Small Place in East Texas

GraceNmercy

Member
Well on the old QDMA forum I used to post all my update each time I went up to work as some of you may recall. I couldn't figure out how to save everything so I'm starting over. For those who are new to my post, several years ago I found that my great uncle who lived on our families 33 property for many many years was facing a judgement and faced loosing the property due to delinquent taxes. He was an old WWII vet in his 90's and the last of my great great grandmothers children who had lived there for most his life. He was living there alone on a fixed income and was accustomed to paying what he could over the years without any assistance from any of those other heirs. I used to go up and hunt on the place, but I hadn't seen in for a while after I went off to college and moved down south to Houston, so I never new how bad the situation was until I got more involved with helping with things he needed done around there. My getting involved to help him out and doing some digging is when I found out about the delinquent taxes after.

I took him to the tax office and setup a payment plan that we started paying on. After we setup the payment plan and made the first payment we sat on the front porch and he talked to me telling me he trusted me to take care of the place and handle it after he was gone. He talked about how the land had been in the family for well over 100 years, and should always be kept in the family and never sold so we could always have a place to hunt, visit and come back to if we ever needed to. Ironically a couple of months after that conversation he passed away at 92 years old.

Since then I've paid off all the back taxes and have been managing the property planting every fall with a reforestation plan that will be ongoing until I get the desired results I'd like. I've also gotten into the field of real estate and in the next year or two will start the process to buy out all the non-involved heirs who want to responsibility or dealings with the property.

I'll post more pics later to show progress from my early plantings until now, but just a few details of what I've been doing. The property is split by highway 175 and has about 20 acres on the south side and a little over 13 on the north side. We are surrounded by larger non-hunted tracts on all sides including 160 acres that connects on the north that's owned by a cousin who lives in Maryland, and a neighbor who owns 112 acres that connects to the south portion of the property. On the southeast side of the property we've started a mass planting of chestnuts in a old upland field near the old homestead with the goal of a chestnut forest type orchard, and various oak plantings in the bottoms along a creek that runs though the center of the place on both sides.

On a sandy slope on the southeast side of the property on the west side of the creek I've planted hundreds of pine loblolly pine trees, white oaks, American chestnuts as a road buffer and to connect a patch of woods already growing within the property. On that same side of the property in another area I've planted Allegheny chinquapins and and also some American hazelnuts along the drive in trail. I've also recently started planting longleaf pines on a sandy hill in the uplands above a steep slope that goes down into the bottom and to the creek. In these upland sites there's a lot of little blue stem getting reestablished naturally and I've been helping it at the same time by collecting and spreading seeds.

This all the work and natural regeneration that's been going on have been increasing the amount of wildlife that's we've been seeing on the place. I currently lease the property out to a couple of buddies of mine so I do all my hunting on national forest or friends who own large tracts of land. Anyway, I'll post some of my recent photos from today's planting and I'll followup later with the older photos...
 
Grace,

I am glad you posted this background information. I never realized you helped out an elderly uncle. You did a kind deed for which I hope you get the outcome you want.

Those of you that never followed this thread on the old site, you are in for a treat. Terrance has a great way of telling the habitat story thru great photos with his updates.

He is also very wise at growing seedlings / trees in a hot environment. Study how he gets his trees to survive and you will learn valuable lessons. I know I sure have. ;)

Friend, I am so glad you are back posting.

Wayne
 
Glad your starting your property tour. I moved it to the property tour room. I sure hope you eventually own it all out right.
 
Thanks Wayne!

Grace,

I am glad you posted this background information. I never realized you helped out an elderly uncle. You did a kind deed for which I hope you get the outcome you want.

Those of you that never followed this thread on the old site, you are in for a treat. Terrance has a great way of telling the habitat story thru great photos with his updates.

He is also very wise at growing seedlings / trees in a hot environment. Study how he gets his trees to survive and you will learn valuable lessons. I know I sure have. ;)

Friend, I am so glad you are back posting.

Wayne
 
Thanks Doc! That's the goal..to buy out all those relative who wouldn't help with the place nor wanted anything to do with it unless it was a check coming their way.

Glad your starting your property tour. I moved it to the property tour room. I sure hope you eventually own it all out right.
 
10450520_10100399465575314_4161177079689869278_n.jpg Here is the current outline of the 33 acre property. It was once 48.9 acres originally but this is what we have remaining today.
 
These are the old plans I had for the chestnut field...I've altered it since then to cover more of that field and have seedlings or saplings already covering the area where the green dots are showing10288747_10100417854633494_4612362300728211504_n.jpg ...
 
These are the Walmart Dunstans I started planting. When I could find them on sale for $5.00 a tree I'd buy them all and plant them in the fall along with the the seedlings I grew from seed. Most who followed my post on the old forum will remember that I used large 25-30 gallon plastic pots and will them about a foot to a 1.5 feet deep with a soil mixture of peat, miracle gro potting soil, and the cheap sandy type earthgro to stretch it, and I'd typically plant 15-20 nuts in each big pot. The seedlings to the right are those I grew and were usually anywhere from 1.5 feet to over 3 feet in one growing season. The roots don't get as tangled as you'd think and I've found that my seedlings do better than the walmart trees when left unattended on our place during the hot summers 11751447_10100699594175194_8024648769628453033_n.jpg
 
The chestnut field view from last fall facing west and over looking the slope leading down to the creek that runs through the enter of the place.
11012786_10100795900062424_1438305252601996765_n.jpg
 
Summer view of the field..a lot of the seedling may be hard to see due to tall grass, but I've found that the grass actually helps shield them from the scorching sun during our hot east Texas summers...11222520_10100699593950644_4233662200380193890_n.jpg
 
Field pic from my plantings this year taken on Thanksgiving. Of course the chestnut trees have started to loose leaves but a few can still be seen..especially the oldest trees in the right of the pic2016 Chestnut Field Pic.jpg
 
This is my oldest Dunstan I planted about 4 seasons ago and it stands about 12-13 feet tall. I have 2 of these big trees that produce a few nuts. I started off with 4 of those larger trees and I think one suffered from root rot as it never resprouted after it's 2nd winter. I posted a pic of one of 3rd largest tree on the old forum and it looked as if it had some sort of blight as the trunk was peeling and crackling. That peeling and crackling moved about 2 feet up the stem and and a storm came though and the trunk snapped in half. Tree was in full leaf and blooming and when it snapped, so I lost all those potential nuts. The tree is re-sprouting and growing back up pretty quickly though. Either way all these younger trees should catch up to the two remaining big trees in the coming years ...Tall chestnut tree.jpg
 
Grace,
glad to see you make the jump and getting your thread going on here. It has been sorely missed. I am anxious to see what you have done with the place over the last couple of months. I also was unaware that you helped out your great uncle. I have no doubts he'd be proud of your efforts and what you've accomplished.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks Sampson

Grace,
glad to see you make the jump and getting your thread going on here. It has been sorely missed. I am anxious to see what you have done with the place over the last couple of months. I also was unaware that you helped out your great uncle. I have no doubts he'd be proud of your efforts and what you've accomplished.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
1 of 5 walmart Dunstans planted this past week. Had a shoot growing from the roots that I left since a few planted last year died over summer buy came back from the roots after heavy August rains. If it gets too dry next summer that the main stem dies perhaps the shoot will keep growing.
Walmart Dunstan.jpg
 
Seedlings I grew from chestnut ridge of pike county last year in pots and planted out in the chestnut field near a blind last fall. Most of these survived the dry summer and are now in fall color. That's all I hope for is that they get through the first 1 or 2 growing seasons in the ground and once established they'll really take off..
Last years potted seedlings 2.jpg
 
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