Stone Branch, build it, they will come.

[Mennoniteman]

I see a lot of opportunity there, you have the backbone of a healthy, productive forest. What I see is areas that have large and middlesized trees, areas that have middlesized trees and saplings, and areas that have only saplings, but all of them either have little to no undergrowth, or are on the verge of having no undergrowth. Your program of thinning is exactly what will turn this to a heathy woods. Identify valuable trees, hinge or cut for stump sprouts out around them, then in several years you can market the biggest timber as a select cut and from there on out you can retire your chainsaw, the loggers will be doing your habitat work for you with periodic select cuts.
Maybe you watched this on my thread already;

 

[George]

I see a lot of opportunity there, you have the backbone of a healthy, productive forest. What I see is areas that have large and middlesized trees, areas that have middlesized trees and saplings, and areas that have only saplings, but all of them either have little to no undergrowth, or are on the verge of having no undergrowth. Your program of thinning is exactly what will turn this to a heathy woods. Identify valuable trees, hinge or cut for stump sprouts out around them, then in several years you can market the biggest timber as a select cut and from there on out you can retire your chainsaw, the loggers will be doing your habitat work for you with periodic select cuts.
Maybe you watched this on my thread already;

Darn tootin, I've always called it TSI but DR Craig wants me to call it FSI. Time is short for me and I'm not sure if I'll ever reach the point that I could trade a beautiful oak tree for $150. I fully understand taking advantage of a mature resource but the bigger oaks on my ground are a good many years away from even entering their prime. I often curse the the logger for high grading my woods back in 96 when I'm stuck in a maple thicket but I see evidence to the contrary in these nicer oak areas. I think that he actually did pretty good in leaving trees for the future. From what the neighbors say he wasn't real greedy. He left trees that he could have taken because he had already made out pretty well on the deal.

I did watch your video previously, that is a nice woods you have and is what I would like to see some of here.

I freshened up the minerals at the top of the Top of the Bottom clover plot



I mowed around the fruit trees once but not the rest of it.



It looks like this big girl dropped a load.



Yep.



I can't say if she is the same dominant girl that has been chasing the coyotes around or not.



Two years ago I got my first fawn picture in Sept or Oct.





There is more than one big girl liking this spot.



G

 

[Mennoniteman]

Darn tootin, I've always called it TSI but DR Craig wants me to call it FSI. Time is short for me and I'm not sure if I'll ever reach the point that I could trade a beautiful oak tree for $150. I fully understand taking advantage of a mature resource but the bigger oaks on my ground are a good many years away from even entering their prime. I often curse the the logger for high grading my woods back in 96 when I'm stuck in a maple thicket but I see evidence to the contrary in these nicer oak areas. I think that he actually did pretty good in leaving trees for the future. From what the neighbors say he wasn't real greedy. He left trees that he could have taken because he had already made out pretty well on the deal.

I did watch your video previously, that is a nice woods you have and is what I would like to see some of here.

I freshened up the minerals at the top of the Top of the Bottom clover plot

View attachment 21976

I mowed around the fruit trees once but not the rest of it.

View attachment 21977

It looks like this big girl dropped a load.

View attachment 21978

Yep.

View attachment 21979

I can't say if she is the same dominant girl that has been chasing the coyotes around or not.

View attachment 21980

Two years ago I got my first fawn picture in Sept or Oct.

View attachment 21981

View attachment 21982

There is more than one big girl liking this spot.

View attachment 21983

G

Talking about trees, at my age it's not about the logging money anymore, it's about the level of satisfaction of walking through a healthy woods and seeing the entire potential fulfilled with some quality full sized timber and wildlife trees growing in the middle of middlesized trees and a thick understory with lots of browse.
I have some woods that looks a lot like some of your pictures, a majority of oaks interspersed with red maples, and some hickory, hard maple, poplar, beech, birch, ash, gum, and cherry sprinkled throughout. One two acre area in particular had mostly red maple with just a few oaks and no understory. 4 years ago my son and I hinged some and cut the rest of the red maples for stump sprouts. Today that area has undergone a total transformation, where it looks very much like my woods in my video clip, a few big trees with a lot of small oak sprouts and green briars, and the deer browsing pressure on the hinge cuts and stump sprouts is absolutely amazing. I'm convinced that a mix of oaks and red maples is just one red maple chainsaw massacre away from being one of the best deer habitat areas that can be found. I will try to put up a video clip this former red maple area to give guys a picture of what is possible and how easy it is.

 

[George]

The loon was after the perch that I was catching for pike bait.



I caught some pike and bass, this bass was caught on a perch. We tried the south branch of the Au Sable one evening but found a crowd and no trout.



Then I had to transition back to picking up sticks in my new food plot.





I found some beans.





It was 90+ degrees that day and I deferred the the stick picking up for a later date and just sprinkled out more seeds as is.



The plots down below were cleaned up and seeded also.



More beans in my crab apple exclusion cages.





G

 

[George]

I decided instead of busting my ass on habitat projects on into October like I did last summer, I would clean up and bring down fire wood. And use August to adjust and set stands and start hunting when the season starts in September.








Wood down and gravel up. I've spent the past week repairing my access path up. Neglect and a big rain while I was away turned my access road into another branch of Stone Branch from the top of the ridge to where the county picks up the maintenance. I now have 6 water diversion/release projects in place on up to the pass.



I'm still waiting for trees to die in the killed woods.





I still have some seeds evident in sunnier spots



but jap stilt grass is pretty much the dominant plant where it fits it's niche. I'm going to treat some of it to some gly today when I go up to cut firewood.



Trail cameras have shown my nine from last year to still be around and multiple doe/fawn combos. So the girls seem to be happy with my efforts so far.

G

 

[KSQ2]

Looking good! Getting your fall projects done early takes some backbone when it’s 90 out. Kudos to you!

 

[Native Hunter]

Looking good. I sprayed cleth in my plots this morning. Will do some over seeding when the grass dies. Keep up the good work.

 

[George]

Looking good! Getting your fall projects done early takes some backbone when it’s 90 out. Kudos to you!

Thanks, I'm bailing out of the hard work for the fun stuff.

Looking good. I sprayed cleth in my plots this morning. Will do some over seeding when the grass dies. Keep up the good work.

Thanks Native. I saw some smart weed flowers up there so I'm not sure if that is actually slilt grass that I was calling stilt grass?

I had a bonus log laying on my chestnut oak log this morning.





I have been needing to unplug this rim trail for a couple of years now.





Now I have a 27' chestnut oak log, I'm thinking on cutting it up into siding for a box blind.





Tank sounded the snake alarm last evening, we weren't in danger. I relocated him/her behind the building down in the ditch



and 5 minutes later it was back trying to find food in the rafters.



I relocated it the second time down to the log cabin.





G

 

[George]

Chanterelles are a new shroom for me.







Death is creeping through my forest.





G

 

[gut_pile]

Love chants. Picked a bag full on Monday.

You can sauté them by the bulk load and freeze them. They freeze very well

 

[George]

Love chants. Picked a bag full on Monday.

You can sauté them by the bulk load and freeze them. They freeze very well

Good, thanks.

Where did all of my bunnies down in the yard around the cabin go?









G

 

[Gator]

Cool pics!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[George]

Yesterday



and today, The chants keep coming.



First boletus bicolor of the year.



Silly me not taking my basket.



I identified this one to be a ramaria, said to be edible and or a gastrological distresser.





Good germination in my new food plot.









G

 

[lakngolf]

Looking good. Footplot germination looks healthy

 

[George]

Looking good. Footplot germination looks healthy

Thanks.

East end





west end.



There are a few beans left



but not many. I'm going up today with a sprinkle of nitrogen before the rain.



The hacked and burned woods is slowly letting in more light.





The ridge top is a greener place this year.





I have been studying my trail camera pictures. I had a flush of fawns, 3 or so. Then an increase in coyote activity and now zero fawn pictures but lots of doe pictures. I still need to boil up my new traps, I'm going to be a coyote trapper come January.

I had an old guy from the german shepherd farm drive around the block to visit, he was looking for an old missing black dog who wandered off with the beagle and never came back. The beagle and one shepherd are all that remains from the original pack of 6 deer hunters. Not sure which one but my neighbor shot one of the adults himself after it put a little girl in the hospital.



G

 

[George]

This is the first tomato worm that I found on the year, I think that my tomatoes will be safe.



I have 2 peaches to pick, any advice on when to harvest?





Tiny is 9 months and 95lbs.













They say that a bandog has a bite force of 730psi, in comparison, german shepherd- 238psi, pittbull-235, rottenweiler- 328psi, lion-650psi.

G

 

[Native Hunter]

I have to start calling him X-Tiny.

I'm not much of a peach guru, but those look ripe to me already. When they ripen you can generally feel the flesh give a little when you gently squeeze them. The difference from a green one seems very noticeable to me. Also, you can usually see a little wrinkling around the stem area where water has left the fruit. The loss of moisture helps to develop the sweet flavor.

 

[George]

I have to start calling him X-Tiny.

I'm not much of a peach guru, but those look ripe to me already. When they ripen you can generally feel the flesh give a little when you gently squeeze them. The difference from a green one seems very noticeable to me. Also, you can usually see a little wrinkling around the stem area where water has left the fruit. The loss of moisture helps to develop the sweet flavor.

Thanks Steve, it was still hard the day that I enquired, less so yesterday, maybe today.

I thought that I might have had something yesterday when I pulled this saprophytic clump. It had stained black by the time that I brought it off the ridge which made it easy to identify, meripilus sumstinei, black staining polypore. It is edible but not choice.





G

 

[cutman]

Those peaches are ready. Eat them before a coon does (ask me how I know).

 

[BenAllgood]

I usually have a problem with hornworms on my tomatoes, but didn't see any this year. I did plant basil at the bottoms. Not sure if it was that or the weather or something else. Basil is supposed to keep them from getting on the tomatoes as much.

I agree. That's a ripe looking peach. You can usually smell a ripe peach too.