My Central Ky Habitat Addiction

My time has been extremely limited but I did find time to ride around the property this evening .

Was excited to see the one Apple i left on in the orchard had added some color and the tree is growing great.

Honeycrisp planted last spring:





Few other pics around the orchard:



Orchard nestled in the soybeans.



Now if I can just get around to do my bush hogging .
 
Havent got to do hardly any habitat work this summer, cabin has got most of my free time.

Today I finally got my seed ordered to plant the 8 acres that will be my tree plantation in clover and alfalfa, got started rebuilding my pasture sprayer, and finally got started on my bush hogging!!! I am glad to be back in the swing of what I enjoy most.



Uncovered this copperhead while bushhogging, first I have scene on the farm!!



Lots of rabbits popping out while bushhogging the clover in the orchard. There is one in the pic if you look closely.


And our first camera check turned up one prospect!!

 
FINALLY got my annual food plots in!!! Didnt do the seed mixes I originally wanted to, instead I used some seed I had on hand.

Did these two in turnips & winter peas.



Right handed one in turnips & peas, left side in millet & milo.


Did these in millet & Milo with some soybean. The deer utilized the seed heads heavily in late winter last year and it give good habitat for my small game!!



 
I love the color and plant diversity this time of year!!







Best of all, deer numbers seem very strong this year, especially buck numbers!!



 
Well, as with every spring the warm weather and forum activity has got me motivated!!! With a little help from one of my hunting buddies Mike we got a little bit accomplished.

Almost finished clearing my third & last tree planting site that will be planted next week if weather permits.

Before was mostly this:



After:



And to the rabbits & quail go the spoils!!! They get a new brush pile to hide in!! Pretty bad when I get more excited about brush piles these days than I do planting trees!!!



Forestry Dept got my Tree of Heaven marked now I gotta strap on the sprayer and spray it!!! There are lots of blue dots to hit in this area and a few others.

 
Pretty excited about this. Finally took the advice of a few people and did something I had been wanting to do for a while now. Stopped in to round stone seed and bought enough seed to put a couple acres in a native habitat mix with native grass and wildflowers .

 
Not much habitat work going here. Just wat hing the plots grow, hunting a little and working a lot!!!

Getting a little bit of cabin work done as time allows.

Kitchen was done with old refurbished cabinets. Back splash and all wood came from an ild house on the farm built in 1800's. Wood is poplar that i planed back down. Still have to build counter tops and finish cabinets.





Hand rail banister that I made from Old square gazebo legs a friend donated, cable, and barn wood. They turned out reall well!!!




Ceiling also painted ( blacked out)
 
Kitchen before finish work.



Dining wall finished with the old interior T & G poplar out of the old farm house. Planed just enough to bring the color out but leave some saw marks and wear!!





And one of my favorites. Finally got my mounts moved down!! Not their permanent hanging spot but I am happy they are there!!!

 
Thanks Todd, its been a ton of work and is a year behind schedule but its gonna be awesome some day when I get it done!!!


Our youth season is this weekend. This young man got his first buck out of my shooting house!!! Git his first doe last year @ the same stand. Love when youngsters have success and cant wait til my own kids are old enough to hunt,





Only other buck harvested. Buddies wife got her first buck.



And my brother and his son harvested a doe

 
Habitat work has been slow but starting to speed up!!!

I just had my TSI project completed on 20 acres of timber on the farm which thickened the floor up quite a bit.

Have also got most of the site prep done for my 8 acre tree planting that will happen this month.

Got out today and put my wood duck boxes out that I had made last year. Hoping it's not to late to get some use out of them this year. From what I have read I may still b ok.







 
Hit 70 here today!!! Motivation enough for me to head to the farm and do something. Got 25 blackberries transplanted by the "deer camp"



 
Well, after months of preparation the day finally arrived. Been planting trees for almost 10 hours and I have 5000 in the ground !!! White oak, red Oak, black oak and about 700 mixed pecan, Walnut, Persimon . I am beyond exhausted and do not want to see another tree for a good while.







 
Spent two years fighting a bad tent worm infestation and I have never seen a bloom on this tree. Now they are predicting two nights back in the upper 20s this week. At least I finally got to see it bloom!!



 
Got to give props to the electric backpack sprayer that I bought. Knocked out a ton of work in just a couple of hours with no pumping . Tree of Heaven has all been sprayed!!!!



A few random pics I snapped while doing a walk through.





White Oak Site:

 
Have had a pretty good week with my habitat and future Tree Farm goals.

Had my inspection of my tree planting sites and the forester said it was one of the better quality plantings he had seen in almost 30 yrs. I was pretty happy about that bc I had put a lot of work into it.

Secondly, I bought 25 acres of timber ground a few miles up the road for the purpose of trying to put a timber management plan in place and get it designated as a tree farm in conjunction with my farm.
Well the consultant , who is a recently retired regional forestry manager, That I hired recommended a harvest now stating he thought it had been 80-100 yrs since it had been harvested and there was a lot of canopy damage from our ice storm about 8 yrs ago.

This past week he came through with an inventory of over 80,000 board ft of selectively harvestable timber including a lot of white oak and the highest offer well exceeded my purchase price!!! I was pretty fans excited about this and the opportunities that it will help me to pursue in hopefully purchasing more property.

Don't have any great pics of the property but took these while walking a few weeks ago.





 
wbpdeer;832915 said:
Lance,

That is a great move on the 25 acres. You have the touch.

Thanks for sharing with us.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but looking back on my post I TOTALLY MISSED sharing the lesson learned here for me!!

Here are a few valuable lessons I took from that venture.

1: I have been looking @ this property for over a year and felt it was over priced. I took the time to have a local timber buyer down there and he made me a cash offer which came out to 60% of the purchase price so I decided to move forward.

2: After purchasing I decided to hire the timber consultant who came highly recommended by my Forestry Dept montor. My reasons for doing this were varied and included:
- Before getting started I told the consultant my long term plans to make sure they were fulfilled. I not only wanted valuable trees removed but I also wanted the non valuable trees removed that would hender the growth of future timber trees. Basically I wanted the loggers to do a Timber Stand Improvement while they are logging.
-I wanted to know what trees were being removed before signing a contract. This consultant came in and marked every tree that he recommended for removal and presented me with an inventory list!!
- I wanted competitive bidding!!! As mentioned my initial offer was for 60% of the property purchase price, after bids were taken I was presented with his bid sheet and we discussed what options each bidder wanted!! I ended up choosing the highest bid but had to accept a 30 month contract. This wasn't my ideal choice b/c it will slow up other things I want to do with the property but I was very well compensated!! This bid actually came in @ 125% of the purchase price after I paid my consultant fee!!!

3: Working with this consultant has taught me a TON about how to go in and identify timber species and the things that make timber valuable!!!
My brother and I are looking a property that is 180 acres of woods and I met the consultant there yesterday and was shocked @ my ability to ID tree species and characteristics that I could not have done just a few months ago!!

I guess the lesson here is to explore all options and utilize resources that are available! This consultant cost me 10% of my timber sale but made me 225% over my initial offer after he was paid!!

He also handles all contracts, drove 3 hours to pick up my check and hand delivered it and will handle all followup during and after harvest!!

My inventory being sold:
 
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