As close to the dream property as I am going to get, at least for now

Picked up a 7tooth spring chisel plow today at a local dealer. So chisel plowing will begin tomorrow and hopefully all will go well.

As mentioned in the Spring Tooth chisel Plow thread I got some chiseling done but have a ton of dead rye and other vegetation that piled up all over the fields.

I ran over today to chisel plow another field but the skies turned blue so I decided to go over two clover/rye plots with 1oz of roundup per gallon and then I refilled with 4 oz to nuke two other areas that are total grass. Of course given I am involved the skies opened up with rain about two hours after I finished so I guess that was $50 worth of chemical wasted.

If you sprayed with glyphosate then got rain 2 hours later you are probably fine. It doesn't take long for gly to be absorbed.

We have had so many days of rain it has been tough to get out and finish prepping the plots for seed. Couple that with a visit from my little nephew and free time was scarce. Just another year that I am way behind schedule.

Well today was D day as it looks like tonight is the last day we may have rain this week. Today also happens to be the day that I hate the most out of all of the food plotting days. Today was seed day and I hate walking back and forth dozens of times as it wastes winter fat aka insulation,, and to boot it was hot. If it were not for the breeze I thought I was going to pass out.
Don't get old people, it sucks!




So after logging way to many footsteps spreading the PTT, Radish and Rape I was off to add rye, but on my first pass it was clear that the spinner on the tow behind spreader was rusted and would not turn. That is what I get for leaving it out since last year. First time I had even done that as it usually resides on the wall in the garage. Given the spreader was not working that also meant no Urea on top of the seed.

So I mustered up and loaded the Solo hand spreader again and broadcast 150 lbs of rye by hand and foot power. The Solo only holds 20 lbs so it was a long day. It was onto the cultipacker and running until 6pm to get it done.

The skies just opened so I was lucky to get it done.

My little nephew had two firsts this week. He got to shoot a firearm for the first time in his life. My sister has been holding off on giving permission for way to long. Heck she was shooting guns age six. The kid was a crack shot with a pellet gun and proved to be pretty good with the Ruger 10/22 rifle. He would have done better but I had him shooting old Remington ammo that the rifle is not sighted in for. He was not feeling confident enough to shoot the 5.56 so I did not want to push him.

Old Pepsi is ready to die


After sitting on my lap for the last couple of years to mow the lawn he finally felt comfortable enough to try it himself. The funny thing is he barely weighs enough to keep the seat safety engaged. Every time be moved the slightest bit I could hear the mower start to shut off.

My other buddy has also not been a stranger.

Here he is in the garage


A moment later he was biting into a bag of Milorganite which you can see just behind him and that is when I had enough and set out after him. I think he nearly crapped himself when he saw me headed right at him at a dead run. He did not know what way to go but he finally decided to run to the third bay to make his escape. You would think that the smell of human waste would be enough for him not to want to rip the bag open.

Im to the point now where its probably not worth planting this yr

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

JohnL48 said:

Im to the point now where its probably not worth planting this yr

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

You have obviously been a busy man John, but it only takes one weekend to get some groceries in the ground, but then again if your fields are toast then maybe your bucks will venture onto my side of the mountain

The plots are done and now it is just a matter if we get rain or not. They said rain today but we got next to nothing.

Pulled the cards from a couple of cams and very disappointing to say the least. Only two small bucks and just a few does. I did get several pics of yotes though and two bears, including the back end of this guy.

While I have been lurking and posting here and there I have been MIA from my Property Tour thread. I wish my update could be like John Paul's If you have not seen his properties crop of bucks go check it out.

Some might remember a post I made last year on the board that I fell on my first night back home in which I fractured my femur and tore a butt muscle. The first few days were the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life and I have suffered a few bad ones. Well the Doc had me on lock down as the muscle tear was a grade two so if I got stupid it could have gone to a three and would have required surgery. Outside of hitting the Doc I did not leave the house for over a month. I went from the bed to the chair and back again with occasional trips to comfort station. I joke about that because having to sit on the throne was the absolute worst pain. I told my neighbor that I would gladly sacrifice an arm if he could go to the bathroom for me.

The Doc finally gave me the green light to leave the house but with a stern warning not be an idiot (he is a personal friend of mine). I finally made it over to the property and discovered someone had poached a doe from the road. I talked to my neighbors to the north and they said the road has been seeing a lot more road hunting, and they mentioned specific names and said the Sheriff is aware of what was going on. Our valley is off the beaten path and sees very little traffic. It is one of those roads that you really need to have a reason to be on. There is a stretch of about a mile and half between my southern neighbors cabin to the northern neighbors seasonal hunting cabin with nothing..

In chatting with the neighbors they agreed that the deer population seemed to have dropped off despite the fact that none of the landowners took any more deer than usual. I went from seeing 13-14 does in the plots in 2015, to about 8 in 2016, to 4 in 2017. Clearly something is going on and no one reported finding winter kills when walking their properties. We have invited the DEC to do something proactive and the suggestion is that they set out a decoy and we have offered to provide a couple of spots for them to hide out in. We will see what is going to happen as we get closer to the start of the season.

Sadly, when I finally got up an into the property it was like a gut punch to see that my main plot of what was supposed to be brassicas (PTT, Radish and Rape) was devoid of them. I have no idea what happened, I know the night that I planted we had very heavy rains and I was afraid that the seed would all wash down the hill and that I would find brassicas growing at the bottom, but that was not the case either. FYI in 2016 I experienced the same issue, no growth but we were very dry. Right before planting in 2016 I had 5 ton of lime put down in that plot, but I have not tested again. Despite planting late in 2015 I did get brassica growth in this plot, not great as I was late (story of my life in planting).

The 2017 card pulls revealed very little in the way of bucks. This was the only decent buck, and given he only showed on the cams a few times in a narrow window I have to think he was just rolling through in search of does.

As you can imagine it is very frustrating to see things going in the opposite direction of what you had hoped.

More to come

CTM, Health struggles can be life’s greatest challenge. In my own journey, my greatest healing took place just being out door observing nature’s beauty, and watching the cycle of life play out. Our property also provided trails I could walk to regain my strength. Hoping you can find the same.

Our numbers are down, including all of the5+ year old bucks. It’s a bit depressing. Still I’m like a kid before Christmas looking forward to bow season. In fact, I’ve spent more evenings in the blinds this summer than ever before. Very satisfying.

Sounds like you have been through some tough times with the injuries. Glad so see things better for you and hope things continue to improve. Best wishes on your hunting this year and everything else as well.

My usual crew of neighbors/hunting buddies aka my friends were great and they installed new double pane sliding windows in the blind for me. Every time I tried to help that called me an "invalid" and told me to find a seat. No more single pane and plexiglass to fox over after a few minutes inside.

Thankfully my sisters boy had a window between his ice Hockey games to make it up and sit with me.

The blind is still a work in progress. I started insulating it, but flat out ran out of time. We did manage to get a carpet down which helped cut down on some of the noise.


FYI these windows are from TAFCO a line carried by Home Depot. A nice window for the money for a deer blind.

The kid was flat out pooped as he was so excited he did not sleep the night before opening day.
You have to love kids, he was dozing off in the chair so I told him to lay down and take a nap. He said if I do will you think less of me as a hunter. I said kid this is why I made the blind 8' long so we can take naps. I said dozing off while hunting is a past time especially on a sunny Nov days when your sitting at the base of a nice tree with the sun on your face.


Nothing like a heated blind but I fear I am spoiling the kid and he will never want to sit in a cold tree stand again.


While we did not see a shooter buck he did get to see see a couple of does and two small bucks so he was pretty excited, and that is half the battle when taking a kid hunting.

While the farm property did not yield a buck my home mountain did. We saw more decent bucks this year than any other year before. The 3pt rule is working ion our area.

Fellow Plotter, neighbor and member here JohnL48 got some great trail pics of some really nice ones on his side of the mountain. John's bucks rarely venture onto our side of the mountain, but unfortunately two of John's big ones ventured out of the immediate area and were taken by some lucky hunters and couple of miles down the road.

Here were a couple of our pics from our side of the mountain.

I took this 7pt

Here is the same 7pt again

My buddy took this crooked horn 8 during crossbow.





.

I took the 7pt that is seen in the post above during bow

While not a heavy rack h did have some really nice width. One day I will learn to actually take a selfie of me with my deer.

As the season rolled to an end I picked on going after these critters at the farm property. Like last year they rolled into the valley with a vengeance and where howling and carrying on like they were a western pack. They did this almost every afternoon for a week. What few deer we had fled up and overinto the next valley. It is always amazing to see them alert to the first howl and once they zero in on where it is coming from by the second howl they bolt and never stop.


Sadly I missed one five times in my main field. I had him dead to rights at 50 yards but I found out later that the gun was off. After the first shot he hit the after burners and was gone as fast a lie came out of Obama's mouth.

I called in my first Bobcat at the farm and guess what I missed, but in my defense it was at 9pm and it was about 125 yards away just into the timber.

In talking to my neighbor to the north he said one of his crew had four run across the road on my property and he was able to roll one up with his truck.

Glad to see some updates. We've been missing you. Good luck this year. Hope you nephew scores big

Thanks lakngulf. It should be an interesting year, they always are.