Feedman
Cyber-Hunter
Looks great. Nice Buck
Stone Branch
- Thread starter Stone Branch
- Start date
Stone Branch
10 pointer
Thanks keeruss8, Feedman
Thanks Drahts, I'm making progress.
A case study, area in blue approximately 8.5 acres. The green line is my property line and my neighbors hunt just over the line.
Early 2019 the area had very few oaks to provide acorns and no natural browse at ground level. It was a stunted, overgrown maple garbage pile, no rubs.
In June 2019 the whole thing started in the blue area when I realized that I had to help one of the few white oaks by
releasing it.
And as it usually happens once I get the feeling I can't stop. I went on to hurt a lot of primarily red maples in the blue area. I really do not have a set habitat plan but rather a more fluid plan that allows me to go in the direction that the plan takes me as it unfolds.
I placed a stand centrally located on the ridge in the blue area for the 19/20 hunting season. During the 20/21 season I saw more deer than the year prior mostly to the southeast down the ridge top where I made more of a mess.
During the 21/22 season I pulled that stand to use somewhere else which essentially made the blue area a de facto sanctuary. Low and behold I started getting pictures of my Target 10 coming out of the blue area on the camera marked by the red x.
G
Thanks Drahts, I'm making progress.
A case study, area in blue approximately 8.5 acres. The green line is my property line and my neighbors hunt just over the line.
Early 2019 the area had very few oaks to provide acorns and no natural browse at ground level. It was a stunted, overgrown maple garbage pile, no rubs.
In June 2019 the whole thing started in the blue area when I realized that I had to help one of the few white oaks by
releasing it.
And as it usually happens once I get the feeling I can't stop. I went on to hurt a lot of primarily red maples in the blue area. I really do not have a set habitat plan but rather a more fluid plan that allows me to go in the direction that the plan takes me as it unfolds.
I placed a stand centrally located on the ridge in the blue area for the 19/20 hunting season. During the 20/21 season I saw more deer than the year prior mostly to the southeast down the ridge top where I made more of a mess.
During the 21/22 season I pulled that stand to use somewhere else which essentially made the blue area a de facto sanctuary. Low and behold I started getting pictures of my Target 10 coming out of the blue area on the camera marked by the red x.
G
Stone Branch
10 pointer
Looking down towards the rim trail that runs along the southern edge of the blue area I have some hickories, one shagbark, one nice white oak, some nicer sugar maples, and some more double girdles.
Along the rim trail I will kill more trees later in the summer with my hack hammer and tryclopyr.
I still have messy areas
and next to the messy areas there are more rubs. There are rubs all over the worked area.
This year I will get in to utilize some of the firewood.
The other day I added a couple dozen new girdles
to the old girdles.
I will come in and hack many of the remaining smaller red maples. I am going to hinge cut remaining smaller red maples along the blue/green property line. After that my de facto sanctuary will become the official ridge top non-violate sanctuary during and around the hunting season.
G
Along the rim trail I will kill more trees later in the summer with my hack hammer and tryclopyr.
I still have messy areas
and next to the messy areas there are more rubs. There are rubs all over the worked area.
This year I will get in to utilize some of the firewood.
The other day I added a couple dozen new girdles
to the old girdles.
I will come in and hack many of the remaining smaller red maples. I am going to hinge cut remaining smaller red maples along the blue/green property line. After that my de facto sanctuary will become the official ridge top non-violate sanctuary during and around the hunting season.
G
Stone Branch
10 pointer
I don't care to do much hinge cutting
but in this spot along the property line it seems to work.
A nice red oak now free of undesirable neighbors.
Outside looking in.
I made sure to cut a passage way through along the rim trail.
Fifty yards in, rubs.
Inside looking out.
I've been trying for a week to catch a coyote, so far one coon.
2 nights ago coyotes paced the set from 10pm till 6:30am before they made off with the bait, a demeated deer carcass. They made off with the dead coon in another set down the trail. This is my first attempt at trapping coyotes, I don't seem to be very good at it.
G
but in this spot along the property line it seems to work.
A nice red oak now free of undesirable neighbors.
Outside looking in.
I made sure to cut a passage way through along the rim trail.
Fifty yards in, rubs.
Inside looking out.
I've been trying for a week to catch a coyote, so far one coon.
2 nights ago coyotes paced the set from 10pm till 6:30am before they made off with the bait, a demeated deer carcass. They made off with the dead coon in another set down the trail. This is my first attempt at trapping coyotes, I don't seem to be very good at it.
G
Stone Branch
10 pointer
I went and had a peek yesterday to see what was going on the north rim trail on the northern edge of the blue area.
Right down from the red x camera location, yah, that's what I would call a signpost rub.
Some spots along the north rim trail I mulched
and some I left unruly.
Mostly big hickories and a lot of little oaks remain. I think, pretty good deer cover with an abundance of acer and smilax browse.
More hinged along the line.
A new 10 who's been around the past few months.
G
Right down from the red x camera location, yah, that's what I would call a signpost rub.
Some spots along the north rim trail I mulched
and some I left unruly.
Mostly big hickories and a lot of little oaks remain. I think, pretty good deer cover with an abundance of acer and smilax browse.
More hinged along the line.
A new 10 who's been around the past few months.
G
grinder
12 pointer
164 acres of wooded paradise with creek, too many trees( you clear wooded easier than you can reforest bare land) ridge tops, hollers, funnels, and mast bearing trees. Paradise ! Intresting thread. I have skipped through most, but will go back and try to read.
Stone Branch
10 pointer
Looking towards the sunny ridge from the blue side
and from the sunny ridge looking back.
The Kinniconick watershed to the west.
The corner of my property looking west
To the right lies the future 1000 acre clearcut
and to the left, my ground.
The deer are bedding up there
and still scratching for acorns.
There are a few rubs.
There are a couple of nice flats on my side of the fence. One of the guys that leases the 1000 has a ladder stand and a bait station up on the property line so I have yet to venture up there to hunt. I did hear that they got pictures of a 180" deer in that location. I will eventually be hunting up there but am now waiting for the clear cut to see what shakes out. Having a clearcut bordering my oaks will be awesome.
G
and from the sunny ridge looking back.
The Kinniconick watershed to the west.
The corner of my property looking west
To the right lies the future 1000 acre clearcut
and to the left, my ground.
The deer are bedding up there
and still scratching for acorns.
There are a few rubs.
There are a couple of nice flats on my side of the fence. One of the guys that leases the 1000 has a ladder stand and a bait station up on the property line so I have yet to venture up there to hunt. I did hear that they got pictures of a 180" deer in that location. I will eventually be hunting up there but am now waiting for the clear cut to see what shakes out. Having a clearcut bordering my oaks will be awesome.
G
SB I surely hope they do a better job than these guys are doing on the 480+acre cut next to me. They are 1.5 yrs in now and still have 50 ac to go. What a ground raping. But I'm hoping it really benefits us here, I think it will. But what a mess they are leaving.
Stone Branch
10 pointer
I looked at some of their work in the area and "ground raping" would be a good description. My neighbor whose house sets along Stone Branch a mile down is worried about his house washing away after the clearcut.
30" + chestnut oaks, some, above my house, that the logger didn't take in 96. Chestnut oak is in vogue now.
Beds right up where they're supposed to be.
Tracks zig zagging every which way in my woody browse plot.
I'm missing some terminal buds off of the red maple hinged recently.
G
Stone Branch
10 pointer
Took a south aspect down.
G
G
HuntressOfLight
12 pointer
Good morning, Stoney, afternoon really, but whatever..., "It's always five o'clock somewhere"...
Have you ever had the pleasure of floating within a well designed zero-edge pool? That location is where I would consider placing an extremely nice one, along with spa and waterfall incorporated into all, off the back of the new house. I love them, when correctly done, more so than adorable little racoons, but I still love them more so than deer. Stop killing the masked little mischievous bandits, if you would be so kind.
Here is an article, for inspiration, even though I do not like the greater majority of photographs within the article's "find zero-edge pools" hyperlink, nor the one heading the article, itself. I would be interested in seeing photographs of that particular view you have, other than during the cold of winter.
https://luxuryviewer.com/what-is-a-zero-edge-pool/
Back where our farm is in Western Maryland, after they got done clearcutting they bring in mulchers and mulch and collect the hardwood mulch and sell that too. So when they are done, there is a lot less debris, and recovery is much faster. Most guys push up some brush piles and such for some small game habitat and leave some acres unmulched for grouse and such. The places I've seen cut here, some look 10-15 yrs old still have next to nothing in them. Not a fan!
Stone Branch
10 pointer
Today, after I trimmed back a tall sycamore over of my cabin plot
I decided to have a peek inside
of my new house.
G
HuntressOfLight
12 pointer
Reassuring to see that you have made much progress. Good. That is a vast improvement, over previous photographs of its antique interior. Hopefully you have been wearing a commercial grade respirator, upon each entry, and have already treated the old wood for mold??
Meanwhile, due to that previous photograph (btw, you need to clean your photography gear) having also garnered my keen interest, I have been studying Kinniconik Creek and the mentioned watershed, while my late dinner digests itself. I have noticed a variety of spellings for the creek, which equally interests me, as well as learned what the locals call it, and that it is actually almost a river, missing the mark via a mere mile. I also found an interactive map of the general area, which denotes the various mountains and knobs along with their names and elevations. What I wish to know at the moment, before breaking for a quick drive to the little store, is whether the snow covered looking fields off within the background of the photograph are actually retention or detention ponds, because such makes a BIG difference with my zero-edge pool consideration of the area, as well as its specific design.
