Little River

[David]

So i learned to drive a tractor by watching youtube videos, and i learned to plant food plots by reading your posts!

This was my first try...we planted two. With the help of my Dad and brothers.


Post Gly.....pre disk work

After disking, hand spreading fert, naked oats, and clover

exclusion cage

80 days later....no rain (just like everyone else down here)

a week after an inch of rain

Glad i used the exclusion cage!....i would have no clue this plot was growing and feeding deer if i had not used the cage.

 

[buckdeer1]

very nice,really shows it's being used

 

[David]

A few more posts then i will be live.....

its funny how after reading all of yalls posts, i feel the need to show you certain things. As soon as i am caught up, i will focus more on upcoming and current projects...

A few things here about the farm that i love, a few pics of my family, and a few random pictures.

There is an old fig tree near the barn.

This is one of two springs which runs year round. The other has the remainder of an old well.


A honey bee hive


Head high sweet gums provide good cover

Learning to bush hog

Above the mantle in the house

The previous owner told me this was the second largest flowering dogwood in the state. I am going to habe it measured. I'm 6.5 feet tall and my head won't touch the bottom branch when I stand under it.

My daughters

The hogs....this is one of the two giants!
And finally I got a visit from some sandhill cranes.


That's all for today.

 

[David]

2016 harvest

This was a late season doe for myself. I had a great first year hunting, never made eye contact with a shooter buck. I really just wanted to learn the patterns.

Here is my brothers kill, 2.5 year old 9 point....weighed in at 120 lbs. If it wasn't his first buck i would have been a little upset. My brother and i did not grow up hunting. We are self taught and a little late to the game. He has passed on many many deer, but i told him i really wanted him to kill a buck on the farm this year. He was supper excited and got a euro mount. I was just happy to see a 2.5 year old buck with this much potential...there will be more.


That's it for the tour...we are heading down friday am for a weekend. From this point forward i will attempt to be project oriented.

thanks fellas

 

[Sam]

Great looking place!! Keep sharing!

 

[David]

Went to the farm this weekend with my brother, brother in law, and my dad. there was a huge black oak that had fallen across the creek road. We spent some time clearing that.


We planted 3 apples and 2 pears, hoping for the best. Rain is moving in now as I type this.

When we got back from planting i found my dad had just uncovered some huge rocks that were hidden under some really gnarly overgrowth. It really looks good now.

We also lined up all the implements. They had been scattered around the farm before. I guess the previous owner would drop one and leave it when he was done with a project.

 

[David]

The South Carolina Forestry Commission gave me a surprise phone call Last Tuesday. They needed the Combo to my gate so they could burn my fields. I was a little bummed that i had to work while they were burning, but so excited that it was actually going to happen.

My goal behind burning is to eliminate the fescue (and a few other non native cool season grasses). One year ago there were sweet gums 10 feet high in this field. After mowing in the late fall, waiting for most warm season plants to go into dormancy (which took forever this year), i sprayed Gly over my fields to kill the fescue. I was left with what seemed like a foot of thatch everywhere. There is no tool other than fire that would have been able to accomplish these results.

This is the field close to the house, it was the least effective, but still wonderful results. I will follow up with some more gly as soon as it warms up.

This is what i call the "big field". Man it must have gotten hot out there. Check out the burn scars on the pine in the back ground. There is nothing left accept some cactus that was too moist to burn.

my questions about how to turn this ground over are completely answered. I plan on putting in 3-5 acres of warm season plots, the remaining 7-9 acres will be allowed to regenerate on its own for several years. I can now turn this ground over with one pass of a disc and if i can get my hands on a no-till, i have 100% certainty that it will in-fact work. The mat that fescue forms is insanely thick and worried me. No worries any more!

Lastly i was able to connect with the fuel company....cell phone reception and isoloation make for a very difficult time when coordinating service calls.


Going through my list it is such a relief to check this off. The SCFC was extremelly helpful and afforadable and i am so thankful they were able to do this.

Now i really only have one focus....planting in april. I am going to attempt to put out 10 lbs of partridge pea in some strips through some of the fields and i am still nailing down my seed source for the perfect summer blend.

David

 

[Jack Terpack]

Love the pictures. I live in Hodges so I know your area fairly well. I do most of my hunting in Pa. as that is where our family land is. Sweetgum is your enemy. It grows so danged fast nothing can keep up. Can't wait to see your progress.

 

[Rickey]

I cut down a sweet gum last week and ten minutes later the better half was on me about not feeding the goats with it. They sure love to eat sweet gum. I will never be able to get rid of it all on my property though I will continue the fight. I shall always strive to eliminate sweet gum. I will engage at all costs! Can you tell I really have a tad bit of discontent for sweet gum?

 

[gut_pile]

Place looks great!

 

[Triple C]

Just catching up on the property tour threads. Love all your doing! Keep the updates coming.

 

[Sam]

Love the control burn after pics. I really wish i could control burn our property!!

 

[David]

Miscellaneous....

Its the time of year for me right now when i really feel like i have nothing immediately pending on my to do list. Too cold to spray, too early to plant, nothing to mow.....

So i decided to take a stab at using the box scrape as a dozer blade. Dad and i tried our hand at building a water hole. We placed it at the bottom of two drainage cuts. So there will be plenty of runoff to catch, could be too much. Anyways its a fun thing to do, because the only expense is diesel fuel. The blade worked "OK" but not great. after about an hour we had this built. Right now i am kicking myself for not spending 2-3 hours on it, because if it does hold water, its gonna be trouble to drain it and make it deeper! But i would bet that it leaks. I am hoping i will have a "pollen stain" to aid me in surveying the depth. Time will tell. I love these projects because its low risk high reward.

Next we trimmed up some Mature Virginia Pines. They have several other terrible names for them down here, but as long as they are tall and green, i will take them. I imagine a lush green floor of clover surrounding them this fall. For some reason it gets on my nerves to see single trees with a dozen cedars and sweet gums growing up 15-20 feet around them, it just doesn't look right. I like things high and tight! Deer need cover and they need to feel protected, so its been hard for me to realize we don't want "high and tight" everywhere. So when given the chance to beautify something for my approval, i will do it. (seems like all i do is seek the approval of whitetail!)

Also, Dad and i moved the stand from the first picture below, to the pine on the far right of that same picture (the one still surrounded by cedars). Those millennial stands are by far the most comfortable sitting stand, but they are heavy and awkward to move.

 

[Stevieray]

Great looking place, nice pictures will enjoy seeing your progress.

 

[David]

View OF the stand before we burned, trimmed, and moved it...


View FROM....
Had a small 7 enjoy the black berry back during bow season...

View of the area after the burn and trimming...i still need to finish the fescue kill, once done after spring green up, this will yield 10X the food it did before.

 

[Fish]

Enjoying your new property with you. Looks like you are doing the right things.

 

[Weasel]

Beautiful piece of property! You sure have a lot of potential there. Looking forward to following along.

 

[David]

3-24-2017

Killed a turkey on Friday AM. I have never claimed to be a turkey hunter, but this guy made me look good. He gobbled on the roost, i double back behind him, set my hen decoy in the food plot and gave a short call. He cut me off, and it was basically over from there. He was dead 10 minutes after sun up.

After the kill, i finished spraying the fescue in the fields i burnt.

2 things i have noticed develop as time passes.

1) The To Do List....Don't be a slave to it, but it sure is nice to have one. Its funny how its tied to the seasons. After the season i had a list a mile long, there is only one thing left on it now....plant summer plot. It is very satisfying to accomplish things on your list. 99.9% of the world will never know of what goes on down there, but that's not why we do it. After this season passes, i will need a new list, but for now, i really only have one focus.
2) I like to always attempt to accomplish something that will show itself in the future. I love the anticipation of seeing what last weeks work will look like this week. things like a water hole, spraying weeds, planting seeds, using exclusion cages, planting trees, even checking mineral sites and cameras....these things all give me an opportunity to see change occur while i am NOT there. So i always attempt to accomplish something that will reveal itself the next time i arrive.

 

[David]

Fish, Weasel, stevieray, Sam, Triple C, gut_pile, Rickey, Jack.....thanks for your replies.

I appreciate it.

David

 

[Weasel]

1) The To Do List....Don't be a slave to it, but it sure is nice to have one. Its funny how its tied to the seasons. After the season i had a list a mile long, there is only one thing left on it now....plant summer plot. It is very satisfying to accomplish things on your list. 99.9% of the world will never know of what goes on down there, but that's not why we do it. After this season passes, i will need a new list, but for now, i really only have one focus.
2) I like to always attempt to accomplish something that will show itself in the future. I love the anticipation of seeing what last weeks work will look like this week. things like a water hole, spraying weeds, planting seeds, using exclusion cages, planting trees, even checking mineral sites and cameras....these things all give me an opportunity to see change occur while i am NOT there. So i always attempt to accomplish something that will reveal itself the next time i arrive.

Very well said. I don't need a new to-do list yet, I'm still working off the old one!