Prairie Valley Farm

[IkemanTX]

I spent the day, Wednesday, working a chainsaw on the farm. I burned through 5 tanks of gas with a high of 88. Wire myself out, that’s for sure.
I got a good bit done, though.

The neighbor put his horses on for one last grazing before food plots go in a few weeks from now.



Also, the wildflowers are starting to pop. This blue indigo is probably my favorite.







[MEDIA=youtube]V40GUOIla-0[/MEDIA]


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[El Paisano]

Wishing that I was able to work on my place...virus panic has travel all wadded up and it is a 6 hour drive. Enjoy reading about your place.

[IkemanTX]

I didn’t take any pictures today, but my son and I got out and sprayed the total of 4.5 acres that makes up the 3 plots. I figure I will till and plant the weekend of the 25th, weather permitting.

I only have 2 days of work left for the month thanks to the “shelter in place”, so I am flexible on the timing this year. I might have to get out and finish up the chainsaw work next week in the interim. [emoji2]
I’ve only got maybe a day and a half of solid cutting to do and I should be good as far as cutting for the season.

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[Cardinal]

Following...progress is looking good, Ikeman

[Blackmouth]

PM sent

[IkemanTX]

Prairie Valley Farm

Planted the plots yesterday.
11 hours of work, and one HECK of a sunburn.
I underestimated how slow the tilling process would be. The plots really probably needed a second pass as chunky as the clay was, but we just didn’t have it in us to run a full second day.
The dove plot ended up at just under an acre, instead of 2, because the lower lying section was so hard the tractor couldn’t maintain RPM’s no matter how shallowly we tilled.





My son and stepfather helping me out.


And the horses the neighboring rancher was SUPPOSED to have off the place no later than Saturday......



[MEDIA=youtube]R0DKzng9_QQ[/MEDIA]


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[IkemanTX]

Prairie Valley Farm

Well, I swung by the farm and noticed that some of the more drought tolerant species had started to germinate... even with a week without rain! Now I am glad I went with such diverse mixtures... at least something will make it, even if it isn’t deer food!
It looks to be Thursday/Friday at the earliest before rain hits the farm again. The real decent percentages for rain don’t show up until next tuesday... 16 days after planting before rain.

If the forecast had shown a dry spell, I would have held off on planting. Hopefully all is not lost, but there sure has been a lot of crow, dove, and pig activity cleaning the plots....


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[IkemanTX]

Update...
we ended up with 15 days without rain immediately following planting. Both days forecasted for rain the week I planted fell through, and everything turned to rock hard clay crumbles. After 15 days, we got about 0.5”, then 4-5 days later we got almost an inch, and finally we spent about the last week and a half getting good rains on the farm. That puts us, now, at 5 weeks after planting.

The dove plot looks AWESOME. It ended up being much smaller than I planned due to much of the area being saturated when we planted.


The main plot looks abysmal. It looks like it started to germinate with the residual soil moisture at planting, and dies with the subsequent 2 weeks of hot and dry weather. It looks like the mustard, brassicas, safflower, and sunn hemp are effectively the only things left.


The 50/50 Alyce clover and Joint Vetch plot is weedy, but starting to grow.



The forecast looks to be turning dry for the next week or so.... hopefully this isn’t the case, because the top inch or of soil is crusted and cracked already. I REALLY need to figure out a way to go no-till ASAP. This ground just can’t handle extended dry periods, and holds too much water in wet periods.

The cedars are drying down well after being cut. I’ll bet they are ready to burn by February. This burn unit will be 7 acres... 3 of which is cut cedars. It should one HECK of a fire.

The 7 acre unit the cedars are in also has a surprisingly diverse variety of wildflowers and forbs.
I am up to no less that 20 wildflower species for the year already, and I’m not a skilled identifier.





















Below is the smaller of the 2 creeks on the place. This will be the north fire break (looking south) for the 7 acre unit that is first scheduled to burn. I am thinking of making this location an alternative creek crossing, as this spot is down to bedrock and would only need approach and departure dirt work done. No worry about getting stuck here.



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[TreeDaddy]

Think:Bees!!!!

bill

[IkemanTX]

Think:Bees!!!!

bill

Oh, there’s definitely bees. There’s a wild hive in a hollow trunk, and they’ve popped me 3 times already this year. They are as “hot” a hive as I have ever seen. They got after me yesterday, and I was probably 10 yards away.


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[El Paisano]

Looking good. Amazing what sunlight and fire can do.

[hunt247]

Do some research with grant money that can help you restore the land. My dad did it on 100 acres restoring back to native grass. I think it payed 50% of the cost. Not much cost to us since we did most of the work.

[elgato]

Love the flowers. Easy to focus on plots, roads , projects etc and not stop to just enjoy the wealth of beauty all around.

[DUKFVR]

Looking Great & Thanks for sharing!

[IkemanTX]

https://youtu.be/Ep84g4mL_yQ

Spent a little time out at the farm.
It got a little long, but I figured I’d leave it all together instead of making 3 or 4 separate videos.


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