Foodplotting In The Mountains...The Sequel

[Triple C]

Yea its funny how your mind stays on what is going on back home. Good vacation and great time, but as you said, I'm not a flatlander and I'm glad to be back tonight in my hills.

Enjoying your updates dogghr. Regardless of where I'm at, I usually fall asleep at night daydreaming about something at the farm. Works as well as Tylenol PM! I've been housebound for 2 days battling a staph infection. Feel like I'm going stir crazy. This forum is definitely helping to pass the time.

 

[lakngolf]

Great info. It is amazing what nature can do. Always said the raccoons are better at persimmon planting than i. Beautiful pics but keep the bears and we will keep the thick brush

 

[OkieKubota]

Coyote are our big persimmon planters over this way...I get all my persimmon seed from coyote scat...

I had never seen the ocean so 4 or 5 years ago my wife was sent to a week long meeting in Florida at one of those real nice touristy ultra white sand beach places that I can't even remember the name of. I know it is one of the main beach attraction areas on the gulf side and I took the week off and tagged along and was a beach bum all day every day for a week...best part of the whole week was holding her hand and walking the beach just at sunset but otherwise I felt like I was wasting my time...absolutely no desire to ever go again...

Only place I "might" want to go to is the mountains to the west to fish or hunt elk/mule deer or to Alaska to fish or hunt...

Call me a hermit but if there are going to be lots of people there I don't consider it a vacation...

Great update!

 

[George]

People actually go to the beach to lay in the sun.

G

 

[dgallow]

Been enjoying the pool therapy this summer.....someone has to clean the pool....tough job I tell ya.....sure is nice once the heat on the ranch becomes unbearable.

 

[George]

When I read dogghr's thread I start to get all nostalgic for Hickory Ridge then I come across a post like this.

Both of you can kiss.....! Been working 15 hr days lately and might have some time to post late at night when I should be in bed. Phonewent for a 1.5 hr swim so no pics for a week or so and may not retrieve what I took last couple weeks. MAny elms are shedding leaves...some oaks brown....many aborting acorns....highs hitting 100 with wind(flash drought).....missed a good rain yesterday....still growing grass and forbs on deeper soils.....moved cows to some bottom land to rest mesa for another week....one of the cows which calved June 1 bred back today so ~ 70 return interval....like it should be per nature.....fall calvers are rediculously fat as ticks....March calvers look like crap and still haven't regained condition which is the penalty for going against nature. It is a normal summer for our area...other than 60% RH.....life is good early and late in the day.

Thanks D

I haven't seen a tick since my last visit to Iowa. I can walk any where, through anything without clothes or bug dope and couldn't even tell you what chiggers feel like any more.

Current weather- 67 degrees going to a high of 73, lows in the upper forties, a mix of sun and clouds, 39% RH, winds east 5 mph. It's monsoon season so a shower usually roles through in the afternoon.

Ya, I kind of like my hills too.

G

 

[dgallow]

Glad to hear from you George! Suspect black flies and midges in spring will make up for lack of saber toothed crotch crickets. Nice weather.....suspect soon you will see some real cold!

 

[OkieKubota]

I haven't had a tick or chigger all year either. Pleasant weather here right now and I suppose Iowa is probably even more pleasant... I think we are through the worst of summer now...

 

[George]

That's not right Johnny and that's not Iowa. I just figured that southern Iowa was/is the perfect storm for pestilence, with a first class crop of biting flies and midges D. A squirt of deet on your hat and wiped about your head takes care of those.

G

 

[lakngolf]

Been enjoying the pool therapy this summer.....someone has to clean the pool....tough job I tell ya.....sure is nice once the heat on the ranch becomes unbearable.

One of the greatest things about living on the lake is when I get hot working in garden, cutting grass, etc I can just "go jump in a lake"
I always wear my bathing suit under my blue jeans

 

[dogghr]

Thanks for the dialogue everyone. Lakn, I'm sure glad to see you have suit on under you jeans, just had a feeling that southern boy in you was going skinny dipping to cool off.

Sorry about your infection , Triple. Get well soon, that is dangerous stuff. My good friend picked up MRSA after surgery at the Mayo clinic and he said at the time he just wanted to die. Luckily he finally healed up after about 3 months. You wish not to work until you are forced to dos, then not so much fun.

I've never seen any chiggers here and only some tick issues but not much, but certainly the trip to Gallows farm educated me as to how some places are infested with chiggers. Weather is pretty tolerable in these mountains thru summer even tho we complain. My town gives out free lemonade each day the temps hit 90 deg. They have not given out any lemonade now for 3 years.

When I skiied and snowmobiled a lot, I didn't pay much attention to winter. I still ski a little but not as much. So I dislike winter a little more each year and a trip into the warm south in Jan feels really good. But dang that heat in the summer down there. Thanks for reading to all.

 

[BrianVT]

Has the ticks been bad your way this year Dogghr? I don't know if it's a local thing or not but haven't seen hardly any this year. One on me and none on my boys. Very rare considering how much time we spend outside.

 

[dogghr]

Honestly I hardly ever get a tick regardless if I wear long pants and boots or shorts and sneakers. I just always spray with bug spray with at least 90% deet, and even a quick squirt on to the dog even tho she has flea/tick med. Most repellents are less than 50 % and ineffective. I may die of cancer from the DEET, but not from a tick bite. I think our last three harsh winters has helped reduce the tick numbers.

 

[dogghr]

Tried to take selfie putting up stand but not so good. Used to throw them up in Jst a few minutes w arm around tree on screwin steps. I've gotten a little smarter and seldom leave ground w/o attachment. And to think we used to sit on tree limbs to hunt. Kinda miss that simplistic times but now safer I guess.
I like to place a new stand before a rain and I did... Almost. Dog and me were soaked and she smelled nasty on way home and sure she felt same w me.

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[dogghr]

Stand sits about 75 yds from a mother stand. One covers morning trail, the other evening. My deer for whatever reason in these mountains, prob due to thermal currents , tend to go in circle following route into bedding and another, sometimes close by, heading to food.

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[dogghr]

Another water hole I made. Has some use but w wet summer not much need for deer. Good spot about 100 yds from plots ,but not to hunt. Seldom can catch a buck in steep draw daylight hours due to inconsistent winds down low.

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[dogghr]

Made it back to barn but was dripping wet. Luckily keep chg of clothes. Should b good on the brassica. Now they need heat of sun to make them pop.

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[dogghr]

This is one reason I like to promote growth in my creek bottoms. Such a display of flowers as the summer begins to end, each week showing a different bloom. And the deer feed in this stuff, picking and choosing fresh salads. A swampy mess but trails thruout. But honestly, I do it even if the deer didn't like it. When I bought the place, this was a sea of fescue, pretty picture, but I think a better one now.

 

[Triple C]

Tried to take selfie putting up stand but not so good. Used to throw them up in Jst a few minutes w arm around tree on screwin steps. I've gotten a little smarter and seldom leave ground w/o attachment. And to think we used to sit on tree limbs to hunt. Kinda miss that simplistic times but now safer I guess.
I like to place a new stand before a rain and I did... Almost. Dog and me were soaked and she smelled nasty on way home and sure she felt same w me.

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Pretty sure I've hung my last stand by myself. I certainly remember the days of hanging multiple sets. Last one I did took me forever and bout got the best of me. Plus, each passing year the height becomes more of an issue. I still plan on hunting out of hang-on stands this year. Hard to swing a recurve over the rail in a ladder stand.

 

[dogghr]

What a waste, ferns. Indicative of poor acidic soil. Or is that so. Yep like many plants, they are simply soil makers for the succession of forest that follows in many ways. Do you realize that ferns have no flower or seeds yet propagate quite well? What would this have been like to walk thru the virgin forest of old as these ferns towered to a dozen feet or more? Water retention? Soil formation? Bedrooms for who knows how many insects? You bet. While I've never seen them browsed as Buckhunter has, they still make my walk down this hill pretty sweet on a frosty Oct morn. Stop and think for a few minutes, maybe and hour, and see what nature is doing all the while as we plant our plots. Cool stuff I think.