Started the big project yesterday...

[growalot]

Worked a few more hours on it today. We are having very high winds...big surprise there! So All I can do is continue to knock over the dead slashings and mark the dead trees I need to use a saw on... That wood lot which was pretty much a sanctuary, in which I never hunted in it ,have stands and blinds bordering it along with pots on three side. The section was a very thick stand of mostly maple slashings the pictures below shows how thick, and has seriously died back. The turkeys are on the side where oak and plots are and the buck ran into that area and I shot him from the edge of the laneway...the trees were very very close together......We have a canker and a little white grub attacking our maples. That and hey, crowding = no sun. No sun ='s unhealthy soils....and dying smaller trees... So I have pushed over most 1/2-2" caliper trees and by the time I go in and cut out the standing dead timber and the V split junk trees with some dying ash. I will have a very rocky ,highly acidic blank slate with a mixture of Sugar maples,red oaks some ash and a few cherries.

I should have done this a few years ago but I didn't have the fence up and this is the area that the "1 acre hunting camp" continuously poached ,trespassed on and nearly shot, myself and daughter..Now that the fence is up and the brush pile fence that now boarders this woods is getting high enough to obstruct his view ,I can do what I've wanted to. That is create a real bedding sanctuary... Thankfully I have many close V trees I can hing and many oak canopies to open up with hinging....plus I will install a small watering hole and create some "green" areas and several brush spots. Right now nothing but moss  and I believe rocks grow there.

So.... right now I will continue to drop the dead stuff, but the real work is hauling all that dead stuff to the brush pile fences...I'm talking hundreds and hundreds of 15-30 ft saplings Today I push and hauled and it doesn't look Like I put a dent in it...This is a chugging away bit by bit project...I hope to have done by next fall...the area is 200x300 yards  that connects to a mature wood lot of maples on one end and mature oaks along with plots on one side...The lane way on another and the main front food plot at the other end. there are no stand in it just around it...The mature Maple woods at one end has stands on either side  but not where I'd be walking directly in to sit...Though I did put a trail there  due to construction on the lane way plot and it's wide openness to the neighbors swamp...I have since put a trail right along the brush pile fence to avoid that area

[agross]

Good to see timber work.  I am planning for my early spring work sitting around work. 

[growalot]

Oh it's never ending...I keep reminding Mr B ...they don't stop growing or dying for that matter...always work to be done.

[stubborn1VT]

Fine looking buck, Grow!  I hear you about hauling brush.  I make about half my living that way.  No, trees don't stop growing.  A guy I know reminded me that they're just "really big grass".  Ha!  

I was hoping to take my little stump grinder out in my woods plot, but it turns out the perch are biting on a local pond.  I got a little sidetracked.

Good luck with the project.  Progress, progress.

[growalot]

OK What have I DONE....OMG this is going to be crazy ...I saw it in the bright sun today and even with the snow covering a lot of it, there is just SO MUCH and that's before I start cutting...came in for lunch...what a great day again today....

[Merlot]

You never have little projects...good to be busy.

[growalot]

Well they start out little in my head!...hahahaha

[growalot]

Here are yesterdays pics...There is a bunch of stuff under the snow and some I have cleared out ...lots and lots of standing dead in there. Start small and work up...lots for the brush pile fencing and a few piles here and there for the rabbits and other critters. Then there will be hinging in there as well.

[stubborn1VT]

Holy pole maples!  I have an area that looks similar, minus the oaks.  We don't just don't have any, other than the 30 I planted.  That's a huge job.  Now is certainly the time to be doing it.  I thought about tackling that area, but I don't have a mental image of the end result.  What would I be trying to accomplish?  I agree about getting sunlight to the ground, and the trees you leave will be much better off.  Ton of work.  My hat is off to you.  

[growalot]

I have a tiny area towards the front near my wooden tower blind that I cleared out a bit...The oaks produced like mad and I now have around 13 Norway spruce saplings from the neighbors plantation growing ...Free trees..I can transplant anywhere I wish or keep trimmed low enough to use as future Christmas trees and cover near the blind I can shoot over and around...

This will have the buck coming back in...they can get their racks through it far better and I'm hoping the doe will lead them here as a staging area...between the oaks and mature cherries,and hopefully grasses that will grow I'll be in good shape again...50 years ago this was a bean field the farmer we bought from planted yearly. Yes in 8N where deer eat every tree sapling around and  are the cause of no under story...yes I am sarcastic over that particular subject...BTW the field pics I showed from my neighbors sanctuary...was an open field 15 years ago and she had sheep pastured in it. Before that rented out as a hay field.

Edited January 8, 2017 by growalot

[growalot]

Worked another 4 hours on the, I'll call it Rivers project, yesterday...The brush pile fence had settled quit a bit since I started it with mostly green tree tops from shade trimming trees. This packed it down to a fairly tight 3-4 foot...I have a lot of it back to a mid chest-head level again. Oh boy the snow melted revealed ...a mess..I believe we have lost at the least 75% of the trees in there. I'd be up set if young..but lets be honest, by the time they would have been timber quality I'd be dead or moved. Now I just have a open play ground of sorts...Definitely an area I can now use my 243 in this season. Funny how much can be revealed when your view isn't obstructed. Like just how much of a slope there really is on that land. I don't now why it surprised me, seeing the big timber woods that backs up to it has a couple of my stands on the edge. I know that even in a 16 foot ladder stand and the 20ft hang on I built, the hill is way above my line of sight. just looked flatter...even in those pictures it looks much flatter than it really is. keeping water in a small pond shouldn't be a problem in there... definitely leaf fill won't be as big an issue either. Now it's just talking Mr B. into doing that as a "fun" try out for his skills on the bulldozer....I'm pretty sure I will have plenty of time before he finally gets it completely looked over by a mechanic before using.... He starts it weekly, but won't actually use it until he gets a "tune up". Today is a rain day...but this weather has been great for this work.Though much tougher on the knee with the severed ACL...first time in a while I've woken up having a hard time walking on it. So much walking, dragging bending over,which is a real no no, on uneven ground. Good day to iron and watch a movie or two...clothes won't iron them self.

Edited January 17, 2017 by growalot

[b3h]

Grow, do u have any pics of ur brush fences? Would like to see what they look like. Are they on ur property boundary?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[growalot]

Yes I do and have posted them on here in the past..but deleted all my pics last year...when I left for a bit...let me see if I still have them and the new ones...funny you ask, I just got done working 3 hrs on one of my old ones.  Only the road one is on the line,close to it, blocks the view of the road hunters...The lane way one I'm building is on my side of the lane way plot, which has goat fencing just a couple of feet off the property line..that fence is to block Mr 1acre hunting camps view...he now leans on my fence.he'll never learn!..lol The Old fencing I worked on today is 200yrds long and  is in the middle of the upper woods land..It run SW to NE along a lane-way(old logging road) just above the gully...I put it there to assist in my walking undetected to my stands and blinds in that wood lot.. This year I am thinking of planting that road in a mixture of low light grasses..now it's moss...then on the other side is a nice little area that I have cleaned and cleared up that is growing a wonderful wild raspberry plot. I had the young bucks hanging in there this fall. can't find the old ones so I take some next time I'm out...here are the new ones..I started this last summer

Edited January 18, 2017 by growalot

[growalot]

BTW the fence contains escape routes...openings you cant see but the deer know are there...I do this by leaving an opening and then stepping back a few yARDS AND BUILDING UP ANOTHER SHORT FENCE THAT JUST GOES PAST EITHER(oopppsss,locs) end of the opening ..this gives the deer a way to enter but still blocks the view of unwanted people, but also them seeing me going to stands. One every 30 yards or so. They die and pack down in the winter...depending on species of trees used and I clean up the wood lot and add to each fence each winter/spring

Edited January 18, 2017 by growalot

[b3h]

Thanks Grow. Pics gave me a better idea of what u have there. We have a bunch of tops to cleanup so instead of the normal brush piles thru the woods I think a "fence" along parts of the property lines and other strategic areas would work well. After/during the tops we have some TSI and hinge work todo.

[growalot]

I'm just headed out now  to start working. I'll take the camera with me to let you see the compacted fencing I have several hundred yards of it......we are a regrowth from an old farm and all the slashings that have grown up are now dying back...between those and limbs some places are near impossible to walk through with ground clutter. I clean this up each winter  to allow easier movement for deer and turkey...especially the turkey...they will avoid an area too difficult too scratch and peck bugs in the leaf litter..The fences have increased our rabbits, hawks, owls and song birds.. I also use it for my ground blinds and to steer the deer to particular places/wind breaks......Helps if I have to drive either ATV in to get a deer as well or cut a down fall up...good off season exercise as well. Post pics later......

[growalot]

Well the migraine finally subsided..Wow they are never pleasant! I have another great day to get some work done so will be headed out soon. Here are some pics I took yesterday... 3 different fence lines and then a fenced in bedding area I also hinged trees in. A few brush pile blinds and what I'll be putting on all of them to build them up this winter...you'll see I always have a lot to work with....They are all low right now but will be above my head by mid summer.. Oh 3rd and 4th pics ,what I have cleared and what has to be cleared before turkey season at Rivers blind.

I have to run these don't show entire fencing length nor all areas that need clearing..but all are similar..will show the  blinds later..Hope it gives you ideas

Edited January 20, 2017 by growalot

[growalot]

Back in to eat...started raining...Got a lot done and have a bit of change in plans I think...,we'll see...here are the pics of a few brush blinds..I have 12 of these scattered around the place..Only down fall...I have had deer bedded in them when I got to them and strangest thing...many times I have had both deer and turkey poke their heads over the sides to stare at me...Have to laugh...never spooked any of them . This even though I swear they could see me shaking and had to have heard my heart pounding,it was so loud in my own ears....

[Zag]

Got maple trees? :-)

[stubborn1VT]

Grow,  Those are some serious brush fences.  I would imagine the deer would love having the along the edge of a plot.  They can stand behind them and check things out.  Make them feel secure.

I built 2 brush blinds last year, and I liked them alot better than pop up blinds.  I could see and hear more.  They're natural, so the deer get used to them.  I didn't shoot anything out of them, and I did get picked off a couple times.  The deer didn't blow out of there, but knew something was up.  The biggest difference is they don't have windows that look like black holes.  I swear the deer near me key in on those and really shy away from any store bought blind.  I like the idea of having a bunch of them for different winds, or to switch it up.  I'll have to build a few more.  Maybe that's what I should be doing since it's too warm to ice fish!

 

[stubborn1VT]

Another thing.  The picture of the long plot with your dog in it.  Did you clear that plot with a bulldozer?  It looks perfectly tilled / worked up and stump free.  

[growalot]

No ,just many years of mowing, then this past two years of actually working it. Discing, York raking rocks,tons of rocks and dragging with the Harrow drag. This was the last area I had to smooth. Took about 10 yrs but I finally got rid of all the plow furrows he left. The farmer deep plowed all this land and then retired...leaving it to revert back..the place was like a wash board from hell...lol

[growalot]

What a perfect day  and did I ever  get a lot of saw work done.Cut dome big ones and a bunch of little ones...let the light shine in..worked upper wood and oak flats.

[growalot]

I cut down not dome trees..lol...and I'm feeling it today!  I have been say for a few years now I need to cut this that and the other...just to have bad weather then not time. Well here is the good weather and the time. I did a bunch of saplings under the oaks before they could get any bigger crowding the oaks and causing limb die back in there.

I decided that with the camp next to the two farmers fields behind us filling up with hunters,I needed to do some BIG changes. I ran into them in the woods yesterday...their dog came running at me then stopped...a spaniel of some sort.  We  All froze in our steps, which got a bit strange as the seconds turned into a minute or so. I simply softly said to the dog " That's OK". That's when he decided to call the dog back and disappeared into the gully not saying  anything. A bit strange and well not too friendly I thought. Strange because they stayed in the gully to leave,I've been in that gully..it is a mess of rocks and boulders and not at all pleasant to walk in.To each there own I suppose. Anyways they now have stands 70 yards off the line in an area the deer cross to go onto us out of that gully. Them being there has changed movement for they set up right where the wind blows their sent across the area of their property the deer cross to come out of the farm fields to get to us. I need to entice the deer to stay up on the field that is above the gully and feed on to me...

I have a small hunting plot at the end of the logging trail next to the upper brush fence...It's always been too shaded to work, but I cut the big ash that leans over it and a bunch of crud maple and ash saplings. The sapling lot, opposite the fence is dying back as well, but has many more big dead ash and maples..I will clean the woods floor but then make a series "dead falls with the bigger trees to bed next to...the ash I dropped, dropped a few other dead trees in their fall, making a great place to lay next to... Well day lights burning so got to run.

Edited January 22, 2017 by growalot

[LET EM GROW]

On 1/20/2017 at 8:17 AM, growalot said:

Well the migraine finally subsided..Wow they are never pleasant! I have another great day to get some work done so will be headed out soon. Here are some pics I took yesterday... 3 different fence lines and then a fenced in bedding area I also hinged trees in. A few brush pile blinds and what I'll be putting on all of them to build them up this winter...you'll see I always have a lot to work with....They are all low right now but will be above my head by mid summer.. Oh 3rd and 4th pics ,what I have cleared and what has to be cleared before turkey season at Rivers blind.

I have to run these don't show entire fencing length nor all areas that need clearing..but all are similar..will show the  blinds later..Hope it gives you ideas

 

Nice work grow, this is exactly what i intend to do here shortly with one of my plots. build a "fence or barrier" around the one edge of my big plot. Looks like its going to take some work, but with 2 of us it shouldn't be too bad, hoping to make it about 80 yards long. here is a pic for reference lol then hinge cut a bunch up the hill side to the ridge top. Its open hardwoods and you can see through winter spring summer fall.. Deer use the hell out of it, but mainly at night, except daytime activity during early and late season. Will be planting some hard mast in here as well, and possibly some white pine or hemlock on the saddle to the right side