Farmhunter's Habitat Managment and Improvements

[farmhunter]

Farmhunter- Is that a potential candidated for Jeep Rebuilding Thread I see in one of the pictures?

That old Jeep was one a buddy of mine had - it it was pretty far gone! Would have been a project for sure!
We've had a couple farm jeeps over the 35 years I've hunted- a couple CJs would probably be worth some $$ now!

In May I finally got the Jeep I've been wanting!!

I'm still pinching myself!!

 

[farmhunter]

Great pics! Love the stack of sheds. Your plots look great and it looks like you have plenty of nice stands to watch over them.

thank you!! Shed hunting started just at the property - but has expanded to several other areas that I enjoy searching in late winter!

Thank you all for the nice welcome!

 

[farmhunter]

Farmhunter - I really like how you build your shooting houses. The 4 by 4 in the ground and then going with the rack steel is great engineering. Good job on this thread. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you! I wanted something as sturdy as I could get for photography and for sighting in my gun. The Pallet rack fit the need well - and didn't cost anything. The building on top will be big, I was worried about it being like a big sail! so I came up with the 4x4 and cemented feet Idea.

 

[farmhunter]

Looks like we'll be planting clover Next weekend with oats as a cover crop - Only have 8/13 as the other option then not back until 8/30 so we don't want to risk not getting it in in time for the clover to do well. Last year my latest clover plot was 9/2 and the oats/wheat did well - my clover was not very established come winter and I had to frost seed it again in the spring.

Right now my beans are about to canopy and the corn is just starting to tassel. We generally do not fertilize the beans, and we plant beans to follow beans or corn - we rely in inoculation to get the beans their Nitrogen. SO they don't usually get thigh high - but 6 acres (*some in blocks and some in strips) but they feed a lot of deer all summer and we usually get some pod production for fall attraction. Usually the beans are all gone by January and the corn is what holds them over until March.


I planted this acre block as a checkerboard again this year - That's a 1 acre corn strip behind it and will be an acre+ oats/clover plot to the left come fall.

 

[dogghr]

Getting caught up. You sure have some cool hunting blinds/condos. Like the jeep.

 

[farmhunter]

Last Sunday - it rained! We needed it big time! John and I had planned on finishing the south tower prefab - but the rain changed that. So..... we yanked out an old bunk and out his new bed in the cabin - we painted the walls - and hung some of the Euro Mounts in the bedroom. My wife hates it - but she wont stay here anyhow!

I'm taking the picture from the third bed -
Additional sleeping now is the couch and a couple cots -

 

[farmhunter]

then during the week -I went up to pick blue berries - I had meant to get them on Sunday but forgot!! worked out good - got enough to make 12 1/2 pints of Blueberry Jelly -

This weekend I'll start the blackberry harvest - looks like it will be a bumper crop! The blackberries are all wild - never planted a one of them - but in my spruce planting they are king!!

I make jellys to share at camp and at Christmas with fruit I grow at the farm (Concord grapes, Elderberry, Blackberry, and blueberry).
I don't do anything with the apples - but am seriously thinking about a cider press at least.

 

[farmhunter]

While I was up in the week - I couldn't help but notice that the crops JUMPED after the weekend rains we needed so bad - especially the soybeans. The corn is starting to tassel too -

 

[dogdoc]

Beans and corn look awesome dude. Deep green color. Love the skulls!

Todd

 

[farmhunter]

Thank you Todd!! If like past years - The beans will look good for another couple weeks then the deer will devour! I think we have enough where it'll still be good come hunting season! So we got our South Tower up over the weekend - The two or three man box stand will replace the very productive one man "black box" - We are looking forward to sharing some productive hunts and scouting forays in the new tower box.

A look SW from the new box.

Everything is canopying and I Sprayed the FAR corner acre again over the weekend to plant oats/Clover SOON - we would have done it today (8/8) but the box build was exhausting!

Brassica strip - week 2

and more canopying beans - with new box in the background -

more to come!

 

[Elkaddict]

Lookin good!

 

[farmhunter]

The tower is on our 1650 ft hilltop - I often wonder what our hill top looks like from one of the others out there? Someday I'll venture to one of the hilltops we look at across the valley and see if I can spot our new tower stand, Tonight 8/9/16 I planted the 1st new Oats/clover acre in that far corner. the soil was still moist from the rains several nights ago - so I'm very excited to see some new green growth there soon - I've had it sprayed dead since the end of June!

I broadcast about 120 lbs of feed oats into the acre+ and then disked it all one time. Then I rolled it all in one direction - then I broadcast a mainly while clover mix - heavily. ( 1/2 lb of turnips was mixed into the 15 lbs clover mix). Then I rolled it all again thoroughly in the opposite direction.

I felt real good about way it went down - I barely got it all done before dark.
One more little plot to plant next weeks then - final mowing in September - and than its time to hunt!

 

[farmhunter]

some of the brassica strips are coming on now after a couple needed rains!

the checkerboard beans have canopied enough that its hard to tell they were planted as a checkerboard

and the main Soybean plot is mostly canopied now too - this was the last one planted -

this was May here - note clover strip -

the 1 acre sanctuary clover/oats corner was planted on 8-9-16 -we had a heavy rain that night so i'm feeling good about it - it had been 6 years or maybe more since last planted - the last two years we left this acre corner to grow tall grasses for cover and something different - while I liked that for summer and fall - I felt it was a waste of a field corner in the late season when I actually hunt this field -

There was a lot of thatch - and I sprayed three times over the summer before planting -

 

[outdoorstom]

I really enjoy following this thread. LOVE your property! If I ever cruise through your area, any chance of a tour?

 

[farmhunter]

We've been passing regularly younger bucks up for more than 6 years now - and the last 2 years, we've really seen a difference. we have two neighbors on board as well. 10 Point genes are not prominent where we hunt. - most of the more mature bucks we have are 8 point frames.
3.5 year bucks used to be non existent - and now we see on cameras regular enough that we don't freak out - and we see 2.5 years often now.
Our goals are still 2.5 or better - and its not a sure thing any year. If you care about score - a 110-115 buck or above here could be 2.5, or 3.5 - our bucks generally have 6-7" tines at best and don't always score well - but can dress out close to 200 lbs at 3.5 years old. Anything over 120" would be abnormally large. Over the years we've taken a couple that big - one because was a 10 point, and another because of a lot of mass. Tine length is our problem - but this year looks encouraging -

Starting to get some good pics of bucks almost done growing - mock scrapes are working well! These are a few of the best that I know of now - but I expect a couple more to show based on sheds I found last winter.

 

[farmhunter]

I really enjoy following this thread. LOVE your property! If I ever cruise through your area, any chance of a tour?

Thank you! I really appreciate that! We were really luck with the rain compared to those west of 81 - The dry spells were long but at least we had a few deluge rains - the corn especially has lover this weather. I'd probably give you a tour some time - I've never really thought about that before -

 

[outdoorstom]

Thank you! I really appreciate that! We were really luck with the rain compared to those west of 81 - The dry spells were long but at least we had a few deluge rains - the corn especially has lover this weather. I'd probably give you a tour some time - I've never really thought about that before -

No biggie if it makes you uncomfortable I'd be happy to give you one if you ever get out this way.

 

[farmhunter]

Thanks! We were up in Alex Bay today - was pretty dry in places up there! Some of the Islands were all brown, even the trees -

 

[outdoorstom]

We've been passing regularly younger bucks up for more than 6 years now - and the last 2 years, we've really seen a difference. we have two neighbors on board as well. 10 Point genes are not prominent where we hunt. - most of the more mature bucks we have are 8 point frames.
3.5 year bucks used to be non existent - and now we see on cameras regular enough that we don't freak out - and we see 2.5 years often now.
Our goals are still 2.5 or better - and its not a sure thing any year. If you care about score - any 115 buck or above here could be 2.5, or 3.5 - our bucks generally have 6-7" tines at best and don't always score well - but can dress out close to 200 lbs at 3.5 years old.

Starting to get some good pics of bucks almost done growing - mock scrapes are working well! These are a few of the best that I know of now - but I expect a couple more to show based on sheds I found last winter.

Your description of what's happened at your farm could have been written by me. We have exactly the same situation here. It sure is enjoyable seeing bigger bucks on a regular basis!

 

[dogghr]

Nice looking bucks Farmhunter. Plots look great.