Land projects 2024

Another thing, does anyone else get tired of these darn honey locust trees?! You can see a few of them in my pictures, those are the largest ones. I bet I cleared 15-20 of them and my hands hate me for it. Was worried about catching one of those hypodermic horns in the tractor tire as well

 

Well I have to say, I understand what your saying BUT I LOVE my locust. Now that said, I have black locust. I don’t know the differences in the two. Mine have thorns as well, though NO where nearly as bad as my american plum or the autum olive shrubs we have.
I love mine because I keep them in check in just one general area. I use them for fencing poles, great rot resistance. But it's their pods that make them a keeper. When they have a bumper pod year I have an increased deer population.
Last year especially, I had a miserable time seeing deer on our place in daylight, also few night time pics. Though we had a bunch of food. I know many and even I say, right now my under growth is so poor they won't stay. Well I'm completely surrounded by great bedding and hunters, yet alway have had great deer until the last few years. We've had a few new "move ins" in the last few years. Magically right after the end of season all the deer showed up..hhhmmm. Baiting is illegal so I plant plots. It’s hard to beat feeders ,corn piles and mineral blocks that I know are all over. Amazing the things one can see when they need deer search to come out. That and when your sitting quietly in the dark an hour before light, sound travels well in the hills.
So to that the biggest bedding area(snow beds) was in and near my locust patches. My summer and early bow season buck sightings were around the locust patches
To close this , I turkey hunt. 2 trees to keep, iron wood and locust. We have 200 red oak but zero white. They are great gap fillers on off years.

 

I know the deer love the pods, I just wish these trees didn't hurt so bad
I have dealt with Black Locust when I did tree service work and I didn't mind them too much. much smaller thorns. The Honey Locust thorns can be up to 4-6in long on a mature tree. They will pierce your boots, arms, gloves. Very painful.

 

I will definitely agree the wood is some of the best. Super dense and heavy, does not rot ever it seems. I cut a 50-60ft tall black locust down, roughly 30in trunk diameter. It took my largest skid loader to move the 4ft sections and it was the heaviest trailer load I ever hauled out.

 

Went and did some bedding area stuff, pictures don’t do it justice though.

 

Looking good. I'm curious, you have so much growth in there yet I see clumps of grass. I can't imagine with leaf out,all the lower with taller stuff allows much sun. I see this in many guys pics ,woods covered in grasses and weeds when having trees and shrubbery.
Here I am with yes wide open woods with a lot of crown cover but open areas that do get some sun and narry a blade of grass. Now moss I have moss everywhere, even in my limed wide open big fields. I lime every time I plant and every few years add iron.
I'm curiuos as to what your ph levels are. Our area on average need at the least 3 ton per acre. Which is why I lime every year.
Anytime I do open up any ground,trail or woods plot, moss immediately fills in.

 

The grass you are seeing in a sedge of some kind, as far as getting more sun , it will get even thicker and I was looking more for horizontal structure in these areas. The ph is about 6, at least close by on another plot. So far I haven’t had to lime anything but it probably would get better growth if I did.

 

Yah I figured you'd relay that type of #. When I took a sample in on my first big plot, I used the guys that farmers here use, it was the lowest reading he'd ever seen.
It does produce great berry patches though.
Wet, Cold, highly acidic soil.

 

I did some more trimming around one of the plots to get some more sun. I will start on the trail clean up when the snow we are supposed get goes away….

 

Always a good day when cutting wood. Nice saw! CS590?

 

Another 5 inches of snow arriving after 12 today....
Guy hasn't picked up Gator yet due to the salted roads. Not wanting to salt his trailer or our Gator. A show of common sense I'm hopeful on a good out come in repairs once things clear. Monday starts a warm up

 

Thanks, It’s a 501-P, the older I get the lighter I like. I also have a 600-P but that thing is a tank now for me.

 

Ahh I gotcha, I run all my saws with carbon light bars now. A few years in the tree service and I refuse to lug around weight. Lighter is definitely the way to go.

 

So things should be interesting around the property this year. Under stress many trees will produce tons of pods / seeds. We had 2 yrs of gypsy moth. Couple that with lots and lots of rain, thus the total uprooting of mature trees. Well there is literally not a square inch on most of the woods or the lawn not growing maple seedlings. I also have to add trout lilies to that, more of those than ever seen in 30 years.

 

Yesterday I had raked the new trail plot next to house. Loosening soil and derocking last year cause a lot of rock percolating this winter. A process, so I raked off rocks and loosened soil then tossed our red and white clover before this next rain and cold spell. Only got 100ft x 20ft done but it's a start before leaf out. First time limed last year and rye put down. That had little growth, but was put in late and the limes had time to work over winter. My fingers are crossed. Busy, busy.

 

2/3 of the trail plot is finally raked and seeded in red& White clover. Several boulders taken out and a slew of rocks. We have 30's at night starting tonight. Misted the whole time I seeded

 

The WW/ rape seed plots are looking good. May leave some to allow chickens feed in.
Speaking of, here is the enclosed run. Where it had been and what it looked like before it was moved to an area. They are great de-rockers and weed killers. I'll rake the rocks then will lay down some alfalfa..

 

I made it up to the property today for a little bit, dropped off a ton of lime for one of my plots and hopefully I will get to spread it within the next couple of days if it doesn’t rain again. It is still wet and might be too muddy to get it up to the plot.
Walked around a little bit to see if I have any germination from the frost seeded clover and all of the spots are germinating well.

 

Power company is replacing a good many poles all over our area. They stopped at our pole as I was pulling wild mustard out of our wet area before if flowers. I asked them about the old poles. They cut thrm up and dicard them. I said would you like a place c to put them?
They asked how many I want and I said as many as they want to drop off. They said 5 to 10 ft long .Ok Thanks!

 

I put all the lime down and disked it in, I plan on going back tomorrow and seeding it with clover and a cheap cover crop. It would be nice if it was a little bit drier so I will see if it’s doable or not tomorrow. The forecast around here is for rain Friday night, Saturday on and off showers so it would be ideal conditions.