Doe Had Close Call

I have told several people about the doe at our house that had a close call.  I have posted pictures under the "Miscellaneous" tab for you to see.  What do you think did this to her?  I wish I knew but I might be afraid to go our side with out my gun.

Prescribed Burn of Two Year Old Longleaf Pines

The best tool for managing longleaf pines, fire.

This is a picture of the two year old longleaf pines before the burn. In the next few days I am going to add pictures and videos of the burn of our eight year old stand.

Picture taken after the burn.  The competition is eliminated, Brown Spot disease is controlled and the longleaf pines will thrive this year.  This will become a haven for deer next year because of the increase in the amount of food available.  Wild turkeys are already using this area because it is open and predators can be easily seen.  

The start of the burn.  

The day we burned we had a northwest wind and the ground was frozen, what we called spewed up.

It was wet so the roots stayed cool.  It was a perfect day for burning longleaf pines.

No, it will not kill them, just make them grow better!

It looks bad now (not really) but these trees will double in size this year.

Winter of 2013-14

I have added some pictures of the winter snow on Dewberry Lands from January 2014.  I hope you enjoy!

A hemlock tree we planted down at our park area with a light dusting of snow.

This is the old railroad bed covered with snow.  The snow really made it where you could see for a long distance.

This stream and the mountain laurel covered with snow made for a peaceful setting at the park on our property.

At the park, the bridge across another stream where the railroad once crossed.

Abby and Nathan were waiting for me to make this picture so we could get started tracking deer in the snow.  We saw several the two days we hunted in the snow but we didn't see any we wanted to harvested. It was a beautiful time to be in the woods and a great time to get an estimate on the number of deer we have on the property.

This Is "Multiple Use"

We have just cut these 40" long sweetgum bolts off of our property for the purpose of growing Shiitake Mushrooms. We made several trips to get enough sticks to grow the mushrooms.  This is a project we just started.  We inoculated the logs this past weekend with the spores and hope to be harvesting mushrooms in six to nine months.  

Harvesting these sweetgum trees in a loblolly pine stand is just another way of "cutting down" on the competition in the loblolly stands, IPM "integrated pest management". 

Farm Bill 2014

Below is a copy of correspondence I received this week about the farm bill from the American Forest Foundation.  I thought I would share it with you.  Sounds good!

Dear Lamar,   Today, after months of negotiations, the Farm Bill Conference Committee released a final bipartisan, bicameral compromise bill.   If passed by the full House and Senate, this new Farm Bill would see huge wins for forest owners. Thanks to all your hard work and outreach, we should see significant improvements for family woodland owners in this legislation.   Basically, this is the best Farm Bill yet for forests. And it's all because of your great effort.   What's included? New market opportunities and further research on additional opportunities. Protection from unnecessary permit requirements on your forest roads. Protection from the threat of forest invasive pests. Improved access to tools and resources for forest stewardship. But we need your help!   In order to solidify these victories, we need your help. Please call your Senators and Representatives and encourage them to vote YES on the Farm Bill.   We expect to see a vote in the House on Wednesday and a vote in the Senate perhaps later this week.   We're almost to the Farm Bill finish line, but we need your help to ensure new legislation that makes sense for forest owners finally becomes law.   Thanks,   Christine Cadigan Public Affairs Manager American Forest Foundation   P.S. Want to know more? Check out our ATFS Farm Bill website and find details on all the forestry provisions.

Spring Hurry Up!

The "Boys of Spring" are tired of this cold weather. The weather forecasters are saying 10 in the morning and 10 to 19 next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  I think these turkeys thought if they strutted some last week it might make spring come soon.

Random Shots and Burning Season

A neat little waterfall I found on the property we lease for hunting.  Not on our land but I added this picture because of the beauty. 

This was the sunrise last Monday on a cool January morning.  It was so clear and the sky was beautiful as the day began.

Prescribe Fire Time 

Tomorrow we plan to burn this two year old stand of longleaf pines.  After the burn I am going to make a picture from this same site to show the results.  Maybe the weather will cooperate so we can get this in tomorrow.  We may burn the seven year old stand of longleaf pines at McCollum this week too. After the burn I plan to add some pictures of the controlled burn to this blog as the fire is in progress.

The firelanes are in place and ready to start the burn first thing in the morning.