The Farm - Madison County, GA

[buckdeer1]

You were lucky the whole place didn't burn

 

[Keith Nehrke]

Unreal. Here I thought that the 81 mph wind that caused us havoc a couple weeks ago was Mother Nature at her worst. Turns out I wasn't even close...

 

[dogghr]

Wow that was one heck of a story. Glad noone was around that could've got hurt. I've seen severe damage like that on one property I hunt on several occasions and once when it ran into my house blowing up new tv as I watched out the door. The electronic force field made hair on my legs stand up milliseconds before the strike. Made me really respect that stuff. I've never stood near a door during a storm since. Sorry for your bad luck.

 

[Triple C]

Tommy...That's just downright discouraging right there. One thing for lightning to strike a tree but another level when it happens where much of your infrastructure gets wiped out. Just glad no one was around when that happened. I always worry bout things like that. You know those mature pines that are near the guest cabin and pavilion on my place. Every time we get a major storm I think about those trees coming down. Never thought about them being hit by lightning and the damage it could cause. Sorry for your troubles my friend.

 

[Elkaddict]

Sorry to hear about your latest bout with ma nature. At times like this, the only thing I know to do is count your blessings it wasn't worse, that no one was hurt and you still have one of the loveliest spots on the planet.

 

[Weasel]

Wow. You said it, it's always something. So glad nobody was around for that. Good luck with the clean up.

 

[Gator]

Holy shit. Growing up in northern FL, I've seen my share of lightning but I've never seen that much damage from it!!

 

[THE LLC]

It was amazing to see. Disappointing, but amazing to investigate and understand what it can do. We'll get it fixed--hopefully before it gets hot. Place is ROUGH without AC. LOL

 

[j-bird]

Wow LLC - as much damage as that lightening did that is awesome. Part of me would have liked to have seen it.....another part of me says it's a good thing nobody was around.

I have had my own encounters with lightening and I wasn't hurt, but it certainly got my attention!

I will also admit I have never seen a disc on a dozer before.....but if it works, that's all that matters.

 

[THE LLC]

I would have liked to have seen it, from a distance. Had to have been a sight to see. Even better if videoed so it could be slowed down. Unfortunate my trail camera was pointed in the opposite direction.

 

[THE LLC]

Our last rain was a big one on April 5. I'm gonna go out on a limb and bet we don't see any more for 6 weeks. So I went up to the farm today and planted some buckwheat plots for our bees while there is some moisture in the ground. Here's a picture of one of those plots.

 

[THE LLC]

I also disked up our "Back Plot" that I have been battling wild ryegrass in the cool season and sicklepod in the warm season in. The sicklepod had already germinated and was in the two leaf stage so maybe I took some of it out today. Also sprayed a lot of thistle. This is the eastern end of the plot.

 

[THE LLC]

This is the southern end of the same plot (90 degrees to the past shot).

 

[THE LLC]

My partner in the farm, the eternal pessimist, says I'll never make a plot out of this field. I bet I will.

 

[Gator]

My partner in the farm, the eternal pessimist, says I'll never make a plot out of this field. I bet I will.

Nothing like a little bit of motivation

 

[THE LLC]

Yep. I can get a little lazy otherwise.

 

[THE LLC]

Spent yesterday doing one of my most enjoyable habitat management practices.

 

[THE LLC]

Weather conditions were just right and we were able to manipulate the fire to get hot where we needed to and cooler where we needed to.

 

[THE LLC]

About 80 percent of our property was clearcut when we bought in it 2002. All the properties around it have good turkey populations, but we've never seen one on our place during turkey season. A few pass through in the fall but even that is rare. So we've been working, burning in blocks, to open the understory to give turkeys a connection between areas of mature timber. We have creek hollows that were not touched in the cutting operation and a large stand of mature pines right in the middle of the place that weren't cut. Yesterday's fires worked the last block between mature hardwoods on either side of the old cut and the pines in the middle. Here is before and after pictures of the pine head in the middle. Several little springs are located in this patch of pines which, I assume, is why they were never cut.

 

[THE LLC]

The objective was to kill the crap out of hardwoods and cedars so we waited until the hardwoods began putting out leaves. I think we got a few.