Off season has been rough.
We have had a ton of work to do at our camp due to damage from an F! tornado .... took down dozens of massive white oaks and dropped many of these blocking our internal road system. Several of us busted our rears for over a week trying to cut away this mess. We barely made a dent. Finally land owner decided to have the work done in order to mitigate possible interference with fire fighting gear making their way through the property. And a great, loud Amen when up for the club guys. Frankly, it was indeed beyond our skills and equipment ot get this many and this large a olie of trees cleared away.
In addition we took on the task of clearing what we call the "firebreaks". These are 10' - 12' wide paths between the planted pines and the hard wood bottoms (SMZ's). Over the years, brush has grown in from the sides and limbs started sagging down so much so that those of us that bush-hog these roads (about 47 miles worth .... two passes with a 6' bush-hog ... about 95 miles of mowing) in early September were being beaten up and cut up by the in-grow. Each of us had about 3 miles worth of woods road assigned tp ujs back in the spring. Took me 8 1/2 days to clear mine. I did mine in April. Some guys have yet to start .... hope they enjoy working in this heat.
Three of us did what we call Phase 1 of our fall food plot prep this past Friday through Turesday, which consisted of bush-hogging and applying herbicides to selected fields. We also did some work in our summer plots ..... high mowed some of the Sunn Hemp and sprayed selective herbicide in our clover fields. It was dang near 80F at 06:30 and the lowest "high" those 5 days was 97F. It got to 99F two days with dew points hoveing around 80. Man it was miserable, work but we got it done.
I had hoped to get a start on setting up a few of my trail cameras and moving a few of my ladder stands that have been unproductive these last 2 seasons or so, but it was just too dang hot and I was too dang pooped come Wednesday to even consider trying.
But ... "I'll be back!" Hopefully in a few days. Maybe a cool front will come through and it will be only 92F or so !!