittmer]

Finished trimming all the apple trees.

also had to plow the driveway both Sunday & today.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mortenson]

Spread 3 clover plots today, 2.5 total acres. They're all expired brassica plots with cereal rye. Plan is to leave 2 as clover and terminate the worst looking of the 3 to put back into turnips this summer.

 

[Apple Junkie]

Apples pruned, Maples tapped. Looking forward to some good sap runs this coming week, below freezing nights, above freezing days.

 

[ksgobbler]

Its a mess but almost done with this project

 

[TreeDaddy]

A true mess........

..........of functional edge and diversity of plant life

bill

 

[ksgobbler]

I need to rent a skidsteer to pile some trees
One day left then I can call them to inspect and pay me my money.

 

[Apple Junkie]

Maples tapped, sap cooked.... first batch of syrup. A true sign of spring!

 

[roymunson]

Spent Friday night installing a shower at the cabin. Wife said it'd be much easier to spend weekends there if everyone can take a decent shower. Can't argue w/ that.

Then saturday morning we have 4 guys cutting trees. Now I'm no lumberjack, but I can make a tree fall down. The sanctuary was timbered last year, and so just about anything left standing was "junk". Needless to say, there's gonna be sunlight on the ground in the sanctuary this year and it's gonna start thickening up.

One of the kids with us looked at me and said "I'm not sure i wanna track or drag a deer thru this stuff"
Left lanes open and had some sort of method to our madness, but in a couple years, it's gonna be a thick mess in there.

We'd cut a bunch last saturday too, and already had crazy amounts of deer sign in the tree tops and had them nipping the buds. Should make for a lotta fun.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I thought I was going to on Saturday afternoon but there was still way to much snow in the wood to safely operate a chainsaw. I did however take advantage of a sale Northern Tool was having and bought a 16 gal sprayer. I'm sure it's nothing special but I had been using a backpack sprayer for plotting the past 10 years. It's no big deal for for fall plots but RR corn, beans and Sugar Beets gets to be a bit much with multiple sprayings per season.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I wandered my land a little bit this past Saturday, lots of deer tracks and deer beds. I took a stroll out into a couple of the food plots, and kicked away some snow, and the winter rye is green under the 18" of snow. So at least once the snow melts down a little more, they will have some instant green food to eat. i looked at a bunch of trail cam pictures, the deer look to be healthy looking, and have fared the winter better then I expected, but winter really didnt start hard until February. As ST said, there is just to much snow in the woods yet to safely cut trees, so that will have to wait a couple weeks. The deer have been bedding on the north sides of any openings, catching the southerly sun. I didnt make it back to the sanctuary to see if they are in there or not, because there was a lot of snow on the ground, and walking through 2 feet of snow is not as fun as it sounds when you are pushing 50, but there was a lot of trails going in and out of there, so I assume they are still living the life in their safe place.

 

[MattDDO]

Been trying to as much as I can! Just wrapped up this small doe bedding area (at least until things start growing up).

 

[ksgobbler]

Cutting project done. They come out thursday to inspect.
Before

After

 

[j-bird]

I did a little burning and fruit tree pruning...Sunday.

My turnips for the most part are mush and STINK! I hoped that with my corn plots not doing well the deer would eat more of the turnips...they did to a limited extent...but not near as much as I had expected. Good thing turnips are cheap and good for the soil!

 

[H20fwler]

I had a saw in my hand most of the weekend too, went down the south side of little woods and trimmed back everything a few feet. Cut a few good sized hickories, for the most part everything fell or was drug into edge of woods...kind of a reverse feathering.
That should let my fruit trees that are planted in CRP strip take off this year, they were starting to get a little lean to the south as they grew and I didn't want any close competition for them. It should also make some good bunny habitat where the brush and trees are piled...planning on over seeding the exposed new area to clover mix and chicory.

 

[blueKYstream]

I had a saw in my hand most of the weekend too, went down the south side of little woods and trimmed back everything a few feet. Cut a few good sized hickories, for the most part everything fell or was drug into edge of woods...kind of a reverse feathering.
That should let my fruit trees that are planted in CRP strip take off this year, they were starting to get a little lean to the south as they grew and I didn't want any close competition for them. It should also make some good bunny habitat where the brush and trees are piled...planning on over seeding the exposed new area to clover mix and chicory.

Speaking from experience, edge feathering has done wonders for the rabbit population on my place. I'm hoping it will help some with turkey nesting as well but time will tell there. We had a very cold spring two years ago and a very wet spring last year.