My property tour

[jlane35]

I figured I would pull some of my posts over from the other site and get my tour started again. I don't know as much as others but I still work hard at what I do. I hope to learn from you guys and pick up new ideas for my place.

Just like many of you some of my favorite threads are of others land tours. It is really cool seeing ordinary properties being improved by ordinary guys who just love their property and the wildlife that live there. I wish I took more pictures when we first started improving our land, when it was purchased, in 2003.

Here is the property the different color dots refer to certain projects done so far. The red outlines the property purchased in 2003 and the green shows the property purchased this past fall. In all it totals roughly 215 acres.

The orange dots are spruce plantings. The green are apple trees. The black is food plots and the light blue are water troughs.

 

[jlane35]

There are two more pictures to get a better idea of our property and what surrounds it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jlane35]

In 2008 we put a cabin in even though we are only a 15 minute drive away from the property. But it feels like we are 1000 miles away when we are there.


We also have a shed for the quads but in the future want to build a larger building for all of our equipment.

 

[jlane35]

I figure I will get all of the structures out of the way before the habitat improvement pictures are shown. With the purchase of the lower road frontage property my father wanted a way to let people know it's under new ownership but in a way that was easy on the eyes. He has a few friends from Wyoming where he elk hunts every year and he had them come in to build an arch way.


It isn't finished yet the wood still needs to be stained and my uncle is fabricating a metal gate. We will be removing the existing gate once the new one is up.

 

[jlane35]

A few years back we planted high bush blueberries to be a security screen on the back side of the field. They never grew as much as we expected although they do produce lots of berries. The fence always seems to be knocked over as soon as they are ready to be picked.

 

[jlane35]

As I have shown on the map of the property we have water buckets in the ground. Although they are not as nice looking as a water hole the buckets still do the trick bringing all sorts of wildlife to them.

 

[jlane35]

We have lots of history with this buck and a few close encounters but that will be a story for the future.

 

[jlane35]

Here is the best part of the newly acquired property.


However there was lots to clean up around it.

 

[jlane35]

The inside was disgusting and used for illegal activities before they stopped maintaining it.


We knocked it down and built a nice pavillion.

 

[jlane35]

After knocking that piece of junk down we built a nice pavilion to keep us out of the sun if need be.

 

[jlane35]

Well today was the first day of our rifle season and it made up for our lack of success during archery season.

My father and I put up a ladder stand in the corner of the larger cornfield, of the two, so he can overlook the hillside leading between the two hay fields and see into the corn. There isn't much corn left between the two fields so we figured we better sit over the field sooner then later to take advantage of the draw.
He didn't need to wait long for deer to enter the field. At 7 two doe and the buck he harvested came down the hill and entered the lower cornfield from the hedge row separating the two. I don't have any trail camera pictures of this buck but I did see him during the last two weeks of archery season and I could tell he was mature for sure. A shot just never presented itself. But I let my father, uncles and cousin know that if they saw this buck don't hesitate to harvest him.


The photos don't do justice showing the size of his body, but before he was field dressed he weighed in at 225 pounds.

 

[jlane35]

Then at 430 my uncle harvested a 3 1/2 year old 8 pointer we were after. He was in a stand we built in an oak tree over looking our clover plot and in between a clear cut and our centrally located sanctuary.

The red dot is the stand and the 4 orange dots show the outline of the sanctuary. The creek and access roads are the boundaries to the sanctuary, which you can see if you look closely. His buck came from the far side of the sanctuary right up the edge on the outside of the creek. He shot just before the buck entered back into the sanctuary and dropped him in his tracks so there was no disturbance of the sanctuary.


He had a 17 inch outside spread and weighed in at 170 pounds live weight.

 

[jlane35]

The area bordered in orange is the area being timbered, the other area in pink was already timbered.

 

[outdoorstom]

That's some beautiful property! I love the archway. Keep the pics coming.

 

[jlane35]

I put crabapples in a few different spots for rabbits and grouse. I ran out of weed mats, I swore I cut enough. I will get those laid down this week.


My plan with these is to lightly disc in between them once they get large enough to promote suckering.

 

[jlane35]

My final plantings for this year was silky dogwood. I put these just down the hill from our cabin. I'm really hoping to improve the rabbit and grouse cover in this area.




I'm always open to suggestions. If you guys think I'm doing something wrong or can improve anything just let me know.

 

[jlane35]

We had a cookout at our property today so I checked out our throw and mow food plot. My father is finally convinced and I'm impressed, it came in better then I thought it would.


They are hammering the buckwheat now. And I can't wait until November until they come in for the brassica.

 

[jlane35]

The red dot is roughly where the enclosed blind is and the green dot is the destination plot.




The stand he shot out of and the field in the rear right is the corn field

 

[jlane35]

That should update my land tour to last year and give everyone a decent idea on what we have done. From this point forward will be all future plans and current projects.

 

[Satguy]

Looking good, I will enjoy watching your land tour.
Mike