Plowing Food Plot with Box Blade

[HomeBrew2]

Glad to hear you got some rain your way.

They are smart little buggers, staying out about 100 yards minimum and scurry into their burrows at the sight of us.

They also attract the big diamondback rattlers, so it's good to kill them.

Were you on your property when it rained? It was a great event cuz it was a long light rain here, not noticable 1 day after. Do you have a rain gauge or weather station?

The squirrels are really just normal wildlife. If they are not used to people being in their environment, they react when they hear or see people. If you are around them more, they will get used to you to certain extent. It's like range cows that only see a man on a horse or jeep or hay truck ... they freak when they see a man on foot. So, anyway, the fun is to be quiet and invisable. They're not big thinkers so after an hour or so of them hearing or seeing you, they'll be right back. Use natural or artificial blinds and be quiet. I dunno, it's probably just me, I like "silent and invisable". One more thing, I came to love the CCI .22 CB cuz they are almost silent (650 FPS, way below the 1050 sound threshold) so a shot doesn't upset everything on the mountain. Long range and hot barrels is cool, but has it's drawbacks in this area on small parcels of land, IMO.

The "big diamond back rattlers". From my nearly 30 years in these hills, I'm quite unimpressed with their threat. That is not withstanding an "infestation" that does occur in a very few locals. I could care less if you or anybody else eradicates them from the earth but I could just care less. What does interest me in a small fashion is that eliminating the varmints also eliminates the king snakes and gopher snakes. I like them a lot and believe I screwed myself out of them dudes being around. One of my memorable fun times was grabbing a big fat gopher snake (4' maybe) that was all coiled up and striking like a rattler, as they are known to do, and carrying him over to a big fresh gopher hole ... he spied the hole while still wrapped around my arm, loosened up and dove for the hole.

One other thing I was thinking about with your dirt activities, get a good handle on "valley fever" symptoms. You're not that far up the mountain to be out of it's influence. It mostly affects those that are new to the valley environs and/or not used to being/working in the dirt.

Cheers!

 

[HomeBrew2]

Nahh, no more rain. 0.3" on 10/2 and 0.2" on 10/6. Kindof a love/hate deal, as usual ... love the rain but not ready I'm irrigating, since 10/1, my prize blue oaks, sycamores, cottonwoods, mountain lilac (buck brush) and elderberries. The willows are doing well thus must have drilled into a nice water vein ... guess that's "what they do". I've got 90% of my teeny 5ac "smoothed" (old rangeland looks smooth but isn't close, as you know). I bladed everything and piled the tailings ... lots of native stubble. I've got most of it rolled back out as kindof a native seed bed ... trying to retain runoff while having a mowable surface. "mowable" meaning at a rate of something above 0.2mph
To help my oaks, I have bladed around them at the drip lines. Within the drip zone, I'll spray glyphosate when "grass" growth gets to 6"+/- ... no more mowing in those areas ... should save me some work

 

[3RRL]

Disappointed ...
It's been over a month since we planted and still no rain? What's up with that? We did have about a ½" two weeks ago but that's not enough to get things sprouted. I'm afraid the food plot is going to be a bust again. Or will the seed still be good? What do you think?

 

[Cottonhawk]

It's raining and we've had quite a bit of rain now. Grass seeds started to sprout on my two acres new meadow. Hopefully that the temperatures stay up so the new grass can get some growth.
We're also in the burning season now. It's time to burn all the field debries.

 

[EddieWalker]

Well Rob, I'm not having much luck with my food plot this year either. I got this wild hair idea to plant bird seed. It grows like crazy around the feeders and I thought it might be something the deer would like.

It's growing pretty good, but there isn't one single deer track in there. There are hog tracks, but they are just walking across it.

In the spring I'm gonna get me some Lab Lab and give that a try.

As for your seed, if it was unhulled, than it could last years sitting around in the dry dirt. Hulled seeds will sprout faster, but if they don't get water right away and start growing, they will rot.

Eddie

 

[3RRL]

I'm glad to hear up North you guys have rain and decent temps too.
Eddie, I'm sorry about your food plot. Bird seed is not a bad idea because you never know what comes up and may attract the deer. For sure, it will attract the birds.
Loretta told me all our seed is unhulled so we might still have a chance then? I'm surprised at our very mild Fall so far with temps only dipping slightly below 50°F at night and in the mid 70's during the day. It's still t-shirt weather for me, normally I'd have my long johns and jacket on by now. It's great weather so I am not complaning....just wanted to see the food plot get going. Know what I mean?

 

[PBinWA]

I'm glad to hear up North you guys have rain and decent temps too.
Eddie, I'm sorry about your food plot. Bird seed is not a bad idea because you never know what comes up and may attract the deer. For sure, it will attract the birds.
Loretta told me all our seed is unhulled so we might still have a chance then? I'm surprised at our very mild Fall so far with temps only dipping slightly below 50°F at night and in the mid 70's during the day. It's still t-shirt weather for me, normally I'd have my long johns and jacket on by now. It's great weather so I am not complaning....just wanted to see the food plot get going. Know what I mean?

I'm sure something will grow when you get rain. It may not be the "ideal" crop but if you have it covered with dirt and it's fairly dry then the seeds will be fine for a while. It's when it gets wet and cold that the seeds take a beating. I'm not an expert just someone like you that likes to try different things. I just noted some rye grass I planted two months ago just sprouted this week since we've been getting a bunch of warm wet rain lately. Up until this week it's been fairly dry.

 

[3RRL]

Thanks for the reassurance. I'm hoping it will grow too.
I've noticed all areas I've graded magically grow back with wildflowers and other vegetation in the Spring. I was hoping to get this food plot growing to provide some green for the Winter. But without irrigation to get it going now, I might have to wait till then?

This will be my second attempt at a Winter food plot. So if it fails again, next Spring I'll have to pull irrigation to grow my Summer and Winter crops I guess. Water is a great thing.

 

[HomeBrew2]

Disappointed ...
It's been over a month since we planted and still no rain? What's up with that? We did have about a ½" two weeks ago but that's not enough to get things sprouted. I'm afraid the food plot is going to be a bust again. Or will the seed still be good? What do you think?

Hey neighbor! I have to assume that you researched the climate in these parts. The "valley" (Fresno=10" precip annually) is just marginally better off than a "desert" (desert=8" max annually). The low foothills in which we live are, on average, barely better. The past two years of record precip have been a freak accident. Generally, you can consider this area (and worse the further south you go till you hit the ridge) to be in a constant drought with every ~7th year getting a decent rain season. Unless we are lucky enough to get enough global warming in our lifetime to substantially modify the climate in this area, you should plan on irrigating. You have plenty of water. I'm sure you installed a big pump. You have plenty of generator power. Stop by Fruit Growers Supply in Porterville or Exeter and get a couple miles of poly pipe (drip line) and several cheap rainbirds. You WILL get the results that you seek, PDQ
Cheers!

 

[3RRL]

Steve,
I think I'll do that. I drive right by an FGS on the 65 and another on Spruce as a matter of fact, just before the 198. There's also one in Woodlake. How much is a roll of that stuff and what diameter do you think?
We've had so much rain the last 2 years and when we bought the year before that. Our real estate rep told us the annual rainfall was 14" to 18" in Three Rivers and it's been more than that as far as we've experienced? Shees, they'll do anything to sell a piece of property.
I'll get some because the Summers are brutal and we will need to water then anyway.
Thanks,

 

[HomeBrew2]

How much is a roll of that stuff and what diameter do you think?

Our real estate rep told us the annual rainfall was 14" to 18" in Three Rivers and it's been more than that as far as we've experienced? Shees, they'll do anything to sell a piece of property.

Rob, of course you'll have to calc the diameter to fit your needs (distance, vertical rise/drop) for the poly. I have only had recent use for 0.700 line that was $60 for 500', as my cloudy brain recalls.

I believe the "average" rainfall quote to be "reasonable". Records that I have downloaded date to 1878 ... that's kindof a lot of numbers. 50" one year and 0" for three yields an avg of 12.5". We might even hit "average" for a few years but it might all come in March, or April ... or September ... who knows.

 

[scott_vt]

Afternoon Rob,
Gee, I wish there was a way to send you some of ours Weve got more then enough, and would gladly give it away

Hang in there, your turn has got to be coming