Florida Plantation

[FL Plotter]

Go back to post 105 and you will see that about 7 acres of the 20 acres is cleared, but the back 1 acre is a secluded food plot. All the surrounding area is farmland with lots of swamps and wooded parcels for cover. Florida is naturally thick and brushy so big clearings are not really a draw for deer -- that's more for me!

Key goal is prep for retirement with a dual functioning property - living and hunting (or time killing). Front portion will be house, barn, pond, garden, pastures and livestock (pets for the wife). I hope to raise some fish in the pond if for nothing else, to pass time and maybe an occasional fish fry.

Perimeter security is a huge focus to keep our dogs and farm animals in and other dogs out; thus the work on having a nice perimeter path around the property. We have Brittany Spaniels and will always have them and I might as well jump off a bridge if something were to happen to them because I don't have a good perimeter fence. The deer can jump over it, but not sure how that will work with fawns??.

Back portion is for hunting but I don't have wild expectations for monster bucks. My goal is to have a constant food supply on the ground (solid 2 acres of groceries) and to plan a ton of trees like persimmons and pears. Take a doe and/or buck every year and I will call it a success. At some point, I will leave my hunting lease, but after 11 years, I feel so invested in it!

 

[FL Plotter]

It's late in the year, but it looks like I'm gonna be able to scratch off some of the 2019 "to do" list. Pond digging has started. Secured some asphalt millings for the driveway. And underground electric is lined up after dirt work is done.

 

[FL Plotter]

Well, got an expensive hole....and driveway to my future!.

 

[Deadeye]

Looks good.

Now is the time to drag Rocks or Trees into the Pond for areas for the Fish to stage near, if that is your goal for the Pond. They will get by with just a bowl, but some strategically placed cover will pay big dividends later.

 

[FL Plotter]

Looks good.
Now is the time to drag Rocks or Trees into the Pond for areas for the Fish to stage near, if that is your goal for the Pond. They will get by with just a bowl, but some strategically placed cover will pay big dividends later.

Told my wife I was gonna shape the bottom of the pond with the Kubota and she damn near started crying telling me not to take my tractor in the bottom of that hole! Looked into a truckload of boulders to sling there, but that was $5000, so nope. I don't want stumps in there, so I'm looking at some artificial reefs you can build with PVC. A plastic sphere you glue 24" pieces of PVC into to create a "ball". Need water first though!!

Weekend update:

Well boys, the heat and drought continue....can't remember a September this dry and hot. With October as our typically driest month, I'm looking towards a goal of plots in by mid-November instead of mid-October.

Been chasing an overheating problem on the Kubota for a couple of years. Long story short, I removed the thermo to increase cooling and after many different other failed remedies, I put the thermo back in and I think the cooling problem is resolved. Can't have a tractor in Florida that doesn't cool and expect to get anything done! I think the original culprit was a loose fan belt.

Saturday really tested my patience...keep in mind all this happened an hour from my house. Pulled into my welding guy's yard yesterday morning to pick up my bushhog and the tractor battery was dead. Ironically, I was thinking on the drive up if this battery can make it through the fall, I will put in a new one in the spring...it's 5 years old. Unhooked from the trailer to jump the tractor, rehooked to the trailer, unloaded the tractor to pick up the bushhog and as I'm loading them both on the trailer, notice the tailwheel bracket was still bent--which is the main reason I brought it in for repairs in the first place and the 2nd welder that has failed to address this problem. Put the bushhog back on his lawn and headed to town to get a battery from Tractor Supply. Put in new battery in TSC parking lot and it's dead! Remove it, get a refund, and my core and head to Oreilly's. Install new battery and head to get some fence posts. First place doesn't have posts but second place does--all places I have never been before. Finally get to the property about noon and get 5 of the 6 posts put in before I'm worn out....but I got my corner posts and driveway funnel posts in, so the rest is just line posts. Tylenol and Naproxen to ease the pain.

8" posts spaced 8' apart dug in 3' for about 650'...this is gonna take awhile!!

 

[Hoosierhunting]

8” posts at 8’.....you and I suffer from the same overbuild everything disease. There’s no cure, I’ve looked into it. Hope your luck changes when you get back to it.


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum

 

[Deadeye]

Sure was hot up there this weekend, Feels Like Temps were over 100*.

 

[FL Plotter]

It's October and still hot here...and dry as I've seen it. It's that time of year to plant, but need a couple of toad soakers before we can even think about it. Just been doing what I can to keep making progress. Salvaged an old dead cedar that the hurricane blew over...that's been on the list for awhile.

Got about 7T of lime spread on my pasture, pond edge, and fenceline in preparation of planting. Had to mow my ICPs because they were mainly stems and had dropped most of their leaves due to the drought. Sure smelled good mowing them.

Been getting mainly small bucks every day at the feeders, then one day at near 10am last week, an ol' boy walked through. Guess he was scoping the territory during an excursion.

 

[lakngolf]

Way to go. You have been active. Love the old cedar

 

[Deadeye]

Your place is looking great.

Nice Big'en on the Cam too!

 

[Deadeye]

So how much rain did you get from the "storm" that rolled thru? Man we got soaked down here on Saturday all day from the feeder bans.

I'm headed up for Archery on Saturday and hoping we got some up there. One of our Drainage Ponds was down to cracked earth from having water in it the last trip up about 2 weeks before. At least we got some water in one of the other ponds or did 2 weeks ago.

Worst part is I don't have a stand set up on one of them. Tons of Tracks all around the one and I tried to talk the SIL to set his smallest Tripod up near there but he thought that would be to close to the other two stands we have set in that area. He is still learning and I'm trying to teach him, but he is to much like me and has a Strong "I want to do it my way" mentality. He chose another spot for it.

After I told him about the one pond being dry and the other being hit for water hard and that we need to get a Stand or Blind set up there he said "I agree". Now that is one for next year at this point. I'm out of stands and Blinds to put up for this year.

 

[FL Plotter]

We got very little rain from TS Nestor but got some from a couple of other fronts that came through -- we are running about a 12" deficit this year, so we need lots more. Underground electric is going in today, and the power foreman said we got a little water covering the bottom of the pond, so that's a start! Should wash that new lime in and loosen up the ground so I can get ready to plant a couple of acres and that pond edge.

 

[Deadeye]

That is the craziest part about these Storms, where the center is may not get the most rain. Usually it's the East side that gets the most.

 

[FL Plotter]

Getting some wet stuff from the sky, finally. Been an exhausting 2 days (14 hrs door-to-door on Sunday and Monday), but I got both properties planted. Spread clover and chicory last night by the lights of the tractor!

My property. Had to divert a few hours of planting to clean up the mess Gulf Power left with my driveway and pond edge when then buried my electric 700'. People are lazy and just downright suck. Way worse than picture shows...3' or better ruts.

The catfish holes holding about 8' of water. Deer tracks in bottom of pond are ridiculous. They have plenty of water elsewhere.


Couple of plots in:




East fence line limed and planted.

 

[Triple C]

What are your plans for that big cedar?

 

[Deadeye]

Looks really good, you done a lot in a very short time! It will be awesome for years to come for you to enjoy. Congrats.

 

[FL Plotter]

What are your plans for that big cedar?

I would like to get it planked along with a pecan trunk I recovered from the hurricane. Maybe make a Hurricane Michael table out of it! Also have a pretty black cypress that was standing dead after my land clearer burned too close to it. I'm kinda a wood hoarder.
UPDATE: I just ordered a chainsaw mill so I'll post up pics when I plank it out.

Looks really good, you done a lot in a very short time! It will be awesome for years to come for you to enjoy. Congrats.

I really think about little else except the next project to do out there....keeps me up at night. But walking up within 20 yards of an adult doe while I was spreading clover Monday night on my lease kinda got me excited about actually hunting instead of preparing to hunt. Looks like some decent cool weather (for Florida) over the next couple weeks too.

 

[FL Plotter]

So much to do...so little time in the day. Took Friday off to make myself a 4-day weekend and headed to my property to lay out my funnel to my driveway. Of course I got sidetracked and put in a target stand for my shooting range, and then pushed up a bunch of brush I chainsawed last weekend. As luck would have it, a little stick comes in from the bottom and gets around the main crankshaft pulley and forces the belt off. I caught it pretty quick and with only an adjustable wrench got all but one bolt on the alternator loose to put the belt back on. 1 hour later and a trip to the local O'reillys to buy a ratchet set (left all my tools at home), and I was back in business.

No exciting bucks on cam, but here's some of the day's work. Plots are greening up!.

 

[farmhunter]

WOW! I love your place in Florida. I have a good bit of family in Florida - mostly central FL - their property looks a lot different than yours.
Really looking forward to seeing the ponds filled in.

 

[FL Plotter]

It is lovely this time of year...cool, but not cold. My son came down from college just south of Buffalo, NY and he loved the 70s and 80s this past week.

Scavenged some hurricane pecan and just got around to planking it out. Was so much fun that I went and got 2 more loads from a homeowner that hadn't cleaned up their yard yet. 14 months later and some homes are as they were the day after the hurricane..