Land projects 2023

Everything here is on hold right now with 2 feet of snow on the ground. I’m going stir crazy just waiting…..

 

Don't know why (bad seeds) last year but I'm gonna go all out with pumpkins this year.

 

I stopped and checked clearance seeds I picked up 24 #'s of a "T" rye/ clover /rape mix for $20. Here they do eat rye but this is a specific mid woods area getting it. Then got 40#'s of a grain,brassica,legume mix for $17. That will go to a spring woods lot that will be over seeded in fall clovers.
I drove bye to check lower road frontage in swamp. I think I spotted red twig dogwood. So going down In a few days shovel and bag in hand to dbl check. I'm hoping it's not wild rose. I'll be digging up sprouts to transfer up the hill. Son came and picked up some of the wood I'd stacked so that's clearing up a few spots near the house.
I couldn't find and potting soil when out and had daughter order 2 from Sams. She said they'd gotten 12 pallets in and all but one was gone already. That tells you how ppl. are feeling about food. Also it spiked big time in price. 34 dollars from 2 bags!.

 

Today was a good day, the saw came out was cleaned, filled and started on 2nd pull. I measured set and squared the corner stakes for the green house coop. Then the native plums got a severe hair cut with some clean up. They have had lots of flowers but no fruit the last few years. Hoping this pushes a set. Then on to zipping an area around a plot and apple trees . Previous cut sprout trims and bushes cut back. A maple cut that got hung up. Will rig it if need be after tomorrow's winds. After that I headed down the Hill to main front field. Downed a maple shading apples, and started on the blk locust to make posts and open sun.
A.J. started acting out so had to come home after dropping 3 of those. Oh pulled a bunch of plant stalks from garden,corn, brassica and seed radish.

 

I'm so sick of winds
I can work in deep snow, freezing temps, rain, and snow. They add 12-20mph winds 30-40 gusts I'm stuck inside.

 

Yesterday A. J and I did a dead sapling downing hike yesterday. OMG he loves taking down dead trees. All I need to do is point to one and he viscously attacks it.
I also did a heaved rock removal on a middle woods trail I plan on planting. The heaving has loosened and exposed many of the bigflat shale and heavy round granite(?) Not big on rock ID but they are big heavy pretty pink / salmon colored rocks. I'll be raking off moss and more surface rocks to prep it for lime and fertalizers. It will be a surface vary miminal soil disruption seeding the first couple of years. The are tons of equipment ruining rocks. By disrupting the surface will cause easier frost heaving the following winter. I'll hand remove those and then eventually be able to get the disc or tiller on it.

 

Man tree trimming and hauling brush, is just never ending.
If you ever think about planting wild plum think very hard!!!! I would only do it again in an area I do not want trespassers and dislike the neighbors. They root spread VERY FAR AND WIDE. They also rival if not beat buckthorn in dangerous spikes along their limbs. I look like I got in a tangle with a Tom cat!
Cut back a bunch of slashing , autumn olive and honey suckle brush.
Unfortunately winters coming back starting tonight.

 

Today was a recover the equipment temp barn then recover the deer freezer motor that got exposed. Winds!
Pulled many spent garden plants for compost bin. All my garlic is doing great! Strawberries are looking good too but will need a weed and runner clearing.
Hubbie came over and checked with some adjustments the square on green house /coop stakes. So I start digging corner posts as soon as weather allows.
First round of chick's and ducks get purchased this week

 

We are down to about a foot of snow now, but we have a bunch more coming this week….. will be another month for me unfortunately….

 

We are due for lots of rain and then just dusting of snow. Winds are killing me. I can't get cutting done I fear eing in the woods and my hands get frozen fast

 

So this is my research planning time and besides the garden and chickens the wild "live stock" are on my mind. I know and have known for years just about everyone around me do at least one type of illegal feeding or another. I plant and it's getting harder to fight the commercial attracts and feeders that increase as season nears. Besides the wildlife trees I have coming this spring which are hazelnut and ...Ha! I can't remember right now. Some shrub.then the fruits trees that won't fruit for several years, I've been researching partial shade plantings for the wood lots. Comfrey. I planted it years ago for the kids goats and pigs and fertilizer tea/ mulch. A perennial. Now I had several years, in a garden and had bought the sterile species to avoid spread. It stayed put but doesn't put out much.
This said our son bought an old farm stead house with it's remaining 5 acres. Comfrey was a very important herb/ feed supplement and they had planted common comfrey.....it spread EVERY Where. Likes shady areas is a cut and come again plant that can growth to 5ft. High protein with high nutrients that attract buck and doe improving fawn growth and rack growth. It also has healing powers for rutting buck.
I've decided to dIvide and plant mine near the house and a few plot stands. Then dig up and plant several from sons into the deep wooded areas where I want deer to travel and bed more. I don't know why I didnt think to do this sooner. For one thing our son can't keep the deer,turkey and bear out of his yard and he has houses with dogs way closer than us. Another is I can't walk past that front garden at the end of drive without kicking up deer. I assumed it was the fruit but when that's gone the Comfrey dissappears. It's also a great bee attractant.
This will be only in areas that have nothing growing in the understory. I have areas with lots of wild plants I would never risk . Because we have different "zones" on the same property I'm not concerned about too wide a spread. I only have one BAD invasive a logging company brought in and is a continuous fight, Chinese garlic.

 

Another year and work screwed by sick and deep snow. I'm slowly working back up physically by hiking the hill in the snow plus the drive shoveling. Well today God showed me a gift. I had a whole lot of massive poplar on the place. I've taken down most with my little sthil pruner. A few though are an issue well over 2 ft. Diameter and 100 ft tall in tight woods and straight straight trunks. Now it's the straight trunk that's the issue. They cut easy enough ,that said they also snap easy enough as well. With a trunk that wide getting the proper wedge is nearly impossible. So they just kept growing. Today I found the hardest of them with the entire top snapped off and leaning against the trunk. There goes the shading. Here's food and bedding for the deer perhaps nesting for the turkey and I know the woodpeckers will be moving in soon. Made my day. Though a clear reminder of just why I fear my woods on breezy days especially.

 

Yesterday I was out for a hike to find several more trees with tops blown out and many Y trees split down the center. All that will be cut. To add to that I found just a slew of ash that will,if not already, die or be dead. Definitely beetle infected from the bird damage to bark. It's been a rough winter in OND's woods. What ma nature takes I'm hoping she gives. This being in more sun for understory growth. Land orientation to sun with a tall thick mature tree canopy is our woods biggest issue to understory growth. Ma nature is self thinning.

 

So yesterdays storms here were pretty wild. We list a bunch more good mature trees and luckily some bad ones that need cutting but too dangerous to do. A lot of hung up trees. More split trees. So much tree trash across and blocking trails..

 

Hhmmm wait until the guy cutting all those mature Norway gets all the beautiful sunshine they want, accompanied by all the winds they had been protected from....surprise!!!!

 

I just wish I could get out and walk in the woods!!

 

65 today...well let me check again. It changes every 15 mins...

 

So much done today. I'm paying for it though. Sore and cramping I harrow dragged all upper plots. Wow the drag got way heavier this year,,,lol No I used Gator ,just setting the drag up and having to flip it to move it area to area plus cleaning debris
I layed down some seed and will lay down more before the rain in the morning. Lots of the work was done on very wet soil so I could pull up and disturb some nasty Vining weeds, 2 in flower already before the dragging I used the back pack blower. Used the blower after dragging to blow off all the sheet moss that grows everywhere here. I have lime to put down

 

Went back out and finished the seeding of plots out back
This said went against all the youtube guys in what was planted. See that area is shaded, part of it is farely new so not years of liming yet and some I believe grows little due to lack of moisture. Those big timber trees suck up a lot of water and the entire area slopes pretty good.
So I took the two bags of throw and grow from TSC , which is mainly annual rye grass with minute amounts clovers and rape then I added balansia clover and a few different other clovers with trophy rape and went over it again.
Now all I want is green, roots in ground and bug cover. I need to stabilize the bare soil, give critters a visual aid, produce some bugging cover with a bit of moisture holding and weed suppression. If I can get all that accomplished I can mow late summer and hit it with grains and a bit more clover.
I also finished up the leaf blowing on plot trail behind house to the front garden plot. Two areas that are fairly new and sorta connect plots across the street. Lots of de-rocking and weed elimination needed there with a bunch of lime. Blew off trail to plot behind garden and got a lot of heavy weed clumps off plot the dragging rolled up. I'm trying to decide if I should just top dress it heavy with clover and the two bags of lime I have before this afternoons thunderstorms. We have a few nights in the 20's coming that may frost it into the soils better. Beside today is 70's and there aren't too many cool days ahead.. I want some growth before I hit it with 24DB and grass killers.
Most say hey thats all fall work. Yep for most but fall for me is garden and canning/ freezing, keeping up with the leaf fall. Putting gardent to bed , cleaning trails and I've added a flock of chickens to the m8x which will need winterizing.
That and the equipment needs to be cleaned and prepped for winter.
So getting spring things in I can tweak in late summer is a must. Doing it well before turkey opener and garden planting in May Is even more important.

 

Good thing I spent a bit of time driving all over what I planted. Storm came through and rained so hard a streamopened up in the middle of the corn field and I have standing water on done side of plots that I had lined in the rocksI had picked out of plot. Well I know where most of green up will be..lolstill really warm out