Welcome to the forum. Your place sounds exciting, I myself prefer timber over all other types of habitat as a base to start management, because the options with timber are often greater than other types. With timber you will want to consider your plans very carefully, a tree that is cut in error takes 30 years to grow back.
After a couple of hours with the track loader this happened! This was my first lesson in sometimes waiting on things is best. I had this done in December and the soil all was gone from erosion by planting season..
Borrowed a buddy’s skid steer and dug in this watering hole. Holds right about 500 gallons. I took about 4 or 5 scoops out with the bucket and lined the bottom with some old pool sand. Laid weed barrier as some added protection then a tarp that was about the same material that bike inner tube is made out of. Water is a limited resource on the ridge top
As you can see by this picture the plot got washed away pretty good. I ended up harvesting this Tom the following spring after I bought the place. My first turkey and the first thing the land blessed me with
As you can see in these pictures there is absolutely no where for a deer to bed down. But I am in the process now of a 13 acre TSI that should draw them in as a bedding area / sanctuary. This will be one of several over the next couple winters. Walked the land with a forester and decided there isn’t hardly any logging sized trees on my place. So we decided to remove quite a bit basal area per acre. Mostly removing junk trees but also doing a pretty extensive thinning of oaks. Marked trees in September and started work this winter about the end of December. Currently still running saws about once a week for a couple hours. No current pictures on my phone but I’ll snap some next time I am out
This was the view from my blind on the north side of the rock plot from this current year. We had almost no rain over last years summer. In September I went for a Hail Mary and chain harrowed all the scorched clover and broadcasted a mix of clover and chicory. With some fertilizer and some timely rain it greened up great.
Winter Rye Grain and Wheat are great! Might do buckwheat in summer as well. The dozer is a cool tool and sometimes much too effective! It doesn’t take long from the time you start till the time you look around and say “holy cow, what have I done!” Lol
