Last weekend I finally caught a break with the kid’s sports schedules to head down 77 and do some post season scouting and begin work on this year’s projects. As usual, we didn’t find any sheds. I have only found a handful of sheds my whole life, even when looking purposefully for them. Right after we got there, my buddy found a dead button buck off the corner of one field. It didn’t look like it had been dead long, but it was pretty picked over by the yotes, which have been all over the place down there.
Anybody plant fruit trees? Last fall we planted a few pears and apples about 4-5 feet tall we bought on clearance at Lowes. Back then I put a chicken wire cage around the bases to stop the rabbits and the bucks from rubbing the trunks. Well that worked but the deer have still been eating the tips, even off the upper branches. They are thin and limber so they must be pawing them over and them eating the ends. How big of an exclusion cage do you make for your fruit trees?
We had the chainsaws out and cut some longer shooting lanes for gun season next year in some of the areas we sit and have stands. The tractor we have access to started right up, unlike last year when the battery was dead, even though it had been sitting since last fall. It was dry enough to cut down/mow our plot’s cover screen from last fall. The goal was to get the stems and grasses in contact with the ground to start them decaying and also provide a mulch layer to prevent weed growth before we turn the field over and plant a new screen this spring. I just wish I had more time to play around!
Below is a photo of the dead deer and work on the plot.
Anybody plant fruit trees? Last fall we planted a few pears and apples about 4-5 feet tall we bought on clearance at Lowes. Back then I put a chicken wire cage around the bases to stop the rabbits and the bucks from rubbing the trunks. Well that worked but the deer have still been eating the tips, even off the upper branches. They are thin and limber so they must be pawing them over and them eating the ends. How big of an exclusion cage do you make for your fruit trees?
We had the chainsaws out and cut some longer shooting lanes for gun season next year in some of the areas we sit and have stands. The tractor we have access to started right up, unlike last year when the battery was dead, even though it had been sitting since last fall. It was dry enough to cut down/mow our plot’s cover screen from last fall. The goal was to get the stems and grasses in contact with the ground to start them decaying and also provide a mulch layer to prevent weed growth before we turn the field over and plant a new screen this spring. I just wish I had more time to play around!
Below is a photo of the dead deer and work on the plot.