Stone Branch, build it, they will come.

rlb165 said:

George, I am glad things are working out so well for you here in KY!
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It is surely a good omen that you already have a picture of the elusive piebald deer. We have a rich tradition that any harvested piebald gets a full body mount.

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Slap a saddle on that critter and you got an ATV that spreads fertilizer wherever it goes. Better check how it takes to the sound of gunshots before you try hunting while sitting on it though.

Dang-a lot has changed for G in the last year and a half I have been AWOL.
Congrats on the new property-I like it.
Todd

You have much shag bark George? When I had the west KY farm it was shag bark and poplar where I found most Morels. In MO it's river birch, sycamore, and hedge.

dogghr, Mennonitemen, I am up to my eyeballs in horse bidness here in Michigan. Really nothing against horses but I just don't see much of a future for that pony on my ground.

dogdoc said:

Dang-a lot has changed for G in the last year and a half I have been AWOL.
Congrats on the new property-I like it.
Todd

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Thanks Todd.

swat1018 said:

You have much shag bark George? When I had the west KY farm it was shag bark and poplar where I found most Morels. In MO it's river birch, sycamore, and hedge.

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The hickories that I have look to be bitternut and pignut. I have seen very few if any shagbarks. Plenty of poplar and sycamore.

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My latest habitat adventure started off with some dry weather so I raked out the black line for a fire break. I raked out dogwoods, crop trees, grape vines, and standing dead snags after I lit the fire. It started out a bit hectic with swirling winds but settled down into a fairly steady backburn. The area is 1-2 acres and was an active 5-6 hour burn.










The burn is adjacent to my hinge cut project. This is a bit of an experiment to see if I can kill anything and what kind of a response that I will get.










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After the burn I returned to my hinge cut, the blue area, working eastward along the logging road on the south side. Things were going well when I got into an area where my hinge cutting was in some nice white oaks and also releasing a bunch of smaller red and white oaks.


Then I ran into the brown area with in the blue area. This area had few crop trees and the oaks completely ran out so I walked around scratching my head and taking pictures.















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My hinge cut turned into a clear cut.
















The first day of clean up I burned the debris



then I started making layered log interwoven and covered with brush bunny houses all around the new plot.



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I burned what leaf debris that I could then sprinkled 100lbs of pelletized lime and 100lbs of 6-24-24 before a rain. The next day I sprinkled 25lbs of wheat and 2lbs of rape prior to another good rain. The cleared area is right around .2 acres.



















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Looking nice!

After getting through the clearing I resumed my hinge cutting to finish off the 2 acre triangle. I cut off the smaller maples to regrow, did a light hinge on little bit bigger maples, and hacked and squirt the larger maples that weren't nicely spaced. I was pretty merciless with the hack hammer,

This pictures looks back up across the clearing at the area that I hinge cut a few weeks ago.

















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BigMike said:

Looking nice!

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Thanks BigMike, the stick picking got a bit old but it sure was a fun spot to work.

G

The area outlined in green that I burned and sprinkled seeds is showing a little promise. It is mostly weeds but I did find some wheat and some little clover plants.








The bunch of ugly sticks up on my Caneyville rock outcrop soil ridge, yellow line, are prettier in the spring as they are mostly redbuds.







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I started taking my corn crib down one board at a time thinking that I was going to salvage some wood


but then it caught fire.




My little shop building gets started soon.



G

Man I love to see that much work being done. You have been a busy man. But take time to stop and smell the redbuds!!!

Just reading this and looking at the pictures made my back hurt.

You’ve been a busy man! Looking good.

I read that people were stealing weathered wood like the old corn crib. You may have been able to find someone to tear it down for you. It’s a shame it caught fire .

I feel like I'm watching a thread on my own place. Mine looks earily similar in the hills rocks and creeks. Except mine is much more mature oak forest. Should be a great lay of land as you progress. I planted fruit trees and worked some plots this past wk and that wore me out, then your thread made me feel like a wimp. Those saplings of yours make me want to rent a DC6, set blade 2 feet high, and level everything in a few 1 ac plots. I read of doing such in book Grow Em Right by the Dougherty's years ago and always wanted to try it but my trees would just laugh at anything but a chainsaw. Good luck and I'm sure you are anxious to start the workshop/cabin. Colorado brown is fun to visit but you can't beat the colored hills of the east, underrated.

Thank you guys, there was a time or two that I said this almost feels like work. There was also a morning or two during stick picking up days that my back said this almost feels like work. Oh I smelled the redbuds I tasted one and started eating them like I would a bag of kettle cooked potato chips with sea salt, they are tasty.

My little pony


just turned around and walked out of my life never to be seen again.


This cowboy came through twice


and on the second pass he came down to visit me working/playing in my clear cut. He asked if I was thirsty, I said sure do you have some lemonade? He thought that was pretty funny. He told me that I need a bulldozer and I assured him that I had a chainsaw and a semi strong back. When he dismounted after a good bit of horse fussing he could barely stand but he managed to retrieve a couple of bud lites from his saddle bag, he was polluted. He said he drank 8 beers and after two more his count was still 8. He said if I ever get into horses that I need some saddle bags like these, they hold a case on ice. I did subsequently post some no trespass signs and I did mention no horses.


The girls were consistent visitors.


Adam got me out a couple of mornings. The first had five-six birds gobbling. After we about were packing it in we heard a bird gobble down in my yard and Adam proceeded to call him up 35 yards in front of me standing right in the middle of my logging road. Me being the stone cold deer slayer that I am got tom fever and shot over his head. I looked for a blood trail and Adam assured me that when they fly away that means that I missed.


The second morning the birds weren't saying anything. The morels started to pop, I found one.


Adam found the rest.



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dogghr said:

I feel like I'm watching a thread on my own place. Mine looks earily similar in the hills rocks and creeks. Except mine is much more mature oak forest. Should be a great lay of land as you progress. I planted fruit trees and worked some plots this past wk and that wore me out, then your thread made me feel like a wimp. Those saplings of yours make me want to rent a DC6, set blade 2 feet high, and level everything in a few 1 ac plots. I read of doing such in book Grow Em Right by the Dougherty's years ago and always wanted to try it but my trees would just laugh at anything but a chainsaw. Good luck and I'm sure you are anxious to start the workshop/cabin. Colorado brown is fun to visit but you can't beat the colored hills of the east, underrated.

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Thank you Doug. I've been around a bit and can say with a good degree of confidence that there aren't too many places that can match these unglaciated hills of mixed deciduous forest in diversity and beauty.

Since you mentioned it, the purple area is next on the hit list an area 7/8s of an acre paced out with an absence of oaks and very few crop trees just begging to be clear cut and an eventual clover patch.







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