Quapaw Meadows (My 160 Acres)...

Belle has that look of "I wonder if we could do this on dry land, instead of this freezing water?"

Great pictures Todd. The colors on those ducks are awesome.

Good job Doc. Cold weather's moved birds our way, wish we could've had a little wetter fall to keep things looking good for when they arrived.

Doc, I'm coming to sit in the duck blind with you next Wednesday. Just wanted to give you a heads up.

Loved the dog/water pics. Cool stuff.

Congrats on the ducks, looks like Belle still has skill and desire! Nothing like a Lab

Always a joy to catch up on what's happening at dogdoc's place! Couple of frame-worthy pics in the post above. How big is the fallow area with the bluestem and would it be easy to run a firebreak around it? I'm with doug...run fire thru that and you'd release even more of the seed bank. I'm scheduled for a controlled burn thru our pines in the next few months and will also burn a fallow area that is starting to fill in with sweet gum stems.

Triple C said:

Always a joy to catch up on what's happening at dogdoc's place! Couple of frame-worthy pics in the post above. How big is the fallow area with the bluestem and would it be easy to run a firebreak around it? I'm with doug...run fire thru that and you'd release even more of the seed bank. I'm scheduled for a controlled burn thru our pines in the next few months and will also burn a fallow area that is starting to fill in with sweet gum stems.

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Right at 6 acres.

Tough day duck hunting today. For some reason the ducks just weren't flying today. I had one shot today and made it count. Great on the percentages though. Gadwalls are usually the most common puddle duck that frequents my pond. Shot a beautiful drake.

Right after first light I notice something drinking from the other side of the pond. At first I thought it was a small deer but after it raised it head realized what it was. I always try to remember to bring the Nikon when duck hunting because i see so much wildlife around the pond.


Few seconds later a friend showed up. They both took a long early morning drink and did a little scavenging on the shoreline. No rifle so they live another day.

This predator was eyeing a few small divers that were on the pond. Young Red Tail Hawk???


todd

Great pics doc...are you going to try a hunt this weekend? Looks like weather will be brutal!

OkieKubota said:

Great pics doc...are you going to try a hunt this weekend? Looks like weather will be brutal!

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Nope. Have to work Saturday. Gonna keep a fire going and try to stay warm.

Looks more like a young Coopers hawk.....would have had to been there.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=cooper's+hawk+pictures

Enjoyed all of your pictures and your update. Those coyote pictures are awesome. That first one is a framing opportunity for sure!

Well Brush sent me some AC nuts a couple months ago. Tossed them in a baggie with potting soil and put in fridge. Checked them today and about half of them have started to germinate.

17 total seeds were put in RM 18s today

Put under grow lights and placed a little greenhouse cover over the tray . Had a few Shumard acorns in the fridge left over from 2015. Found 1 with a small root to fill up the last cell.

These are the only trees I am doing this year. Still have close to 50 I am over wintering.

Todd

It is exciting when you check the bag and find some with little white radicles. Good luck. Looks like you have a good setup. Nothing to compare to the Chestnut Man, though.

lakngulf said:

It is exciting when you check the bag and find some with little white radicles. Good luck. Looks like you have a good setup. Nothing to compare to the Chestnut Man, though.

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Lol-very true. He is the true tree man.

Did a little duck hunting this morning then ran to the 160 to pull cards. Other then needing rain everything is looking good. Last time I was out I did a little scouting in the woods and decided to set a couple cams on some trails just inside the trees. Wanted to do a little late season scouting for next year. Try to do less plot sitting and more "forest" sitting. Amazing how many more daytime pics you get just inside the tree lines.
This one set up on a scrape


Not a deer but a beautiful yote

This one just set up on a major trail about 20 yards inside the tree line


Already flagged a couple of trees for future tree stands
New buck showed up. Needs another year to build some mass but a really nice buck


Still getting quite a few pics of bucks on does in the food plots


Already thinking about next year. After checking cams I finally got my buck over to the taxidermist and also a beautiful drake Shoveler. This hunting stuff gets pretty expensive!

Merry Christmas and God Bless!
todd

dogdoc said:

Did a little duck hunting this morning then ran to the 160 to pull cards. Other then needing rain everything is looking good. Last time I was out I did a little scouting in the woods and decided to set a couple cams on some trails just inside the trees. Wanted to do a little late season scouting for next year. Try to do less plot sitting and more "forest" sitting. Amazing how many more daytime pics you get just inside the tree lines.
This one set up on a scrape

Not a deer but a beautiful yote

This one just set up on a major trail about 20 yards inside the tree line

Already flagged a couple of trees for future tree stands
New buck showed up. Needs another year to build some mass but a really nice buck

Still getting quite a few pics of bucks on does in the food plots

Already thinking about next year. After checking cams I finally got my buck over to the taxidermist and also a beautiful drake Shoveler. This hunting stuff gets pretty expensive!

Merry Christmas and God Bless!
todd

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Really cool stuff happens in the woods! Expensive is an understatement!!!

Haven't made an update in a while but there really hasn't been much going on at the farm. No ducks around my area right now and the geese are just too hit and miss to make it any fun. Been sick the last week with a nasty cold bug that has gone through my entire clinic and my family. Today finally felt better so went out and did a little work. I spend about an hour on the chainsaw freeing up some persimmon trees on my main plot that were getting choked out my some smaller persimmons and pecan saplings. Forgot to take any pics of that. I also worked on the water hole I built last year on my BBJ plot. It's been very dry so it's not holding any water but I wanted to enlarge it. I doubled the size of the hole today with the Kubota.


I also planted a couple pear trees on the BBJ plot close to the water hole. After I planted one I looked at it and said to myself "When this tree is big it's going to be dropping pears in my waterhole." Didn't think about that until I already had it planted and caged. Oh well!
This is a Korean Giant that I grafted to a seedling started from seed. Thanks Brush for the scion.


This is a moonglow pear grafted last spring for a seed started seedling also. You can see part of my dirt mound from digging out the waterhole.

Clover is eaten down to the dirt. Just really struggled this fall due to a record dry fall and winter. Hopefully this will change this weekend as we the forecast is showing up to 3" of rain starting Friday. The cereal grains are holding their own and getting lots of pics in the cereal grain plots but even the grains aren't producing like they have in the past--all due to drought!
BBJ plot:

Think I will get some red clover and overseed this plot late February. It has some white clover but it is very sparse.
Main Plot is about in the same condition but has lots of small clover mixed in the grains. It has had a lot of clover in the past so I think there was a lot of free seed from this summer.