What are yours? Mine is to finish up 2019 projects. I have so many trees to cut, many bad trees, dead and dying beech, ash, maple. I still have a few more popular to take out. Cleaning up of the oak flats removing crowding maples. Enclosed blinds to build. This before spring. Tree trimming. A few presets for the saddle. Fencing to finish. Planting, well that changes as I think about it but may go back to the cowpeas and sunflowers. I know a March frost seeding will happen . Then there is the corn issue. I have always broadcast feed corn. It has grown great, until year before last. 100#s on a half acre..not one plant came up! Now yes thats a lot but we have mobs of squirrel that are crazed diggers, flocks of wild turkey scratching and pecking. I don't worry about crow, though grackles and robins are little @$%#\%&&\%\$! . Lets not forget cut worms. Even at that they can't account for all the corn not growing. I figured a hotter drying that sterilized it. So I bought a bag after season to feed the squirrel away from bird feeders. They have their own bird feeder with corn only. Saves the feeders and suet for birds. Anyhow pushed a few seeds into the fig tree pots I brought in. They all sprouted and are growing. So I'll give that a go again this year. It always has to go in late, June, because our turkey season is of all of May. Hunting after planting the corn would be like baiting in my opinion. Though I do disc the areas early, those turkey do love a loose soil to dust and bug in . No shortage of all kinds of grubs here. Now that all starts this week,weather willing.
So many knowledgeable hunters and land managers here. I know my style of posting may turn some off . They tend to be long . Try to get past that, to my goal, getting experiences and goals from others on many aspects of their management and goals. Pictures, successes and fails. Out of the box ideas shared by all for all going into 2020.
Missed the last of this season due to lousy weather this weekend. Going to do some preseason scouting with my grandson and take some photos to sell to magazines, either separate or with articles. Helps support my habits. Nothing out-of-the-box, just plain ol' anticipation and planning. Have some private land and WMAs to hunt close to home. BTW,our church is about 1-1/2 miles from me. Seen turkeys and deer on the property. Saw a hen turkey and called our son to let his youngest daughter see it. When she saw it, "Daddy, can I hold it?"
Wow what a great cool day,NO WIND!!!. I sit here in a turkey blind relaxing and considering all the things to be done. Still laying low after this bug Everyone's fighting. Great time to do rock heaving removal. Which I've done a bit today. Cleaning trails. My tractor tires are about shot. Shale tends to heave on its side . Cuts the tires bad. Then planning the liming that will be done soon. Great time to lime kill down plots or new areas to be planted . Frost heaving, rain, snow ect... works lime in well right now, so deeper tillage isn't needed. No lime on established perennials though, not good on winter stressed plants.
Well the bottom dropped out . Single digets last nigt, 20's today. Same over weekend. Not much snow ,so thats good and winds have calmed. Looks like I can trim the fruit and nut trees and brush now.
After spending a few days cutting big bad trees ,yesterday was a fruit trimming day. Got the chestnuts, peach and apple in tree plot done. Some of the wild apple and plum partially done. I was hand trimming , though the pruning pole saws have to come now. Today is a go to store day thanks to several days of snow then freezing rain is starting tonight. Then will be back at it again. How are you guys coming along with projects?
Got started on some trimming around some of the fruit trees on the property. Working on a plan to replace a lot of timber lost over the last couple seasons. The Emerald Ash Borers have done a real number on our ash tree population...almost entirely opening up one stand of timber that was once thick as could be. Should lead to some nice new undergrowth, but I want to get some trees up in there so that they can start growing and reestablish the woody area. Planning on putting a mix in there, some evergreens, oaks, chestnut, and some fruit trees. A couple more box blinds to be built this year, and continuing to clean up/make various improvements. This will be season three on our "new" property, so every year we try to take a few more steps forward. Hoping to add a significant amount of new food source to hold deer throughout the season, as well as to nourish them, as well as the turkey, ducks, etc. Never ends...but love every minute of it!
If your big into turkey I'll give you a tip a DEC forester gave me pointing at one of my eastern hop horn. " You want to keep turkey, keep these! " He was correct but missed saying it about deer as well. I watch all deer walking around on 2 legs eating the fall producing droups.. Shrub is also very important maintaining brush honey suckle, grey dogwood, chokecherry kept cut low and sumac. I also plant bush cherry, hazelnuts blue berry and aronia bushes plus gogji. I'm also very careful about where I will or will not disturb my land, we have crazy amount of wild berry. Bear berry, wild strawberry, poke berry, elder red and blk berry , raspberry , blk caps and blk berry . I avoid these areas. I avoid two paticular areas that in spring as you walk the ground moves infront of you. They are baby grasshopper hatchs. Turkey LOVE grasshoppers. I rarely see adults during the year. Wild spring flowers and blk cohlish.
The wife said last night that there was too much to get done and that there was no way we were going to be able to move this year. Guess I better get ready to till under the plot and start over.
Been meaning to chime in here for a few days, so here ya go. I hunt a 40 acre jungle of cedars. There are some edges with good diversity but mostly these dang cedars that a man can get lost in. Not really, but you get the point. So my first order of business is trimming access lanes on the edges and one through the middle. The West and South edges are the hardest to get around with the Wast edge fenced off with a 10 foot chain link most of the way (bordering a lumber mill). I want to be able to move in to the property from the outside edges depending on wind, but doing that quickly and quietly is impossible currently. Secondly I'm trying some small no till plots near the limited good stand locations in a "path" method instead of large patch method. I want a food highway to pass by stands/blinds not a food parking lot. Nothing has been touched on this property in probably 20+ years so it is a tangle mess. Great bedding but it is literally everywhere making it harder to pin point funnels and travel patterns. There are some spots that are obvious and I've capitalized on those, but I want to be able to move around better and not soak an area with my presence throughout the season. So that's where I'm at for now. It is a really cool property and I wish it was mine, but I'm lucky to have exclusive permission on it. Would love if I could convince the landowner to do a burn. The golden rod is head high in the summer and serves as an early warning mechanism to the deer in the winter, and I don't own a bush hog.
Sounds like you've thought out your plan based on your knowledge of movement. Most of my plots are "trail" plots. Thats how I started years ago with a hand sprayer, push lime / fertilizer spreader, weed whacker and rock rake.. Remember when doing these, the path of the sun what you see now will be totally different come fall. Google sun seasonal angle charts. This will help you lay out those narrow plots here are some pics of mine.
Every spot I'm planning is south facing and fairly open, but I didnt even think of that till you mentioned it. Thanks! That would be important. Sent from my SM-G960U using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
Man this snow is keeping me out of the woods...to deep for gater and I need the gator to haul saws. Now more snowand a deep freeze is on the way...I hate getting behind.
This weather is getting old. Cold as heck out there,17, and now snowing hard. Of course the wind is low today..figures. Bringing in the bag of pine mulch and potting soil to defrost. I hate this, it comes in from the south and I'm a bug nut having lived in florida and daughter in Georgia. They will be tied up tight in garbage bags . Then if temps hit mid 30's I'll fix tree pots out on porch. I'm as usual starting to get way behind, especially because I'm planning several builds . The first is more of the neighbor fencing. This is a big one because of the # of hit sites and carcasses found along that area this late winter. A hoop house in the garden and one to two towers for stands. This on top of regular work.
Today I finally decided on where to buy my clovers. Geez I hate shipping but still cheaper than local and better variety. I went to Welters and ordered 15 #'s of clover. I got 5 #'s each of Lidino, jumbo ll, and Aslike. All 4.05 - 4.80# but they added 9 .00 for their under 25 fee and shipping was 15 something. So 15# for 80.00. Still at about 5.33# is cheaper than the 6 - 8 for regular lidino locally pricing.
A few years ago I had a property that I had 2 really nice food plots that I planted every year... Planted a little bit of everything in those plots over the years soy beans, cow peas, blue lupine, clover, barrasica blends, oats ya all know the deal. It was so much fun - I tended to over hunt those spots just because I enjoyed seeing so many deer eat what I had planted. I bet I did more harm than good on that property. My lease that I have now has a couple really nice areas that were cleared out so the land owner could land his little ultralight airplane. The first year we really tried to work the soil and get it the point that it would be sucessful but the subsoil and erosion was just a little too much to overcome. A couple years have passed - nature has run it's course - we've left it alone. I think in 2020 we will make another go of it. I am not going to put a single stand on this plots - only transition areas between bedding and feeding. Done learned my lesson. Probably will section the plot off into 3 sections but mainly will focus my efforts around clover and a barassica blend would be my guess. Really just a matter of planning/timing on getting the plots in at the right time. As for other projects... I've got some trails that need to be cleared from when the property was timbered a few years back. Timber company didn't do a great job cleaning up some areas - it's really not my responsability but sometimes I feel like I've got more love/respect for the property than the land owner. I'd gladly spend some time cleaning it up and they will gladly tell me to have it.
I'm trying to get more clovers in. I do mixed plots in fall of winter things but that has me out there planting just before or as bucks are transitioning. So this year I'm looking at the clovers, but also planting spring fall crops. That is back into some corn. Now I use feed corn and it has worked well most years. Over seeded in clovers or winter rye. Also all those inexpensive bags commercial winter pea ,oats,brassica and clover I picked up planted this spring. Then adding sugar beets,major swede and kale. The last three have very long growing times. When I say spring planting it is late May early June due to turkey being all of May and only 1/2 days. Several bags of soy bean are going in with a swede over seed and red clover. Easy because deer hammer it keeping it thin.
You make me feel like I'm just not doing enough! Really cool seeing all your efforts in all seriousness. I have gotten some progress on clearing access and now the deer are using the trails which I knew would happen. Now I'm focused on one part of the property that is a fantastic travel corridor. I need to "steer" them a little bit to take advantage of an ideal tree. But the setup is perfect in NW, W winds which are predominate in November. I have to get some clover in but it has been really wet here. Question. The area I want to broadcast clover is over run with golden rod that is dead. Should I broadcast then mow in a week or two? Nothing is growing yet so the weed control will come later. Or should I mow first? I'm thinking mow after a week or two for additional top cover over the young clover, but I dont know what I'm doing. New to the game. Sent from my SM-G960U using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
You should check out halehabitat.com next year. They offer free shipping on 5 lb bags when you buy 25 lbs. not sure if the per pound would end up being cheaper or not for you or if they have the exact seed you want. What date are Wisconsin folks frost seeding? Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
I would wait to broadcast your seed until after you spray. Let it die back, broadcast, then roll over it to knock it down or I suppose you could mow it too. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
