Last year I kinda fell into an awesome property to hunt really close to home. Although it has a huge field on it, planted by a farmer who rents it, there is also an abandoned field that looked like it hadn't been planted in 5 to 10 years. I asked my landowner if he minded if I cleared and planted it and he had to problem. It helps that the landowner is my best friend's father-in-law.
Here is an aerial view of the property: The plot is on the right. Notice my house on the left of the screen. I lived there for almost a year without knowing that he owned this land.
This abandoned field was filled with small trees and jaggers. I did take a pic from a treestand in the middle of it, but I can't find it now. Here are a few shots of what was growing it there.
At the one end it was kind of wet and smushy in one spot from a little spring. (propably one of the reasons the farmer gave up on it) I decided that I was gonna make a nice little water hole. I took two 8 to 10 foot logs and made a V at the bottom of the area and then put my rubber boots on and went to work digging the slop out and piling it on the logs. Here is the before and after. (In the after photo it's just starting to fill. After the fact, I thought about reinforcing the back with sandbags, but we will see.)
Here is how every food plot day should start out, deer bologna and Vitamin Water.
That's because you need to have something to munch on while you wait on the tractor to stop giving us fits.
Leading up to yesterday, I had spent the last two Saturdays with my chainsaw and bare hands cutting and dragging most of the saplings and briars out of the field. Mike just got to come and do the fun stuff with the tractor, brush hog and beatup old discs. I also had another buddy their running my fourwheeler with an old spiketooth harrow on it. He was having too much fun.(it was muddy in few spots.
By the end of the day, we had a cleared, somewhat disced field, ready to be limed.I am not planting until August, but it's nice to have this stuff ready to go.
Here's a shot from either end.
After we were all done we went down in the little bottome in the low side of the plot where a small stream runs to send Pat through on my quad to wash it off. We ended up finding a dead head. A small four pointer that Mike and I saw in rifle season in just about this same spot. (He was alive then) He had been hit by a car. We cut of the antlers and decorated the Vinson.
All in all, it was a pretty fun, productive day. Now in a few weeks it's on to Rob's and the cabin land next.
