5 pines farm 2016 updated 1/2017 page 29

[Big Ed]

Looks fantastic! I truly enjoy this every year.  Good luck and be safe.

[NYRON]

Best of luck! I always enjoy your journaling.

What a great piece of property.

Ron
P.S. Let me know when you are done with that slice of heaven...I'd like to retire there next!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

There is a chill in the air today. one week from today I'll be in a stand El Uno in hand. A cup of joe in hand I watched these 5 this am.
 
 

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Hey remember the pond we repaired 2 seasons ago? I took a walk last night to pull some camera cards and also wanted to see what it looked like after 6 inches of rain this past week.

Just after the repair
 

and what it looks like now.
 

I have a love/hate relationship with trail cameras. But here is a link to an exceptional 15 second video. its rare a trail camera ever captures the light like this . Enjoy.
 https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/28960704053/in/dateposted-public/

[dringge]

Thats a great video. Thanks for sharing.

[Lady Frost]

You are truly blessed, sir!  Looking forward to reading more!!      

[kskickapoo]

Look forward to this each year...thanks!

[Nook]

Jim thanks for taking us along again this year.  Love this thread.  Good luck to you.  Jeff

[Steve O]

I love following along with this every year.

Do you have any fields you fence off to save something in them for late season?  Or do you specifically plant food that will be only available in late season?

[Burnsie]

Oh goody, looking forward to this years thread.  Thanks for taking the time to share your farm with us.

[Lefty]

Thanks for taking us along again this year, Jim! Always my favorite thread and the one I check in on first each day!  Best wishes for a safe and successful season!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

You are very welcome every one.

To answer Steve's question, my largest plots are the ones that I don't hunt over. I do try to hunt the trails to and from but you will notice from the pictures the 4 largest are far from any tree lines.

In these pots I try to have 1/2 in spring , summer and early fall forage ( clover, chickory, alfalfa and canola) and in the other 1/2 late fall and early winter (mostly turnips and beets any sort of tuber).

I say early winter because I would need another 10 acres of plots to have enough food to carry the deer thru. Normally the wild crabs are full of fruit and they don't drop the apples till very late. Lots of past winters you will find me up in the hills with a 12 foot pole knocking the late winter fruit from the trees for the deer and the turkeys.

It's going to be a hard winter this year due to the fact we had a hard freeze on May 19th and it totally destroyed the apple crop.  I am sure I will be dropping trees for browsing come January. But even that is plus.

When I am forced to do that to feed the deer ( I don't follow the corn pile routine ) I select young oaks or hickory or cherries that need to be free of competition for sun and water. When there are aspens, willows or other weed trees around the good trees, down they come a few at a time.

 It is mazing how fast the good trees will grow when they are not crowded in. It's also amazing how fast the deer eat what's edible on the downed trees.

[Hopewell Tom]

Great to see you back with this thread, Jim. Same as the others, I really look forward to it.

Putting trees on the ground as feed is a very good food source and much welcomed by the deer up here as well. When I cut spruce in the winter the deer really gobble up the Old Man's Beard, a lichen growing on the older trees. I thin the hardwood around my stands about 2 weeks or so before the opener as an attractant.

Good luck with your season.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

It's about to begin. What we live for.

I have decided that forage oats mixed with brassicas is an awesome plot for deer.

Tonight from my deck I watched 9 does and fawns and 2 bucks feed in the forage oats roughly 200 yards from my decks edge.

One buck was a little fork and the other a buck I have been watching for three years affectionately named short brows.

Last year he was super 8 and I wouldn't let any one shoot him because I just knew he had such great potential. Despite having a characteristic short brow gene we have in the valley, he exploded this  year to be in the 150 or better class. When I spotted him coming up out of the creek bottom I raced upstairs , grabbed the spotting scope and went to a north facing window.

This is short brows last year.
 https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/29693298596/in/dateposted-public/


I don't have any pictures of him this year except for a fuzzy video from July. But rest assured he is a worthy adversary! I was impressed with the guts of the little forked buck. He actually attempted sparring with the big one. His entire head and rack fit well within the big 10s inside spread! He finally put one little antler in between 2 of the big bucks tines and gave a push or two before running off.

There is supposed to be a WSW wind in the am. I recently placed a stand down on my East fence line on the trail that I got footage of the big 10 with a very long brows.  
I will need to leave the yurt early and drive the 4 wheeler 4 miles around to back side of the bluff and hike in from the bottom. This stand rests at the bottom of 40 acres I normally do not hunt or even go into. I have purposely tried to make this area a refuge. The gun hunting pressure on this side of the farm is intense and I firmly believe some of the bucks that live on the farm were able to make it thru a couple of gun seasons because they have it to go to. Since these neighbors do not bow hunt, I will risk a hunt or two here early in the season.

If your season starts in the morn best of luck to you!

[Matty]

Im pumped for this thread. A great one every year for sure!
   

[maineac]

Good luck this am. Getting ready to head out myself.

[KAZ]

Awesome thread    Great choice in bows...  

[EWill]

First time reading this thread, very enjoyable.
Looking forward to reading more from your farm.
By the way, you've got a nice place there.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Jim,

I was thinking about you this week and am very happy to see you journaling your hunt online again.

I hope you had a nice hunt this morning and look forward to reading your thread this season.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Well other than almost getting my buck with the four wheeler in the fog this am , it was a rather uneventful first hunt.

About a mile from my place in the fog a buck jumped out of the corn and into my head lights! Heart in throat time!!!

It was a lovely morning, gentle  breeze in my face. Lots of bird waking up noises. Not a single alarm snort and leaves falling in the breeze. But despite sitting on a very worn and long term deer trail, I got skunked as far as deer sightings go. I stayed until the wind switched and when it was no longer in my favor I slipped back down the bluff to where I had parked the ranger.

The wind has switched to NW and will continue from that direction  for the rest of the day. It should be a good evening to sit on a food plot on the bluff top.