Never Ending Ranch Work

[The Texan]

For everybody’s enjoyment and benefit, I’d like to start this thread of Never Ending Ranch Work to document the progress and development of my family’s ranch land in Caldwell County. The property has been in the family for 14 years, a camp house was added 6 years ago, and we really have started spending more time out there the past two years. The ranch is fairly diverse but mainly consists of a post oak-savannah environment.
I’m hoping for this thread to become full of good information and useful to everybody. Please give comments, questions, and concerns when you feel so. Onto the good stuff.
We filled protein the last weekend in January and are already seeing the deer have been hitting it hard. We had to modify our protein pens to horse proof them. This past weekend we started on our wildlife water guzzlers. 10’x6’ tin sheeting that will drain into a large water container, and then a smaller trough inside of the protein pens and other dryer parts of the ranch. Still need to add containers and do plumbing.
Currently working on setting up the F150 ranch truck to be ‘ranch ready’. Got a 50” LED light bar from TBH Sponsor Extreme LED, and going to be adding a headache rack, tool box, and high rack seat in the near future.
This off season I’d really like to establish a few (4-5) smaller food plots for the deer as well as building some more permanent tree stands. Im not a big picture take but I'm sure The General and The Cajun will be along shortly to add a couple pictures.

[Saltyag15]

Cool idea! Something we always have to watch closely is maintaining our high fence down at our ranch in Encinal. Whether it's hogs or varmints digging holes, or it's illegals cutting the fence to pass through, there is always maintenance that needs to be done. It is almost impossible to keep up with, but we try our best.

The most effective way that we have found to fix the issue is to take cattle panel and cut it to the size of the hole. Then, cut out the horizontal bars at the bottom to make "spikes". Lastly, pound it into the ground and wire it to the fence. This lets small critters pass through and not feel the need to dig new holes, while keeping deer from being able to cross. Hope this helps someone out!

[The Cajun]

In the spring of 2014 we moved almost every stand and feeder pen after a thorough scout of the property. We were very satisfied with the new stand locations, but will make a few adjustments to a couple and will be adding stands in order to have two at each feeder for different winds. We also tried our luck with planting, but it did not come out as plan due to poor prep work. ( Not by us, but by someone we had doing the work). This year it will be us doing everything and with the time and research we have put in, we hope it will be a success.

This off season we have a long list of things to do and are excited to get to work. As The Texan stated above in January we got the protein filled. Last weekend we went out and built the roofing and gutters for the rain guzzlers and I believe we will be getting the totes this weekend to finish them up.

After getting the guzzlers done are next step is to start working on the new blinds and to adjust a few feeders. Our new blinds will consist of everything from tree platforms to ground blinds. This past season (2014/15) we had a total of 7 blinds on 6 feeders. For the 2015 season our goal is to have two stands on each feeder and then with the additional food plots we will have anywhere from 3-5 more stands. Giving us a total of around 16 stands to hunt for various winds.

Another project is revegetating the pond. Some of you might have seen the thread on the pond, but we plan to keep it updated on this thread. A quick history of the pond is 80 or 120 sterile grass carp were put in 7 years ago and now we are left with a pond without vegetation. The plan is to either shock or catch/bowfish the rest off and then start the vegetation process. Throughout the season we saw a consistent flow of ducks coming in and would like to turn it into a great duck spot. The plan is to plant turner seed duck mix as the pond lowers this summer and hopefully that will help with the banks. Not sure about the exposed bank, but looking at maybe sudangrass or some sort of cover to help with placing a duck blind on the pond. We will also be dropping some cedar trees and other sorts of structure into the deeper parts of the pond.

In September we plan on planting a variety of plants to make a total of around 5-6 food plots of various sizes. Have not finalized the plant selection, but have been following uncle fish and a few others to get a good idea. Possibly looking into radish, oats, clover and a few others. Will also try to create a nice screen around the plots with some hinge cutting in the woods that surround them.

Any suggestions and tips are greatly appreciated. As a TBH member I believe we are all in this together to improve our properties and we hope that this thread will not only help us, but yall as well.

[The Cajun]

Here is a aerial map of the property. Will post a few more pictures with stand locations, protein locations, and future plots.

[The Cajun]

This map shows the protein feeders, the rain clouds are the guzzlers, and the shaded green are future plots.

[The Cajun]

Feeder locations

[Truckman]

Following!
How big is the place?

[The Cajun]

Here are some pics of the set ups and work we have done recently

[The Cajun]

600 acres

[The Cajun]

Below is the plan for the pond. The white shaded area will be some sort of duck mix, but most likely turner seed. The yellow shade is going to be cover, but if we do sudan then it should be feed to. The Peach line is the levee and the red line will be the slough. The north side we don't want to plant cover so you still have the view from the house. The duck blind is the green tent. Best spot we've seen so far. Ducks usually come from the south side of this picture. And sun comes up to from the east side of this picture. Any suggestions on vegetating the pond and structures or things you have done is greatly appreciated.

[hchunter]

Nice place y'all got there, any good bucks y'all have been watching?

[The Texan]

Nice place y'all got there, any good bucks y'all have been watching?

Saw a couple decent bucks but decided not to shoot any of them this year.

[The Texan]

We have 20 semi truck loads of gravel coming tomorrow so we can improve a couple of the roads. I won't be able to get out there until after its done but will post some pics when I make it out there and take a look

[The Texan]

Was able to make it to the ranch today and do some work on the tractor. I spread some road base and put in some Fire breaks so we can hopefully burn on Friday. Lots more spreading and shredding to do though. Can't get pictures to post for some reason I'll see if I can't get them up soon

[Patton]