The Massey

Had a slow evening, so I looked through our property journal, the clover plots we used to be able to grow a short 4 or 5 years ago seem like ages past. We’re desperately hoping this year is different.

My part of Missouri, it likes to run on a drought / flood rotation. Good luck with spring.

E_308 said:

My part of Missouri, it likes to run on a drought / flood rotation. Good luck with spring.

Click to expand...

Definitely ready for the flood part of the rotation here. It has been a LONG time.

Took a walk at the Massey today, took a few pics. The Northern Whitetail Crabs continue to impress. I’ll be curious as to how the fruit turns out, assuming we get enough rain to keep them from aborting.
Droptine

30-06

Is this oak okay? It’s SO hard to keep stuff alive in this new climate of ours. We lost several young oaks again over the winter. I’m hoping this one is ok?

Found what I think is another callery pear in the north waterway. Should make a good graft base next year. I’ll ask a couple questions about it in the callery pear thread.


Another fail when it comes to perennial plotting. I don’t know exactly how much $$ I’ve wasted the last 3 falls on chicory and clover seed, but it hasn’t been cheap.

Took a WONDERFUL walk on the Massey today. Needed to get the Callery/kieffer pear graft supported, per Native. I walked across the south end of the field through standing water for the first time in 2 years. It was glorious!
Here’s a couple pics from the work. The Callery is quite the shoot thrower, I had to break/snip a bunch off.


Here’s a look from a couple steps back, it’s nice to have a couple young burr oaks off and running in the background.

Mowed the rye in the lower barn plot yesterday evening. Unfortunately, nothing much going on underneath. The consistent rains lately though have everything else looking great. When the ground firms up enough, my buddy is going to let me use his no-till to put in oats and clover and a little chicory left over from last fall. I plan to put a TON of clover in the ground.

I got my hands on a no-till to use this morning and it just might have changed my life!!! Put down a clover blend, a little chicory, and oats in a half acre of the lower barn plot. Trying to experiment a little bit since fall clover establishment has been so difficult with the drought.

The pears trees appear to have suffered the worst of all the trees from the drift weeks ago.



The burr-English oak in the barnyard bounced back admirably. You can see the burnt portions in the pic too.

The northern whitetail crabs are basically indestructible it appears. The crossbow, droptine, and 30-06 all have fruit this year for the first time.

What kind of mower did you use on the rye?

When you say ground firming up, is that because you've gotten enough rain finally?

MarkDarvin said:

What kind of mower did you use on the rye?

When you say ground firming up, is that because you've gotten enough rain finally?

Click to expand...

Just a 3 point, 5’ brushhog.

We’ve had pretty consistent rains this spring. We’re not out of drought, but we’ve had some very good steps in the right direction.

KSQ2 said:

Just a 3 point, 5’ brushhog.

We’ve had pretty consistent rains this spring. We’re not out of drought, but we’ve had some very good steps in the right direction.

Click to expand...

I hear ya. It looked like it did a nice job on the rye. I've started getting rain too. My area has gone from getting ready to hit D3 drought back down to D1, and I'd bet we get back to D0 by next week. I still need enduring rain to recharge the groundwater, but it's going the right way.

The drill went through the rye duff well?

MarkDarvin said:

I hear ya. It looked like it did a nice job on the rye. I've started getting rain too. My area has gone from getting ready to hit D3 drought back down to D1, and I'd bet we get back to D0 by next week. I still need enduring rain to recharge the groundwater, but it's going the right way.

The drill went through the rye duff well?

Click to expand...

VERY glad to hear you’ve finally gotten some moisture!

It appeared to do the job well enough, of course my inspection was that of a novice. I think running parallel with the duff helped keep it from hair pinning.