Where has the last year gone? Honestly, I'm asking myself that every day as each year seems to go by more quickly then the last. As I was looking back at my notes from early in the year, it seems as if it was just a few weeks ago that dad and I headed down to the cabin to begin preparations for this past hunting season. In actuality, dad and I spent this morning in my basement grinding and packaging venison and discussing our plans for next season.
One of the side effects of planting food plots is that deer tend to stick around the property throughout the winter while bucks are shedding their antlers. Dad and I were able to find 4 shed antlers in the big field food plot while working down at the cabin in February.
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| ATL of the biggest find of the year |
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| Dad with his first find of the year |
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| 4 shed antlers found in February |
In March I took, Craig, a friend from work down to do some shed antler hunting. I think another thing I like about hunting for sheds is it gives me reason to get outside during a time of the year that cabin fever sets in. Craig and I walked my entire woods, but we only found sheds in the open fields.
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| Craig with a couple of our finds |
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| 3 antlers found in March |
Of course the off season can't all be fun and sheds, there was work to be done! When designing my food plot strategy for the season, I looked back over my observations over the past couple of seasons. The first focus, and most work, was clearing and creating a food plot on the East side of the deep ravine. The food plot was located in a natural clearing in the timber but it would require us to carry all supplies across the deep ravine on foot. In February through April we worked to get the opening cleared and ready for planting:
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| Just getting started clearing trees |
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| Food Plot ready for planting |
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| Spreading lime |
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| Ready to plant clover! |
I was very excited at how well the clover established, but as the year wore on, the weeds became an uphill battle due to all of the rain that we got. In late July, I nearly wrote the plot off, but with the help of some 2-4DB, a couple of trimmers and my brother-in-law, Mike, I was able to get it back under control.
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| Clover is coming up very well |
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| Waist and chest high weeds greeted me in late July |
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| We managed to get it back under control |
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| Hunting over a beautiful clover plot in late October |
The theme of micro food plots continued with clearing out a new food plot in the woods near the Ridge tree stand on the South end of the property. The goal of this food plot was to pull deer up from the DNR land to act as a staging area before they move out into the larger food plot in the big field. Preparation of this food plot began at the same time as the East food plot, but it would not be planted until fall.
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| Future location of the Ridge Food Plot |
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| Dad clearing out some down limbs |
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| Putting the brush mower to work |
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| Ridge food plot all cleared out |
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| Lush plot of winter wheat and brassicas |
With the edge feathering that was done last year, along with adding a food plot in the small field at the North end of the property, deer had really started to cross between the county land and my woods on a trail that was about 25 yards behind the cabin. We put a stand up there last year and dad shot a buck with his bow, but for the most part the deer seemed to move through there during the night. With that in mind, I decided to plant a small food plot along the drive to give the deer a reason to funnel through there more often.
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| Planting brassicas in early August |
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| Plot came in very well even with a lot of pressure and little sunlight |
I also planted some Egyptian wheat behind the cabin to help screen the cabin and yard from the plot.
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Used Dad's garden tiller to prepare the plot screen
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| Egyptian Wheat doing it's job, the cabin is back there somewhere |
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I continued with planting the Dbltree rotation in the large field this year, but I decided to only plant about 3/4 of an acre on the south end. My goal in planting a smaller plot was to help concentrate the deer to a smaller part of the field, increasing my chances at getting a shot. The second reason was a hope that the smaller plot would help the deer to feel more secure so they would come out earlier in the evenings.
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| Burning off the plot screen from last year |
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| Planting plot screen on South end of the big field |
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| Mike helping to plant brassicas in early August |
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| Planting cereal grains in the big field on Labor Day weekend |
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| Abigail showing off a purple top turnip from the big field |
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| Hunting over the big field food plot in October |
One other simple and inexpensive project that I tried this year was to put a couple of small kid pools out as watering holes. I placed them near well used deer trails.
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| Water hole added on North end of the property |
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| Water hole added to corner of the ridge food plot |
Another big change for the year was our tree stand philosophy. Something that I noticed over the past couple of seasons was that we never seemed to have much luck hunting tree stands that required us to walk through the heart of the property. We had tried to use the bottom of the deep ravine to access the stands but the property is just so small that getting in silently was a problem. With this in mind, I decided to pull tree stands from the middle of the property and focus on the edges and food plots. This would allow the middle of the property to remain untouched and hopefully allow the deer to feel more comfortable bedding and living in there.
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| Dad trims out a new stand location on the big field |
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My 4 year old, Abigail, took this picture of me
trimming out a tree stand behind the cabin |
Another task for the year involved taking advantage of the public ground that borders my property to the West and South. During the early spring, dad and I did some scouting and found a couple of decent spots to put up tree stands. By having other options, it would allow us to put less pressure on my property as well as providing us new scenery on longer hunting weekends.
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| Stand on a high point on the DNR land to the South |
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| Stand on a secondary ridge on the County land to the West |
A snow storm late last season did a number on the 2 pop up blinds that I had out last year. We were able to salvage 1 good blind out of the parts, but we really needed another one. Dad set to work on building a modular box blind that would fit on top of the platform I had built 2 years ago. I decided to place it on the North end of the big field food plot which would allow it to be hunted on any south wind and even marginally on a West or Northwest wind. Learning a lesson from previous years, dad decided to paint the windows and interior of the blind black so that an open and closed window would look the same to the deer. Mom and dad hauled the sections of the blind down Labor Day weekend for dad and I to put up.
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| Working in the heat to put up the sides of the blind |
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| Blind with windows open |
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| Blind with windows closed |
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| Rubber flooring to dampen noise in the blind |
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| Abigail checking out the new box blind |
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| View from the blind in mid-October |
Of course, habitat managements and playing with tree stands and blinds aren't the only work that needs done down there. As anyone who owns a property can tell you, the work is never ending. All of the rain this year meant mowing, mowing, and more mowing...
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| Putting the trail mower to work |
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| Mowing the small field |
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| Dad mowing the drive |
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| Mike mowing the yard |
There were several other small projects that were completed as well
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| Trimming along the easement |
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| Easement all trimmed! |
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| Filled in a washout along the North ATV trail |
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| Cleaned out and organized the shed |
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| Put up a weather station |
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| Added culvert to new North ATV trail |
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| Trimmed back the trees along the cabin |
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| Dad installed a much needed wall air conditioner |
Another big project completed on Labor Day weekend was cleaning the cabin from top to bottom thanks to my mom and her 4 year old helper, Abigail. Although I don't have a picture of them working, it was quite the job.
Thankfully, it wasn't all work at the cabin this year either. In April I took my niece, Aubree, and daughter, Abigail to the cabin for the weekend.
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| Aubree and Abigail playing |
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| Roasting hot dogs |
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| Mouth full of smores |
A trip down with my co-worker Craig to do some shed hunting and shooting was also a good time.
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| Craig's best impression of Gandalf |
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| Craig got a chance to shoot his .22 rifle |
I decided to try my hand at planting a pumpkin patch and it turned out very successful.
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| Hunter checking out the pumpkin patch |
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| Hey look, a pumpkin! |
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| Whoa! Lots of pumpkins! |
With a 1 year old at home and a pregnant sister, we decided to forgo the family reunion at the cabin on Labor Day this year. That does not mean we didn't still have some fun.
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Mom and dad taking a break from work
on a very hot weekend |
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| Abigail picked some flowers |
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| Playing with water to cool off |
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| Reading a book with grandma |
Late last year, my dog, Hunter, was diagnosed with Lyme disease. No doubt, the result of a tick bite while spending time at the cabin. There is nothing more he loves then being down there, but now I was kicking myself for not demanding more from my vet. After a shed hunting trip to the cabin in March, Hunter was favoring one of his front paws. I decided to try a new vet and it was determined the issue may be related to the Lyme disease. I also found out that, even though my previous vet said there was nothing they could do for him, the new vet informed me there was. We started treatment right away, but he required several weeks of being kept in his kennel all day to heal. Hunter missed a couple of trips to the cabin, but was by my side the rest of the year.
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| Ready for some shed hunting |
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| Relaxing while watching 2 little girls play |
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| Checking out the new food plot |
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| Stuck in some Egyptian Wheat plot screen |
It really was a phenomenal off season, and as you will find out in my next blog, a lot of the hard work that was completed payed off greatly. Check back soon for Part 2 where I will discuss my hunting season.
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