More garden cleanup and deer hunting

I am a deer hunting fool

Probably should emphasize fool, lol!  I went up to the farm late Friday and was able to get out and do some hunting before sundown.  It may just be my impression, but I kind of feel that they (the deer) are watching me go to the blinds in the daylight but don't see me going out in the morning.

Is nice though, in the woods

Nope, no deer up there!

I get bored sometimes when I am waiting for these deer!

Tiller upkeep

Getting ready to till the garden patches so I can plant my cover crops (or grass - as the case may be) I had to hook up the tiller to the tractor.  Well, the tiller had rolled on its side and allowed the gear oil to leak out!  Arggg.  I had to search online to find what kind of oil to use - 80-90W!   I searched all over the farm for my gear oil - of course I found it just a few feet from the tiller!  Of course since that's the only thing I use it in!  I only found one bottle of it and it was already open, so I just added all I had and hoped it was enough.

 

Several nuts were missing or loose so I had to get these all fixed up as well.

Oil add port on side of tiller.  I must have had enough in there because after i was done tilling I noticed some had leaked out

All ready for some tilling action!

Front patch cleanup and till

The front patch still has strawberries in it that I want to try to preserve for next year.  The strawberries are NOT hilled this season and I did put plenty of wood chips on them so they should survive the winter this time around.  Anyway, I tilled as close as I dared.  I did mash down some of the fence, but nothing that I can't fix.

I managed to pick a few more daikon radishes that had come up from an earlier planting (the early radishes went to seed and that's where these came from!)

The paw-paw patch

Or the sweet potato patch, since that's what I grow in there now.  It tilled up nicely, even though I had the tiller set to the wrong side of the tractor for the direction I was tilling.  I seeded this patch and the strawberry (front) patch with hairy-vetch.  Hairy vetch produces more nitrogen fixation than any other common cover crop.  It does have the draw back of being quite invasive though.  I have to make sure it is plowed under and tilled in (or sprayed down with roundup) before it goes to seed, otherwise it goes wild!

This patch still has some uneven spots due to the fact that it is on a bit of a slope and this is its first year in this configuration.  By next year it should be looking much more uniform.

The "big" patch - no more!

This patch was cut in half this year and still I had more then enough work to keep me busy!  After the problems I had getting the corn to grow here and the need for some decent space to plant more cherry trees, I decided to remove this patch entirely.

I planted elderberries where the other half of this garden was.  They took some heavy deer damage.  I hope they get a good foothold next year.

Before

After

I did a lot of landscaping to get this area leveled again.  hard to tell from the pictures but there is a bit of a slope on this lot and because of the way it got plowed and tilled a large raised ara developed on the right and a large ditch developed on the left.

I planted grass here.  Next spring I will plant my sour cherry trees here.  I may also plant some more apple trees further out along the hill.

Deer damage to apple trees

This is why I am hunting this year!  I have put up special fences, baited zones and have even taken to putting up wire mesh protectors around my trees to keep the damn bucks from scraping the bark off. But still, I get damage (well, not the trees that have the wire mesh - that's on the list of things to do for all trees now I guess).  

This one should recover ok.

This one will be a close.

Healing up from last years deer attack.  That white stuff is a parasite that gets into the trees bark when it gets weak like this.  If I am lucky the tree will recover.  

Another one too close to call.

This tree will probably die - the bark was stripped off too far.

This is the type of wire mesh protector that I guess I will need to put on all of my trees!  Over 42 trees to put this on.  Not counting the new cherry trees next year.  Ugh

Another catch-up post - most of October!

More butternut squash and Brussel Sprouts.

I picked most of the brussel sprouts and squash this weekend.  They look pretty good!  All told I think I got around 3 quarts of brussel sprouts frozen and about 3+ bushel of squash!  

There are a lot of them, but they aren't as big and nice as they should be - they late drought didnt help matters.

Visit from a long time friend - deer hunting

A friend of mine that I have known since elementary school reconnected with me and came for a couple days on the farm. He brought his own camper to shake out the mothballs for some fall camping trips he is planning on.  We got to talking about deer hunting and now I am really focused on getting some deer!  I took the hunting certification course (got my card even) and purchased a PA hunting license for rifle & bow hunting deer (and turkey - its included for some reason).  Anyway, I set up some game cams around the property to see what I could find.

Mostly just doe and yearlings out there 

But I did capture this shot from in the hollow next to the house.  Damn early bird bucks!

Anyway, back to harvesting and fall farm activities, for a bit

Harvested the last of the tomatoes (from the plants that I planted).  

They look a little bit rough - but for this time of year they are fine.  These were roasted in oven and frozen.

Got my chainsaws started and cleaned up a bit (I still need to sharpen some chains though)

Oil change for this guy.

Oil change, new filter and and new battery for this one.  I got new sparks and air cleaner too - but I didn't put them on yet.  Also, straightened out the leaf bag frame - it was bent pretty ba last season.

OIl changed.  Air filter cleaned.

New oil filter for the husqvarna lawn mower

I even cleaned out the back of the UTV - in preparation for hauling a deer carcass out of the woods!

New crossbow arrives!

I shopped around and read many reviews and considering my needs I decided on the Wicked Ridge Invader G3 crossbow.  I thought about a regular compound bow, but I would need to practice to become good with a bow and I didn't think I would have the time to do that and get some hunting in this season.

Nice deal.  Came with cocking device, arrows, scope and quiver.

Lots of safety features.  dry fire inhibitor, trigger safety, and these "wings" to help keep fingers out of harms way!

Sighting it in!  

Well, I got the target "block" and sighted it in as soon as I got to the farm.  I had never shot a crossbow before...  Here is at 20 yards...

20 Yards!  damn near split that one bolt with the other!

30 yards

40 yards!!

Also at 40 yards - just a different angle.

To be honest, I did not make any adjustments to sights or anything.  The accuracy was pretty damn good and should be able to take down a deer at 40-50 yards.  I have actually tried it out at even greater distances and have seen some tendency to shoot to the left and high - but I don't plan on shooting at more than 50 yards.

Sweet potato digging

I finally got around to digging the sweet potatoes.  I dug the majority with a digging fork but to be sure I was thorough I also used the potato plow to double check.  The plow did turn up a few more potatoes.

I was a bit disappointed in the quality of these potatoes - It was obvious to me that the drought caused some weird growth at the end of the season.  Bug "furroughs" in many of the potatoes

The yield was only about a bushel off of about 35 plants (I had ordered 50 - 35 is all that made it to planting - then the deer attacked them)

The garden after harvesting the sweet potatoes.  The soil here is nice for potatoes I think.  I did trial run last year and found this soil was best for sweet potatoes.

Cleaned and sorted.  I managed to save a few good ones for seed for next year.  The ones pictured here are going to be mostly freeze dried!

Well, some got eaten!  SO GOOD!

I don't have any pictures of the freeze dried ones - but they taste amazing - crunchy and sweet.  They make such good snacks that I am not sure any will be re-hydrated!

Hunting blinds arrive!

I bought some cheap hunting blinds from Sportsman's Guide - about $45 each - I got 3 and placed them in the woods around the farm.

This one is near the butternut trees in the back northern side of the property.

This one is back in the woods near the center of the property.

And this one is on the southern side of the property

I placed them out in the woods to let them air out.

Found this cool burl!

Another burl shot

Just a pretty tree

Neighbors tree stand on my property.  He said I could use it if I wanted.  Its a nice stand.

Trees damaged by deer

Well, the locust trees and even about 3 apple trees took some damage from the deer this year.  This is why I need to hunt!!

I can replace the locust trees without too much problem on money, but the apples trees are another story!

The apple tree that got scraped up last season seems to be recovering - but I think they did more damage to the ones this year.  I didn't get any pictures - maybe I will add pics later.  I really don't want to place wire guards around all of my trees!  I have most of the other trees covered.

First time out in blind!

I went out on a Friday evening to the center blind.  Once it got dark I should have packed it in, but I decided to see what I could see...

A whole family of these guys showed up at the blind!

A view from the blind

Another shot from the blind - sitting inside a bit further

On the way to the blind the next morning...

Damn hard to see on these pictures, but the scope of the crossbow showed that these were two bucks locking antlers!  They got a whiff of me and took off shortly after this photo.

Looks like I got out too late to catch these guys from my blind.  Too bad - they were close enough to blind that I might have been able to get a shot.

Back to harvesting..

I picked some more tomatoes from the sweet potato patch as I cleared the black plastic from that patch.  I made them into chili base - which I canned.

5 and a half pints.  Not bad for such late tomatoes.

I actually picked a bunch more volunteer tomatoes from the front patch as I worked to clear the plastic off of it.  I took them back and they were slow roasted in oven and then frozen.  Keep in mind this is late October and there will be a frost any day now!

Game cam pictures - Trixie!

We have a 3 legged deer that has lived near our property here for about 3-4 years.  We decided that I wouldn't hunt this animal if for no other reason than its just no sport to hunt a crippled deer!  I learned from talking with my next door neighbor that he and his sons also have a hands off policy for this deer!  She and her fawns stay near the hollow between our two properties, so she is pretty safe.  I know that her and her fawns are the ones that have been eating off much of my elderberry and forsythia!  (I have seen them doing it)  Nonetheless, we are not going to take this one.  I actually have put out some corn and feed stuff for her before  (yes, I know that you shouldn't feed deer corn in the late winter - but this is early fall and corn is still on the menu).

Aww, family portrait!

Saw milling the hickory tree

I finally got the big hickory log sawed in half and over to the saw mill.  It was a beast to move!  A good 20-30 ft bole over 16 inches in diameter.  I had to clean the air-filter on the sawmill and I checked the oil.  After cleaning the air filter it started right up!  I cut one of the two sections of the hickory in a  10-inch cant.  I got some 7/8" boards off of it that I am going to straighten up and use. A portion of the hickory will be cut into large cross section pieces for making tool handles.  I don't know what to do with the rest.  Maybe I will just cut it into inch thick boards for general purpose wood?