The Excitement Is Building

We are officially less than 2 months from opening day of bow season and I'm really starting to get excited. I took off from work a bit early on Friday and headed down to the cabin. I didn't have a lot of work to get done but was still looking forward to checking on the food plots that I planted 3 weeks ago. Like most places in central and southern Iowa, my property is a drought and has received very little rain this year. Luckily, it seems that a few timely rains has managed to keep things growing and will allow us to have some food plots for hunting season.

Upon arriving, I was surprised to see that the grass was still green and actually needed mowed. Part of me was excited because it meant that I got to use the "new" riding lawn mower. After spraying off the remainder of the small field to prepare for planting on Labor Day weekend, that is exactly what I did.

This is the life

That little John Deere rider really does a good job

The soybean food plot on the big field grew as well as I had hoped, but the deer did a good job of keeping it mowed down. Even with all of the pressure, most of the plants have grown pods so I didn't want to till them under. With rain forecast on Tuesday/Wednesday of next week I decided to spread a combination of red clover, rye, rape, and purple top turnips into the standing soybeans. I have heard of other food plotters using this tactic in thin bean fields before and am hoping that it pays off. 

Soybean food plot doing well considering all the deer browse pressure

Most of the plants have grown pods but all have been nipped off several times

I spent the remainder of the evening checking on everything around the property including the other food plots, fruit orchard, and overgrown garden.

Managed to find 2 zucchini in the overgrown garden

Brassicas planted in the small field is the only food plot not doing great

Clover on the ridge food plot is growing well in spite of heavy browse pressure

Brassicas planted on 1/4 acre of the big field are growing very well

Brassicas planted in the middle of the big field are doing absolutely amazing

Although not a bumper crop, about 3/4 of my fruit trees grew something this year

With all of my planned work done, I enjoyed some peace and quite while I read a book on the porch for awhile before heading into bed. With some extra time this morning, I decided to start on some of the work that is normally saved for Labor Day weekend. I loaded up the wagon and headed off to clear paths to tree stands and work on cutting up a tree that fell on the ridge food plot. I did find that a few of our tree stands are in need of new ropes and/or ratchet straps but we will take care of that in a few weeks. It was a humid morning so it didn't take long for the sweat to start flowing but I was happy to get some of that work done. 

Supplies all loaded and ready to work

Fallen tree covering up one of our main shooting lanes

I managed to clear to top half but the main log will wait until I have help

Over-grown path to the big field stand

That's better

The last thing that I did before heading home was to set up my archery targets and get some longer range practice in. I shot a couple dozen arrows at 30 yards then 40 yards. My 30 yard shooting was very good while my 40 yard still needs some work. I guess I know what I'll be doing over the next few weeks. 

The most important part of preparing for the season

It is no secret that I've had some troubles running trail cameras this year. From stolen cards to a stolen camera and cameras malfunctioning and running out of battery power right after I left. The good news is that all 3 cameras that I had out functioned properly over the past 3 weeks and I had an excellent card pull. There was a lot of deer activity on the property (especially in the soybeans) as well as a lot of turkeys as well. I have about 4-5 different bucks on camera that I would shoot and most of the big ones won't show up until October or November. Looking through the 3,000+ pictures really got me fired up. Only 1 trip left, on Labor Day weekend, prior to hunting season and I think I'm ready.