With summer flying by, I managed to carve out a Sunday afternoon to take another quick trip down to the cabin to get a little work done. This time I had a little helper in tow (although admittedly she spent most of her time in the air conditioned cabin while I was sweating like crazy outside).
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| Abigail enjoying her lunch |
On the way into the cabin, we found that 2 large tree limbs had broken off across the drive. We were lucky enough to have enough space to drive around the end, but I was NOT happy that I had to spend an extra hour cleaning up that mess.
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| 2 Trees that weren't going to clean up themselves |
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| Like they were never there |
I knew that it had been dry, but I was hoping that the food plots were still doing well. When we got down there, it turned out the be a mixed bag. The plot screen behind the cabin is nearly non-existent while the plot screen on both the small field and big field food plots is growing great!
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| Plot screen on the small field |
The next thing I noticed is that the oats and annual clovers didn't fair well at all in the small field. In fact, they didn't seem to grow at all in most places (see picture above). On the other hand, they grew great in the big field food plot. It is especially weird because they were planted in the exact same way on the exact same day this spring.
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| Oats growing well in the big field |
The clover food plots were all doing fairly well, but it is obvious that they are stressed and starting to dry out. Luckily, the shad on the ridge food plot seems to have helped conserve moisture and the newly planted plot is doing quite well.
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| Ridge food plot |
After mowing the yard and mowing off the oats in both fields (actually weeds in the small field), I attached the sprayer to the ATV and sprayed off the clover and rye portion of each food plot that was planted last fall. These plots will be planted to turnips, radishes, and rye whenever I get the chance to head back down to the cabin (or if we ever get some rain in the forecast).
Abigail was in the middle of watching a movie when I got back to the cabin, so I grabbed a bowl and headed out to pick a few blackberries. I'm pretty sure that I could have picked about 10 gallons by just walking the edge of my big field, but after a long weekend of training I just didn't have the energy to put into that. Instead, I headed to a little patch by the cabin and within a few minutes, and without having to reach into the middle of those prickly things, I was able to fill a cool whip bowl to bring home.
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| My entire property is covered in these...that and multi-floral rose |
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| Just enough for a few smoothies and a batch of muffins |
Abigail helped me put up the first trail camera of the year (only one because I was tired and ready to be done) in the best spot to catch all of the big bucks. I'm looking forward to pulling the card next time I'm down there. After that, she posed for a picture in front of the cabin before we headed home.
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| She enjoyed her trip to the cabin |
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| Until next time... |
