JBrown- How did it turn out for you?
We ended up burning a full tank of diesel out of my tractor with the flail mower! I hate to think how many acres I cut. Prepped for future food plots, trimmed lanes, dug out mineral/salt licks. I know the mineral licks are not going to benefit us much now, but this is long term work we are starting.
It well fairly well, although I didn't get near as much accomplished as I wanted to. My wife reminded me of a wedding reception we had to go to, so it basically cut my day in half. I checked the trail cam and got one plot planted, but I was not able to get the two hang-ons set that I wanted to.
The food plot was more work than I thought it would be. I underestimated the ground up on the hillside... lots of rocks and hard as cement... that's what you get on ground that's never been worked. We started off with a 5' tiller, but after only about 20 minutes, we broke a shear pin and lost half the tiller LOL. We ended up hooking up the plow, turning it all over, and then going over it with the disk before planting. Here are some pics of all the dusty fun.
Before:
Plowing...
After plowing was finished...
Disking...
The finished product...
In total, this plot is about four tenths of an acre... my seed mixture consisted of 50 lbs canadian oats, 25 lbs winter rye, 5 lbs red clover, and 5 lbs ladino clover. This plot is located on a hillside on the west side of the woods. As you go south, it necks down to only about 20 ft wide, where a giant oak tree is blocking the end. If it grows well, it'll be a perfect hunting plot. For bow season, I'm going to have a stand at each end of it, but not on the plot itself... they'll be back in the woods about 50 yds. For gun season, I plan on constructing a ground blind in the fallen tree at the south end... that way you could look down the entire length of the plot through the scope.
I feel pretty good about what I got done, but I definitely have to get back down there soon to tie up some loose ends. I'm getting a lot of traffic on the trail cam so I'm really looking forward to the season to start.