Plowing Food Plot with Box Blade

[HomeBrew2]

... ground squirrels out there!! ...

Well, neighbor, I'd bet you would never guess that somebody would tell you, "that I'm jealous of your squirrel population. I know, weird. I was off work for 3 months about 11 years ago and my place was completely over run with them ... looked just like pix I have seen of a prarie dog town. I killed them all ...hundreds. It was truely the most fun I ever had. I stalked and hunted them at 100' max with .22 cb's. In the past 11 years, I have seen and killed only half a dozen more. Now haven't seen one in 2 years. Really miss shooting them ... have thought about buying a pair to breed a few
One hint, they keep regular bankers hours ... active around 8:30, off about 4:30, at least around here.
Got a half inch of rain total so far here.

 

[3RRL]

Hey neighbor Steve,
Glad to hear you got some rain your way.
I never noticed the ground squirrels in the meadow because I couldn't see them before. I knew they were there by their burrows and also, another area that was trampled down you could see them.

They are smart little buggers, staying out about 100 yards minimum and scurry into their burrows at the sight of us. I've shot prairie dogs like you are talking about and it is a blast. Couldn't touch the barrel!

I want to get rid of them because they chase the birds off and will surely wipe out my field if I let them. Last year I had a very small patch of corn growing and every time we came to camp, we found them chewed down with the stalks sticking out of their burrows! They also attract the big diamondback rattlers, so it's good to kill them. They were also the critters that kept chewing my leather gloves and also my rifle scabbard!

 

[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!

 

[Highbeam]

It is normal to get a few frosts this early in western washington. Today even broke into the lower seventies but this morning was only 37. I am one of those goofballs with the indoor thermometer that also has a remote outdoor sensor. So cool.

I grew up shooting chipmunks and birds. My first paycheck was spent on a ruger 10/22. A few years later my 3-9x deer rifle scope fogged up once and so it was moved to the 10/22. Thousands of rounds later it is still my favorite plinker. A couple of weekends ago I even "taught" my 3YO daughter to shoot it. We had set up clay pigeons at 100 yards for plinking. I only have a couple of squirrels at the property so I am keeping them around. She loves the semi-auto but I need to be careful to hold her fingers out of the action.

I apologize for the poor treatment of a Rem in .308 in the background. My good buddy came out to sight in on the pigeons and has no problems treating his gun like that. Rest assured, I don't set my guns down on the ground.

 

[HomeBrew2]

...

Oh, boy, you've done it now!!! Life will never be the same ... but it will be better.

Girls are "mechanics" ... natural shooters. That pic ... is priceless. Thanks for posting it!!

I have a daughter and had a step-daughter. When they were 10 and 12 respectively, I talked them into shooting my 44's ... I down-loaded the rounds to the minimum (850fps, wadcutters, very little energy) ... all of the local boys stepped back when they shot ... shot after shot at 50' into an 11" x 17" target. NONE of those boys messed with those girls nor did they have the guts to shoot those 44's ... 'course I told the that they weren't going to get the same rounds.

My girlfriend and I sit on the back porch and plink at cans at 100' with my fav silent CB's ... she likes to sit in my antique lawn chair that the legs are 2 big leaf springs ... ya know, it kindof bounces most of the time ... she only shoots with open sights ... I had to go to tuna cans and those ittybitty tomato paste cans so I didn't have to go set them up every 15 rounds. Jeez that girl can shoot.

Well, anyway, enjoyed your post.

 

[Highbeam]

Ha! You should have seen her with the oxy/acetylene torch, or riding the motorcycle sitting on the gas tank, or driving the bulldozer. I have daughters but I refuse to let their femaleness be any reason to deprive them of the biggest joys in life which are shooting things, melting things, going fast on things, and other general mayhem that is usually blamed on boys.

I have used the CB rounds in the 22 but mine are autoloaders and the CBs wouldn't cycle the action. I "heard" that they were great for shooting crows in citified type locations. Decent knock down power but only the noise of an air gun.

I thought that californians were restricted to cap guns and throwing rocks. I am glad to see that there is still some fun to be had down there.

 

[3RRL]

HomeBrew2 lives what...about 30 miles as the crow flies North of me? Where I live on the South Fork in 3R there are large parcels. Mine is one of the smaller ones at 27 acres but there are some smaller at 5-10, but many 100, 500 and 10,000+ ranch. William Shatner has a large place about 5 miles down the road. We all shoot on our property...all kinds of firearms too. During deer season you can hear rifle reports all through the valley and on dove opening season, the echo of shotguns all around. Then there's shooting year round at ground squirrels, coyotes, bobcats etc., even mountain lions and bears that preditate the goats and calves. California is alive and well with gun owners and plenty of places to hunt and shoot.

My food plot will hopefully bring in lots of birds for next season. I'd like to attract more deer on the property too. I've seen several bucks but elected not to take one yet, even though I got my tag every season.

This weekend it finally rained about ½" or so. Hopefully that will be enough to get the plants sprouting. There's prediction for more rain this week so we're keeping our fingers crossed. For those of you who are like me, trying their hand at a little farming, the anticipation is killing me. Whatever the results, I'm not going to be dissapointed....I'll just keep working at it. I think I'm going to buy a plow and disk.

Here's a picture from our camp.

 

[schmism]

ground squirls = .17 HMR with good scope = a blast (pun intended)

Varmint Al's Field Testing The 17 HMR

next rifle on my list... rounds are cheep, rifle is "cheep".

a nice leupold var x2 is what ill be putting on mine.

reach out and touch those ground squirls at 150yrds

should you want to step up to the 250+ yd ranges ( a bit more challangeing) look at a 22-250. another great reach out and touch someone rifle.

 

[3RRL]

schmism,
I think my .240 Weatherby mag qualifies as the "reach out and touch someone" kind. It is a great little rifle.

Steve,
Funny you mentioned "bankerss hours" for them buggers. LOL ... Mine must be related to yours.
Have you gotten more rain at your place?

 

[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