Quapaw Meadows (My 160 Acres)...

Went to the farm today. It's mainly weeds at this time but hopefully I can recover from my shoulder surgery next week to get this turned into a fall plot. I am planning on just spraying and then doing CNC's "throw and mow".


Gee dock....didn't you just have knee surgery or something like that? 6-million dollar man envy?

Getting very hot and dry here....100F at 11 am.
 
Gee dock....didn't you just have knee surgery or something like that? 6-million dollar man envy?

Getting very hot and dry here....100F at 11 am.

Hi Doug, great to see ya here. Sure hope you start back your blogs.

Yea, been in a bad groove the last year. Summer of '15 had to have my knee scoped. Torn meniscus. This was a little more severe with my shoulder. Developed avascular necrosis of the humoral head. Ended up with a shoulder replacement last Wednesday. Pretty miserable.
 
Prayers for a speedy recovery and good pain meds!!! What is the recovery time and will you be able to hunt this fall?
 
Wife had to work this morning and she just happen to leave the keys to my truck. She has been keeping them hidden from me when she leaves so I don't drive one armed. Well with the keys around woke up this morning. I have cabin fever so bad I grabbed the keys and drove out the 160 this morning to take a look and grab some cards our of the cams. Surprisingly everything looks green but since I haven't been able to do any spraying or mowing i'm getting a lot of mares tail and johnson grass in the plots. Amazing how fast the weeds can start to take over without any maintenance.

Eagle Bean Plot. Last year I had no JG in the plot but I had a thicker stand which canopied quickly. This year it was much slower to get established with less moisture. I sprayed this plot 1 time when the beans were about 6" tall and didn't spray again. I should have sprayed but now I'm just stuck with the JG for the rest of the season. Once I can get back on the tractor I'll raise the mower and clip the top of the JG or either spot spray--unfortunately though there already mature seed heads.



 
I was able to mow this plot before my surgery. This is a clover plot that has pretty much gone into summer dormancy with lack of rain and was being taken over with mares tail. The mowing pretty much took care of it but now it's getting JG and crabgrass. Still some red clover mixed in that is green so still getting some good use. Needs a good dose of cleth. Hopefully I can get some sprayed in a week or two as my shoulder continues to get better.





Water hole is getting lots of traffic from all sorts of critters.

 
Boggy Bottom plot is looking great. So much OM and heavy thatch it holds moisture much better so the clover-both red and white is going strong. Chicory is loving the hot weather and also getting lots of browse pressure. I really wanted to jump on the tractor and mow it to knock down some of the mares tail but figured my shoulder couldn't handle the bumpiness of the tractor and might be kind of tough doing the tractor with one arm.








Thought this was a pretty cool pic with 2 does watching a coyote walk by. I actually have 4 pics in succession with the yote walking by. The doe's eyes never leave the yote. He never looks or pay any attention to the does.



Maybe next weekend I can get out and do a little mowing.

todd
 
Just a short little video of a doe and her twins feeding in one of my kill plots planted last year. Has some red clover mixed in it.

 
Ahhhhh the escape. I just kept my 4Wheeler just outside the door after I had my knee surgery. Worked so well I still keep it there. Glad you were able to stomp around a bit. Good that you have the Johnson Grass as it helps signal how tall those racks are. And looks like a bruiser hanging out in my favorite plot....Boggy Bottom
 
WOW, I like that buck with 6 points on the side I could count! You should have an interesting deer season with that buck in the mix!
 
WOW, I like that buck with 6 points on the side I could count! You should have an interesting deer season with that buck in the mix!

I think that buck is a basic 8 with split G2 and G3 on that left side. He is a mature buck. He is on our hit list and hoping we get a Crack at him during youth season.
 
Ahhhhh the escape. I just kept my 4Wheeler just outside the door after I had my knee surgery. Worked so well I still keep it there. Glad you were able to stomp around a bit. Good that you have the Johnson Grass as it helps signal how tall those racks are. And looks like a bruiser hanging out in my favorite plot....Boggy Bottom

Yea, that boggy bottom plot is feeding a lot of deer.

When wife got home she told me she didn't mean to leave the keys:D
 
Yea, that boggy bottom plot is feeding a lot of deer.

When wife got home she told me she didn't mean to leave the keys:D
Tell her she can mail them to me and I will bring them back in a few weeks...now how long are you off again? ;)
 
Well my shoulder is getting better by the day. Still painful when I move it the wrong way but function is returning. Went back to work last Thursday and even doing surgery. Hoping for a full recovery by deer season.

A week ago I went out and did some mowing. Fortunately the mower was already hooked up to the tractor and with power steering it was pretty easy to mow one handed. I went slow. I was getting quite a few broad leaf weeds in my boggy bottom clover plot and wanted to get them mowed before they produced seed. The number one weed is what I think is mares tail. If I mow it right at the very early flower stage it will usually die. There were a few other scattered broadleaf weeds. We were suppose to get a rain the next day but it didn't come. However, I did get a 1/4" yesterday and the clover and chicory plot is doing great.

Prior to mowing--you can see the weeds were getting pretty tall. However, the deer don't seem to mind the weeds.

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A week later (today). No spraying on this field. It is very clean after a good mowing.



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My sunflower/cowpea plot was a total bust. Used a pre-emergent herbicide at planting and then sprayed poast plus a few weeks later. Too many perennial weeds and black berry vines. I mowed it a week ago and sprayed it today with glyphosate. Hopefully over labor day weekend I will be able to get it tilled up and planted in wheat, rye, DER, and sunflowers.



This plot is only 0.6 acres and is on the edge of a heavily used bedding area. It is surrounded by thick cover so my hope is to see some late evening daylight activity before they migrate to the 2.25 acre boggy bottom plot. My hopes are high. This is the new stand that I built that will over look this plot.



The boggy bottom plot is about 500 yards North of this plot and in between is the former fescue field that I nuked 2 years ago. Since most of the fescue is gone and no longer a competition this spot has turned into a jungle. So thick it is hard to walk in. Deer beds all in the junk. I did mow a few trails through it that will lead directly to the food plot but angles so I can see the entire mowed trails from the tower stand.

 
My little pear orchard plot is struggling. Soil isn't quite a good as the boggy bottom so the dry hot summer has taken a toll on the clover. Part my fault also as I haven't sprayed this plot this year so lots of Johnson Grass and crabgrass invasion. I mowed it also a week ago and today I sprayed with Cleth at a rate of 12oz/acre.



Still some decent clover so hoping with the cooler temps and less competition the clover will get a little more established. This plot was just planted 1 year ago. It did have a great early season flowering so hopefully there is a lot of clover seeds waiting for cooler temps also.



Hopefully the cleth will also take care of all the grass in the plot:

 
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