A Walk Through Sam's Place

[Doctorbrady]

Thanks to Brushpile for keeping me up to date on where most of our digital friends and habitat guys are relocating! I look forward to continuing to post (although not as prolifically as Brush) and learn among friends. New posts and photos coming soon...

 

[dogdoc]

So glad to see ya hear doc. Your experience and knowledge will be appreciated.

Todd

 

[wbpdeer]

Doctorbrady

Glad you are here. I look forward to your dog tracking post as well as the other things you share.

 

[outdoorstom]

Glad to see ya, Doc!

 

[Brushpile]

Waiting to see how the Hybrid Poplar truncheons grew...

 

[massey]

Wow. Having all of you guys here is awesome! I haven't seen a Sams Place update in awhile. ( maybe I missed some). Looking forward to it.

 

[Doctorbrady]

Massey, you are correct. I am not the best at keeping things updated. The past several seasons have been plagued with drought of one degree or another, making habitat advancement tough. That's not to say that I haven't been working at it, but set backs are the rule rather than the exception. I will post a few pictures that I have taken recently, but will past my first couple of posts first for those who have never followed the thread.

 

[Doctorbrady]

OK everybody. I have finally started grabbing some more pictures of my "farm" now that I have an iphone. I was terrible about not bringing the camera with me in the past. I just live too far away, and always have too much to do when I get there!
My property is 180 acres in SW Missouri. When I bought the place it had been severely over-hunted for years, and deer numbers were low. Not any more!
My wife and I originally bought the place to put in a family cemetery in a place that we would actually want to visit. Here is where the name comes from....
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It's been a real blessing having such a wonderful place to enjoy where the memory of our son is always there.
Wildflowers are blooming everywhere now. The black eyed Susans are prolific...if not invasive. Hard not to like this though...
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[Doctorbrady]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Timo
Dang..First pic really got me...Sorry for your lose.

The farm name is forever fitting.

Thanks! We knew that he would not be with us long from very early on in the pregnancy. We cherished every moment we had with him, and made the most of what God allowed us. His life was short, but it provided a very important testimony to many who surrounded us, and gave us more blessings than I can ever put into these pages. Sometimes we see only the tragedy and miss His majesty

.
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Here is a picture of my two heros!
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“Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient.”
Aldo Leopold

 

[Doctorbrady]

A few more kid pics from years gone by as I can't stand to think of them being lost forever...
This is part of a 3 acre field of switch that is doing great! We bumped some deer out of this, and nearly stepped on a fawn.
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[Doctorbrady]

This guy's a high school wrestler now
This is Gabe, my youngest habitat helper seeding another field we just nuked a few minutes before.
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[Doctorbrady]

Now on to some new stuff...
Here are some poplar truncheons (tree sized cuttings) that Brushpile and I put in the ground earlier this spring. The holes were dug using a post hole digger, and truncheons were placed 3 feet deep. I intended to come back a week or two later and cut the exposed part of the tree down to about a foot, but they were already growing wildly when I returned. Now many of the "instant trees" are over 12 feet tall. These were planted in an area that has plagued me for years. It borders the county highway, and has proven to be a difficult place to develop a living screen...until now.

 

[Doctorbrady]

Here is a picture next to the tractor for reference.

 

[Doctorbrady]

Here is a line of truncheons, now trees, that will help provide some screening in the very near future.

 

[Doctorbrady]

Interestingly, I planted a couple of rows of poplar and mulberry truncheon in a nearby location, which is actually better soil, and they didn't fair as well. They were planted about 2 weeks later, in drier conditions, which sealed their fate.

 

[Doctorbrady]

Here is a loblolly X pitch pine planted in the same road side location slightly closer to the highway. I have planted several hundred pines here in the past, and all have failed due to everything from deer, to neighbor's goats, soggy soil, and repeated droughts. Last year, I planted a couple of hundred more seedlings in an area prepared with Oust XP. I didn't expect much based on previous experience. I checked the area this spring in anticipation of putting in the truncheons, and found many survivors. This one has put on over a foot of growth this year despite dry conditions. If the pines continue to do well, they will provide excellent long term screening.

 

[Doctorbrady]

Here is a jujube tree covered in flowers (from June). If you look closely you can see the beetles that pollinate these trees. Last year this tree produced it first tasty fruits! Jujubes are very drought tolerant and low maintenance trees. Mine never require spraying. They are supposed to fruit early, though mine took several years due to tough drought conditions. They are slow growers, though mine have put on 3-4' of rapid growth this year with the little rains they got.

 

[Doctorbrady]

This is a 7 year old developing oak savanna. Like most of my plantings, it was plagued by 6 years of drought of varying severity. It started at a 50 tree planting, and 35 or so have survived thanks to great root systems on these MDC seedlings. They were all planted in good holes made with a post hole auger, and water holding crystals applied to the roots. The planting area was treated with glyphosate and oust XP each spring for the first 3 years. Since that time they have been on their own. They remained tiny little things until late last summer when some rains spurred their growth. This year most have sprung up significantly above the grass line. A willow oak is in the foreground with my biggest SWO just beyond.

 

[Doctorbrady]

Here's a few from last fall...
A beautiful eastern wahoo in bloom. I have found a few of these across the property, and don't know how they have escaped my hungry deer.

 

[Doctorbrady]

Despite a very dry summer last year, we got some timely rains in August and September which made my turnip plots remarkably good! I had so much food last fall and winter, that most of the field was still standing come Spring. However, cameras proved that the field was getting consistently used by a dozen or so deer, including a few nice bucks. Here's an average sized left over.