The Playground

[E_308]

Made it up to the farm to mow for the FIRST time this year. Too woolly for the massey had to borrow the brother in law JD.

This used to be a food plot going to be wheat and rye this fall.



Polished up the ponds a little



Always something to slow me down. Need to mow the plot on the other side!



It was a nasty mess of cheat grass. Would have lit it if I had a lighter. Have to use the massey on these tighter plots. Probably be oats this fall.

 

[E_308]

30 acres of this looking pretty good. About waist high


Probably going to miss the blackberries again this year. The whole place is loaded.



Looks like I have some WP Chinese chestnuts. Very few empty cages and tubes.



While checking chestnuts I jumped a hen off her nest. I guess better late than never.



Still plenty of turkey feed around (probably due to my lack of turkeys!)



DCO is getting big. The steel post is just under 6ft.



Ayers pear is loaded. The Kieffers have zero. The bartlett/keiffer/ayers grafts have a few. The reason I buy every new variety of pear I find on sale.



Spent a little time murdering Autumn Olives. The stump treatment stick worked pretty well, need to get some dye.



Overall a fairly productive weekend. Can't beat 80 degree highs in June. Thanks for looking.

 

[dogghr]

Wish my Ayers looked loaded like that. But since I just planted it this spring….. Place looking great. I probably couldn't go 6 mo without my farm "fix".

 

[E_308]

Wish my Ayers looked loaded like that. But since I just planted it this spring….. Place looking great. I probably couldn't go 6 mo without my farm "fix".

I want to say the pear tree is about 8 yo. I have been to the farm a few times this year, first time firing up the mower this year.

 

[E_308]

This is one of my Dunstans, looks like last years growth didn't make it through winter? Sprouts caught back up quick.

This is another of Wayne's chinese chestnuts that I planted with the bulb auger this spring.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lakngolf]

Looking good. Thick is the word this year but always looks better with a haircut. Little trees look healthy.

 

[E_308]

The last picture above illustrates a good point. I killed the fescue around the tube and what pops up Sercia Lespedesa! My hope is the chestnuts grow fast enough to get above it and start dumping tons of mast so it looks like I am running hogs around them in 10 years!

A guy can dream right?

 

[letemgrow]

Productive weekend is right!! I've had some transplants top kill over winter, even after looking great the previous year. Some come back and never top kill again.

 

[E_308]

Lumpy is still around. Hopefully he stays around for the season. More pics in the trail cam forum:

http://deerhunterforum.com/index.php?threads/jaw-growth.2505/

 

[E_308]

Spread 10 pounds of groundhog radishes and 40 pounds of lime on this mess after spraying

Let the roundup soak in for about 6 hours then decided to mow down the big stuff

Also mowed and sprayed my feeder plot. Hopefully be nice and brown to plant in a couple of trips.

Plenty hot so we had to get started at about 630 am on the blackberries. Plenty were ripe.

Used a local crew for labor

Ended up with 15 cups, one batch in the oven now. The rest went in the freezer

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[E_308]

First pears above a graft for me. Kieffer pear on a Bartlett base. Also has some ayers branches on the same tree.

Has some Bartletts on the other side

Found a couple of no tube or cage chestnuts growing. That puts me at 8-10 chestnuts started (Chinese and dunstuns). The biggest are waist high so it will be a while before they are fattening deer.

Cobbler #1 was about all devoured last night.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[OkieKubota]

Love me some blackberry cobbler! Ours didn't make well this year

 

[E_308]

Love me some blackberry cobbler! Ours didn't make well this year

If you are going to be in NE Mo I can draw you a map! Another week or two a guy could fill a five gallon bucket.

 

[E_308]

Looks like they should be getting a little rain in NEMO today. No rain since planting my radishes, could be a bust.

 

[swat1018]

Looks like they should be getting a little rain in NEMO today. No rain since planting my radishes, could be a bust.

I hope so....

 

[E_308]

According to weather underground it missed. Reporting a tenth. Out of the same storm system we got almost 3 inches on the other side of the state. Not much promise in the extended forecast either, maybe a little Wednesday Thursday this week.

 

[E_308]

Took the arctic cat in after ripping one of the axle boots off the back while putting in the radish plot (which still hasn't seen rain). Told the guy that it was a little doggy on take off. He checked the belts and pulleys, something had got into the housing and dinged up both pulleys which in turn ate the belt. Between an oil change, new boot on the back, and used pulleys and a new belt = $740. That stings on a machine with 70 hours, somewhere around 600 miles in 3 years. I'll be pulling the cover and checking this from time to time!

Planning on heading up to the farm this weekend. Probably going to hold off on planting any more plots waiting on rain. Got a few stands to move around, clock is ticking it will be here before you know it.

 

[E_308]

08160210 Lumpy by Eric Collop, on Flickr

 

[E_308]

Above pic is of the buck with lump jaw.

Got some more typical potential as well. Could be a good year.

07300966 by Eric Collop, on Flickr

 

[E_308]

Replace an old ladder stand with a new buddy stand, on a trail where the above pics were taken.

Overlooking this plot. Mostly clover and plantains, I added 50# of wheat this weekend then gave it a trim.

On the other side of my deer highway I added a ladder stand. Should make a decent morning stand to catch deer leaving the plot.

View out the front, 20 yards on the dot to the trail.

Limited but potentially useful rear view.

Spread 200 pounds of wheat over the weekend, all throw and mow method. Now lets just hope it rains. Filled up the SD card in the cam on 8/16 so I didn't get any hard horn pics yet. So far in this area I have more buck pics than does. Seems like I am gaining.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk