Forest Road Maintenance

Forest road maintenance sometimes seems to be a never ending job but it must be done to have access to your property.  I worked on road spraying last week with the use of my four wheeler. 

Sunflowers And Birds

Our sunflowers really did well this year.  We planted two different times and some have already started dropping seed.  They are mixed with brown-top millet and the song birds are really working them along with the doves and wild turkeys.  We also have corn that will be coming in later.

This-N-That

There was a great article in the New York Times this week about the Longleaf Pine.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/nyregion/salvaging-a-long-lasting-wood-and-new-york-citys-past.html?utm_source=WIT072415&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=WeekInTrees

Pictured above are some of the young trees we planted this year.

A quote from the article:

“Everybody in the wood business says the longleaf pine tree was the best wood the Lord ever made,”

Also, this rain we received this week really helped our corn and sunflowers we have planted for wildlife.  There are song birds galore and this morning there were four hen turkeys and 4 poults using across the field.

Summer Plots Planted

Last week I finished planting our summer wildlife plots!  This was the last of our plantings and it was a mixture of soybeans and sunn hemp.  You can go to the link at the bottom of the page, privatforestlandowner, and access more information about this new crop I planted.

Water Is Life

Five grandchildren splashing, playing in the branch,  Ages from one to eight.  We have a pool and they enjoy it but nothing compares to playing in the branch.  The only time they are sad is when we have to leave.

BEARS ARE HERE!

Last week we were at Cave's Cove and the bears were really out.  It is exciting to me that we are beginning to have more and more sightings of bears in our area.  Just today a bear was sighted in Heflin about 20- 25 miles away.

The Alabama Game and Fish website recently had an article about bears and the bear recently seen in Alexandria, about 40 miles away.  Attached is the article: http://www.outdooralabama.com/young-black-bear-makes-appearance-alexandria-ala

The article shows sightings in Alabama since 2010.  In 2014, I sent a video to them of the bear we had on the game camera on our property.  I was not sure it was a bear but I knew it looked like it, for what I could tell.  After seeing the bears this weekend and watching them walk I then decided it was a bear. The Game and Fish division thought it was a bear too after they saw it because they have it marked in Clay County in 2014.  If you look back at my 2014 post in February you can see that video.

SFI Photo Contest

I entered this photo I made in the backyard at our home on Dewberry Lands after a summer shower.  This photo was selected by SFI as the winning photo in the Scenic Forest category. 

I received a nice thank you note from SFI and a $250 gift card from Amazon.

Here is a link to the announcement and pictures from the other winners and runners-up: http://www.sfiprogram.org/photo-contest/photo-contest-winners/

Check out the SFI website for more information on what SFI is all about.

SFI is  responsible for maintaining, overseeing and improving the internationally recognized Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®) program.