Foodplotting In The Mountains...The Sequel

[dogghr]

Back to more pleasont things, but I do hope you respect the past and take on your responibilty of your childrens future. Bunch of these in my woods.
View attachment 7027

What is this? My place has quite a few as well.

Don't quote me cause I'm no expert and someone on here may know better. But I've always called them False Morel. These happen to be sporing. The fungi in previous post I think are called Pheasant Fungi. I should do some research. If so, the Pheasant is edible, the False is not. I may stand corrected.

 

[Native Hunter]

Back to more pleasont things, but I do hope you respect the past and take on your responibilty of your childrens future. Bunch of these in my woods.
View attachment 7027

What is this? My place has quite a few as well.

Squaw Root

 

[Triple C]

Always, always, always enjoy following along in your journey. Love your pics and your insight. I fall asleep many nights imagining myself walking thru the woods at the farm. It is truly a respite from the hustle and bustle of a busy work life. Wife and I just returned from a cruise in the Greek Isles. Such an ancient place with much to see. However...I find my favorite place on earth is taking a stroll thru my own woods. I'm headed to them today.

 

[BrianVT]

My hopes were up that I'd been overlooking an edible like the morels. Oh Well.

 

[dogghr]

My hopes were up that I'd been overlooking an edible like the morels. Oh Well.

Keep looking Brian. Ck around any Mayapples or hinged maple and hickory. which is where I find them. Been slim last 2 yrs for whatever reason. Season about over here for me.


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[dogghr]

Few updates while I watch the movie Heat from '95. Pacino , De Niro, Kilmer. Good stuff.

SIL brought my tractor back. Been gone for 6 mo while they get new farm up to speed. I missed her like a good woman. He services it and cleaned it up like new so I'm lucky.

No bare soil thru rotations as this WC RC and WW caries on. Never planted the white here but it is half the plot regardless.

Kinda wierd. Used to my bear crowd but in two places he drug old bones from cattle graveyards. These have laid for 10 yrs and not sure his motive. I think I have an old or young boar trying to make a point.

Would you like some chicory with your alfalfa and clover? This is how you make a drought resistant plot on a dry south facing ridgetop. Gotta love it. And it all was once a thick mass of ......

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[Native Hunter]

dogghr, that is my kind of food plot. Really a beautiful picture and something that will feed deer for many months.

Most of my plot looks good, but I had one area where I got rye way to thick. The stuff was over 6 feet tall and choking out everything. I mowed it down this week, but it is such a mess I don't expect anything else to come up before I replant it this fall.

The lack of rain tricked me last fall. I kept thinking I had bad seed because nothing came up in one area of the plot. I knew it was dry, but I felt there was enough moisture for rye to germinate. Every week I would pitch out a little more. This spring it all came up...LOL.

 

[dogghr]

Fescue. Great stuff for hay and cattle. Not so much so for plotters. This field of it I keep mowed along road is chest high. Has some vetch and white clovers. You can see doing nothing for nearly 8 years now hasn't phased its growth. Ridding it for plots or fallow fields takes effort. I know how to do it.

Does this look like a good food plot. Planted after a gly kill w no tillage fall 2 yrs ago. WR WC RC oats were broadcast. Lousy plot? I'll show you.

Plenty of red and whites. A few residual oats and some recurring rye. Yea fescue too it don't want to leave. Do nothing but mow once maybe twice year. Can't get any cheaper or easier and deer have paths worn to dirt going into it. You don't need a tractor or atv. Jst your feet , a sprayer , and a bag spreader.

And last. Not just hunters love managing habitat. My daughter loves all things outdoors but wouldn't have any desire to hunt. But she can teach a few things of soil management and repurposing trash to make a garden green. 8 eggs a day means some fresh ones for me. Have a great weekend people. Remember to look under the plants you see and learn what the soil has done, or maybe not done with your methods. Peace

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[dogghr]

dogghr, that is my kind of food plot. Really a beautiful picture and something that will feed deer for many months.

Most of my plot looks good, but I had one area where I got rye way to thick. The stuff was over 6 feet tall and choking out everything. I mowed it down this week, but it is such a mess I don't expect anything else to come up before I replant it this fall.

The lack of rain tricked me last fall. I kept thinking I had bad seed because nothing came up in one area of the plot. I knew it was dry, but I felt there was enough moisture for rye to germinate. Every week I would pitch out a little more. This spring it all came up...LOL.

I know the feeling. The pic with the WW and clover did nothing last fall from drought, was disgusting. But wow it came on so strong I'm not for sure what I will do with it this fall. This is poor soil and I may just let it make some mush.

 

[OkieKubota]

I know how you feel on the tractor being gone deal. Mine is on a big jobsite right now awaiting fields to dry so I can get back to hogging...pretty sure I can't even get to it since a big creek floods the entry where it is. Paid my truck off a couple weeks ago so now thinking about getting another Kubota just for our farms...leave my original with brush hog attached all the time and use other one for everything else...even thought about getting a backhoe attachment.

No sign of bears here yet but they are within a mile of here. Figure tight fence may be keeping them at bay.

Your low maintenance plots look great and should feed many critters!

 

[Merle Hawggard]

Fescue. Great stuff for hay and cattle. Not so much so for plotters. This field of it I keep mowed along road is chest high. Has some vetch and white clovers. You can see doing nothing for nearly 8 years now hasn't phased its growth. Ridding it for plots or fallow fields takes effort. I know how to do it.

Does this look like a good food plot. Planted after a gly kill w no tillage fall 2 yrs ago. WR WC RC oats were broadcast. Lousy plot? I'll show you.

Plenty of red and whites. A few residual oats and some recurring rye. Yea fescue too it don't want to leave. Do nothing but mow once maybe twice year. Can't get any cheaper or easier and deer have paths worn to dirt going into it. You don't need a tractor or atv. Jst your feet , a sprayer , and a bag spreader.

And last. Not just hunters love managing habitat. My daughter loves all things outdoors but wouldn't have any desire to hunt. But she can teach a few things of soil management and repurposing trash to make a garden green. 8 eggs a day means some fresh ones for me. Have a great weekend people. Remember to look under the plants you see and learn what the soil has done, or maybe not done with your methods. Peace

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Looks like a Silver Laced Wyandotte in there, which was my grandpaw's favorite chicken. They look good and health too so she is doing a great job with them.

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[dogghr]

I know how you feel on the tractor being gone deal. Mine is on a big jobsite right now awaiting fields to dry so I can get back to hogging...pretty sure I can't even get to it since a big creek floods the entry where it is. Paid my truck off a couple weeks ago so now thinking about getting another Kubota just for our farms...leave my original with brush hog attached all the time and use other one for everything else...even thought about getting a backhoe attachment.

No sign of bears here yet but they are within a mile of here. Figure tight fence may be keeping them at bay.

Your low maintenance plots look great and should feed many critters!

Yea I could never justify it but it would be great to have a couple tractors to save hooking up different equipment. As for the bear, I'll take them over you guys porkers. At least the bear is indigenous to the area and usually not much an issue. I had gotten lazy since bear had not bothered my stuff for a while but did have one get into some seed I had stored on ground. They always leave their calling card of pile of crap and usually a pile of puke where they over eat. I think this guy is a newby chasing after my resident sow. She is due to be rebred this year. Young and old boars are the only ones you have aggravate. If the sucker gets into my apple trees, he may be digging himself a hole.

Along another note for those who might get a tractor in hilly country. Always set those rear wheels reversed to they set out and additional 6-12 inches. You wouldn't believe the diff in stability on a side hill. And fill them with fluids. And in my mind, ag tires are the only way to go if you aren't mowing your yard. Flatlanders, guess it doesn't make much diff.

 

[dogghr]

Looks like a Silver Laced Wyandotte in there, which was my grandpaw's favorite chicken. They look good and health too so she is doing a great job with them.

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You are correct Merle. Not sure what is done with commercial chickens and their eggs these days, but no comparison of the two. None of that runny stuff or milky yolk you get in store-bought eggs. As long as they don't get mixed up with a stud rooster and you crack open an egg that has eyes staring at you, they are hard to beat. I told her your evaluation.

 

[OkieKubota]

Yea I could never justify it but it would be great to have a couple tractors to save hooking up different equipment. As for the bear, I'll take them over you guys porkers. At least the bear is indigenous to the area and usually not much an issue. I had gotten lazy since bear had not bothered my stuff for a while but did have one get into some seed I had stored on ground. They always leave their calling card of pile of crap and usually a pile of puke where they over eat. I think this guy is a newby chasing after my resident sow. She is due to be rebred this year. Young and old boars are the only ones you have aggravate. If the sucker gets into my apple trees, he may be digging himself a hole.

Along another note for those who might get a tractor in hilly country. Always set those rear wheels reversed to they set out and additional 6-12 inches. You wouldn't believe the diff in stability on a side hill. And fill them with fluids. And in my mind, ag tires are the only way to go if you aren't mowing your yard. Flatlanders, guess it doesn't make much diff.

Unfortunately a lot of times I am mowing yards for people with mine so I have to use R4 industrial tires for a compromise. Folks let yards get out of hand and call me. I picked up a contract with a local auto parts store to mow the small lot behind their building and reason I got it is because I had industrial tires...

 

[Chainsaw]

Using the tractor with AG tires on the cottage lawn is sure to get wife Anne flared up mad. One minute with those Ag tires does as much damage to the lawn as all day would with the tractor with the Industrial tires. Further the industrial tires have never gotten a flat from buck thorns; Conversely have ruined AG tires with buck thorns.

 

[dogghr]

Okie and Chain, You guys just need to sell your selves as providing aeration for the soil at no cost! Whats a little mud in the front yard to track into the house?

 

[lakngolf]

Okie and Chain, You guys just need to sell your selves as providing aeration for the soil at no cost! Whats a little mud in the front yard to track into the house?

Heck i can just drag the bush hog just right and be ready to plant!

 

[dgallow]

Fescue. Great stuff for hay and cattle. Not so much so for plotters. This field of it I keep mowed along road is chest high. Has some vetch and white clovers. You can see doing nothing for nearly 8 years now hasn't phased its growth. Ridding it for plots or fallow fields takes effort. I know how to do it.

Does this look like a good food plot. Planted after a gly kill w no tillage fall 2 yrs ago. WR WC RC oats were broadcast. Lousy plot? I'll show you.

Plenty of red and whites. A few residual oats and some recurring rye. Yea fescue too it don't want to leave. Do nothing but mow once maybe twice year. Can't get any cheaper or easier and deer have paths worn to dirt going into it. You don't need a tractor or atv. Jst your feet , a sprayer , and a bag spreader.

And last. Not just hunters love managing habitat. My daughter loves all things outdoors but wouldn't have any desire to hunt. But she can teach a few things of soil management and repurposing trash to make a garden green. 8 eggs a day means some fresh ones for me. Have a great weekend people. Remember to look under the plants you see and learn what the soil has done, or maybe not done with your methods. Peace

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Wanted to expand our discussion on fescue on my thread to here on yours.

One disadvantage of tilling the soil after you kill the fescue with herbicide is that not only do you bury the fescue seed with tillage but you also bury many native seeds which are in the first few inches of the latent seed bank. So....burying the bad also buries the good! I know you normally don't burn but I have an idea that should work and reveal what is in the shallow latent seed bank.

Take a square 2 ac of fescue....suppress seed production via mowing the year prior then do whatever you normally do herbicide wise to kill the stuff. Till the outer 1ac of killed sod like you normally would leaving at least 12" stubble height. Leave the inner 1 ac square alone and burn it with fire when low humidity conditions will carry a hot fire....outer 1 ac is your firebreak! Add some dead crispy brush to the burn to intensify the fire in certain areas. Let the whole area go for a couple years and observe differences! If you need to spot spray fescue do so!

The latent seed bank is a weird beast....sometimes seeds of the plants you want to promote are less than an inch deep....sometimes they are quite deeper!

Your place looks great as usual and your skills with lens commendable!

 

[Weasel]

Beautiful photos and stories as usual. Glad to hear the SIL treated the lady right and brought her back like new. I let a friend borrow my trailer to move stuff to his new house over the winter. After many, many trips through our salty winter roads, my beautiful, black powder coated trailer was returned to me this spring almost completely covered and eaten by rust.

 

[dogghr]

I did get some trees planted a few things done at farm this weekend between rains. I post pic of some of that. But first, thot you guys may like to see some of these to help you with your timber management. Went to the town of Webster Springs yesterday. They have held the eastern division of the World Woodchopping Competition since 1960. Bunch of good people many of which obviously connected with the timber industry. The old man of the Cogar family won few dozen world championships thru the 70s and his offspring still compete and win. Sometimes you can catch these competiotions on ESPN even tho haven't seen that for a few years.
Town sits on the Cherry River which is one of the prime trout streams in the country, if you know how to get there. Same stream had 20 feet of water over this park in the flood of 2016. Adjacent swimming pool was filled to brim with mud. Amazing the people pulled together to get the area redone, including the pool. Watched a fellow catch his limit of trout as I walked over the bridge into town.
At any rate, enjoy.

All are timed competions with 4 or more in each heat with elimination over 2 days and finals on third day. Competitors from 27 states, Canada, New Zealand and Australia were there. This one is a cut down, then up, then third cut down. Pretty loud souped up saws. Kinda like Okies car. Notice the young lady in back ground standing in line for the axe throwing competition, not part of the championship, just part of the fair.



Standing log comp. They also do a horizontal log while standing on it and chopping between their legs. Most these guys compete in multible tests. They are totally exhausted after each one.



I've used a two man X cut saw. Pretty cool and cut fast and a workout. Partner is spraying WD40 and slowly works wedge at top. These guys carry their saws around in cases like babies.

And women competitors.


Like I said, axe throw was side competition. I'm sure at least a 100 in line including women and men to age 70. Seen more than one bulls eye. Rated best of three throws. On this one look close and you can see axe going thru air end over end. All hand made axes looked to be.


One of my fav the spring board comp. Have notch, place board, then second and cut top log thru. Pretty cool and exhausting.






I'll post some farm work pics when get a chance. I do occasionally get some work done.