My Little Slice of Paradise
- Thread starter Paradise725
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Paradise725
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Paradise725
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Thank you! First buck from the ground with a bow. Largest bow kill on top of that. I am a happy camper!
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Paradise725
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Time to catch up on my property tour. We got a couple of good projects done this winter but unfortunately have yet to break ground on our soon to be 3 acre food plot in the center of the farm. The weather just hasn’t cooperated but I’m hoping that changes very soon. In the meantime, we enhanced a couple of bedding areas on the same ridge we are putting the new plot. The idea is that we have high quality bedding and cover very close to this new plot and enjoy lots of daylight activity in the plot as a result. There will be a lot more sunlight hitting the forest floor in a couple of 1/4 acre areas adjacent to the future plot now:
On a personal note, we welcomed a baby boy to the family on February 15th. He and mom and big sister are all doing great!
Speaking of big sister, she joined me and Jonathan and his daughter shed hunting this spring. We found fewer than typical but still enough to keep the girls entertained! They were very proud of their finds...
One of our finds was actually a broken off beam from a pretty cool buck we had on camera last year. Not sure if he made it through the season but our trail camera failed in that location shortly after the velvet came off...
While we didn’t find many sheds this year, we did make the unfortunate discovery of a target buck from 2016 season that disappeared shortly before rifle season started that year. My brother found him close to the property line adjacent to a known stand location on the neighbor. Hard to say if it was shot and lost or simply injured during a fight. We called this buck crabby and had tons of history with him. At least now we can confirm he didn’t just move on to a different property. I haven’t seen the rack in person yet but my brother says somewhere around 20 points when you add up all the sticker points...
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On a personal note, we welcomed a baby boy to the family on February 15th. He and mom and big sister are all doing great!
Speaking of big sister, she joined me and Jonathan and his daughter shed hunting this spring. We found fewer than typical but still enough to keep the girls entertained! They were very proud of their finds...
One of our finds was actually a broken off beam from a pretty cool buck we had on camera last year. Not sure if he made it through the season but our trail camera failed in that location shortly after the velvet came off...
While we didn’t find many sheds this year, we did make the unfortunate discovery of a target buck from 2016 season that disappeared shortly before rifle season started that year. My brother found him close to the property line adjacent to a known stand location on the neighbor. Hard to say if it was shot and lost or simply injured during a fight. We called this buck crabby and had tons of history with him. At least now we can confirm he didn’t just move on to a different property. I haven’t seen the rack in person yet but my brother says somewhere around 20 points when you add up all the sticker points...
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Paradise725
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And last but not least: Jonathan and I started turkey season with a bang this year. He shot his bird adjacent to our bean field (all the beans were consumed this winter but we had clover and wheat oversown for added attraction this spring). My bird was hammering in the neighbors bottom field at first light but got bumped onto my property once they tried to make a move on him I presume. I watched him slip up onto my property at 50 yards and just waited after he went up the hill. 30 minutes later he was hammering adjacent to one of my food plots about 150 yards away. I moved up on him and worked him for 30 minutes before he finally came in. It was a great hunt and I heard plenty more birds out there for us to chase in the coming weeks!
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howboutthemdawgs
Active Member
Thanks again for the hospitality. Was a great weekend! You obviously didn’t miss a thing but dodging falling tree limbs Sunday.
Paradise725
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Any time, sir! Congrats on your first bird on the new property! It was indeed an awesome weekend (Saturday at least). Hopefully deer season will be just as good to us both!
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Paradise725
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Well it has been a busy spring for me, but thanks to good hunting partners, I got my summer plots planted on May 23. I was notified of a great deal on seed by my local QDMA coordinator, and I was able to pick up round up ready soybeans for $10/bag, non RR corn for $10/bag, and sorghum for $10/bag. I took my daughter up 5 days before planting and sprayed around 6 acres total with 2q/acre gly and 10 oz/acre 2,4-d. I added a small section adjacent to our bean field to try out the sorghum, mainly to benefit our turkey and quail.
The 4.5 acre bean field was popping with the fall planted clover and winter wheat, which was sad to terminate, but part of the process. I made sure to leave buffer strips on the edge of the plot unsprayed to maintain the clover in those heavily browsed areas. After shed hunting the field multiple times before greenup, Maria and I noticed this shed in the middle of a salt lick that I know I had walked by in April. I’m guessing it was just a very late dropper.
Happy shed hunters
The guys rented a seed drill for May 23 and got all the beans planted. We tried corn this year for the first time in our 1 acre “horse barn” plot. After doing some research on the web, we opted to plant corn using the drill by plugging the feed tubes to give us 30” rows. Calibration was tricky to get the right amount of seeds per acre, but I think we came pretty close. We fertilized heavy with nitrogen as well as P and K.
We’ve gotten at least two rains since planting, so I’m excited to see what things look like the next time I’m at the farm. I suspect it will be time for post emergence spraying of the beans in another week or two.
On another note, my new plot clearing operation hasn’t happened yet as my dozer operator was unavailable the one time the weather and my work schedule allowed. At this point I’m shooting to get it cleared in June, then plant buckwheat immediately followed by a late July planting of brassica blend. Fingers crossed!
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The 4.5 acre bean field was popping with the fall planted clover and winter wheat, which was sad to terminate, but part of the process. I made sure to leave buffer strips on the edge of the plot unsprayed to maintain the clover in those heavily browsed areas. After shed hunting the field multiple times before greenup, Maria and I noticed this shed in the middle of a salt lick that I know I had walked by in April. I’m guessing it was just a very late dropper.
Happy shed hunters
The guys rented a seed drill for May 23 and got all the beans planted. We tried corn this year for the first time in our 1 acre “horse barn” plot. After doing some research on the web, we opted to plant corn using the drill by plugging the feed tubes to give us 30” rows. Calibration was tricky to get the right amount of seeds per acre, but I think we came pretty close. We fertilized heavy with nitrogen as well as P and K.
We’ve gotten at least two rains since planting, so I’m excited to see what things look like the next time I’m at the farm. I suspect it will be time for post emergence spraying of the beans in another week or two.
On another note, my new plot clearing operation hasn’t happened yet as my dozer operator was unavailable the one time the weather and my work schedule allowed. At this point I’m shooting to get it cleared in June, then plant buckwheat immediately followed by a late July planting of brassica blend. Fingers crossed!
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Paradise725
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I went to the farm this Father’s Day weekend to do my post-emergence spraying of my soybeans and get an overall picture of how our spring planting went. The beans were looking decent, but there was signs of heavy browse pressure already and it appears my Johnson grass and cockle burrs really popped during the warm spell we had right after planting. I burned them down with 2q/ acre gly so that should clean things up a bit.
The browse pressure was quite intense it seems so I may have to get more aggressive on killing does this fall. Both soybeans and my clover buffer strips showed signs of heavy browsing:
I put out some cameras too, so hopefully I’ll be sharing some pictures of my early season hit list in a few weeks!
My corn experiment I would rate about a 6 out of 10. I only paid $10 for the corn seed but I did fertilize fairly heavy so my investment wasn’t trivial. First impression is that they didn’t get the seed properly feeding out of the drill before they made the first pass. Second impression is that their spacing between passes with the drill was not perfect but that is to be expected. Third impression is that I’ve got some serious weed/ Johnson grass competition. This is not RR corn so I’m going to rely on the vigor of the corn to compete against the weeds and hope that we end up with a decent amount of standing corn at the end of the growing season. Not bad for our first attempt at corn!
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The browse pressure was quite intense it seems so I may have to get more aggressive on killing does this fall. Both soybeans and my clover buffer strips showed signs of heavy browsing:
I put out some cameras too, so hopefully I’ll be sharing some pictures of my early season hit list in a few weeks!
My corn experiment I would rate about a 6 out of 10. I only paid $10 for the corn seed but I did fertilize fairly heavy so my investment wasn’t trivial. First impression is that they didn’t get the seed properly feeding out of the drill before they made the first pass. Second impression is that their spacing between passes with the drill was not perfect but that is to be expected. Third impression is that I’ve got some serious weed/ Johnson grass competition. This is not RR corn so I’m going to rely on the vigor of the corn to compete against the weeds and hope that we end up with a decent amount of standing corn at the end of the growing season. Not bad for our first attempt at corn!
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Paradise725
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This weekend is going to be a big weekend. I’m going to pull cards for the first time and check the progress of my beans, corn, and sorghum plots. And... I’m finally going to get my new food plot clearing operation underway!
I’m meeting the dozer operator at the farm bright and early tomorrow to start clearing my ~3 acre plot. I’m planning to take lots of pics to document the progress. My ideal plan is the have the plot cleared by Monday, then have it disced, limed, and planted in soybeans by Tuesday. I know it is late to be planting beans but I had leftover $10/bag stuff from this spring. my plan is to overseed with cereal grains and clover in September to help build and retain the soil that I have. Fingers crossed for a productive weekend!
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I’m meeting the dozer operator at the farm bright and early tomorrow to start clearing my ~3 acre plot. I’m planning to take lots of pics to document the progress. My ideal plan is the have the plot cleared by Monday, then have it disced, limed, and planted in soybeans by Tuesday. I know it is late to be planting beans but I had leftover $10/bag stuff from this spring. my plan is to overseed with cereal grains and clover in September to help build and retain the soil that I have. Fingers crossed for a productive weekend!
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Paradise725
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Had a big rain here today. Hopefully it doesn’t cause too many issues wiith the equipment and dries up relatively fast
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Paradise725
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Day 1 is in the books, with something like 3/4 acre cleared, maybe more. The backhoe and dozer duo seem to be working pretty well, although the backhoe is doing the majority of the work when it comes to tree removal. The operator uses the bucket to push the trees over and then scoop the root wads out. He then pinches the log between the bucket and the arm of the hoe and shakes it to get the dirt off the root wad before rotating to place into a pile. The dozer then can push the pile of trees into the burn pile. Our biggest enemy right now is rain. It rained quite a bit Friday, and I think we got at least a little more rain there last night. It will be interesting to see when I get there today. Hopefully things will really start shaping up by the end of today.
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Paradise725
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Yes it is! After today, I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel! More to come...
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Paradise725
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We got a big rain at the farm last night after the operators left, so that didn’t help. However, they moved to a different section of the plot this morning that was better drained and were able to make some great progress. I’d estimate that 2/3 of the clearing is done now, however there will be some leveling and cleanup to do once the clearing is complete. View from a similar location as previous panoramic view:
This next pic is a section that was entirely cleared today. You can barely see where it narrowly connects to the ground they cleared yesterday. View from NW corner of plot, facing SE:
View from east edge of plot, facing north. All of the trees on the left will be cleared tomorrow
The killing tree that this plot was designed around (the multi-trunked one):
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This next pic is a section that was entirely cleared today. You can barely see where it narrowly connects to the ground they cleared yesterday. View from NW corner of plot, facing SE:
View from east edge of plot, facing north. All of the trees on the left will be cleared tomorrow
The killing tree that this plot was designed around (the multi-trunked one):
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Paradise725
Well-Known Member
Here is an aerial of the new plot shape. Red dot is the killing tree. Yellow dot is going to be location for box blind. Blue is the windrows. There is enhanced bedding north of this plot further out the ridge. I think it is going to be a hotspot if I can get some decent food growing there.
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Paradise725
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Well today was both disappointing and exciting. Disappointing in that my operators were not able to complete the job in the time I had budgeted. Exciting in that I got 80% of my planned area cleared and I can see what it’s all going to look like now. It’s going to be dynamite!
All that’s left at this point is for the operator to come back later in the week when things are truly dry and do the final top grading/ smoothing so I can disc and plant it.
Panoramic View from NE corner of the plot looking east on the left side of the pic and west on the right side:
Panoramic view from east edge of plot, about halfway back. Facing south on the left side of pic and facing north on the right side:
I have mixed feelings about the whole experience at this point. I’m going to wait until he finishes the final grading and I’ve had some time to reflect before I say much. I will definitely go ahead and say that I’m very glad it’s done and I’m also very excited to hunt this spot in the future.
Actual finished plot shape (green shaded means trees not actually cleared):
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All that’s left at this point is for the operator to come back later in the week when things are truly dry and do the final top grading/ smoothing so I can disc and plant it.
Panoramic View from NE corner of the plot looking east on the left side of the pic and west on the right side:
Panoramic view from east edge of plot, about halfway back. Facing south on the left side of pic and facing north on the right side:
I have mixed feelings about the whole experience at this point. I’m going to wait until he finishes the final grading and I’ve had some time to reflect before I say much. I will definitely go ahead and say that I’m very glad it’s done and I’m also very excited to hunt this spot in the future.
Actual finished plot shape (green shaded means trees not actually cleared):
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pinetag
Well-Known Member
Well today was both disappointing and exciting. Disappointing in that my operators were not able to complete the job in the time I had budgeted. Exciting in that I got 80% of my planned area cleared and I can see what it’s all going to look like now. It’s going to be dynamite!
All that’s left at this point is for the operator to come back later in the week when things are truly dry and do the final top grading/ smoothing so I can disc and plant it.
Panoramic View from NE corner of the plot looking east on the left side of the pic and west on the right side:
Panoramic view from east edge of plot, about halfway back. Facing south on the left side of pic and facing north on the right side:
I have mixed feelings about the whole experience at this point. I’m going to wait until he finishes the final grading and I’ve had some time to reflect before I say much. I will definitely go ahead and say that I’m very glad it’s done and I’m also very excited to hunt this spot in the future.
Actual finished plot shape (green shaded means trees not actually cleared):
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So are the standing trees (areas in green) going to stay as is? Personally, I think that is a better shape than what you had originally planned and it appears it will pinch them down closer to your stand. I like horseshoe shaped plots!
