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Started by mike_belben, February 17, 2018, 11:41:04 PM

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mike_belben

I appreciate you sayin that bud, thanks and God bless you.  He drives me crazy and i dont have enough patience with him but i am very proud to be his dad even when i miss the mark.  

He just lost his 2nd tooth today in the passenger seat of a pete 379 haulin stone up the mountain... worked the quarry again today.  thinks hes hot stuff on the wheel loader but still cant stack one slab ontop another with it yet. i just play along.  LoL.  Hes my shadow. Except when i turn around fast my actual shadow knows to move out of the way.  He will walk right into my butt if i stop quick.  We spend a lot of time messin around in our woods and i wouldnt trade it for anything.  I hope to have built him a quiver of forestry machines before he hits 20. Ive got 13yrs left and running out fast!
















Praise The Lord

Walnut Beast

What happened to your deer heard Mike

mike_belben

Quote from: Walnut Beast on July 12, 2020, 12:04:28 AM
What happened to your deer herd Mike


Seems to be doing fine.  I got a print with dew claws in it last week, which is a first.  Theres always doe and fawn print.

Coming back from dunlap we saw a huge buck tonight in velvet.  8 to 10pts, about 45 minutes from home. 
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mike_belben

Man.. Seems like just yesterday i could fit him in my pocket.


















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Walnut Beast

Very nice. Nice pictures of some of the bucks you have taken

Walnut Beast

It would probably be tuff to take him hunting with you for a few years 😂

mike_belben

Quote from: Walnut Beast on July 12, 2020, 12:40:51 AM
Very nice. Nice pictures of some of the bucks you have taken
Oh i get your question now.. No no, those bucks i posted a few years back are hanging in a neighbor buddies house up the road.  Locally taken but mostly the 1990s. Theres just been too many years of extreme poaching in back yards over corn to have anything grow into trophies anymore, and its universally the meth heads that do it. Some feed em to their dogs or shoot em at night just for fun which is even worse.  Thats what got me into building a sanctuary out of my little woodlot. 

 
We only eat one deer per season and im not selective about it.  Theyre all delicious when im done with them.
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Walnut Beast

I hear you there! Good call and nice work on the sanctuary. Yes indeed deer 🦌 are tasty for sure 👍

mike_belben

I regret not having a sequence of true before/after images. When i started we were barely, barely able to keep the lights on and eat, life was in a tailspin and i just started dragging logs up to survive.  It evolved into this 'bring the deer to me' mentality out of necessity back then.

Anyways this is the best progression image ive got at the moment. Same spot year apart i think.  Ive cut that bush back atleast twice for a clearer shot.  The stack is a little over 6ft high.  Ill have to remember to keep taking the same picture year after year.











Before logging i rember this area just being brown leaves and larger trunks.  The kids and i walked right thru it all the time with no actual trail.  Sure cant do that now.  





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Walnut Beast

You got some great stuff going on Mike 👍👍

thecfarm

Yes on the pictures!! I cleared off the Old Pasture. Did it one tree at a time and mowed it with my mini bush hog, a push mower!!! This was tree 6-10 across. I kept the oak for the wild life and everything else is gone. Dug out some rocks and levered out many areas and it needs another treatment with the min bush hog again.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

John Mc

Quote from: mike_belben on July 12, 2020, 12:39:53 AM
Man.. Seems like just yesterday i could fit him in my pocket.



What is that little tractor he's on? That's perfect for a kid learning the ropes!
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.   - Abraham Maslow

mike_belben

People call them cub zeros, the original cub cadet lawn mower from the early 60s.  They can be made to look pretty cool.   I will find a better picture when i have a chance.

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mike_belben

I sat in my stand this morning, saw one lone doe take her time at 9:05am. She crossed left to right quite a ways out of bow range and sniffed around where i felled some more FW culls yesterday.

Shes the first legal hours deer ive encountered on my property in a long while.  I get fresh tracks almost every night.  Theres been some good sized buck track, scat, rubs and a scrape this season.  Hopefully she makes it another year.


This was december 2017





Same spot today, can't tell much difference. I'm just now starting to thin ahead toward the pasture area where my house will go.






And the neighbors lot just to the right as a control, still looking like what i started with. Growing more vine and brush than it is boards in my opinion.






Praise The Lord

mike_belben

Heres an issue with tennessee forests.  We are chock full of sawmills, white county particularly, but we have a no clearcut culture which means we have a highgrade culture by default.  The non forestry public sees green and says oh beautiful, when looking at a stage 4 cancer woodlot. 

WHITE CO LOOKING AT LEGAL ACTION AGAINST TWRA TO STOP CLEAR-CUTTING PROJECT ? 105.7 News Crossville Rockwood Byrdstown TN


Theres 10k acres.  State wants to reset 230 acres and the county wants to sue to block it.  The silliness is they talk about 75-100 years as old growth.  I sold a little buttlog yesterday in that age and it didnt tie, just a touch below diameter so it went as 2common.  It was the best 9feet of a poor mature tree that brought $4.  

 A grown TREE worth less than a whopper. You can wait until in rots and falls over and thats all that tree will ever be.   The result of our highgrading nature here.  A deer or grouse would sure love the grass that woulda grown in its place more than eating oak bark.  

Ive not been to this site but knowing that county and that it was commercially owned land donated to the state, i will speculate its been cherry picked like all the rest and is just twisty woods with skidder made "nature trails."   My experience is one patch of regen would draw tremendous wildlife diversity and im all for it for the critters sake. 

I love seing a clearcut or heavy cut out here because it means there is a patch that got reset from generations of pillaging it.  That ugly clearcut just might be the best timber my grandkids ever see if someone just manages it right.  

Theres no nurturing a highgrade back to full productivity without a major cut is how ive grown to feel after seeing the rings show a failure to respond to release. 

Do your animals and your posterity a favor.  Cut the trash wood out in your life time.
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