The Massey

[KSQ2]

A couple doses of gly finally took care of the nutsedge in the back foodplot. It should be ready for fall, I’ll be planting it conventionally for the first time in several years.

The red oaks are loaded, this is the reason I don’t just buy and plant white oak varieties. I’d like a good variety of the reds too.

Got a pic of a big bodied buck over on little house. The buckwheat is struggling, but hanging in there.

This is an interesting fella at the Massey.

 

[KSQ2]

Since there’s no foodplots to put cameras over again this year, I decided to try a different tactic to get some pics the next month or so…

I figured I’ll be watering trees for a while yet anyway and could just put some water in the tubs while I’m there. Speaking of watering trees, I’ll be back at it tomorrow.

 

[KSQ2]

A new buck showed up this last week at the Massey. They’re still trying to get used to the water, it’s been out for a week now and the coons, possums, and birds are hitting it regularly. If my camera isn’t lying to me, the first deer to actually take a drink was a doe 2 days ago. But deer are around obviously enough.

 

[KSQ2]

Got some mowing done on some of the other properties we hunt. Buckwheat is surely an extraordinary plant. If you can just get it started, it thrives even in a drought. Look close at these pics and you can see the moisture in the plants, even moistened the tractor tires and the ground was bone dry. It hasn’t rained in two weeks. If buckwheat can mine water from that deep, it mines a lot of nutrients too, like the research shows. The tires were actually more damp, just in the time it took me to get my phone out, the moisture had already begun to evaporate on the hot tires.


The burr-English oak in the barnyard produced again this year, one acorn per year. I'm very excited about the future with this tree in our future yard one day!

 

[KSQ2]

Alright it’s been a while since a photo dump. I took my day off and an extra vacation day to get plots in last week. I can tell you this, after t&m for a number of years, doing plots conventionally was not fun. I shrunk the size of them significantly, thinking I didn’t want to waste a ton of money again on perennial plots only to see them fail again with the ongoing drought. If we finally bust out of the drought, I’ll add to the plots next year conventionally again, which will be real fun having to transport both brush hog and tiller, but oh well. Here’s a few pics, not many from plot work, you guys have seen me post enough of those over the years. Beavers are a major pain right now in parts of the creek still holding a little water. Whoever says oaks are too bitter for beavers to mess with is WRONG unfortunately. On a positive note, some young trees are beginning to take off in the tangle of sericia on by back plot.





A couple Sawtooths that have gotten NO help from me at all have weather the drought. Some tough trees Cat hooked me up with a couple years ago.


One of the oaks the beavers hit, produced and hopefully survives

Persimmons, I think, in the sericia


A walnut???

On the drive to the back foodplot. In a normal year the water is 5-6’ deep off this bridge. I’ve seen many people fishing for channel cat here over the years. This is the north end of a creek fed watershed lake.

Took a couple pics of young native persimmons while watering trees yesterday. Good thing they are tough, bucks are beginning to feel their oats.

 

[KSQ2]

On another note concerning the Massey, big news in the neighborhood this year. I didn't really broadcast cast this information much on forums, not knowing who all lurked, but the 320 acres of ground to the east of us has been WIHA since 2018. This is the main reason I had to tread so lightly on our place when it came to habitat work in the fall. Well, the state lost the lease this year, and the ground was leased by a fella I know from Arkansas. I'm hoping he's not planning to outfit it, to help pay for the lease, I know he'd not like to have to do that, he loves hunting that property and was very disappointed in seeing the state lease it. It does complicate things a little because we got used to using the public to access the backside of our farm when the creek actually has water in it -- which used to be normal. I didn't want to have to ask the Ark fella if we could continue to access through his lease (for reasons I'll just leave alone); so I got permission from a neighbor to the south to access through their place, so it's going to work out wonderfully. Regardless of what the Ark fella decides to do, the number of young bucks killed in the neighborhood will be reduced greatly, compared to what was being shot off the public. To say we're excited and encouraged is a major understatement!

 

[catscratch]

On another note concerning the Massey, big news in the neighborhood this year. I didn't really broadcast cast this information much on forums, not knowing who all lurked, but the 320 acres of ground to the east of us has been WIHA since 2018. This is the main reason I had to tread so lightly on our place when it came to habitat work in the fall. Well, the state lost the lease this year, and the ground was leased by a fella I know from Arkansas. I'm hoping he's not planning to outfit it, to help pay for the lease, I know he'd not like to have to do that, he loves hunting that property and was very disappointed in seeing the state lease it. It does complicate things a little because we got used to using the public to access the backside of our farm when the creek actually has water in it -- which used to be normal. I didn't want to have to ask the Ark fella if we could continue to access through his lease (for reasons I'll just leave alone); so I got permission from a neighbor to the south to access through their place, so it's going to work out wonderfully. Regardless of what the Ark fella decides to do, the number of young bucks killed in the neighborhood will be reduced greatly, compared to what was being shot off the public. To say we're excited and encouraged is a major understatement!

That is great news! Even if the guy from Ark does lease it out I'm guessing his hunters will shoot less young bucks than if it were still in public. That could work out great for your place!

 

[KSQ2]

I got permission from the warden to declare war on the beavers. So tonight I went to battle. I managed to get one shot. Actually, I think he might have been the only one. There was only one small pool deep enough to hold him. The remainder of the creek is completely dry, which is very depressing. If I wanted to spot and stalk deer on our place, it would be the year to do it though. It would be so easy to stay low and quiet in the creek bed. That’s not really my cup of tea, so I doubt I would do it, but who knows if I spot a big buck bedded from the stand at some point?

 

[MarkDarvin]

Is anyone around you taking the dry period as an opportunity to deepen their ponds and water holes?

 

[KSQ2]

Is anyone around you taking the dry period as an opportunity to deepen their ponds and water holes?

Yes, I would say literally hundreds of ponds have been dug out in the 3 county area hit hardest. It’s crazy to see ponds that were built and others dug out in the summer ‘22 still setting empty. I have a buddy who owns a dirt moving/excavating business and he’s been “swamped” for over a year, yes pun intended sarcastically.

Edited to correct my exaggeration…

 

[buckdeer1]

I am cleaning out some of the swamp and they are drilling a well this week so hopefully I can keep some water.When it's full it is probably some of the best duck hunting anywhere.

 

[T-Max]

When we had a drought in 2018, our ponds went completely dry. We used it as an opportunity to dredge them. They eventually filled and even though this year’s drought was much worse we still have water in them. Lemonade from lemons.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MarkDarvin]

When we had a drought in 2018, our ponds went completely dry. We used it as an opportunity to dredge them. They eventually filled and even though this year’s drought was much worse we still have water in them. Lemonade from lemons.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's how I look at it. If we're dry again next year, I'll probably keep chipping away at my pond to make it deeper. I'm out of room to put spoils right now, so I need to spread what I've got first, and then dig again after that.

 

[catscratch]

I am cleaning out some of the swamp and they are drilling a well this week so hopefully I can keep some water.When it's full it is probably some of the best duck hunting anywhere.

I wonder about your swamp from time to time. It's a dream property for a waterfowler!

 

[KSQ2]

Dawna had this guy at 30 yards this evening and just couldn’t quite get a shot off she was comfortable with; her peep was being a pain. He and the others with him went on by without getting spooked, hope she can get another crack at him sometime. My brother-in-law got this pic of him a month or so ago. One more thing, I was on the ground 18 yards from the buck while she was drawn!! Crazy evening!

 

[KSQ2]

We picked up some nuts off the ground under a young burr oak by the school parking. The tree is less than 12’ tall and the ground under it is COVERED. I plan to put some of these in the ground inside tubes sometime the couple of weeks. The de-capped nuts float tested good.

I wanted to document this in our journal in case it works.

 

[KSQ2]

Well, this is the Nebraska crew, 4 preachers and 4 staff (one was holding the camera). It was a great trip, they really make you feel like royalty up there. Unfortunately, no bucks were shot; one shot was fired, but it was a clean miss. It was COLD! The warmest morning was 27 degrees with 25 mph wind out of the NW. The young fella of the trip, second from the right, came with me; he had a good buck under him the first morning and didn't shoot. He was hoping one of the other two preachers might be able to get in range of the buck, but it didn't work out that way. He did get some video.

Now it's time to get serious back here at home. I should be heading out for the first Kansas hunt of the year tomorrow morning.

 

[KSQ2]

A good day in the woods yesterday! Saw quite a few deer on our place, also saw the neighbor put his feeder out since the last time I was there, 30 yards from our line. The interesting thing was, not one deer I saw went near it. Ended up seeing a handful of does, fawns, and young bucks. Caught a glimpse of a pretty good buck in the thick cover to my north, but didn't get a good enough look to see if he was a shooter -- tall tines though. He wasn't interested in my calling at all. It seems like we're still a few days away from it really kicking off here in KS. Dawna and I each hunted the in-law's farm last night. She saw a pile of deer, I just saw a doe and fawn. I picked the wrong stand, it's more of a morning/midday spot, the deer move off the hill into the bottoms in the evening. I was just a little impatient' we hung the new stand this summer and I wanted to be the first to sit it. The view is GREAT! We'll be back in the woods the next couple days.

 

[KSQ2]

Saw a nice young buck yesterday afternoon. Sorry pic isn't the best, it's a screen shot off the video. Also saw the first real chasing of the year.

 

[KSQ2]

Bounced an arrow off the back of the stud from above yesterday morning. Still sick about it. Fortunately, he ran away unharmed. Had him dead to rights at 24 yards and had to stop him, he ducked and stupid me didn't aim low. I did get some video before the shot. Here's a still from it; he was posturing about to kick the backside of a feisty 3 year old.