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| Found a small pile of fungus |
Saturday morning I managed to hear 3 different toms roosted but they were all in different directions. I went after the closest one and set up pretty close to him but he ended up working off in a different direction. I tried to go after one of the other birds but he stopped gobbling after I got set up and never came into my decoys. With the morning hunt a bust, I headed back for the cabin to get started on planting food plots. I had a lot to get done as I had to till and plant 1 acre of soybeans on the big field, till and plant the small cabin food plot and get the garden planted.
I started with the soybeans first. This year I opted to use liquid calcium to neutralize the soil instead of spreading a ton (literally) of pellet lime. Afterwards, I attached the spreader to spread dry fertilizer before running the disc over it. I have not tilled this portion of the field for several years so it took a couple of passes with the disc. I then broadcast the soybeans and lightly ran the disc over the field again to cover them. I finished it off by broadcasting alice white clover to help fill in where the soybeans don't grow well. All in all, it took me a couple of hours to get this 1 acre planted by myself.
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| ATV disc hard at work |
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| Soybeans loaded in the spreader |
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| 1 acre of soybeans planted |
I'm very excited for this soybean food plot as I learned a lot when I planted them 2 years ago and am more confident in my attempt this time. I also know that they are a huge draw to deer throughout the fall and into the early winter.
Next up was the small cabin food plot that sits along the drive behind the cabin. My woods butt up to the neighboring county land behind the cabin and deer travel through there a lot. It is one of my favorite places to have a camera and even though the food plot is probably about 1/16 of an acre in size it does a good job of giving them a reason to keep coming through that spot. The area is too small for the disc so I put dad's garden tiller to work after spreading some fertilizer. The plot has been planted to clover but I noticed this spring that weeds and grass had choked most of the clover out and it was time to replant. After tilling, I broadcast a clover blend (red and white clovers) and then used the drag harrow to cover the seed.
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| Cabin food plot planted to clover |
Next up was the garden. In the past, I have put the garden south of the orchard in the big field and it has always gotten overrun by foxtail and weeds. This year, since I was planting the entire big field, I opted to spray off a portion of the yard on the north end of the orchard. My hope is that I will be better able to keep weeds at bay and it will be close enough to water when needed. I ended up using the tiller on each side of the garden to plant 5 rows of sweet corn and 3 rows of potatoes. In between, I planted 4 mounds of zucchini, 6 mounds of pumpkins, and 2 mounds of watermelons. The tiller struggled to dig through the dead sod but I managed to get it turned up enough to make planting easier.
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| Planting some pumpkins |
After getting everything cleaned up and put away, I headed out to try to catch a bird on the way back to roost for the night. I set up on a ridge to the west of my property that had a lot of turkey sign on it and where I had watched a tom and 3 hens back in 2nd season. I sat for about 2 1/2 hours but only had hens and deer walk passed me (I have been seeing A LOT of deer while turkey hunting). After cooking some dinner over the fire I fell asleep fast after a long day.
The next morning I woke up to 20+ mph winds. I hunted for a couple of hours but was not able to locate any birds. I set up on the big field food plot for awhile and had 2 hens come into my decoys but I just think the toms couldn't even hear my calls with all of the wind. With it being Mother's Day, I headed home early to give my wife some reprieve from the children and enjoy some family time.
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