Kaleo Hills-Property tour

weekender21

Well-Known Member
We purchased ~100 acres in NW North Carolina in September. The property has been logged during the past 2 years. Logging operations are 90% complete and will be finished in the spring. Most of the property was essentially clear cut with a 13 acre timber reserve on either side of a spring that begins on the property and a 14 acre creek bottom that runs the length of the property on a state maintained road. Poplar is the majority high value timber on the property but there are hickory, red oak, white pine, maple, and loads of apple trees along the creek.

I spent four days on the property in October and planted about 70 trees, 11 of them were 10- gallon chestnuts. The remaining trees were saplings from nativ nurseries and included pear, persimmon, blue gum, several species of oak, mulberry, and several others I'm certainly forgetting. The smaller trees were tubed and staked; weed and plant competition was addressed with a backpack sprayer. I put 7 trail cameras out on major trails and one or two for property security.

We made it out to the east coast for Christmas and spent a few days at our property. I planted a few trees that I didn't get in the ground in October and direct seeded over 100 white oak acorns in the same 20'x20' area. My hope is that one or two will really take off. It was really cold (10F at night) while we were there so we'll see.

I'll start with a few trail camera pictures, it was like opening Christmas presents with each SD card I pulled. I had around 10K pictures total to look through. This is one of the bigger bucks I have on camera. I'm guessing he's 3 but would be interested in everyones opinion. IMAG0286.JPG
 
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I have pictures of this 10 on quite a few different cameras, he's a regular at my place. Pretty good buck for my area but looks really young. Thoughts on age?

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This is one of the younger regulars on my place, I'm guessing he's two based on a bigger body size than the spikes and 4 points I have on camera.

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I got this idea from a forum member and protected about 15 of the white oak acorns. The remainder were planted without any protection.

I used 3" PVC sewer pipe cut into 12" sections and aluminum window screen rolled and pushed into the pipe then folded over. I found 12"x24" sections of screen worked the best.


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I put 100 pounds of mineral and salt in one mineral site. I left a trophy rock in the same spot for comparison. I'm guessing there is no more draw to the trophy rock based on content but we'll see what the deer think.

For the mineral site I simply mixed the 50/50 mixture into the dirt. The total area is roughly 8'x4'.


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I’d guess 3, 3, 2.


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That's what I'm guessing. I was hoping to have a few older class bucks on the property but these two are really nice deer. I'm excited to see what they look like next year assuming they made it. Big assumption. The neighbors hunt too so creating a big sanctuary and keeping the deer busy on my property in November and December is my goal.
 
Yes, start a tread over there, but ask questions over here. I post both places, but post here when I want to get or give advice.
 
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This 9 point is a bit of a bonus buck. I don't have many pictures of him, I think a mid November hot doe must have got his attention. I'm guessing he's another 3-year-old based on all the other buck pictures I have.
 
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I know there are bears in the area but really had know idea what the density was like on this particular property when we bought it. I have a few pictures of bears but a lot less than I expected.

This is the only daytime bear picture I have and all are between 10/21 and 10/24 with the exception of a picture on November 15th. These dates all fall within the roughly one month dog hunting season. My guess is that we don't have resident bears on the property but some that pass through as they are displaced. I also think the ongoing logging on our property has kept the bears away.

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Coyotes, bobcats, and raccoons.

I have pictures of all but fewer coyote pictures than I expected. They're definitely around though.

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