goosifer

I could buy the roof kit and attach saplings to those uprights, I suppose. I wonder if I could use and old Christmas tree for branches. Thanks for idea.

wolc, you should post before and after pics of the cleaned up Sharpfinger.

In January, I bought two Amerstep 15' tripod stands. link if you are interested I put one together and out into the field this week. I was very impressed with the stand. The instructions were well done, and all of the bolts were blister packed and color coded. I put it in the middle of a large field (former crop field, now overgrown with brush). It has a camo skirt around the stand (not shown in pic). Below are two pics showing the N and S view from the stand. Other than keeping my head low and not moving around, any suggestions for hunting from this stand in the middle of a field? Is it worth trying to hunt with a crossbow from this stand, or better to wait till shotgun opens up?

I recently put up a Spypoint Link-EVO camera. I must say, setup was painless compared to the direct from China one I tried to get working. (Yes, Phade, you were right.) Anyway, this is the first or second deer i caught on camera. Does this doe look skinny, or it it just young?

I had one like this, but lost it last year. I still have the refill blades. I was looking into buying a regular surgical scalpel handle and seeing if the Havalon Piranta blades would fit in it. There are several different sizes of scalpel handle sizes, and I am not sure which one, if any, would fit (I'm guessing a #4). Any doctors or vets on the board that would know? In the meantime, I bought some disposable scalpels that I am going to try out in the field.

Despite planting 10 days later than I wanted too (finally planted around Sept 10), overall my foodplots are doing OK. More importantly, there is a fair amount of deer tracks running through and along the edges of the foodplots. I had a nagging fear that I was putting in too much and taking away bedding area, but I don't think that will be the case. Here are a few random pics I took while doing some final tuneups on my hunting stands. It will be interesting to see which blends end up working out the best

I have several wild black walnut trees on my property that produced nuts this year. It seems like a lot more trees produced this year vs. years past. I guess weather conditions were good this year? Or do black walnut trees not produce every year for different reasons?

The RAM 1500 doesn't come in an 8' bed. I had to buy a RAM 2500 to get one, when I bought mine in 2013. No comment on anything else.

Finished cultipacking today. All equipment will need to be cleaned and lubed. I wiil also deal with the superficial rust that has already formed on all the equipment. The defective Farmboy 3 pt hitch for the Kubota RTV will be returned. The stabilizer bar (broken weld) for the King Kutter spreader will be replaced under warranty. As far as what I planted: Plot acres 1 0.55 Evolved Harvest Canola Crush Food Plot Seed Mix brassicas: canola, rape, turnip 2 0.27 Evolved Harvest Throw Gro X-treme Oats Food Plot ryegrass, oats, rape, red clover 3 0.37 Antler King Honey Hole Food Plot Mix brassicas 4 0.52 EasyPlot Deer Food Plot Seed clover, ryegrass, brassica 5 0.42 Tecomate Max-Attract 50/50 Mix peas, clover, grains 6 0.37 Tecomate Ultra Forage Mix brassicas: legumes, chicory, turnips 6 0.25 Evolved Harvest Throw Gro X-treme Oats Food Plot ryegrass, oats, rape, red clover 7 0.47 Tecomate Ultra Forage Mix brassicas: legumes, chicory, turnips The Tecomate Max-Attract 50/50 mix had a nice bulk to it, making it easier to spread. The tiny seed stuff was hard for me to gauge. We shall see. I forgot to take pics today (was running out of daylight), but I did take a pic of the equipment I was working with today:

I put in 7 plots totaling about 3.2 acres. I should have been posting as a went along. I have had numerous challenges with broken and lost equipment parts (and I thought I had bought some good name brand stuff to work with). Broken welds, loose/lost nuts, lost linchpins, lost hitchpins, lost hitches--it's been one thing after another. To the extent my experience with equipment is typical, farmers must be incredibly resourceful dealing with equipment failures in the field. (I lost a retaining pin on my spreader axle today and ended using a padlock I had in my car as a replacement. Anyway, I finally was able to seed all of the plots (one week late), and will go back tomorrow to cultipack them. It's been quite the learning experience. I hope they grow something this season.

Last week I traded in my 2013 RAM 2500 4WD double cab with 8 foot bed for a 2017 Chevy Silverado 1500 4WD LTZ Crew Cab short bed. The Chevy has the max trailering package so I can tow up to 11,700 pounds with it. It also has some nice safety features with the driver alert package. When I got the 8 ft bed with the RAM, I thought it would be a good idea, but it didn't turn out to be. It was such a beast to maneuver. It also helps that I have a 2001 Chevy 2500 that I can use for towing and hauling stuff. The short bed will take some getting used to, though. Every time I see it in the driveway, it looks like the back half of the truck is missing.

The soil sample focused on ph level/how much lime was needed. The fertilizer should be tailered to what is planted I would think. I am going to just do all the fields the same, approximately 260 pounds per acre of 15-15-15. Thanks.

I am doing several food plots with different blends. For two of the blends, I don't have fertilizer info: EasyPlot Deer Food Plot Seed A blend of clover, ryegrass, brassica Evolved Harvest Throw Gro X-treme Oats Food Plot A blend of ryegrass, oats, rape, red clover I don't fully understand how nitrogen works, but it sounds like for these blends some of the plants add nitrogen and others consume nitrogen, so its a wash? I'm not convinced. Can anyone tell me what fertilizer blend to use? I am buying a bunch of 13-13-13 for the brassica fields, just use a lesser amount of that? Thanks.

Happy belated birthday. Or maybe happy birthday weekend?

next time I am in that situation, I need to think WWGD (What would Growalot do)

One thing that I am hoping will help break up the soil is that I can put 800# of downward hydraulic pressure with the farmboy hitch attachment on the disc harrow. We will find out in a few weeks . . . .

I bought the disc harrow from Runnings in Canandaigua. The disc harrow had a lot of surface rust on the blades, axle and frame. Also, the triangle part of the hitch was disassembled. I was worried about the rust and about how do I put this thing together/how do I know if I am missing any parts. I spoke to the manager about my concerns and she gave me diagram of the disc harrow from the internet and a can of yellow spray paint. A worker in the department looked it over and said that all parts were there. I guess that's all I can ask. While new, it seems like this one had been sitting outside for a while. Is this typical for something like this? Should I have gotten cotter pins for the ends with the disc harrow?

King Kutter ATV Seeder/Spreader — 350-Lb. Capacity Field Tuff Heavy-Duty Drag Harrow — 4ft. x 7.5ft., 13 Tine Rows, 1/2in. Dia. Tines

Well, I bought some farming implements: UTV Hitchworks Farmboy 3-Pt. Hitch — For use with Kubota RTV 900 King Kutter 5-1/2' 16-16 combo disc harrow (continued next post)

Well, I bought my lime. I paid $3.79 with tax per 40# bag delivered. I bought 280 bags (4 pallets). I got it from Lowesforpros.com, Lowe's website for contractors. They were running a 10% off coupon, plus 10% off if you buy more than 10 bags, plus 5% off for using my Lowe's commercial account. Best I could do. I will look to see if Tractor Supply has a late summer sale, so I can stock up for next year. Thanks everyone, for your help.

sailinghudson25, you are way ahead of me. I am at step 0.1. My wife has suggested I plant trees, but until I live close enough so I can tend to them more regularly, I am holding off. Lack of running water on the property has also been a concern of mine. Besides, I have huge apple orchards next door on two sides (but no oak trees that I know of)

They quoted me $4.95 for a 50# bag. I didn't ask them about delivery. I should inquire about that. I did ask if they gave a discount for bulk purchases and they said no. Right now, I am looking at picking up at Tractor Supply for $3.99 for a 40# bag, plus I will use a coupon for discounted gift card to save about 10%.

Grow, mind telling me the name of the lime place that delivers? While I doubt they would deliver to Niagara county, maybe they would know someone who does.

While Cornell Coop has been helpful with the soil testing, they didn't give me any new leads on where I could get lime, unfortunately.

yes. I have 7 plots in about 3.2 acres. ph levels in five samples varied from 5.7 to 6.2 (I lost the other two samples in the mess of my car, but figured I'd be close enough.) Cornell Coop recommended 3,200 to 4,000 pounds per acre. I will fine tune it a bit, giving more to the lower level plots and less to the higher level ones, but basically I'm at 6 tons.