Triple C's Place
- Thread starter Triple C
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Triple C
Well-Known Member
Appreciate all the kind words guys! Been a traveling fool this year and checking in has been few and far between. Just got back from a trip this week and headed to farm this afternoon for grandson's birthday. We got quite a bit of rain from this last front on Tuesday and Wednesday. Can't wait to see if things are greener than last week.
"We live in challenging times! I will leave you with an old rancher adage advice, "Every once in a while you need a good hard drought to help cut the fat out of an operation!"
dgallow...I pasted the above from your comments. That one will make you stop and think.
"We live in challenging times! I will leave you with an old rancher adage advice, "Every once in a while you need a good hard drought to help cut the fat out of an operation!"
dgallow...I pasted the above from your comments. That one will make you stop and think.
Triple C
Well-Known Member
Belated thx for the kind words j-bird!
2016 Hunting Results
- 2 doe(s)
- 1 yearling buck
- Lots up n comers passed on.
- Still chasing a stud
- I'm 0 for 5 with the recurve
- Expect to harvest 3 to 5 doe by Jan 1st.
On a personal note, since Thanksgiving, I've missed 5 times with my recurve. 0 for 5. I'm pretty sure all at the same doe. She's laughing at me. Most frustrating sit was all 3 arrows in my quiver ended up in the lower lower plot shot over the back of the doe and she pretty much ignored each miss. Weird feeling to be sitting in the stand with no arrows left in the quiver. Missed the last time from ground blind set up in the fallow area between upper lower and lower lower plot and pretty sure at the same doe. Over the back again. She was clueless I was there. Perfectly broad side at 18 yds. I'll call it the sophomore jinx. I didn't release an arrow at a deer last year and after connecting on deer and pigs in 2013 I thought the traditional archery experience had come fairly easy to me. WRONG! I'll be back at em again Friday morning thru Sunday evening and hope to post a harvest pic.
On a good note for 2016, my grandson, Jaden, took his 1st deer with a bow. He's hooked. Unfortunately, we didn't find the doe the evening he shot. We tracked for more than an hour and finally lost all sign of blood. The arrow was covered in blood...they type you know you've taken a kill shot, but we couldn't find her. It was cool temps that night so we decided to wait till the next morning when Brooks would be down to help. We picked up specks of blood the next morning and again ran out of blood. After about 1 1/2 hours, we just started walking a grid with no blood sign. Brooks found her about 200 yds from where Jaden shot her. The shot was a little back, catching one lung and liver. To our dismay, the coyotes found her before we did and had eaten pretty much all of one side of her. We snapped a pic of the good side and learned a valuable lesson...deer left overnight will more than likely be discovered by a yote that crosses blood trail. Call a dog tracker!
Jaden always invites a couple of his buddies down on his birthday in early December, one of which is his cousin. We give the kids a green light on doe. His cousin took his 3rd deer from the farm, a nice mature doe. He's taken an 8 point, 2 doe and a pig. Nothing like seeing kids connect while deer hunting.
2nd week of December, an old friend came down to hunt the weekend. He hadn't harvested a deer this year and wanted a good chance at putting one in the freezer. I gave him the green light on any doe or yearling buck but to pass on 2.5 and older bucks. He complied and took a nice yearling buck. With much needed rain starting in mid November, the plots all greened up nicely and each plot saw plenty of late afternoon action. He was thrilled to harvest a deer. We processed it the same evening and sent him home with a cooler full of freezer wrapped venison along with a dozen quail from a recent quail hunt. Here's pics of our 3 harvests this year:
Jaden's doe.
Cousin Dillon's doe. His dad didn't take a field pic but this one will eat well.
Friend's yearling buck
As for bucks...we've got a great crop of un n comers and one nice shooter. Brooks has had several close encounters with this buck while bowhunting but not close enough to seal the deal.
Triple C
Well-Known Member
Progression Of The Hour Glass Plot
Here's a few pics of the hour glass plot from pre planting to Christmas Eve. This plot was used as a logging deck and took a lot of work...subsoiling and discing, to prepare for planting. Then once planted, it was red dirt for the better part of 2 months with no rain.
Here's what the plot looked like on Nov 11th, about 6 weeks after planting.
A little rain and by Nov 22nd, a little green up.
Fast forward to Dec 15th and more rain and green up!
By Christmas Eve it was looking even better. I would never have believed this plot would have developed as nicely as it has, based on the condition post logging. The subsoiling to break up the compaction did it's job. I really thought we would be next year getting this plot back in good shape.
Here's a few pics of the hour glass plot from pre planting to Christmas Eve. This plot was used as a logging deck and took a lot of work...subsoiling and discing, to prepare for planting. Then once planted, it was red dirt for the better part of 2 months with no rain.
Here's what the plot looked like on Nov 11th, about 6 weeks after planting.
A little rain and by Nov 22nd, a little green up.
Fast forward to Dec 15th and more rain and green up!
By Christmas Eve it was looking even better. I would never have believed this plot would have developed as nicely as it has, based on the condition post logging. The subsoiling to break up the compaction did it's job. I really thought we would be next year getting this plot back in good shape.
Triple C
Well-Known Member
Expansion of the Bean Field Plot
We undertook a major project of expanding our bean field plot during our logging operation. We clear-cut an acre from the lower section of this plot along with removing 2 rows of pines from one side and clear cutting the upper corners. Went from approximately 4 acres to 6 acres. Post logging, we had a mess as you can imagine. The clear cut sections had to be stumped and cleaned. We got a large excavator and dozer on the property around the middle of September to begin the process. Archery season had just opened but we needed to get this done this year to prepare for planting next year.
This is the largest plot on our 287 acres and is now even larger. This time of year, multiple doe groups will use this plot daily. Our goal is to have this plot used by multiple doe groups every day of the year. I subscribe to Lickcreek's dogma of fewer but larger plots, having at least one destination plot per 80 to 100 acres. We have 3...this one, the hour glass (which was expanded with the timber harvest), and the upper lower / lower lower plot. The bean field plot is the center piece of our food plotting program. It has nice cover on each side with ample bedding and a water hole that always holds water. It would be a very rare day not to see deer in any of these plots in the late afternoon and often during any time of the day.
We will lime all of the areas that were clear cut this coming spring. Come next fall, we will plant the perimeter in clover and the interior in brassicas and grains. In the corners, we will transplant the fruit trees that we originally planted back in 2011. Brooks has access to a large tree spade. And we will plant the bare root sawtooth and chestnut seedlings I got from The LLC, and wpdeer (chestnuts), along with B II8 root stock that The LLC will graft in March.
After having all the planted pines clear cut from the lower section last fall, we had a mess on our hands this summer. Weeds were over head high and the area was covered in stumps. The green in this arial is the area that was clear cut last fall.
Here's what it looked like back in the summer at eye level.
By mid September, the excavator had dug up all the stumps.
Dozer came in after the excavator and piled stumps and removed most all of the debris.
A aerial after the excavator an dozer where finished. The area outlined in red is what was clear cut and will now be used for planting.
Took this pic on Dec 23rd. We planted abruzzi rye to get something green manure going on the newly created areas. Lots of work and glad it's over. I used some of the revenue from the timber harvest to cover the cost of the excavator and dozer.
Old Home Place
There was the remnant of an old home place on the back side of the area we clear cut from the bean field. My wife would always take pics of daffodils that came up around the home place in the spring. We have 2 home places on our property. It's always intriguing to think about what went on here many, many years before I owned this property and why the former homesteaders built there homes where they did. Neither home place is near the dirt road. I've found all manner of pieces of metal and iron works, pottery and such around this home place. After the dozer removed all of the debris, the remnants of pottery and such were scattered on top of the ground. While taking a pic just prior to Christmas, I saw an odd shaped, flattened container that appeared to be made of aluminum.
I knocked the dirt off an on the bottom saw that it was made in Italy by a company called Bascal. I took it back to the cabin and cleaned it up, then googled Bascal and discovered they made aluminum tumblers back in the day. Thought it was a pretty cool find to think about some family many years ago with these in the kitchen to use around the dinner table. I grew up on a farm that was in the family back to my grandfather's day, pre 1900. It's now a subdivision. Now that I have my own farm I find it intriguing to search around these old home places and find bits and pieces of days gone by and wonder what life was like back in the day when cotton was king down here and what these families did to make a living.
Kind of a long update but hope you enjoy the journey we continue to take as we leave our mark on the land for generations to come behind us. I also took the time this past few days to document all of the old ladder stand relics that are left on our property. Each year, they decay just a little more so I thought it would be nice to take pics of all of them and have for future reference. Each has it's own story that I can only guess as to why the original builder put it where he did and why he designed it the way he did. I'll post those sometime in late winter when it's too messy to be outside. Thx for continuing following along on our journey!
We undertook a major project of expanding our bean field plot during our logging operation. We clear-cut an acre from the lower section of this plot along with removing 2 rows of pines from one side and clear cutting the upper corners. Went from approximately 4 acres to 6 acres. Post logging, we had a mess as you can imagine. The clear cut sections had to be stumped and cleaned. We got a large excavator and dozer on the property around the middle of September to begin the process. Archery season had just opened but we needed to get this done this year to prepare for planting next year.
This is the largest plot on our 287 acres and is now even larger. This time of year, multiple doe groups will use this plot daily. Our goal is to have this plot used by multiple doe groups every day of the year. I subscribe to Lickcreek's dogma of fewer but larger plots, having at least one destination plot per 80 to 100 acres. We have 3...this one, the hour glass (which was expanded with the timber harvest), and the upper lower / lower lower plot. The bean field plot is the center piece of our food plotting program. It has nice cover on each side with ample bedding and a water hole that always holds water. It would be a very rare day not to see deer in any of these plots in the late afternoon and often during any time of the day.
We will lime all of the areas that were clear cut this coming spring. Come next fall, we will plant the perimeter in clover and the interior in brassicas and grains. In the corners, we will transplant the fruit trees that we originally planted back in 2011. Brooks has access to a large tree spade. And we will plant the bare root sawtooth and chestnut seedlings I got from The LLC, and wpdeer (chestnuts), along with B II8 root stock that The LLC will graft in March.
After having all the planted pines clear cut from the lower section last fall, we had a mess on our hands this summer. Weeds were over head high and the area was covered in stumps. The green in this arial is the area that was clear cut last fall.
Here's what it looked like back in the summer at eye level.
By mid September, the excavator had dug up all the stumps.
Dozer came in after the excavator and piled stumps and removed most all of the debris.
A aerial after the excavator an dozer where finished. The area outlined in red is what was clear cut and will now be used for planting.
Took this pic on Dec 23rd. We planted abruzzi rye to get something green manure going on the newly created areas. Lots of work and glad it's over. I used some of the revenue from the timber harvest to cover the cost of the excavator and dozer.
Old Home Place
There was the remnant of an old home place on the back side of the area we clear cut from the bean field. My wife would always take pics of daffodils that came up around the home place in the spring. We have 2 home places on our property. It's always intriguing to think about what went on here many, many years before I owned this property and why the former homesteaders built there homes where they did. Neither home place is near the dirt road. I've found all manner of pieces of metal and iron works, pottery and such around this home place. After the dozer removed all of the debris, the remnants of pottery and such were scattered on top of the ground. While taking a pic just prior to Christmas, I saw an odd shaped, flattened container that appeared to be made of aluminum.
I knocked the dirt off an on the bottom saw that it was made in Italy by a company called Bascal. I took it back to the cabin and cleaned it up, then googled Bascal and discovered they made aluminum tumblers back in the day. Thought it was a pretty cool find to think about some family many years ago with these in the kitchen to use around the dinner table. I grew up on a farm that was in the family back to my grandfather's day, pre 1900. It's now a subdivision. Now that I have my own farm I find it intriguing to search around these old home places and find bits and pieces of days gone by and wonder what life was like back in the day when cotton was king down here and what these families did to make a living.
Kind of a long update but hope you enjoy the journey we continue to take as we leave our mark on the land for generations to come behind us. I also took the time this past few days to document all of the old ladder stand relics that are left on our property. Each year, they decay just a little more so I thought it would be nice to take pics of all of them and have for future reference. Each has it's own story that I can only guess as to why the original builder put it where he did and why he designed it the way he did. I'll post those sometime in late winter when it's too messy to be outside. Thx for continuing following along on our journey!
Attachments
lakngolf
Well-Known Member
Great update IIIC. My thought recently was "I wonder what Brooks has been up to lately". Glad to see the young ones getting some action. I am trying to provide those opportunities too. Few comments:
1. This if the first I remember of venison processing on Triple C Ranch. Have you written about your setup and process? If so I missed it.
2. Glad the red clay turned green for Christmas. Amazing how some crops can recover, and even more amazing what the Lord's blessing of rain provides for us and all creatures.
3. You have a lot of deer in the daytime!
4. Agree with you on old home places. I have flower bed walls all around my place made from rock that was in old chimneys from the land next door.
Happy New Year. Hoping that your travels are more Fridays to the Georgia country than plane flights to places all over!
1. This if the first I remember of venison processing on Triple C Ranch. Have you written about your setup and process? If so I missed it.
2. Glad the red clay turned green for Christmas. Amazing how some crops can recover, and even more amazing what the Lord's blessing of rain provides for us and all creatures.
3. You have a lot of deer in the daytime!
4. Agree with you on old home places. I have flower bed walls all around my place made from rock that was in old chimneys from the land next door.
Happy New Year. Hoping that your travels are more Fridays to the Georgia country than plane flights to places all over!
catscratch
Well-Known Member
Holy cow! Great update and a ton of work done!!!
What a cool find at the old homesite. I love finding history, I would be there all the time looking for stuff.
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
What a cool find at the old homesite. I love finding history, I would be there all the time looking for stuff.
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
Triple C
Well-Known Member
Thx lak! If I could only grow maters like you do. Not sure why we have so many deer using plots during daylight. It's always been that way and my guess is that there is so little pressure for the most part. Jaden is busy with sports so his and his dad's hunting trips down have been very limited. I''ve been averaging going down every other weekend. (Been a very busy year). Brooks is bout the only one that's there during the week and he ain't ridin around on an ATV like Pops. Plus, other than bean field, the other plots are really secluded. I get so many daytime pics in mid day of deer using these plots.
As for the self processing...been doing it a long time. Taught the boys how to quarter a deer when they were just starting to hunt. The second structure I built was the BBQ pavilion / skinning shed. Put electric, sink and running water there to make processing easier. A few years ago, I bought a cheap electric grinder from Sporthsmen's Guide and that thing has performed flawlessly. We keep back straps and tenderloins and the rest is cut up in stew meat or ground. Seems we never got around to cooking roasts we would take from the hind quarter so we just started cutting that up in to stew meat and grinding. My buddy that took the small buck was amazed at how quick Brooks, him and me had his deer deboned, cut up, ground and wrapped in freezer paper. Next purchase will be a vacuum sealer. Folks swear by those.
Triple C
Well-Known Member
Thx catscratch! It has been a very busy past 12 months at the farm and it's coming together nicely. I gotta get a metal detector out there before we do too much around the old home place.
Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
Very interesting pictures triple C. I especially like the one dated 12-15 with the green plot and the tall pines surrounding it. That is just candy for the eyes with or without the deer in it.
keep at it with the bow; it will all come together. At least you are getting the thrill of shooting and not having the work of processing them. A bunch of us used to shoot weekly at the local bow shop at life size deer going about their lives projected onto a screen;that was a lot of fun. They likely have it somewhere here in NY but the snowy weather would make weekly trips difficult or impossible.
keep at it with the bow; it will all come together. At least you are getting the thrill of shooting and not having the work of processing them. A bunch of us used to shoot weekly at the local bow shop at life size deer going about their lives projected onto a screen;that was a lot of fun. They likely have it somewhere here in NY but the snowy weather would make weekly trips difficult or impossible.
Triple C
Well-Known Member
Thx Chainsaw. I've taken my share of deer with a compound but only switched to traditional bow in 2014. Back in my younger days, I got quite efficient at still hunting with a bow. It became my favorite way to bow hunt. I slipped up on my share without being detected and took a good number of deer with that method. As for the tall pines surrounding the plot...that is one peaceful sit in the afternoon. The pines to the south of the plot feed into the beaver ponds and wetland area. You can see all the way down to the edge of the beaver pond. The understory is 4 to 6 feet high with native forbs and such. Deer just feel comfortable slipping thru this area during daylight. More buck sightings out of the stand over looking that plot than any stand on the property. Took this pic Christmas morning which is below the hour glass plot.
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
Wow TC, what an awesome update. And the work you have accomplished is amazing. That wall is looking extremely heavy - you had better check the reinforcing. And, the picture of Jaden with his deer is a keeper for sure....
Now, that big one running away knows that you are after him with the recurve. He knows you well enough to know that you will have it mastered soon - and he knows too that Jaden is on the prowl!!! I would hate to be in his shoes with you guys hunting me......
Now, that big one running away knows that you are after him with the recurve. He knows you well enough to know that you will have it mastered soon - and he knows too that Jaden is on the prowl!!! I would hate to be in his shoes with you guys hunting me......
Triple C
Well-Known Member
Native...I had a little chuckle thinking about that buck worrying about me with recurve in hand based on last 5 releases. That trail cam pic was from Nov 26th. We have a hang-on directly above that camera. I was in that stand the previous day when all 3 arrows from my quiver were sticking up in the plot.
dogghr
Well-Known Member
Man what and update Triple Good stuff from deer harvest to plots. Glad you finally got some rain. Looking forward as your tree thinning project produces results. Cool drone shots. I got an inexpensive one for Christmas. Lets just say my poor piloting and wind ended in a bad way within the hour. Note to self, when learning get in middle of large field, have no wind, and spit out gum seeing as how I can't walk and chew at the same time. My daughter got a great laugh our of it tho. Enjoyed.
Triple C
Well-Known Member
Thx dogghr! Drone is a Phantom 4. That thing is pretty amazing but not bomb proof. I've already crashed it in the tall pines by the pavilion. Fell from bout 40 to 50 ft up and warped a couple the arms a little. Blades popped off but didn't break. Strangely enough...darn thing still flies. Really makes for some nice aerial shots around your property. I was impressed more with the thinning of the pines after flying the drone. Guys really know what they are doing on a 5th row thinning.
dogdoc
Well-Known Member
Enjoyed the update! Love the progression of the plot. What looked to be a complete failure from drought has turned into a beautiful plot. The advantage of living in the south.
Mount came out beautiful---lots of great looking bucks on the Wall of Fame!
Happy New Years
todd
Mount came out beautiful---lots of great looking bucks on the Wall of Fame!
Happy New Years
todd
