The 65 Project

[hickslawns]

Those are on the property in this thread. My property. Plenty of trespassers. Unfortunately, these apples are closer to the road, in front of my building, and probably only see deer at night. Never had a trail camera up there but I am sure they visit at night. Only benefit is our ability to eat them, cook with them, and dump the rotten ones in the woods for the critters.

 

[hickslawns]

These pics might be better. Had to email to myself, save to computer, and upload from computer. Not sure what is up with my computer. As stated, the apples are looking amazing. The clover is decent for a summer/fall planting. I have some weeds and grasses mixed in but I am going to let it go and see how well the clover fills in. I will spray in the spring and hope like heck it fills out more. I have other clover which has been nearly taken over by grass completely. Probably spray these areas in the near future and do a frost seed in these spots.

 

[Spencie]

Maybe I missed it but what type of apples are those. Looks great!

 

[Big_Holla]

All of the apple trees I looked at down on the farm were absolutely loaded. Was standing on a field edge making a mock scrape and I hear something big hit the ground and take off, wasn't til about the 3rd apple when I realized it was an apple tree I didn't know was there dropping them and they would roll down the ridge.

 

[hickslawns]

Maybe I missed it but what type of apples are those. Looks great!

Truthfully don't know. They are a bit bitter for eating straight off the tree. Plenty juicy, just not a great taste. They are delicious when cooking them. My wife is amazing. We are about to see apple everything around here. Apple sauce, apple butter, apple pie filling. . . .Probably do some cider as well.

 

[hickslawns]

Wife hasn't gotten to the apples yet. We did pick better than 75% today of them I'd guess. She plans on going full blown apple mode this week. Apple sauce, apple butter, apple pie, apple cider. . .

Lost a property to hunt today. Had already bought some seed to plant. Might just plant it on my 65 property. No sense letting it go to waste. Last week I was in there on the bobcat and made a new path for easier access. I know it was silly to do so this close to the season but I enjoy it more for squirrel hunting than anything. Plus, it was the first time the woods was dry enough to do so this summer. Now that this is done. . . Maybe a couple passes thru the woods with the tractor and broadcast spreader is just what it needs. I dumped some apples earlier tonight which were rotten or soft, or just not conducive for cooking. I don't see any acorns on the ground this year. Maybe some winter wheat on the trails and clover/winter wheat/rye in the more open areas which see sunshine will do me some good.



Above are some of the apples for cooking. Below is what my clover looked like a few days ago.

 

[hickslawns]

The "65 project" continues. A big part of me REALLY wants to go throw some seed on the ground to overseed what clover I have there. BUT. . . .My brother in law is having a pond dug. His excavator is from out of town. He needs a place to dump the top soil. I offered my property. I could use the dirt over there to fill in low spots. I can also use my top soil screener to screen the dirt and sell it or use it on jobs. Knowing where this dirt will be dumped, I will not waste my money dropping the seed. It will just be ran over by the trucks.

Here is another reason not to waste the time, effort and money. I pulled my camera card today. It had been in the woods and not changed since mid January. I had about 7 times in the last 2 months where deer walked by the camera. Just not a lot of deer activity there. There were plenty of pics of the neighbor guy driving his truck or tractor along my property line. Nothing illegal about it. Just not conducive to making the deer feel welcome.

Here are some pics. I had WAY too many of these pics. I bet there are half a dozen different dogs running loose. I know who they belong to. A couple belong to the neighbor who drives around all the time. Two others belong to another neighbor. He is a good guy. He lets me hunt there (although I only coyote hunt it and occasionally squirrel hunt it.) If they are still running closer to deer season I will need to mention it to him. And yes, there are two different occasions where the dog is carrying deer legs. I don't know that the dogs are chasing deer or killing them. I would imagine this is one of the 3 deer shot by the convict who hunts my neighbor's property and DIDN'T recover. Shot three. Recovered zero. Not even sure how the dude is allowed to hunt since he has been in prison for selling drugs more than once. I would "think" this would prevent him from owning/using firearms but maybe not. Either way, even if he is allowed to use guns/bows, him injuring deer on the property due west of me and hunting the wrong winds simply kills my hunting.

 

["J"]

He can use muzzleloader sand bows if he's got a felony....

Sucks about all the tragic (both human and dogs) Phil... Hopefully things calm down and the deer sightings improve....

 

[Jackalope]

He can use muzzleloader sand bows if he's got a felony....

Sucks about all the tragic (both human and dogs) Phil... Hopefully things calm down and the deer sightings improve....

A bow yes, but not a muzzleloader. The ORC prohibits possession of a firearm by those who have committed a felony.

(1) "Firearm" means any deadly weapon capable of expelling or propelling one or more projectiles by the action of an explosive or combustible propellant. "Firearm" includes an unloaded firearm, and any firearm that is inoperable but that can readily be rendered operable.

 

[hickslawns]

A bow yes, but not a muzzleloader. The ORC prohibits possession of a firearm by those who have committed a felony.

(1) "Firearm" means any deadly weapon capable of expelling or propelling one or more projectiles by the action of an explosive or combustible propellant. "Firearm" includes an unloaded firearm, and any firearm that is inoperable but that can readily be rendered operable.

Maybe he got it expunged. I don't know. All I know is the fugger is a known drug dealer. He has been busted more than once. He has done hard time. He still brags about selling. The thing with guys like this? They tend to lie often. Only reason I believe he has injured and not recovered 3 is because the info came from the kid helping him look. Good kid. It is what it is. He hunts there. He doesn't hunt it smart. Whether he is allowed to carry a weapon or not? I don't know. Not recovering 3 deer in one season sucks.

I would LOVE to make this a good hunting property. Glad the hunting is just a bonus. I need the property more for the storage building than anything.

 

[hickslawns]

86/269 pictures on my camera were pictures of the neighboring owners driving tractors, lawn mowers, cars, trucks, etc along the property line. Camera had been out since June 6. Needless to say, I don't have a lot of deer activity on this property. Looks like one young doe every so often. Also have a doe/single fawn who came thru 3 times in the last couple months. Rest of the pics were raccoon, occasional hen turkey, and the neighbor's dog. Rather disappointing.

Oh well. I did manage to clear a new path today with the skid loader. I also cleaned up around the shooting backstop a ton. Still have a nice place to sight in guns. Still have my storage areas. Still have my apple trees. Still have a place to grow new trees. Still have a great squirrel hunting woods. Just trying to be optimistic.

 

[Bigslam51]

I'm in the same boat, Phil. Our property isn't really worth a fuck for deer hunting either. Neighbors dogs run loose, he rides his tractor through the woods on the line. Didn't buy it for hunting anyways though but it sure would be nice to sit out there and not have to worry about his fuckin dogs.

 

[hickslawns]

I pulled the camera card I had swapped on August 8. Not sure I have been in the woods since then to be honest. Sadly, I still have no reason to go into this woods unless I want to squirrel hunt. I did squirrel hunt my way into the camera card swap. Killed two big fox squirrels. Checked my card. 770 pics. Most of them squirrels, raccoon, and a handful of deer which randomly used the woods. Out of the 770 pics, 192 were the neighbor running his tractor, driving his truck, driving his lawn mower, walking, or his dog. I had a ton of pics of his dog to include pics of his dog running deer. So in three months, roughly 90 days, I have 192 pics of the neighbor. Can anyone tell me why I don't have any deer on my property? I am so frustrated.

So today I did some thinking. I jumped on the bobcat and used the bucket to clear the leaves off the trails. Why not? It won't hurt the deer movement. Ha! If anything, it will give me clear walking paths to sneak up on squirrels. Maybe the quiet paths will attract the deer? Nope. Not if they never head in there. Maybe the big piles of leaves will be like Serta Mattresses for them? Work with me here people. I am trying to find a silver lining in this frustrating situation somewhere. Then it hit me: Set up a free standing unit in my lawn. Dump corn or apples. Set up a camera. If it draws any deer to the front of the property, I will let my son hunt here. I have no desire to shoot deer over bait, but I also have no desire to take my son hunting so he can watch leaves fall to their death and count squirrels.

 

[hickslawns]

Digging this up. In the last 2-3 weeks I have had a couple bucks on camera. Always at night. Not sure where I posted (maybe my current season journal) but I shared the details of the property. Only chance I have to kill one of them is to dump corn or put out a feeder. I'd guess less than 1% chance of killing one on natural movement. This doesn't rule out the long shot of someone bumping them to us. My foreman is the main person to hunt this property. Asked him if he wants to dump corn. Nope. He isn't interested either.

Today we took my Jeep thru the woods. Checked tracks. Deer are avoiding the north and west property lines due to those neighbors stalking the property lines daily in their trucks, side by side, or tractor. Sometimes on foot with dog wandering everywhere. 3pm. 10am. 830pm. No pattern to them. They wander around their property whenever they feel like it. Sucks for me. It is their property. Not much I can do. Usually they are getting firewood, but sometimes just patrolling their land.

Seeing the mature deer at the end of November wasn't completely shocking. Deer wander during the rut and the second half of November I saw more deer moving on multiple properties than I had all summer. Seeing the mature deer on THIS property was a bit of a surprise though. I've never had more than a 3 year old on camera here. With neighbors shutting down 50% of my woods it will be tough. Without dumping corn it will be tougher. I'm thinking of letting the weekend play out and then dump corn if my foreman doesn't see anything. Maybe for muzzle loader it will work. Even if we don't hunt the property on ML season, I'm curious if they will come into the corn here. Those who have followed me on TOO know I'm not really into hunting over corn. I don't care if they do. It just isn't my thing. BUT. . . there is a curiosity brewing. I don't believe it would be satisfying for me to kill one over corn, but I am curious if I could draw some deer in or maybe hold them longer than a pass thru. At a minimum? Maybe get more pictures and increase my desire to hunt there. I dunno. I'm entirely too cheap to dump corn all summer, let alone all year. That isn't happening.

10pt is Nov 28/29. Two cameras. One on west end of my property. One in middle of my property. Basically part of the lawn where they are tearing up my pine trees. The 8pt is recent. Not sure I can shoot him. I hope my foreman gets a shot at one of them. The 8pt is a nice buck but I'm not sure I would be happy with him. Even though I've not killed a deer off my property since buying it. . . I think I'd be let down. Maybe not. I don't know. He is a very nice young buck. I'd be much happier putting someone else on him than killing him myself I guess. Sounds like a buck snob, but it is actually me wanting to see someone else succeed and finding the happiness in this. I'm okay eating a tag.