Eastern NC 35

[Charlieyca]

Saturday taking the tractor to the farm with the bush hog. Going to clear some more patches of grass and shrubs for tree plantings. Will spray roundup immediately after cutting. Ideally, I would be able to spray after the big spring green up but trees need to be in the ground by that point. Then, just waiting on the trees shipment to come in!!! I have room now for maybe 50 of the 100 trees coming in. Rather have more spaces ready than not enough.

 

[Charlieyca]

So the plan for saturday, bush hog the orange lines (shooting lanes) from the stand on the creek, then clear the inside of the red triangle for tree plantings and new growth. Pretty much all the green in this picture is too thick to walk through, with a few scattered deer trails.

 

[Charlieyca]

Who can guess the difference in 2 pics( im standing in the same spot)?

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[Charlieyca]

Tractor won't start, believe the solenoid or starter is bad or its a wiring issue. Not to be discouraged I took the chainsaw and the metal blade weedeater and went to clearing some spots for trees. Get to the farm hop on the atv and click. Dead battery. Charged it last week but wont hold a charge, so turn around and go get a battery. Get back to the farm, atv starts and warms up. Weedeater wont start. Luckily, chainsaw started 2nd pull so I was able to clear some trees that would be blocking my orchard and new trees from sunlight. Not what I wanted to accomplish, but settled for getting a lot work done while I had the BIL's help.

Here is the left side of the triangle shaped area i wanted to clear, lots of undergrowth left. Hopefully the bush hog can get anything that is left.

Here is the right said of the area, I am standing in the food plot looking back towards my stand. The only trees left are the few water oaks and post oaks i have in the area. Hoping I can hide some of my trees that dont have tubes in this thicker brush and mark them well so i dont lose them.

Here is the right side again, but looking north. This area was much thinner to start with but got all the junk trees cut down and somewhat piled up.
4 tanks of gas from the chainsaw between the 2 of us. Pruned the edge of the plot by hand where I can see 5 yards or so more of the edge while on stand. Hopefully doesn't grow up too much between now and september.

 

[Charlieyca]

The pictures from friday were from 2 sides of a 10 ft wide shooting lane. North side covered in nice green vegetation and sunlight, south side bare and nothing but briars.

 

[Weasel]

I missed this one earlier but I'm all caught up now. Great looking place. My farm is shaped similar to yours with a sanctuary at the back end also. Nice work, looking forward to following along.

 

[Charlieyca]

Weasel, do you feel like you benefit from the sanctuary at the back? In the first 2 years, the only 2 times I even walk the back 1/3rd as i call it, was to trim and paint the property line purple for no trespassing. This winter I finally scouted it a little bit and started moving some stands closer to hunting the edges of it. The 10 acres to the south of me is not used at all and is essentialy a sanctuary and the 10 acres of to the north was hunted hard the last 2 years. I am debating managing the back for food and cover mixed together and use neighbors as sanctuary so to speak.

 

[Weasel]

My farm definitely benefits from the sanctuary back there. Mine is about five acres of 5-10 year old thick regrowth from a clear cut. This backs up to over 100 acres plus of the same landscape, it's hard for humans to get in & out of there. I go into the sanctuary once or twice a year this time of year to look for sheds and put a new mineral block out. Otherwise it's off limits. I've never seen so many beds, rubs and heavy trails. Once my management plan is complete, I should be sucking lots of deer out of there and leading them where I want them to go. I would advise against eliminating your sanctuary and relying on the neighbors. You never know what can happen to property out of your control years from now. Nothing wrong with adding a few soft mast trees and doing other minimal disturbance improvements in your sanctuary but I'd do it this time of year, do it quick, then leave it to the deer. Concentrate your efforts just outside the sanctuary and manipulate the habitat to lead the deer where you want them to go.

 

[Weasel]

Couple pics from my annual visit inside the sanctuary last week.

 

[dogghr]

Enjoyed the update Charlie, especially the equipment issues you had. We all have those days for sure. Place looks great with all that thick crap and the shooting lane mowing should really work well. Thanks for showing.

 

[Charlieyca]

I will snap some sanctuary pics next time I am up there. It really looks similar to weasel, just add in some more overhead cover. I hope to one day own the 10 acres to the south of us, but until then I will leave the back of of farm as a sanctuary. It helps when others confirm what you are thinking, gives you more confidence and more drive to get things done when you think they will work.

here is a thin spot in the sanctuary, it has a few more large trees to block light.

this is after clearing about 10 yards from the stand. spots like this you cant see 10 ft even in winter.

 

[Charlieyca]

here is what i actually accomplished saturday without the tractor. The orange lines represent areas that were both edged feathered and cleared for tree plantings. Hopefully its enough room for 100 bareroot mixed ROD, gray dogwood, chokeberry, chinkapin, hazelnut, elderberry, bur and sawtooth oaks.

 

[Charlieyca]

Just called and confirmed my shipment of trees, shipping out next monday and should arrive thursday, friday at latest.
5 ROD- mat, no cage, planted into existing cover(down tree tops), spaced randomly through low wet spot
5 gray dogwood- tubed and mat, spaced 7 paces apart alongside food plot
5 chokeberry- caged, mated, planted along edge between creek bottom and cleared trail
5 Silky Dogwood- tubed and mat, spaced 7 paces on dryer ridge
5 plum- tubed and mat, planted full sun north side of plots in between sawtooths
25 Chinquapins- tubed and mat, planted in groups of 5 along east west edges of food plots
25 hazelnuts- caged and mated planted on southern side of plots, partial shade
25 Sawtooth- tubed and mated, planted along north sides of plots and mixed into existing cleared cover

If you see anything you would changed (no tube on dogwood, definitely cage plum, chokeberry needs full sun) please share as this is my first time planting any of these. Anything near a food plot is getting a cage or tube.

 

[Charlieyca]

wonder how long til their legs are big enough to eat?

 

[Charlieyca]

Trees come in today, got a couple buckets of water to put them in until saturday when they get planted. Most planting locations are clear, but still have some weedeating and trimming, then 100 bareroots going in. 25 getting cages, 75 getting tubes which are already assembled.

 

[Charlieyca]

NEW SATELITTE PICTURES !!!!
Day started off bad when my substitute didnt show up to work, so I wont be planting trees today. Day then got much better fast! Dad calls and neighbor finally made contact with him and is willing to sell his 10 acres to the south. Had mailed letters last year during summer, and never heard anything back. I go to print dad the information on the property from GIS and lo and behold new pictures!!!
Here is the back third of the property, the clearing in the top center is my food plot, in rye and clover right now.



here is my middle section. stand is right in the middle of the x, food plot with oats and crimson clover down the road with light green. the plot to the south of the x was my brassicas this fall. That plot now extends to the thin red line which is the 10 acres we bought last summer to add on. Hopefully our original 25, then 35, will become 45 soon.


and here is the front third. you can see a black rectangle on the bottom right of the clearing which is out box stand. there is a lane from it straight south that is hard to see. All the green in these pictures are pine trees.Everything from the box stand to the left is white clover.

 

[Charlieyca]

This image shows the 3 different sections my farm is essentially divided into. The back third is far left. It is the thinnest, with a few scattered large trees and a low understory(light brown with a few green trees). The middle section (darker brown, very little green) is thick briars with a few hardwoods (gums and other junk). The front third (far right) is blackberry with pines mixed in. Each section is separated by a creek with a mix of hardwoods left.

 

[Charlieyca]

Weekend plans got moved around because of the weather, but fortunately got everything in the ground before a good steady soaking rain. I also got soaked the last 15 or so trees, but thats why they make good rain coats.

I ordered my trees from conservation services out of virginia. They came in shipped very nicely, on time, and majority of the seedlings were larger than i expected. Chokeberry and gray or silky dogwood one, were very small, but that may be the standard for them. A few of the roots were at an angle, but only a few and not too bad. Overall, very impressed. Hopefully most of them wake up and grow soon.

I started off planting, mating and tubing the first 15 or so trees before i realized its better to get then in the ground this weekend and tubed next weekend, instead of leaving them potted another week. So all the trees are planting but only 25 total are protected so far. Another 15 wont get protect. 20 cages and 40 tubes to go next week.

 

[Weasel]

Excellent, hope it all works out on adding another 10 acres.

 

[Charlieyca]

Hopefully it does, if not there are 2 separate 10 acre tracts on the north side we will inquire about.