The Massey

The inch of rain over the weekend didn’t do a whole lot, but it did wake up the grasses in the lower barn plot. I NEED to get some cleth on them this week. Then I should be ready as far as prep, for the coming fall t&m.
 
Well, since the dumb wind won’t stop blowing, been doing so for 5 days in a row, and the recently awakened johnson grass isn’t going to stay out of dormancy much longer, I guess I’m going to attempt to spray cleth today in 20 mph winds. The 100% chance of rain today was a bad joke once again. At least it’s only going to get to 97 degrees today though, so there’s that.
 
In a drought year, you have to look at the bright side occasionally. While it's been a rough second half of summer so far, the rains will surely come eventually. On the bright side, almost everything is prepped for fall food plot work. I still would like the grass to wake up for a poor man plot kill at a new place we got permission hunt, but if it doesn't the rye will compete okay anyway I'm guessing. On the bright side, I've learned how resilient chicory is in a plot, it seems to almost be thriving in the heat and drought conditions, and the deer are loving it! It's almost time to begin hanging some stands, and next week the temps are supposed to begin dropping out of triple digits, so that's good. All in all, fall and the rains will come and pictures of successful hunts will begin to show up here in the property tours.
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Picked one of the bigger ears of corn from the field and it is telling of the rough summer.
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Chicory is amazing. It’s got a deep tap root that helps it survive drought AND brings nutrients back to the surface.

Deer on my place are hammering it this summer. Every single chicory plant is chewed to the ground.
 
Headed over it the Massey to water trees this evening. If it’s still dry by September, I’ll have to do this at night to keep from running deer onto the neighbors.
I saw something that put a smile on my face. The first spring after we bought the farm we planted 20 bur-english hybrid oaks. Most of them went in the old hay meadow in an area we only go in the spring to shed hunt, or get a deer we’ve shot. We had a couple left over, so we planted them in the barnyard. Only one made it, and I found the first acorn this evening!!
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Here’s a peek at the tree watering routine, 3 trips total. Fortunately, my in-laws only live 5 miles away.
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Occasionally, when running cams for years, something cool happens. Have you ever gotten a pic of a buck and wondered if he’s from the line of an earlier buck? This one leaves little doubt in my opinion. The dates are accurate, the earlier buck showed up 7 years ago and was gone in the same year, a buddy saw him 5 miles away during the rut, I figured he got shot.
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Dawna thinks it’s the same buck, that’s just too much time imo, but who knows?
This is at the stadium spot we have permission on north of town.
 
Cool bucks! I have a long history with the place I hunt. Certain characteristics pop up occasionally that if under different situations you would swear were direct descendents (father/son type of thing but way too much time between them). I've grown to think some does are pretty good at passing on certain traits.
 
Put up a few stands on the Massey this weekend and picked up a card.
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Pretty neat pic. For drought reference, that is a field of double crop beans in wheat stubble, in a typical year, those beans would be thigh high by now. 63CBB8F6-A9AF-4390-9353-4978D1DBB6A6.jpeg
 
You Kansas guys ever check into the possibility that the feds are secretly dumping nuclear waste in your state? Those buck sizes and numbers are unbelievable!
Unfortunately, most vacate in October. This year Dawna is planning to hunt early though, so I'm hoping she'll get a crack at one of them.
 
Picked up the purple tops to go with forage radish and dwarf Essex rape. Putting in the brassica plot tomorrow and continuing to pray for rain.
I have a LOT of rabbit litter to use, but might use urea, potash, and phosphorus instead, since I’ll be following the brassicas with clover-cereals next year. I’ll ask on the foodplot forum which I should go with.
 
Nothing like a small conventionally planted plot to make you appreciate t&m. Put in about a quarter acre of brassicas this afternoon at the Massey. Appreciated the temps only getting up to 90 for a change. It is beyond dry, but we already knew that.
We bought this old disk at a farm auction 14 years ago, before we even had a tractor. It had wings once upon a time and is HEAVY. It had no problem with the hard ground. It only gets used once a year for a little brassica plot. The rest of fall it helps hold a blind in place.
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Here’s the fertilizer for the plot. :D
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The finished product
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If the brassicas don’t get a rain, or get a small rain and sprout and die, I’ll have a prime place to get a clover/cereal spot established. It will just be a year ahead of schedule.
 
Spot on with the "small rain and sprout and die" comment! That is the number 1 reason for my plot failures... sprout then dry. Got to time the rainy season just right AND be lucky as hell!

I like the looks of that disc.
 
Picked up a card this afternoon. Couple things to point out.
Look at the buck’s front legs in this pic. I assure you there are no muddy fields around. This buck is watering in a very low, mud-banked pond. A perfect environment for an EHD outbreak. 6B91E781-9DF6-4C70-A447-349083411AEA.jpegFor a comparison, look at this plot a year ago. Keep in mind, at this time last year we hadn’t had rain since the first week of July. This shows just how brutal this summer drought has been.
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We’re SO desperate for rain, nothing short of 4 or 5 inches is going to cut it.
 
We had a pretty good August but things are starting to dry out for us as well. Hope the rains return for you!


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