Thanksgiving

Come and gone for another year.  Weather was too hot up in the day to hunt but it was good early.  On Wednesday James and I went hunting.  He wanted to go.  As we sat in the Spaceship, a stand made from an old feed bin that Jay had made, James looked for deer.  It is a good stand for hunters that can't be real still, if you know what I mean.  We watched a hawk try to catch a bird, then it swept over and over the field looking for others.  We looked at all the mountains around us and part of that time we played with Legos.  James was seriously looking for deer.

At about 4:40 pm a deer came out at the edge of the field.  James said, "Shoot it" but I told him I had to look at it and when I did it was a young buck.  I told him that it was too small and it would grow and someday he might get to take it.  He got the binoculars and watched it until it left the field.

The next morning I took out one of our predators.  There were two and one got away from me.

I had to bring it home so James could see it.  He was impressed by it.  Selah liked seeing the blood.

 I enjoyed hunting with Nathan and Abby.  Russell, Doug and Pawpaw hunted about ever morning also.  Nathan saw several does and a six pointer.  We just could not see any big deer, that will come at the end of December and into January.
One morning we spent more time tearing out beaver dams than hunting.  It was so good being out in the woods with them.

Week Of Meetings

This week has been a week of meetings, next week is going to be week of Thanksgiving!
Tuesday, here in Clay County we had our Farm City Week luncheon.  Our speaker was unable to attend so I put something together to share about the history of Thanksgiving.  There were several good comments about the presentation.  At the program we recognized and presented money to our poster and essay winners in the county.  The teachers of the winners also received financial awards to use in their classrooms.
The next day, Wednesday, I was in Montgomery at a Farm PAC meeting where we decided which candidates we would support in the March election.  We listened and questioned State School Board candidates, Civil Appeals Court Judges, and Alabama Supreme Court Judges.  We voted on those we were to support in the election including US Congress candidates.  Endorsements can be seen at www.alfafarmers.org.  I did not get home until 9:30pm, long day.  On the way down about two miles from the ALFA building we did get to see a tornado form.  Rode down with David Farnsworth, Claude Friday from Talladega County, and Alton Jenkins from Clay County.
Today Lisa (Felicia) and I went to Prattville for a State Tree Farm Committee Meeting.  We met for business then got a tour of the Alabama Nature Center.  This is a great place that helps educate children and adults about what we take for granted.  They have school children there just about everyday.  They usually allow children to fish while there; it was told how many have never been fishing before, this broke my heart.
We were provided four-seated golf carts and rode fast through the park to see everything.  It was a fun day!

Tomorrow deer season starts.  Maybe we will have some good stories to tell this season!
(Below are some pictures from Alabama Nature Center.)

This is the home of the brother to the first two governors of Alabama, the Bibb brothers.  This is where we held our meeting and had lunch.  The house and the property for the Nature Center is now owned by the Alabama Wildlife Federation.

Some of the committee members at one of the ponds.

In the Cypress Swamp on the boardwalk.  It was not easy maneuvering these rides on these walks.

Committee friends, Dr.Salem and Dianne Saloom, former National Tree Farm Family winners from South Alabama, navigating the boardwalk. Notice the cart in front of us, it is being pushed.  This cart quit and we were laughing at those committee members having to push.

This was a boardwalk in the trees.  I want to do an observation stand on our property so visitors can get a feel to what it is like being up in the trees.  Mine will not be this large but it gave me some ideas.

This And That

Mountain Chestnut Oak Acorns

Scarlet Oak Acorns

The acorn crop this year is unbelievable. When you drive on the roads they crack under the tires and at times when you are walking in the woods they will crack under your feet.

Mattie, on her first day of working in the forest putting up tree stands with her Mom, Dad and Granddaddy. 

She loved riding the gator through the woods on the woods roads with Granddaddy, the weather was kinda cool.

We put this tripod up in a good location.  Now we have two more latter stands to put up soon. We have too many deer that are does on the property and wildlife biologist have told us we need to take some does off the property.  This takes skill and time to identify mature does, not to shoot small bucks.  

Jay got this one with his bow last Saturday evening.

Other pictures added to the tabs: Family, and Wildflowers.

Predators

Coyote 

Bobcat

This week has been a week where we have pictures of large predators.  The fawns have done fairly well this time even with the pressure they have felt from the predators.  I am including a few pictures here but more can be seen under the wildlife tab.

Assorted Things

     On Tuesday of this week I attended a meeting at a friends place in Cleburne County.  He had an archaeologist from the NRCS visit him and talk about landowners and archaeological sites on a landowners property.  It was a very informative talk and demonstration on where to look for these sites.
     Today I have a Forestry Planning Committee meeting at 3:30 at the Forestry Commission Office but yesterday  I took my Dad to Sellwood Plantation to shoot skeet.  Matt Williams and his dad Jeff also went to shoot.  It was a cold windy day but we had fun.  We will be doing this again!
     Lots of deer are now being seen since the wind and rain have been knocking acorns off the trees.

Pawpaw shooting at a rabbit skeet.

Pawpaw looking for the skeet to fly out.

Shoot, shoot!

Meetings

Last Monday we were in Montgomery and stayed over night and had a policy development meeting for the Alabama Farmers Federation but before we left home on Monday morning I took a picture that said " Fall is Here".  Do you know how many spiders live in the forest?  The dew shows all their webs.

Then on Thursday drove to Tuscaloosa for the State Treasure Forest Conference.  On Thursday night we had a board meeting, on Friday we had seminars on forest management, then on Saturday we had a tour on the McGiffert Property.  They have a high fence around about 1700 acres.  They said to keep things out.  There are three brothers that own the property and one is into quail hunting, releasing about 3500 quail a year.  Another brother is into duck hunting and they have a 7HP pump to flood the field they plant food for ducks.  The other brother is the deer hunting brother.  They only have Alabama deer in their fence that were native to the property.  They feed tons of high protein feed to the deer each year.  The brothers also have a big dove hunt each year where they have added some power lines for the doves and they do some turkey hunting on the property.  The brothers are engineers and do public water systems.  They had an interesting story to tell.

Tour about to began on the property.

Some of the deer in their camp house.

More deer.

This deer was found dead on the property.  It scored in the 180's.

This deer was an old deer that they had taken out, probably about eight years old.  The base was huge but it would have looked like a spike in the woods.  They had pictures of it and knew it need to be removed.  They said they had about 300 deer on their property.

They had rattle snakes too!

This was one of their mounts in the room.

You can learn so much from other people.  This is why we belong to forestry groups and spend money on these trips.  The people you meet are always nice and don't mind sharing what they do to improve their forestland.  

Let me know if you are interested in being a member of any of these groups and learn more about management of your property.

Interesting Two Days

Yesterday and today has been an intresting day on Dewberry Lands.  There will be pictures we took yesterday added to wildlife and wildflower pages but I thought I would put a few here.  Go to the other tabs to see more pictures.  First is a picture of a grasshopper that is being attacked by yellowjackets.

Next is a picture of one of our hens with a beard.  She is not the only one, one of her little ones from last year, now has a beard also.  They were both out back but I only got a picture of the old hen.

Yesterday we saw some mushrooms that were over a foot tall.  I have never seen any like this.         (Pictured below)

Yesterday there was a fawn that came out and ran around in the woods putting on a show then it joined the doe.

Last picture happened this morning before we left for church.  It was a beautiful morning with the sun shining bright.  Seven hens came out and feed then eased back into the edge of the woods.  Then the five one and a half year old jakes came to feed and they saw the hens.  Their heads turned red and one started to strut.  This started something and all at once all five started to strut and it is September 25th.  This was an amazing site.  They strutted as they followed the hens off into the woods.  For more pictures click tabs.