dogghr
Well-Known Member
And the rains won't cease. It has snowed or rained at least 3 days a wk since early March. No real work at the farm that could be done even if the tractor had been on hand. Here's a few pics to ease the boredom.
Sneaked down this morning after a Dr appt and while rains were light. Always put out a couple of Trophy Rocks. I've use a variety of mineral licks but these are so easy, last the entire year, and deer, bucks and doe, love the stuff.
Here is Ramdom Cluster #1, at lower end of farm, and about150 yds from the alfalfa field. Before it was cut, you could easily walk thru a leaf covered desert. This is growth in 1 year. Anymore, I cut trees I don't care for, especially shade tolerants that compete against my mature oaks. I want to release the undergrowth, but just as important, release the oaks for sun and water and nutrients. I tend to manage a mature forest. It can be done and make the deer happy without cutting every mature tree in sight. Deer bed here often last hunting season, and it, along with the other 5 Clusters, pattern bucks along my stand settings.
If I would take most of you on a tour of my farm these days, many of you would laugh at the crazy man. You'd say, where are the plots? These are just fields of crap. Why havent you sprayed? Why haven't you mowed? And indeed I use to to the monoculture thing. I can show you clover fields that are magazine ready. But no longer do I worry of these grasses and weeds. Why should I? Look. The clover works just fine. The alfalfa grows anyway. The chicory is there for the deer. And I've cut my time and expenses to nearly nothing. Why does man always think his micromanaging is so much more important than natures own way? Let her spend the effort and time. The deer have never marched against the owner of this land demanding more, more, more.
You can cut your winter wheat and rye if you want, but by midsummer it is a dying thicket on its own. I thot this added plot of alfalfa to the right had failed with last years planting thanks to 3 months of no rain, but I was pleased it was coming on strong beneath the WR with clovers, alfalfa, and chicory.. Probably could use some 0-20-20 fert and Boron but just been too wet to work the field.
And see how the deer will bed in the stuff. This is how you frustrate you coyote, bear, and other fawn predators. A lot of work for them to work thruout a field to find a odorless, noiseless fawn hiding in a thicket. Make it hard for them and you will lose less sleep over what you can't control easily.
Apples and chestnuts and pears and my lone female persimmon have done well in there first year. I'll add some more persimmon from Walmart tomorrow hopefully.
A little edge feathering around my Ravine plot. I watched bucks detour from more open wood to pass beneath these cuts as they neared the field. I have a ladder stand just to the left of this spot. I should shoot more during the season, I'm too much of a watcher.
And tho its time for the buffalo to graze down their plot, the clovers and deer friendly weeds are doing well. Gotta mow really tight every 90 days and go over plot repeatedly to allow the hooves/tractor tires compact the growth. If a buffalo hoove is 8x5 inches x 4 hooves, and approx weight of 1800# then their is 12#/sq in, and with that, 30 buffalo /herd, well you get my trampling idea. Because a 6000# tractor has a "hoof" print of about 12x10 x4 tires, thus about 12#/sq inches as my JD tramples and browses with its bushhog giving nearly same result minus the cow piles.
Anyways, as a result, you get this, all no till, and no sweat equity. The tractor/ATV/truck did all the work and nature does the planting. Just a wild idea I began last year to begin the Buffalo plot. Deer like it well.
I mean, what more do you want for so little effort? Will it make the Plotting Quarterly cover? Nope, but it sure feeds the clients. Don't be afraid to think outside the box, just never know.
Always get down in on your knees or what we call the coal miner squat and look close. Why do you think children are so enthralled with the world, because they see it at its level, on its terms and not from 6 feet up hardly observing what is beneath our feet. Always observe as a child, and always, always , make sure you feel. Peace.
"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."---Nathaniel Hawthorne
Sneaked down this morning after a Dr appt and while rains were light. Always put out a couple of Trophy Rocks. I've use a variety of mineral licks but these are so easy, last the entire year, and deer, bucks and doe, love the stuff.
Here is Ramdom Cluster #1, at lower end of farm, and about150 yds from the alfalfa field. Before it was cut, you could easily walk thru a leaf covered desert. This is growth in 1 year. Anymore, I cut trees I don't care for, especially shade tolerants that compete against my mature oaks. I want to release the undergrowth, but just as important, release the oaks for sun and water and nutrients. I tend to manage a mature forest. It can be done and make the deer happy without cutting every mature tree in sight. Deer bed here often last hunting season, and it, along with the other 5 Clusters, pattern bucks along my stand settings.
If I would take most of you on a tour of my farm these days, many of you would laugh at the crazy man. You'd say, where are the plots? These are just fields of crap. Why havent you sprayed? Why haven't you mowed? And indeed I use to to the monoculture thing. I can show you clover fields that are magazine ready. But no longer do I worry of these grasses and weeds. Why should I? Look. The clover works just fine. The alfalfa grows anyway. The chicory is there for the deer. And I've cut my time and expenses to nearly nothing. Why does man always think his micromanaging is so much more important than natures own way? Let her spend the effort and time. The deer have never marched against the owner of this land demanding more, more, more.
You can cut your winter wheat and rye if you want, but by midsummer it is a dying thicket on its own. I thot this added plot of alfalfa to the right had failed with last years planting thanks to 3 months of no rain, but I was pleased it was coming on strong beneath the WR with clovers, alfalfa, and chicory.. Probably could use some 0-20-20 fert and Boron but just been too wet to work the field.
And see how the deer will bed in the stuff. This is how you frustrate you coyote, bear, and other fawn predators. A lot of work for them to work thruout a field to find a odorless, noiseless fawn hiding in a thicket. Make it hard for them and you will lose less sleep over what you can't control easily.
Apples and chestnuts and pears and my lone female persimmon have done well in there first year. I'll add some more persimmon from Walmart tomorrow hopefully.
A little edge feathering around my Ravine plot. I watched bucks detour from more open wood to pass beneath these cuts as they neared the field. I have a ladder stand just to the left of this spot. I should shoot more during the season, I'm too much of a watcher.
And tho its time for the buffalo to graze down their plot, the clovers and deer friendly weeds are doing well. Gotta mow really tight every 90 days and go over plot repeatedly to allow the hooves/tractor tires compact the growth. If a buffalo hoove is 8x5 inches x 4 hooves, and approx weight of 1800# then their is 12#/sq in, and with that, 30 buffalo /herd, well you get my trampling idea. Because a 6000# tractor has a "hoof" print of about 12x10 x4 tires, thus about 12#/sq inches as my JD tramples and browses with its bushhog giving nearly same result minus the cow piles.
Anyways, as a result, you get this, all no till, and no sweat equity. The tractor/ATV/truck did all the work and nature does the planting. Just a wild idea I began last year to begin the Buffalo plot. Deer like it well.
I mean, what more do you want for so little effort? Will it make the Plotting Quarterly cover? Nope, but it sure feeds the clients. Don't be afraid to think outside the box, just never know.
Always get down in on your knees or what we call the coal miner squat and look close. Why do you think children are so enthralled with the world, because they see it at its level, on its terms and not from 6 feet up hardly observing what is beneath our feet. Always observe as a child, and always, always , make sure you feel. Peace.
"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."---Nathaniel Hawthorne
