Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
The results are very impressive.
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Stone Branch, build it, they will come.
- Thread starter George
- Start date
Flatiron75
Member
Sorry for your loss of Tank - but new pup looks great.
Your woods look good after the burns and imazapyr treatments. Nice green regen there. Pa. DCNR did similar TSI cutting & burns on some state land near where I hunt. Oaks were the species they wanted to preserve - and the burns did a nice job. New growth is crazy in the burned areas because they fenced it to keep deer out for a few years.
Your woods look good after the burns and imazapyr treatments. Nice green regen there. Pa. DCNR did similar TSI cutting & burns on some state land near where I hunt. Oaks were the species they wanted to preserve - and the burns did a nice job. New growth is crazy in the burned areas because they fenced it to keep deer out for a few years.
George
Well-Known Member
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
I fully agree about your benefit, low deer numbers are easier to manage than high deer numbers. As a deer manager I can increase deer numbers easier than I can lower them, and having numbers that are too high makes everything else in deer management more difficult.
Cedar Ridge
Active Member
Terribly sorry about Tank, G. He was a damn goodun. Always love the habitat work you’ve got going on. You are quite the efficient one man team. I’m envious.
George
Well-Known Member
Thanks Cedar, Tank was a noble beast, little Rip is poised to take his place. Rip is 58lbs, 19wks.
I have been buying gallon jugs of insectguard, it is .5% permethrin. It works pretty well for keeping ticks off of me, I have pulled 5 or so this year. I would like to add some concentrate permethrin to the jug to make it more like 2%. The stuff works well for keeping carpenter bees and powder post beetles off of my wood.
The south end of my property. The final tally- Trees/acre started at 164 and is now 114, basil area started at 85 and is now 70.
That puts me about 60% stocked. No government funds available for this but now comes crop tree release, which I have already begun. I have now, at least, differentiated my 164 acres from the surrounding 55,000 acres of woods in Lewis county.
G
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
All you two need is one of those old two men crosscut saws!
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
Thanks for showing us around, Liz and I had a wonderful time getting to meet you in person and you picked a very tasty place for supper. It was a very special part of a great 4 day trip and we are back home again in PA all safe and sound in one piece.
We were under two different tornado warnings in Christian County on Friday evening and one of my distant relatives lost his house and four chicken barns east of Hopkinsville, so we were fortunate indeed.
By stopping in there at your place I was able to confirm what I've been suspicious of for a while already, that you are truly living the dream! I'm still enslaved to the daily workforce while you have somehow been able to kick that habit. Living back in the woods, in the middle of 160 acres of your own land, and having time and opportunity to pursue nature is to me one of the best possible lifestyle opportunities for sure. Also do say hi to Rip and the boys for me. I forgot to ask to see the place where you laid Tank to rest.
I loved the character and implied history of the old cabin built out of the two sided chestnut logs although I doubt that it's financially feasible to fix it up, but the building that I call the sawmill is in pretty good shape with the work you've done, and has much better possibilities, I like your plan to add a lean-to to the south? gable end. I do admit that I was somewhat directionally challenged down there in the ditch.
The best part of the tour was seeing the fruits of your labor up on the ridges and saddles, I think my favorite spot was where the rattlesnakes were fighting, the undergrowth is just phenomenal across the ridgetop out through there. Your land seems to want to grow oak and cherry trees if given a good chance, and you sure have a very good stock of quality hardwoods and other vegetation there just waiting to be managed.
When I saw the draw where you dropped the tulip logs into I thought to myself, he's going to invest some sweat to get those out. And you can't wait very long, because tulip poplar starts decaying very quickly after it's cut down and laying on the ground. Plus the wood would come in handy for your building project. We've even used that poplar wood (sorry, I forgot the Latin name, but you didn't) for vertical 1" board and batten siding on barns sometimes.
I could see firsthand and appreciate that hunting those ridges has tremendous possibilities but also some challenges with access, so now in the future when you describe about the detours you need to take to get to a certain hunting spot I'll be able to visualize what you're talking about. The nice thing is about anywhere you harvest a deer it's all downhill to get it out, and your road system is pretty impressive.
I'm looking forward to hearing more about your escapades there in the ditch in the future now that I can visualize exactly how it looks. Thanks again for taking a few hours out of your day to give me a tour. Allen
P.S. You almost had me there when you suggested that I split a piece of wood, I swing a pretty mean ax, and I almost put my hand to it, then I thought, wait a minute, that sure looks like "black gum"
weekender21
Well-Known Member
I didn’t know visits were optional! We should hold an annual habit forum show and tell. New property each year.
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Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
Great idea! Looking at the respective managed properties would be extremely interesting. But I find that meeting new people (real people with dirt behind their fingernails) is the most interesting part. Now look at George for instance, and you will notice that he's a pretty big guy, but a more obscure fact is that he knows a thing or two about jiu jitsu and I think he'd win a shoving match against most of us. Well, you're military, right?, so maybe you could hold your own. But the fact that we could discuss theology and eternity, and that he could tell me the Latin names of trees is what impressed me the most.
Anyway, I enjoy deer management as a hobby and so do many of you guys, so if we're able to get together we'll just naturally hit it off. I've visited several other people on this forum and had them over, and it's always been a good experience.
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
G, I'm curious how your mineral sites look up on the plateau where you put it on top of the ground? I never had much luck pouring minerals on top of the soil, I always had to mix it in. Allen
George
Well-Known Member
George
Well-Known Member
Thanks for showing us around, Liz and I had a wonderful time getting to meet you in person and you picked a very tasty place for supper. It was a very special part of a great 4 day trip and we are back home again in PA all safe and sound in one piece.
We were under two different tornado warnings in Christian County on Friday evening and one of my distant relatives lost his house and four chicken barns east of Hopkinsville, so we were fortunate indeed.
By stopping in there at your place I was able to confirm what I've been suspicious of for a while already, that you are truly living the dream! I'm still enslaved to the daily workforce while you have somehow been able to kick that habit. Living back in the woods, in the middle of 160 acres of your own land, and having time and opportunity to pursue nature is to me one of the best possible lifestyle opportunities for sure. Also do say hi to Rip and the boys for me. I forgot to ask to see the place where you laid Tank to rest.
I loved the character and implied history of the old cabin built out of the two sided chestnut logs although I doubt that it's financially feasible to fix it up, but the building that I call the sawmill is in pretty good shape with the work you've done, and has much better possibilities, I like your plan to add a lean-to to the south? gable end. I do admit that I was somewhat directionally challenged down there in the ditch.
The best part of the tour was seeing the fruits of your labor up on the ridges and saddles, I think my favorite spot was where the rattlesnakes were fighting, the undergrowth is just phenomenal across the ridgetop out through there. Your land seems to want to grow oak and cherry trees if given a good chance, and you sure have a very good stock of quality hardwoods and other vegetation there just waiting to be managed.
When I saw the draw where you dropped the tulip logs into I thought to myself, he's going to invest some sweat to get those out. And you can't wait very long, because tulip poplar starts decaying very quickly after it's cut down and laying on the ground. Plus the wood would come in handy for your building project. We've even used that poplar wood (sorry, I forgot the Latin name, but you didn't) for vertical 1" board and batten siding on barns sometimes.
I could see firsthand and appreciate that hunting those ridges has tremendous possibilities but also some challenges with access, so now in the future when you describe about the detours you need to take to get to a certain hunting spot I'll be able to visualize what you're talking about. The nice thing is about anywhere you harvest a deer it's all downhill to get it out, and your road system is pretty impressive.
I'm looking forward to hearing more about your escapades there in the ditch in the future now that I can visualize exactly how it looks. Thanks again for taking a few hours out of your day to give me a tour. Allen
P.S. You almost had me there when you suggested that I split a piece of wood, I swing a pretty mean ax, and I almost put my hand to it, then I thought, wait a minute, that sure looks like "black gum"
You have to get up pretty early in the morning to put one over on Menman.
G
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
I so enjoyed walking through there. And seeing the pictures reminds me of my prophesy once more; I know that you have low deer numbers, but I predicted that you will be in herd reduction mode within 3 years. That's my story and im sticking to it. Either way, you're going to have more fun than a kid with two ice-cream cones on a hot summer day.
What's your plan to enlarge the plot, clearcut, or widely spaced nut and cherry trees?
What's your plan to enlarge the plot, clearcut, or widely spaced nut and cherry trees?
George
Well-Known Member
The latter, first imazapyr and fire, and now sunshine and Mother Nature.
Same area 11 months ago as I started swinging the hack hammer. It was a good bit of swinging tulips, black birch, red maple, beech.
G
