Here is the latest Google image...it's from 2013. You can see 2 of my food plots pretty clearly, but the one in the blow sand area has since doubled in size. By the time this aerial was taken, I had cleared approx 1/2 the blow sand area of Bush honeysuckle and planted 900 trees in that area. I had also cleared about 4 acres of the hardwood area...leaving the mature timber. And I had put in my trail system
Love it Booner....I nearly bought an old landfill at a tax sale....seems to be the only ground I can afford around me
Here's a couple more of the Bush honeysuckle in the hardwood area. You can really see how thick it gets
Here is the same area after I cleared it. This is my plot of imperial edge now. The ph here was the lowest ive found on the farm...but not unexpected since it was in the middle of the woods. It was 5.7 the first year. I've added several tons of lime& now it's at 6.5
Here is what the blow sand area looks like. It has been interesting to say the least to get things to grow here
The edge plot is not easy to access, so I used a walk behind tiller to put it in. Lots of "sweat equity."
This was the beginning of what is now my largest and best plot. It started as a natural opening in the center of the blow sand area. Surprisingly, soil ph was a near perfect 6.9, so I didn't add any lime for the first 2 years. I first mowed it with a lawn mower as I did not have any equipment. Then I waited 10 days and sprayed it with glyphosphate
This was the result of the first year. It did great The problem is I keep expanding it to provide more food. Look at the condition of the plot in these 2 pics...first one is late August...2nd is December 31...almost nothing left
This was the first buck I ever got a picture of in the food plot. I named him primo and killed him the following year
Overall deer traffic has steadily increased over the years. Now they are spending the winter on the farm too
Here is a travel corridor I put in leading from the sanctuary swamp to my main plot, with a stand placed in between. The deer are really using it. One benefit of all the honeysuckle is if you give the deer an easy way to walk through it, they will take it. So far this year I have re established my mineral sites, and I just did some chainsaw work to create a travel barrier so the deer can't get downwind of a couple of my stands, and also to funnel movement past my stand instead of filtering through the timber Notice I left a trail along the exterior of the hinge cut to encourage deer movement along there Here is an area I completely closed off to prevent deer from walking downwind of my stand
Here is the same area of hardwoods. The first pic is what most of the area looks like. The second is 20yds away where I cleared the Bush honeysuckle 2 years ago. It is now an awesome stand location
Yesterday I took a chainsaw and solved a problem. I have some neighbors that have figured out I'm holding deer on my property. They have placed stands all around my property line where trails lead into my property. I can't make them move their stand, but I can make the deer not want to use those trails. I dropped trees and piled brush across and around these areas making it nearly impossible for a deer to walk these specific trails. Instead, I created easy trails further back into my property that get the deer to the same place they want to go, it just takes a wide circle around the neighbors stand now. Here is a before and after pic. The neighbors stand is in the big oak on the upper left of the pic
I hinge cut another small section yesterday. Only about 2/3 of an acre. Basically all junk trees (cottonwood & Chinese elm) and Bush honeysuckle. I created a little bedding area between two of my plots with a trail circling the perimeter
lots of hard work your doing. what i've done to my propery almost mirrors yours. this pic shows what the back point looks like (big river bend) about 14 acres we leave as a sanctuary. the future looks brite!
