After looking through some old pictures today, I thought I would make a thread chronologically organizing photos of a project my wife and I took on last winter. The start: What makes land ideal for deer to comfortably move during daylight hours? We picked an area that I use to rabbit hunt, in a 7 year old clearcut. Perfectly hidden in the middle of this area, we began to map out a food plot. We didn't use any machinery at the beginning, just a couple machetes. We started small, real small, maybe 1/20th of an acre. At times, that even felt too big. I can't stress how long this took. We were only able to work on it on the weekends and only a couple hours a day when we did. It felt like this project was going nowhere, at times, almost felt like we took on too big of an area for just a machete. Literally inch by inch the plot began to open up. Keep in mind this is a 7 year old clearcut. 7 years worth of briers and vines growing and building a root system. I'm 6'4" and these briers and vines were over my head. I couldn't walk through this brush, we had to stand on the outside edge of it and hack away then clear what we just cut and hack away again. After spending multiple weekends on this project, and honestly, getting frustrated at how long this was taking, I set out to find the best way to cut and clear the brush at the same time. I felt like a barbarian at times. Yes, fire came to my mind, quite often, but it was too risky since I didn't have access to machinery at the time. Well, I figured out that I could "roll" the vines and briers on top of each other which exposed the roots. This way seemed to be a little faster, thought it still took FOREVER. A shot a little further back (the plot is 1/4 open) Even tho it started to open up, we still had a LONG ways to go.. In the next picture (not sure if you'll be able to see it) there is a 20' sycamore tree. The brush is covering it up pretty good in this picture, but just as a reference, it is currently in the center of my food plot. We kept up the rolling and cutting idea until spring start to come around. Hoping to be done before spring we quickly realized the project was taking a lot longer than expect, so we hurried and cleared out a 100 sq ft area to try a spring test plot for some Antler King products. Miss Lori literally hand pulled nearly every root in the plot, to assure there was no competition for the AK seed. We tested soil, applied the lime and broadcasted the seed. We sealed this plot of with fishing line. At first, it was slow to grow and a little spotty. But after a couple weeks of idea growing conditions, it shot off like a rocket. The clover was growing close to a foot tall Excited from how it grew, I wanted to plant the rest of the plot in late summer. That meant, we had to get back to work and clear the rest of the area out. Well by this time in the summer it's hotter than blue blazes and well, we weren't liking the idea of breaking the ground with a garden hoe. The only piece of equipment that was going to fit back there was a compact tractor. A made a call to my cousin, he recently bought one and had a box blade. It BARLEY squeezed between the two trees on the entrance path. And when I mean barely, I mean. I had to stop, reverse, cut the wheel, move forward a couple inches and then repeat at least 100 times.
Why didn't we think of this at the beginning?! There's no telling how big the plot could have been! It made short work for the rest of the brush. After it was all cleared, we flipped the tines down to break up the ground. Here's the sycamore tree that I referred to earlier... I'm standing in about the same spot from the last photo. This plot had some of the blackest dirt I have seen in eastern NC. It was going to be a GREAT plot. Well after almost 6 months from the start to finish, we had the perfect honey hole. Now all we had to do was test the rest of the soil, apply the lime and fertilizer and then pray for rain! Here's how it turned out.
Call me nuts, but I like to hunt! Hopefully more great photos to come with a couple hero pictures in years to come
So not sure why I posted this in the Trail Camera section? Could a Mod help me out and move this to the Food Plot section??
This season the does seemed to like it a lot, which in return, the bucks showed up. I was really surprised that a couple mature bucks on the farm made it a regular pattern to show up, even during daylight hours.
My man, hats off to you and your lovely lady. She really looks like she's enjoying herself! What you and your helper pulled off is amazing, considering what you had to work with initially. That really is a great example of determination. I do tree work for a living, so I have a real appreciation for what you did. That really will be a HONEY HOLE!
I love it when a plan comes together! Great job and I'm sure you will reap the rewards of your hard work. Blessings.........Pastorjim
The plan this winter is to extend this plot into a horseshoe. Hopefully opening an area up that I'll be able to access and exit better as well as give me stand location possibilities.
We had the work cut out for us. I enjoyed the project, especially with my wife. Hopefully next year the deer will really get use to the plot and use it more often.
