J-birds place

So nothing to report in my northern card pulls today... I did however take a few pics...

This is my road screen...the red is a woven wire fence that I have vine honeysuckle growing on. To the left of the fence is the county road (and thus the desire for the screen). The green are transplanted red cedars. The yellow is some MG I grew from cuttings. These different "layers" if you will I leave room to mow as I don't want any bedding in this area. I like multiple layers because as one fills in others fades away the others help pick up the slack so to speak. The MG here is also where I pull my rhizomes from and distribute to other screening projects. The cedars I simply transplant from other places on the farm in the early spring and they do fairly well as long as they are roughly 3 feet or less when moved.
screen.jpg


Some other things that I noticed was how you can learn and see a lot if you just look. I love a fresh snow fall for seeing deer tracks, but the melt can also tell you some things. Below a new and active deer trail was easily found, and on the right you can see where the sun hits the ground the best in this wooded area and as such this is where the deer will bed to soak up some of that sun shine. You can also see the drainage that is right there hat allows the deer to slip away if so desired as well. I have jumped deer out of this area in the past during the winter. But the snow here shows you EXACTLY where those places are and can help you narrow down areas if you so desire for future habitat projects if you wish. All that point needs is a few tree tops drug in there and the deer will be there time and time again. This is a "bad" location however for me as it is less than 50 yards from my access trail. As such I try to leave it fairly open to hopefully make the deer bed further away. This location is also a prime example of where buffers and edge feathering can help you. That spot...if you sit on the ground you can see thru the wood 75 yards or so and then see out into a wide open ag field so the deer would be able to see an approaching hunter from a long distance. And they used to do that. A weed/grass buffer of 3 or 4 feet cuts down that line of sight for the deer and keeps them from watching me from a distance....the less they know the better.
snow.jpg


And lastly...the value of beech trees. Many people don't like them as they are shade tolerant and when mature have huge canopies. I like younger one for their mast and the fact that they hold their leaves well into the winter...as shown here. Those leaves can really help make a wood lot feel a whole lot bigger. I like a few bigger beech for tree stands (the leaves really help hide a hunter) and the mature trees tend to hollow out and create cavities for other wildlife as well. I don't want my woods covered in beech...but some, and keeping them managed can be an asset.
beech.jpg
 
So nothing to report in my northern card pulls today... I did however take a few pics...

This is my road screen...the red is a woven wire fence that I have vine honeysuckle growing on. To the left of the fence is the county road (and thus the desire for the screen). The green are transplanted red cedars. The yellow is some MG I grew from cuttings. These different "layers" if you will I leave room to mow as I don't want any bedding in this area. I like multiple layers because as one fills in others fades away the others help pick up the slack so to speak. The MG here is also where I pull my rhizomes from and distribute to other screening projects. The cedars I simply transplant from other places on the farm in the early spring and they do fairly well as long as they are roughly 3 feet or less when moved.
View attachment 21120


Some other things that I noticed was how you can learn and see a lot if you just look. I love a fresh snow fall for seeing deer tracks, but the melt can also tell you some things. Below a new and active deer trail was easily found, and on the right you can see where the sun hits the ground the best in this wooded area and as such this is where the deer will bed to soak up some of that sun shine. You can also see the drainage that is right there hat allows the deer to slip away if so desired as well. I have jumped deer out of this area in the past during the winter. But the snow here shows you EXACTLY where those places are and can help you narrow down areas if you so desire for future habitat projects if you wish. All that point needs is a few tree tops drug in there and the deer will be there time and time again. This is a "bad" location however for me as it is less than 50 yards from my access trail. As such I try to leave it fairly open to hopefully make the deer bed further away. This location is also a prime example of where buffers and edge feathering can help you. That spot...if you sit on the ground you can see thru the wood 75 yards or so and then see out into a wide open ag field so the deer would be able to see an approaching hunter from a long distance. And they used to do that. A weed/grass buffer of 3 or 4 feet cuts down that line of sight for the deer and keeps them from watching me from a distance....the less they know the better.
View attachment 21121


And lastly...the value of beech trees. Many people don't like them as they are shade tolerant and when mature have huge canopies. I like younger one for their mast and the fact that they hold their leaves well into the winter...as shown here. Those leaves can really help make a wood lot feel a whole lot bigger. I like a few bigger beech for tree stands (the leaves really help hide a hunter) and the mature trees tend to hollow out and create cavities for other wildlife as well. I don't want my woods covered in beech...but some, and keeping them managed can be an asset.
View attachment 21122
Good stuff...I am going to work on some edge feathering if I ever get free from working on others properties for a bit...I like your habitat program.
 
Good stuff...I am going to work on some edge feathering if I ever get free from working on others properties for a bit...I like your habitat program.
Thanks Okie... What I can do is pretty limited, so I have to try to get creative and work with what I have inside the box I have. I would love to have a large woodlot, but it just isn't in the cards for this property. I am finding that the more "edge" I can create and the bigger I can make my small patches of cover feel....the more the deer visit.
 
Thanks Okie... What I can do is pretty limited, so I have to try to get creative and work with what I have inside the box I have. I would love to have a large woodlot, but it just isn't in the cards for this property. I am finding that the more "edge" I can create and the bigger I can make my small patches of cover feel....the more the deer visit.
We have the exact opposite issues...I have a large woodlot with little open areas and even my woods are so open that I don’t get the bedding I would like. I want to do a lot of chainsaw work right now but too busy. Maybe in a couple more weeks...
 
This is why I like land threads. We all have different types of land to manage and each person has to acclimate to what they have. Good stuff,J, and I agree with those Beech trees screening.
 
We have limited area at my lease to work with. As of last week though, they have been logging. Some clear cut and some select cut. How long will it be clear? I don’t know, but we are going to put food in it until they decide they want pines back in it.


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We have limited area at my lease to work with. As of last week though, they have been logging. Some clear cut and some select cut. How long will it be clear? I don’t know, but we are going to put food in it until they decide they want pines back in it.


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You should see a wonderful change in diversity and patterns. Some don't like the pattern shift, but I enjoy the challenge of it... Bedding areas and feeding areas will change somewhat, but follow the edges and the land contours and the deer will still relate to those. That young growth of food and cover will be a welcome sight. Good luck and hopefully you have a little open area to work with for a little while at least!
 
This is why I like land threads. We all have different types of land to manage and each person has to acclimate to what they have. Good stuff,J, and I agree with those Beech trees screening.
Thank you. I figure....this is what I have to work with, and as such, you do the best you can. Sure I could go "all in" and turn the tillable into cover....but I think my wife may actually divorce me over that (since her family has farmed this ground since at least WWII). It provides me some extra income, the deer that are the primary red meat in our home and a place to enjoy the outdoors with friends and family....that's pretty tough to beat...and what more could a fella ask for?!?
 
We have the exact opposite issues...I have a large woodlot with little open areas and even my woods are so open that I don’t get the bedding I would like. I want to do a lot of chainsaw work right now but too busy. Maybe in a couple more weeks...
I find it interesting how each property is different and as such how we have to work with it differently. Like having a lack of bedding on the property...it sucks. But facts are facts....as such I then set my stands and even food plots up knowing that I am going to have to pull deer from beyond my property most likely. This even impacts when I hunt.... If I want a nice buck...there is no point in hunting until roughly Halloween. Those deer simply are not active on my property yet. They are bedded and feeding somewhere else. Once the urges of the rut get them cruising about....then my place becomes interesting because I have narrow strips of cover along streams and ridges and the like between larger blocks of cover. And then my plots and does serve as bait.... It's not the "perfect" set-up....it never will be, and I have long given up on the dream of that. I don't have a "mossy oak property"....I got a piss-ant corn farm in piss-ant Indiana...but it will do.
 
I just read all 47 pages! j-Bird, Great property and really enjoy reading the changes you and the kids added each year.
Thank you. One of the biggest things a thread like this does is it helps ME to keep things straight in my head. Over time...it all runs together and I tend to forget what year I did certain projects. I figure if other folks can learn something or pick up an idea or the like, then everybody wins!
 
So with the snow storm we had this week we ended up with about 12" of snow on the ground. Considering we typically average 24" all winter...so 12" in 2 or 3 days was a pretty rare event for us.

It comes with some frustrations.... like trespassing snowmobilers....I don't understand why they think laws don't matter if there is snow on the ground. Don't get me wrong...they are not hurting anything...but it's still not something I appreciate. Makes me want to put up some woven wire fence!
snow machine trespass.jpg


I will say apparently it takes 12" of snow to FINALLY motivate the deer to eat some of my turnips! Turns out they must have FINALLY gotten hungry enough to stoop to such levels! You can see they had a pretty good path leading to the plot and they dug it up in some spots pretty well also. My deer typically don't eat the turnips but I plant them just for cases like this...just to ensure they do have something should we have a harsher winter than normal.
tunip plot feb 2021.jpg


I was also able to locate a few beds as well.... I like finding beds in the snow because it helps me understand better what deer look for and I can try to replicate it in other places... These below are on a elevated point. You can see in the one pic they have a wide open field in one direction.... what you can't see is that on the other side is a steep bank with some fair cover and they can see over the entire creek bottom. I also thought this area would be a good place for a deer to bed, but have struggled in the past to confirm that. Now I have proof and I need to promote this and keep this in mind for my habitat plan and hunting efforts.
doe point beds.jpg


And lastly...this snow event showed me some of the value of switchgrass. The lead edges of the swithgrass acted like a snow fence and then lessened the drifting and the like in the rest of the taller grass which made moving easier on the deer and thus the other edge of the switchgrass had a lot of evidence of use...
winter switchgrass after foot of snow.jpg
 
Snow brings out the idiots in Wisconsin as well. Had tracks across my lawn in a subdivision (1/4 acre lots) earlier this winter if that makes you feel better.
 
Snow brings out the idiots in Wisconsin as well. Had tracks across my lawn in a subdivision (1/4 acre lots) earlier this winter if that makes you feel better.
Typically we don't get enough snow to worry about it....but for some reason, when we do, they seem to think they can do whatever they want. The worst part about property ownership.....other people!
 
I was out the other day and needed to remove a small yellow poplar (about the size of your wrist). At ground level I saw it had an odd growth on it. So I cut it down and the remaining stump/growth I then cut flush with the ground. I have seen these before but only about the size of a baseball or so. This one is bigger than a softball but not as big as a basketball. I thought it looked pretty cool so I brought it home. I am nearly 100% certain this is what they call a "burl".
burl.jpg
 
Well...this crap happened the other day (4/20)! I am sure all my apple blooms are toast! Indiana, the Hoosier state...a state where you can actually experience all 4 season in the same week! We can go from snow to 70's in a matter of only a few days....
snow.jpg
 
Hopefully you might get lucky. Below are listed some reasons why a frost isn't always a total loss in apples:
"At or near the bloom stage, the critical temperature is the same for almost all fruits and flowers. Freezing temperatures of 28 degrees Fahrenheit will result in about a 10 percent loss and 24 F in a 90 percent loss. With large-fruited fruits such as apples, peaches, plums and pears, the loss of 50 percent of the flower is not devastating since we may only want a small percentage of the flowers to become fruit. When checking apples from frost damage, check the king and side blooms separately. Many times the king blooms are killed and many of the side blooms are undamaged."
 
So it has been a while since I have posted... and I tend to not post many things like this as well... but this is worth sharing.

This post isn't about habitat or deer...but something far more important to me. One of my kids. I have often shared posts (particularly in November - as that is CRPS awareness month) about one of my kids who has a condition that many are unaware of and it has been quite the journey for her and us as a family. The Hospital that helped her has issued a story about her journey. Scroll down the page and read "Jenna Rose Weisenbach". If you have kids that seem to never recover from some sort of injury and continue to have un-explained pain....PLEASE let me know. I am not a doctor, but I can point you to ones that may help diagnose the condition that Jenna has. Diagnosis was a real challenge at first because the condition is pretty rare...next came the proper treatment. There is no "cure" for this condition...only a means to make it better. If you know of anyone who could be helped that may have this condition or the like...PLEASE let me know. Jenna has taken a position of support and advocacy on the topic...especially for kids.

https://www.rileychildrens.org/?gcl...Cs6AgXcn5nAvghrKrGl0bf05inG3XzvxoCMVAQAvD_BwE
 
I got to looking and I really have been away for a while...

The frost didn't get all my apples... And my plots from last fall I am letting go. The turnips all bolted, flowered and have produced seed pods are are dying now. The peas are growing and flowering and producing pods as well. All with patches of clover under it all. So we still have green food now into mid June....from a plot that was planted last fall. With roughly 100 acres of soybeans on the farm I am not worried about summer food, so the "plan" will be to replant the fall plot again in late summer and start all over then.
 
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