The 65 Project

[hickslawns]

Them suckers are expensive! Instead, Phil needs to buy the ass end of a refrigeration truck, cut the axles off of it, and wala, walk in cooler.

I have a torch. Sounds like a good plan!

Boone- Hardly a food plot baron. I like the thought of it though. I help a buddy and we hunt together. I am more of a farmhand/laborer and Sheriff on the properties. Keep the riff raff off his properties, and we use his equipment and mine to plant. Looking like mostly farm crops this year. Probably 10acres "deer specific" food plots at the max this year. Couple fields and miles of edges. lol

 

[DJK Frank 16]

Just thinking out loud here Phil, it would be killer to have a walk-in cooler in one of your buildings. Just a thought.

Always wanted to frame off a 6x6 or 8x6 room off of one of the windows in my building, and insulate the shit out of it. Stick a windows AC unit in there and during early bowseason, be able to hang deer in their and not half to worry about getting the hide off/pack the carcass with ice on those warm nights. Being waiting on me, nice and cold, the following day!

 

[hickslawns]

Update on the apple trees. 3 out of 4 look like this right now. Going to be a good year if they keep it up. Looking forward to apple pies and cider. Anything left over will not go to waste. Lmao

 

[Rutin]

Nice! You may have a summer honey hole before too long

 

[hickslawns]

Nice! You may have a summer honey hole before too long

Only problem is these are closer to the front of the property than the woods. Deer would have to walk across a busy state route or a couple hundred yards through the open to get to them. They are in front of my building. I would guess they will be nocturnal feedings. Still won't hurt to bring them in. Especially if I relocate some every so often.:biggrin:

 

[hickslawns]

Just q bit of an update on the property. I had one guy not assigned to a crew today. I needed to keep him busy. Next to our retail location is a pile of fill dirt we have been trying to relocate for the owner. Last weekend I worked it up with the backhoe so it was easier to load and use. I had my guy running dirt about half the day. Wish he got more accomplished but they were paving the road and he had to wait every time he came or left. I had the boys this morning while my wife was tied up so we stayed there with one of the Bobcats and I cleaned up the area. When I took possession there was already around 10-15 loads of asphalt chunks, junk dirt, and gravel sitting close by collecting weeds and taking up space. I moved about 3/4 of those piles to start the backstop for the shooting range. It will be top dressed without all the fill dirt we are bringing in. I am feeling better about shooting into the woods now. I still need to bring in more fill dirt and plan on driving the backhoe over to stack it taller. Looking forward to having my own range to shoot at. It should be a great source of enjoyment for our friends and family for many years. If not, who cares? I will enjoy it all by myself. Lol

 

[Curran]

That's gonna be a nice range Phil!! Look forward to seeing more pics as you continue building it up.

 

[hickslawns]

Should have a guy hauling tomorrow and possibly part of Saturday as well. Once I get a bit more caught up, the next "big" project will be painting the building.

Hope to spray the weeds in the drive, parking areas, and bull pen (fenced in area for outside storage) over the weekend or possibly tomorrow. Not a huge project, just needs to be done and will take a couple hours.

Another half day to day long project for me will be clearing out some of the scrub trees and opening up the ground at the rear of the property (by the tree house) for a small food plot. Moving out the trees will not take long, maybe an hour. Working the ground with the bobcat will be less than an hour. Spreading the seed will be minimal. Mental note: Spray the poison ivy and weeds while spraying the parking areas. lol

After the painting is done, I hope to finish the siding on the tree house as well. Need to finish this soon. I want to get in and out before hunting season and certainly cannot allow it to go thru another winter without siding.

Another one day project for two people will be planting my trees over there this fall. They are all potted and being watered as I water my garden for now. With no water on the 65 property I hesitated to just put them in the ground and hope. After seeing the dry summer, it looks like this was the right call.

We are hoping to host a company party there in the near future as well. We have a ton of brush we have been hauling over there. We are going to need to burn it and try to keep the fire to a minimum. I probably have a day project of trimming trees as well. This will be cause for another bon fire. Might try to make it one big fire though and just feed it with the tree limbs we trim up.

As you can see, there isn't a ton of work to do. Several half days will complete the majority of these projects. The siding on the tree house and painting of the barn will take maybe a week with 2 people. Then I will need to figure out my next move for the property. Most likely it will be simple maintenance and finding some nice fruit trees to supplement the 4 apple trees we currently have.

 

[DJK Frank 16]

Coming along nicely Phil!

 

[hickslawns]

Just got off the phone with a like minded hunter and customer rep for www.wildsidecamo.com. He shot me pricing and remembered speaking with me at the Deer and Turkey Expo. Not just salesman BS either as he remembered dimensions and specifics about our discussion about putting siding on the tree house. It would be pretty cool to have the tree house in camo siding. Just not sure it is in the budget. Might have to go camo siding redneck style. I have some left overs from doing my house, shop, pole barn, and another project. If I can use left over materials and not have to add a ton of extra expenses. . . might be the way to go to side the tree house. Time to separate my needs from my wants. Anybody here ever spray paint vinyl siding? Do-it-yourself camo would be the best fiscal decision at the current time.

 

[hickslawns]

Got some more of the asphalt and rock piles moved today. Spread them around the trails in the low spots. Sprayed the weeds in drive areas and around the building. Headed into woods on quad to spray and kicked up 4 kits. Surprised each other I think. Coming back out I saw a doe that watched me as I exited within 40yds. Then I snapped this picture of one of the kits that had resumed playing while I was spraying. Enjoy. I know I did!

 

[hickslawns]

Cleared out the rest of the asphalt and rock piles. Top dressed them with top soil. Had one of my guys run 6 more loads over today. Then we ran the backhoe over so I could stack it higher. Nearly 830pm but I just finished moving the piles.

 

[hickslawns]

Have not been in the woods since June 22. Huge red oak down I need to clean up. Should provide 2-3 loads of firewood in my dump truck. My dump has an 11' bed and the sides are roughly 3-4' tall. Looking forward to getting it split. Several other trees down in there as well i need to get to but the oak is blocking my main access into the woods.

Swapped the card. Checked the tree house for damage. It was good to go. Here is the most interesting thing I have found. I initially started this thread to see what we can do on small properties to improve our hunting. From what I am learning, very little can be done with significant results. I placed one camera in the woods. I placed it over a mineral lick. What I found is rather than random entry and exit points, the deer have been entering and exiting at the same point day and night. Nearly every single day I am getting 2 does and one doe with twin fawns. Once or twice I got a pathetic buck. He is such a geeky looking thing. Reminds me of myself. Puny with a pathetic set of headgear. Maybe someday he will blossom.

With this said, I know the property. I have hunted the property. The mineral lick was not just randomly placed. I placed it as close to the property line as I could. If you travel another 50-100yds south of my property there is a depression in the field they like to cross. By placing the mineral lick where I did, it seems they are hitting the lick morning and night, walking the field edge south to the depression in the field, and heading west to a larger woods and some bean fields. The corn field directly west of my woods is pathetic. they have trampled it and there is just about zero corn the first 20 yards into the field. They are traveling this path HEAVILY! Makes me smile as I can shoot them from the tree house and have a 30-35yd shot. Hopefully the work to clear small trees and add a small food plot doesn't blow them out. I really need to get this done in the next few weeks so they can adjust and get settled back into a pattern before the season but I have a feeling I am just going to bugger them up prior to the season. Oh well. It will be fun to see if this helps hold them or draw in anymore does as the crops are pulled off. If so, it should be in perfect timing with the rut.

 

[hickslawns]

Here are some more pics. Good sized doe I would love to stuff in my freezer the first week of the season! My pathetic buck. Also found a couple of hoodlums I need to scare the poop out of if I ever catch them. Had my "NO Trespassing" signs in the Jeep and forgot to hang them tonight. Oh well. I will be back. Tell me that "dude" doesn't look like a pothead. What a worthless puke!

 

[jagermeister]

Judging by the skinny jeans and fruity-colored bracelets, I'd say he's definitely smoking something... but it ain't pot.

 

[cotty16]

Glad they didn't take the camera.

 

[hickslawns]

Glad they didn't take the camera.

Camera was locked. I have "This camera GPS tracked" on the camera in several places. I think it might have scared them. They definitely tried to figure out what it was. They moved it a little. Glad they weren't carrying a saw. Has a Python lock around the tree and a lock so nobody can snag the card. This one is not in a box though.

 

[DJK Frank 16]

I'm not so sure he doesn't have something funny burning in his left hand in the last picture... :smiley_carnaval:

 

[hickslawns]

I think you might be right Drake!

 

[hickslawns]

Updates. Not cleaned up, but I have the huge oak on the ground that blew over in the early July storms. It was wedged in some other trees which made it tricky. Big oak took out 3 or 4 smaller trees on its way down.


Last picture is Dad with Graci covering her ears. Lol. I was taking a break. Up until this point, Dad would stand back analyze and point to where I should cut, then I would cut. He has a brilliant analytical mind. 43 years teaching geometry and building houses, cutting firewood, etc is enough for me to trust his judgement on where to cut. Hahaha