Working at the Farm - Took a few I-Phone Pics

Native Hunter · Nov 14, 2021

My son killed the oldest buck on our place this morning. We had named him the Toad Frog Buck.

We were hunting together and in the blind well before daylight. Just before legal shooting time, I saw what appeared to be a buck pushing a doe in one of the food plots, but it was too early to see well. Daylight came and we had a long dry spell of not seeing anything. The morning was wearing away, and finally 6 does came out into another plot to our West and started feeding.

We were watching these does but also looking at other places at the same time. All of a sudden I saw a single doe to the East in a shooting lane and she turned into the NWSGs. Right behind her was the buck, and he also disappeared into the NWSGs. I had another shooting lane about 200 yards in the direction they were heading, so my son got set and started watching there. We never saw the doe again, but sure enough, the buck popped out into the other lane, but then quickly went back into cover. My son waited patiently, and in a few minutes the buck reappeared. This time he was able to get on him and the rest is history.

The shot was roughly 266 yards. The bullet entered the lungs on the right side and exited through the shoulder on the left side. The deer jumped and cut off into cover fast, but we found him only 25 yards from where he was hit. I was glad to see him get this deer, and it was all the two of us could do to get him into the bed of the pickup.

George · Nov 15, 2021

That's a girthy deer and rack, congratulations.

G

Native Hunter · Nov 15, 2021

George said:
That's a girthy deer and rack, congratulations.

G

Thanks G and good luck with your hunting.

weekender21 · Nov 15, 2021

The toad frog has been eating good! What a tank!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Native Hunter · Nov 15, 2021

weekender21 said:
The toad frog has been eating good! What a tank!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks man, and congratulations on your awesome bow kill...!

KSQ2 · Nov 15, 2021

What a pig!

Cedar Ridge · Nov 16, 2021

Great deer, Native! Congrats to your son and to you.

KSQ2 · Dec 11, 2021

You guys dodge the storms? I wasn’t sure what part of Kentucky you were in.

Native Hunter · Dec 11, 2021

KSQ2 said:
You guys dodge the storms? I wasn’t sure what part of Kentucky you were in.

Thanks for checking on me KSQ2. Yes, I'm in Central KY, and by the time it got here, we just had strong winds but no tornados. It did cause a lot of power outages around me, but no severe damage like at other places. Our driveway was covered with tree limbs, but it didn't take me too long to clear them out.

Western KY is like a war zone, especially around the City of Mayfield. They are about 4 hours west of me. There are also some places Northwest of here that I understand were hit hard too. I know a lot of people in some of those areas and will be trying to check on them as this continues to unfold. Thanks again for checking, and take care my friend.

George · Dec 12, 2021

Native Hunter said:
Western KY is like a war zone, especially around the City of Mayfield.

Ya, it looks like Hiroshima.

G

KSQ2 · Dec 12, 2021

George said:
Ya, it looks like Hiroshima.

G

I figured you were in the clear George, considering the hills you live in. They don’t look that conducive to tornadoes.

Native Hunter · Dec 23, 2021

12-23-21 Update:

Hello everyone. I haven't posted much for a while but wanted to catch up a little. After my son killed his buck shown above, I continued to hunt some. We still had meat in the freezer from last year, so I didn't have an itchy trigger finger. I ended up seeing some good bucks but decided to pass them in hopes that they would make it through gun season - and the good news is that most are still alive. I hope this gives us some good options for next year.

This first buck shown below is the one I passed a shot at on the first Thursday of gun Season. He may be 4.5, but I still felt that he could gain some by next year. I have recent pics, so he has survived.

This next one is a deer that I had my crosshairs on during late muzzleloader season - at least I think it was him. He came to my farm late in the season, and I had no previous history on him, so I thought another year might help him too.

This next one is a mature deer that I knew and probably would have shot if the opportunity had presented itself. However, he seemed to have a rabbit's foot in his pocket. One evening when I was hunting, I got a call that a relative had died. I came right on out of my stand and headed home after that. That same evening, the deer was out in a shooting lane before dark. The next time I had a pic of him, was the day of the funeral. Maybe next year, I will have the rabbit's foot and get him.

Here is a deer that I think is only 2.5 years old. He has survived too. Anxious to see what he becomes. He is a mainframe 10 and already has stickers on both sides.

I've also been doing some miscellaneous habitat work, and have recently set 10 more fruit trees to see how they do in the south. All of these are proven varieties in the north, and I'm going to give them a whirl down here. I will give some more details on these trees later on. I'm double tagging these trees just to make sure nothing gets confused or lost. I will use the cattle tags as backups and keep notes on an Excel Spreadsheet each year.

Below are just a few more pictures from this fall for your viewing enjoyment. My next habitat work will be doing some mowing for turkey hunting next spring and also doing some hinge cutting to thicken up the woods in a few more areas.

Mennoniteman · Dec 23, 2021

Native Hunter said:
12-23-21 Update:

Hello everyone. I haven't posted much for a while but wanted to catch up a little. After my son killed his buck shown above, I continued to hunt some. We still had meat in the freezer from last year, so I didn't have an itchy trigger finger. I ended up seeing some good bucks but decided to pass them in hopes that they would make it through gun season - and the good news is that most are still alive. I hope this gives us some good options for next year.

This first buck shown below is the one I passed a shot at on the first Thursday of gun Season. He may be 4.5, but I still felt that he could gain some by next year. I have recent pics, so he has survived.

This next one is a deer that I had my crosshairs on during late muzzleloader season - at least I think it was him. He came to my farm late in the season, and I had no previous history on him, so I thought another year might help him too.

This next one is a mature deer that I knew and probably would have shot if the opportunity had presented itself. However, he seemed to have a rabbit's foot in his pocket. One evening when I was hunting, I got a call that a relative had died. I came right on out of my stand and headed home after that. That same evening, the deer was out in a shooting lane before dark. The next time I had a pic of him, was the day of the funeral. Maybe next year, I will have the rabbit's foot and get him.

Here is a deer that I think is only 2.5 years old. He has survived too. Anxious to see what he becomes. He is a mainframe 10 and already has stickers on both sides.

I've also been doing some miscellaneous habitat work, and have recently set 10 more fruit trees to see how they do in the south. All of these are proven varieties in the north, and I'm going to give them a whirl down here. I will give some more details on these trees later on. I'm double tagging these trees just to make sure nothing gets confused or lost. I will use the cattle tags as backups and keep notes on an Excel Spreadsheet each year.

Below are just a few more pictures from this fall for your viewing enjoyment. My next habitat work will be doing some mowing for turkey hunting next spring and also doing some hinge cutting to thicken up the woods in a few more areas.

The "Garden of Eden" I tell you.

Native Hunter · Dec 23, 2021

Mennoniteman said:
The "Garden of Eden" I tell you.

We try hard!

Mennoniteman · Dec 23, 2021

Native Hunter said:
We try hard!

I enjoy seeing the earth yield her bounties when someone applies good husbandry to the soil. The one thing that a lot of us are spending a lot of time and resources on is soil building, I buy all the fertilizer and lime that I can afford each year, plant certain species to balance nutrients and get my OM higher, and the numbers get a little closer to where they are supposed to be every year, but some of the pictures that you show are unattainable on my spread due to the poor soil. On the home farm we planted a crop and it grew. On my hunting farm I need to do everything right, or it's a planting failure, for example, I planted 7 pawpaws last year and none made it, usually on average 10-20% of the trees we plant die, and the ones that live grow slowly. What made me think of this was your picture of the persimmon tree, persimmons have proven difficult in our shale soil, but pears do really well. I don't recall of you talking about dirt, I am curious what kind of topsoil you have on your farm? I have friends around Hopkinsville and they have pretty good dirt there...

Native Hunter · Dec 23, 2021

Mennoniteman said:
I enjoy seeing the earth yield her bounties when someone applies good husbandry to the soil. The one thing that a lot of us are spending a lot of time and resources on is soil building, I buy all the fertilizer and lime that I can afford each year, plant certain species to balance nutrients and get my OM higher, and the numbers get a little closer to where they are supposed to be every year, but some of the pictures that you show are unattainable on my spread due to the poor soil. On the home farm we planted a crop and it grew. On my hunting farm I need to do everything right, or it's a planting failure, for example, I planted 7 pawpaws last year and none made it, usually on average 10-20% of the trees we plant die, and the ones that live grow slowly. What made me think of this was your picture of the persimmon tree, persimmons have proven difficult in our shale soil, but pears do really well. I don't recall of you talking about dirt, I am curious what kind of topsoil you have on your farm? I have friends around Hopkinsville and they have pretty good dirt there...

Thanks Mennoniteman. My soils are good but not quite what I would call cropland; however, they are better than most typical hunting land. Before I started the habitat thing, my place was a cattle farm, so it had received some fertilizer over the years for the hay. All of my soils are on the acidic side, and that is why chestnuts and oaks do so well here. I can grow decent food plots without lime, but it definitely helps them when I sweeten the soil a little. On all of my land it is over 25 feet down to solid rock, but most of my soils are rocky, with small rocks. In the low areas, like the pics of the food plots above, I have a mixture of about 70% loam and about 30% clay. On the higher ground, it is almost all loam, with very little clay.

I can also grow apples without lime, but I decided last year to start adding a little from time to time around the apple trees. I know it will help them, and won't be that big of a job for me.

I do feel like I'm cheating a little on my main food plot. I put it in the area where cattle had been fed (and stood pooping) for the last 30 years. Needless to say that spot has received some extra fertilizer...

deer patch · Jan 2, 2022

Native…What kind of usage are you getting with the canola, will you plant it in the future and if so where did you get your seed?

Native Hunter · Jan 2, 2022

deer patch said:
Native…What kind of usage are you getting with the canola, will you plant it in the future and if so where did you get your seed?

Deer Patch, I believe that my seed came from the local Tractor Supply. It was in a BOB like bag but not really all that expensive. The deer ate it better than turnips but not quite as good as radishes early on. However, during December, they have eaten the canola pretty well. I will plant it again in the future in a mix but not as a stand alone plot. I would also overseed it into an existing clover plot in the fall with some grains just to sweeten up the plot a bit. I can see doing this after killing the grass in a clover plot to take up some of the opened up space.

deer patch · Jan 2, 2022

Native Hunter said:
Deer Patch, I believe that my seed came from the local Tractor Supply. It was in a BOB like bag but not really all that expensive. The deer ate it better than turnips but not quite as good as radishes early on. However, during December, they have eaten the canola pretty well. I will plant it again in the future in a mix but not as a stand alone plot. I would also overseed it into an existing clover plot in the fall with some grains just to sweeten up the plot a bit. I can see doing this after killing the grass in a clover plot to take up some of the opened up space.

Thanks for the input. I always like to try new things and see what works. My deer will eat turnips all day long so I’m sure they would eat the canola as well.

CAS_HNTR · Jan 3, 2022

Native....maybe you have done it recently and I missed it, but can you provide an update on the pear trees you planted from Wildlife Group (or others)? I need to plant about 6-10 pears and an on a hunt for varieties.

Working at the Farm - Took a few I-Phone Pics

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