Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
The WeHuntSC.com team headed back out to do some more work on a remote food plot that we?re installing as part of our Food Plot Journey. It has finally started warming back up in our neck of the woods and I?m glad it has. In between wedding showers, parties, the weekends of honey-do?s + flower/tuxedo/ring/invitation/ selections, birthday celebrations, and all the recent snow, getting a weekend to work has been some slim pickings. With all of the business, it was good to get out and do some work and try to be productive again.
As part of our Food Plot Journey, we are planting several food plots for the upcoming deer season. Most of these food plots are located in fields that tractors can easily access. With this easy tractor access to the food plot areas, it?s not hard to plow the dirt up, spread lime, or get the seed out. Though, with a remote food plot, we specifically place smaller food plots in thicker, denser areas where tractors could never reach. Just to get to these locations is difficult sometimes. For this particular food plot, we had to cross a creek, a few mud holes, and ride through the woods for a good ways just to reach the stand location. As you are probably aware, deer like cover and so placing food plots deep in the woods is just fine by them. In some ways we are taking a food source to them instead of trying to get them to come to our food source.
Taking the food source to the deer incurs a little work on the hunter?s part though. I guess there are some prices to pay in order install a food plot back deep in the woods. Though, the prices you pay mostly come at the expense of your physical labor. Some areas are more open and naturally lend themselves to having a food plot installed in their locations whereas other areas may require a little more work. In our case, this area required some work. We spent a total of three days working on this remote food plot. This area is situated in some planted pines where a lumber crew had previously come in and thinned out the pines a few years back. The part that took the longest was cutting down the volunteer saplings that had taken up where the pines use to be. We cut these down and eventually had to get their root systems out as well because the pointed stubs in the ground are prime suspects for puncturing the tires of a 4-wheeler. Rakes, axes, bush-axes, sheers, clippers, shovels, chainsaws, you name it we used them all. Over the course of working out there I caught poison ivy once, dulled a chainsaw blade twice, and had several blisters on my hands. I think Will may have pulled an ab when he bent over once as well! Though, I guess typing on a computer every day at work doesn?t really prepare my hands for this kind of labor either! All in all, we had to put in some hours of work to get ground ready to be disked and I?m not sure if we could have done it without Sam Mungo in the previous week.
Since we had cleared the ground, it was time for Adam to come in with the GroundHog MAX and throw some dirt around. As we?ve mentioned before, the GroundHog MAX is an attachment (not a pull behind) that attaches directly beneath an ATV. People have asked me ?How well does that thing really work? (with an emphasis on the word ?REALLLY?) and after today, I can confidently tell you that it works very well. You?ll see the video of it in action below.
The area where we are installing this food plot has some thick clay beneath the surface and I was interested to see how the GroundHog MAX would handle the clay land. Another note that I mentioned in the video and will mention here is that Adam?s 4-wheeler is a 2-wheel drive. The GroundHog MAX would probably do even better with a 4-wheel drive, but regardless we were still able to get the job done with the 2-wheel drive ATV. We ran the GroundHog MAX lightly for a good while to get the top-soil broken up some and then later we dropped it down lower to get more traction with the soil. As you?ll see in the below video, we were able to get the dirt turned up well, plenty well enough to get some seed in the ground.
Apologies... for some reason I was shouting into the Flip Video Recorder - I'll try not to shout at you in future videos
With the ground now disked up and soil overturned, we are now ready to come back in and put some lime down. (NOTE: We know the ratio of pounds per acre of lime to put down based off the soil sample result that we previously had returned to us from our local Clemson agricultural extension.) Due to the snow and the aforementioned factors of a busy life, we are probably a little late getting the lime down as the soil sample reports indicated that the lime needs to be in place 3 ? 6 months before planting. Lime needs time to work and in this case of our remote food plot, we?re a little late getting it down. The pH in this specific location is 5.4 and (as previously mentioned in the soil sample blog) we are shooting for a pH of 7. Thus, we need to get some lime down and some fertilizer in hopes of getting the soil as close to 7 as possible. We may not get it to 7 quickly, but as we keep working this food plot the pH will get closer and closer to 7 every time we put down more lime. So, this will be a work in progress and a continued learning experience. Thanks to the guys for coming out and helping get this accomplished.
Next up will be a blog entry about putting some lime down. I continue to learn more about food plot installation, management, and Mother Nature in general. This time I also learned a little more about the GroundHog MAX.
*** Be sure to check out our Hunter?s Night Out that will take place on May 1st, 2010 where the inventor of the GroundHog MAX will be on hand speaking along with representatives from Tecomate Seed & QDMA.
Regards, Clint
Join us for our Hunter's Night Out
WeHuntSC.com is excited to host the WeHuntSC.com Hunter?s Night Out which will take place on Saturday, May 1st, 2010 at First Baptist Church Fellowship hall in Pageland, South Carolina. We received a lot of feedback from the ?Food Plot Journey? with people wanting to know more so we?ve asked the organizations involved with the Food Plot Journey to come and present and they?ve all agreed! The subject matters for the evening will be food plot creation + maintenance and game management. So if you?re interested in food plots or quality deer management, then round up your hunting buddies and come on out and join us. The event is free! The event will start at 5:30 and will last around 1.5 hours given the # of questions that get asked. We will also have some food and drinks afterwards for anyone interested. Featured Speakers Background: Keith Frachiseur ? Keith is the inventor of the a new concept in ATV plows..., his very own GroundHog MAX ATV plow. Keith is from Georgia and is an avid hunter. Keith invented the GroundHog MAX ATV plow while thinking of creative ways to get food plots in those remote places where the big bucks hide out. The GroundHog MAX ATV plow is owned by Monroe Tufline. Keith is also knowledgeable about tractors & tractor parts. QDMA Representative ? The QDMA representative will discuss the following:
Mike Lee ? Mike is the Southeast Territory Manager for Tecomate Seed and hails from Alabama. Mike is very knowledgeable about all things food plots! Mike has years of experience planting food plots of all types and has an in depth understanding of how it all works.
Event Summary Event: Hunters Night Out Location: First Baptist Church Fellowship Hall, Pageland SC ? Google Map to Location Time: 5:30 Cost: Free Featured Speakers: Mike Lee (Tecomate Seed), Keith Frachiseur (GroundHog MAX), & a QDMA representative Subjects Covered: Food Plot Creation + Game Management Event Contact: Adam Smith ([email protected])
If you plan on attending the event, please submit the form on the Hunter's Night Out page so we can get a head count on the # of people so that we can have the correct amount of food on hand! - Tell Us You're Coming Here
Regards,
Clint
While the new media module (the part of the application that lets you upload photos & embed videos) is way better than our previous photo gallery, it has been bothering me that we haven?t been able to comment on the photos and videos. Sometimes the technical stuff takes longer to work through and communicate?especially when you?re planning a wedding, but now it is possible! I?m pretty excited about it too. If you go to the ?Game? pages or ?Trail Camera? page you will see (when you click on an image or video) that you can now post comments beneath the pictures while inside the lightbox. Hopefully, this added functionality will better serve our audience? aka? you! For all you tech-heads, this commenting feature is available via some major AJAX (asynchronous javascript & XML). Matter of fact, the whole modal/lightbox effect is AJAX. Also, if you have been looking at the site a lot, when you first go to the site you may not see the images because the cached page in your computer. You will need to press F5 or refresh in order for them to appear. When it first happened, I thought I had somehow deleted all the images in the gallery and I almost had a heart attack, but then after I thought about it, it made sense. So ? comment away and tell Hoot how good his dogs look on the rabbit page! Regards, CBP
The WeHuntSC.com team is excited to announce that Thermacell is sponsoring this year?s ?Turkey Video Hunt of the Year Competition?. If you hunt turkeys in South Carolina and don?t know about Thermacell, then you need to be introduced? that is unless you just like to get bitten by mosquitoes. Thermacells are a must have to hunt in any warm weather period of the year. We use them during turkey season and early parts of deer season.
This year Thermacell is releasing a new product called the Thermacell lantern which is what the competition will get along with a thermacell! Here is an excerpt from Thermacell?s web site about their newly released lantern:
The Outdoor Lantern has many updated features: eight LEDs offer twice as much light as earlier ThermaCELL models; the easy-grip handle makes the lantern easy to carry or hang, and the lantern weight, at under a pound, makes transport a breeze. In addition, the lantern and mosquito repellent can be used separately or together. ?We have created a more rugged lantern for outdoor enthusiasts who want a portable, light-weight solution to mosquitoes. By offering customers a dual function lantern that has a highly effective repellent as well as illumination options, we are making outdoor activities safer and more enjoyable,? said Bill Schawbel, president of The Schawbel Corporation. The ThermaCELL Outdoor Lantern operates on a single butane cartridge, which heats a mat releasing allethrin, a synthetic copy of a natural insecticide found in pyrethrum flowers, creating a 15 x 15 foot comfort zone. Each repellent mat provides up to four hours of protection and each butane cartridge provides up to 12 hours of operation. The new ThermaCELL Outdoor Lantern features:
Eight LED lights, with two illumination settings
Twice as much light as previous ThermaCELL lanterns
Up to 98% protection from mosquitoes, black flies and no-see-ums
15 x 15 foot comfort zone
Easy grip handle
Rugged outdoor structure
Lightweight - 13oz
Mosquito repellent operates on a single butane cartridge
Light operates on four AA batteries (not included)
Available February 2010
MSRP: $29.99
If you follow the site, then you know that Thermacell has been with us since day one and we?re happy that they are sponsoring this year?s Turkey Video Competition. To learn more about Thermacell, just jump on over to their web site at www.mosquitorepellent.com.
We are excited to announce that GearFrenzy has partnered with us to sponsor this year?s ?Turkey of the Year Competition?! GearFrenzy is an up and coming online marketplace for all things hunting gear. GearFrenzy has a lot of video from some of the outdoor pros on their site and they specifically talk about the products they use within the site. If you haven?t checked out their site, you should give it a look at www.GearFrenzy.com An excerpt from the GearFrenzy web page:
At Gear Frenzy, we believe choosing the right gear shouldn?t be hard, but with so many options, it can be difficult to know exactly what to buy!
To help you get ready for your next trip, we are teaming up with the best hunters in the industry, bringing you expert advice straight from the people you know and trust. Not only can you see the gear they use, but you can also see firsthand how and why they use it. It?s an experience like no other.
Get invited into Michael Waddell?s hunting shed, sit in the stand next to Tiffany Lakosky and do laundry with Mark Kayser! These are just some of the experiences you will have while at Gear Frenzy. And the best thing about it? We are just getting started!
So now that you know a little bit about them, feel free buy products from their web site and tell them that WeHuntSC.com sent you!
If you?re from a city around South Carolina that isn?t close to Pageland, then you may or may not know about the legendary Smoke House Grill. The Smoke House Grill is a buffet that is located on Highway 151 right outside of Jefferson, SC. The Smoke House Grill attracts people from everywhere and is really good, so if you?ve never heard of it or tried it out, you may want to make the trip!
Some of the WeHuntSC.com gang met up to eat breakfast at the Smoke House and of course Hoot was there early (with dogs loaded on the back of the truck) and he called me at 5 minutes til 8 because he thought I had overslept. I reminded him that we had 5 minutes left on the clock and I arrived at 7:59! We all sat around and ate and then Hoot left to run the dogs again. He?s hard at it 24/7/365!
Lem and I left and went to do some work on the remote food plot that I?m trying to install in the middle of some planted pines way deep in the woods. Hopefully this time I didn?t catch any poison ivy. If it?s like it was last time, I should know here in a day or two! Anyway, we worked hard cutting trees, raking pine straw, and getting the area ready for Adam Smith and the GroundHog MAX to come to do some work. When this happens, I?ll try to get some more footage and post on the blog about it.
After the morning work, Lem and I went and picked up our supervisor Sam Mungo to take him to lunch. Sam is the hardest working Mungo in his family and motivated Lem and I to continue working hard throughout the remainder of the day.
I just wanted to post this blog to give you a look at where we are in the hopeful installation of this remote food plot.
The post-game interview with Sam
If you?re around the Greenville area, or want to make a road trip in April, be sure to check out Trinity Baptist Church?s 2010 Sportsmen Fellowship! Door prizes include:
The Sportsmen?s Fellowship will feature guest speaker Frank Addington Jr. aka ?Aspirin Buster? + many vendors will be present with displays!
Event Info:
Location:
Trinity Baptist Church 324 Belton Dr. Williamston, SC 29697 864-847-5582 www.trinity-bc.org
Date: April 17, 2010 Cost: Tickets are $5 per person Time: Doors open @ 11:00 am - Meal served @ 1:00 pm For More Information: Call: 864-847-5582 EVENT FLYER
In case you haven?t been following along or are new to the site, I?d like to catch you up to speed. We are in the early stages of our ?Food Plot Journey?. Up until now we have selected our areas where we are going to plant food plots and collected our soil samples. The WeHuntSC.com Team is going to plant several Tecomate Seed Food Plot products in various locations. Some of these locations will be remote locations where we install the food plots with a GroundHog MAX and others are tractor accessible.
The Readouts It didn?t take long for our soil samples to return back from the Agricultural Service Laboratory at Clemson. The data on the soil sample readout was very detailed and informative. We received a general information sheet that helped us to understand what the data in our readouts meant. There were summary sections for ?Soil Test Results?, ?Understanding Your Soil Sample?, ?Nutrients? etc. So even a web guy can make sense of what is going on with this readout (kind of!). Along with the general ?help you understand the readout? sheet was another sheet titled the ?Soil Report? which contained the actual results from our soil.
When we sent the soil samples in, we had to tell them what we were going to be planting so that they would best know what to recommend. The information section is structured in tables and has 2 columns denoting the specific analysis and the result of the analysis. The current pH and levels of Phosphorous, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc, Boron, Copper, Sodium, Sulfur, Soluble Salts, Nitrate Nitrogen, & Organic Matter were all shown in this table. Below this section was a section of calculations which discussed the acidity of the soil, the base saturation, and more scientific stuff that I can?t really spell correctly even with spell-check! Then followed the recommended amount of lime (in pounds) that need to be added to the soil with other nutrient information recommendations based off our proposed type of plant that we?re planting?in this case, a legume.
The top-most category on the sheet was the Soil Ph. With pH, the magic # is 7. The goal is to try to be as close to 7 as you can because a pH of 7 offers the best growing environments for plants. In the first readout, the pH of the soil was 7.0 so we are right on track with it. This soil in the area of this specific food plot has been managed along with having been farmed before. Some of the other readouts on the property were not as close and a lime application was recommended. Since we are planting legumes there was no recommendation for nitrogen because the plants will produce their own once the root system is established. This nitrogen balancing act is unique to legumes. In order for the plants to produce their own nitrogen they must be properly inoculated, especially in areas where they have not been grown before. If inoculants are not used, the plants may not properly develop a root system and a poor stand may result. Check with your local feed and seed store to get the correct inoculants. Make sure to check the expiration date and use more than what the minimum recommendation is on the package to make sure you get enough. For more information on inoculants, see The inoculants .PDF
Now that we know what we need to add to the soil, we?ll probably bush-hog the field and get it ready to be limed. When we take more steps?we?ll document them here! Regards, Clint
The WeHuntSC.com team is excited to announce that Tufline?s GroundHog MAX is getting involved with WeHuntSC.com in more ways than one! What is a GroundHog MAX you might ask? A GroundHog MAX is an awesome attachment for 4-wheelers used to create remote food plots. And by ?attachment?, I don?t mean a ?pull-behind?! The GroundHog MAX attaches directly under the back end of an ATV. Since the attachment can be flipped and carried in ?transport mode?, and is no wider than the 4-wheeler, so anywhere you can get the 4-wheeler?you can have a food plot. What?s probably best is for me to show you a video of it instead of trying to describe it in words. Check out what I mean?
Embedding that video sure saves me time trying to explain how it works! Now that all you deer hunting, ATV owners are drooling, I?ll tell you how can you get one. There are 3 ways that I know of? either win the ?Buck of the Year? competition next hunting season, go to your local Tractor Supply (after the first of April), or travel on over to www.ATVPlowPlus.com and place your order online. The thing that we deer hunters will love about the GroundHog MAX is that it provides the possibility of creating food plots way back deep in the woods?that?s right?exactly where the big bucks like them! I believe the GroundHog MAX will change the way hunters view food plots and food plot creation as the GroundHog MAX opens the door to new opportunies. As you can see below, the WeHuntSC.com team is already busy getting our remote food plot underway and yes, we are using the GroundHog MAX to do so!
Hunters Night Out If you read these blog entries, then you know that Mike Lee from Tecomate Seed is going to give a presentation at our ?Hunter?s Night Out? when he comes up in the Spring. Keith Frachiseur, the inventor of the GroundHog MAX, has also agreed to speak that same day. As I mentioned earlier, Adam Smith ([email protected]) is spearheading the ?Food Plot Journey? and our ?Hunter?s Night Out?. We will provide more information as the time gets closer, but just know that Tecomate Seed & the GroundHog MAX representatives will both be on hand to speak and we?re looking into getting food there as well! So all in all, GroundHog MAX will sponsor next year?s ?Buck of the Year? competition, co-sponsor our ?Food Plot Journey?, and will present at our ?Hunter?s Night Out? and we are glad they are on board. Regards, Clint
