Little Blue 40

[Fish]

I wanted to get started on my habitat thread again. I can't imagine how tough this is for those who lost years of blogging on the QDMA site. I only had a few months in the bag.

This thread will also cover my home 10, where I built a home in a ten acre corn field and immediately built up the habitat.

I purchased the Little Blue property as a result of saving every penny I could, and then the untimely death of my mom, who died too early at 66 years old. It took some time to pick up the pieces, but when the dust settled I had a small chunk of change to add to what I had saved. I began shopping for dirt.
Anywhere else I couldn't have afforded 40 acres, but this property is in a flood plain and building a house there just isn't going to happen. It was affordable.
Luke and I are the only two that deer hunt the property. We work hard and dream big.
Little Blue River borders the southern end of my 40 acres. A county road runs through that border as well. Throw in a power line and I lose about 5 acres of my 40 to this southern border.

My original thread was called Making Over Little Blue simply because of the work that needs done to this piece of ground. The property was an old fish hatchery and has 11 potholes only good for snakes and mosquitos. I've done something about that. Otherwise, cover is sparse and invasives have made a home.
Again, I've done something about that, but hope you'll follow along as I continue the journey.






Luke and I have enjoyed a few early spring lunch breaks on the river. Planting a road screen is hard work!






We had a visitor that first spring. Couldn't get the ole boy to plant a tree though.


Sign at the corner of my property. Believe it!



Luke took the first deer off the property with his crossbow. I sat in a tree twenty yards away and watched frantically, wanting to tell him how to do everything. But he did it on his own. Mom and I were proud of him.


So I hope to entertain, maybe educate, and certainly learn from you about the ups and downs of being a landowner..... whether that's the neighbor's horses in your clover.....


Or whitetails showing up in front of the camera, like the ghosts they sometimes can be.....

 

[George]

Hi John.

G

 

[dogghr]

I'm excited, Fish. Love the name of the place. Maybe you get back into raising fish, big business in my area.

 

[buckdeer1]

Those horse owners will want to keep horses out of that clover or they will be calling the vet,cool color water

 

[Brushpile]

Good to see you here Fish, I enjoyed reading "Making over the Little Blue".

 

[dogdoc]

So glad to see ya starting Little Blue!

todd

 

[Fish]

Thanks fellas! Hard to believe we are already picking up where we left off.
I've yet to bloat the horses. My neighbor is a good person, and he has worked hard on his fence since last summer. I allowed some time, seeing as he never worried about it before I bought the place.

The hatchery closed for good reason. Floods! Too much money washed into the Ohio River.

 

[Flyfixer]

Glad to see you here, enjoy the updates! I sure wish my brides grandmother had not sold the farm in Salem! It was a beautiful property. Southern Indiana is great!

 

[OkieKubota]

Glad to see you starting your thread back Fish!

 

[Fish]

Some more pics of Little Blue to give one an idea of what I've done in the last couple of years.
Last year I grew switch grass in jiffy pots and then plugged them into some of the pond dams. These have done great!



The Little Blue Bottoms. This area covers about ten acres. A veritable jungle in summertime. I struggle with winter cover in the bottoms. Conifers don't like the conditions and hinge cuts get torn away with spring floods.






hate is a strong word, but I very much dislike beavers!




With so much of my property being waterholes good for nothing but mosquitos and snakes (and beavers), I decided to hire work done to drain them. It was a fun day.







Emptying out......




This particular area is now being used as a food plot, with a lot of vegetation growing around it. I'll get those pics up as soon as I get another USB for the camera...
Thanks,
Fish

 

[Fish]

Deer love to walk the pond dams, but the trees growing on the sides are trash. In winter, I cut down and treat to make openings and in the spring I drop in a pine or cedar or oak, depending on what's needed. Mostly conifers.







Springtime and here come the replacements! I am in the process of changing this property for the better as far as whitetails are concerned. Still plenty of water left for puddle ducks.










I often wondered if I could plant a bald cypress directly into water. I talked to a state forester and she said, "absolutely".
100 bald cypress ready for planting. The long carrot-like tap roots are perfect for planting with the dibble in water.



Pothole needing cover......





Make a hole with the dibble, feel the root down to the hole, and push in. Water is cold in March.





Place your feet on both sides of the stem and press in. No air pockets to worry about here.





Thanks,
Fish

 

[wbpdeer]

Glad to see this thread being updated.

Looking forward to following this. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Familytradition]

Did you leave any of the ponds?

 

[Fish]

The Home 10.
We built our home in a ten acre cornfield. Houses dot the horizon, between woodlots and crop fields. I set out 13 years ago to plant this property for wildlife. Today I have a small yard area with a garden, a 75 tree orchard, and the rest is pines, cedars, and hardwoods. Last year I really went about thinning some trees. The pines were crowded and some oaks were being swallowed by less desirable trees.

I grow rye in the garden over the winter. Late spring I knock it down and plant into it. I haven't tilled the garden in 3 years and the soil has never looked better.





This picture is from my balcony. Most of the pines are pitchxloblollys I planted in 2003. Mixed throughout are oaks, with sawtooth being dominant among them.





Something you can do with thinned pines...





Sawtooth given more light....





I take off the lower limbs on the pines to allow more sunlight to the forest floor. I also really like the look of tall straight pines.





Nice shrub border consisting of hazelnut and gray dogwood...





The kind of edge I like, but is limited as the years go by.....




The orchard where deer are all too common sometimes...





Whitetails love to call this place home. A doe and her fawn will take up residence here every summer. This year is no exception. We've named this gal Cider because she eats so much of my fruit! Cider is a corporate member of the home 10. I will not shoot her.




Thanks,
Fish

 

[lakngolf]

Glad to see your thread here. Enjoy the Making of Little Blue. Home area is beautiful too.

 

[Fish]

The Home 10
Last year was the first year I've been able to hunt from a tree stand at the home 10. Those pitchxlobs finally grew large enough to hide me at 15 feet. I hunted here from a ground blind the year prior, but felt pretty limited with it.

The tallest pine, center-left in the picture, is where I hung my stand. Perfect for a south wind.



The open area had great cover for deer. The girls had been there all along, but come November, the boys started showing up looking for them. They left their mark, but I'd only seen a 4 pointer with my own eyes.




So I went to the stand in early November not knowing what I might see, if anything. I mean this was a ten acre piece. Were there deer bedded in the thickets? I knew there very well could be.




That evening, an hour before dark, I saw antlers step out into the thick cover. I knew immediately that I wanted to shoot the deer. If for no other reason than I had for so long dreamed of doing such a thing some 13 years before when I stuck that first seedling into the corn field stubble. After 15 minutes of watching the buck work his way through the weeds, he hit my mowed path and stepped into bow range.





The home 10, as well as most properties, are mostly about cover. Plant everything you can that screens (invasives not recommended). Provide food that fills a gap (in my case apples), and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Thanks,
Fish

 

[duxndog]

If you haven't planted the largest fish pond, I would seriously consider getting a flood control device like and agri-drain. If you can control the water in the ponds when you want you could manage an acre or two for ducks in the winter time if you think you have ducks around. Typically they migrate on major river systems. Food for thought. (I think with enough ingenuity, you could build your own home-made water control device)

 

[Native Hunter]

Everything looking good Fish. Those bald cypress should grow like weeds in that wet ground.

 

[outdoorstom]

Thanks for the great tour! That's one fine buck!

 

[Fish]

Did you leave any of the ponds?

I did leave 3, and they hold water year-round. As it was, 20% of my property was wet and wide open. So, i call it a compromise. And the ponds i drained will hold some water in the lowest part through the winter and spring.

Thanks for following along fellas.