Old folks like your friend there have forgotten more knowledge than most of us can ever gain today in 5 lifetimes. When one of them goes, the world loses big time. A strong work ethic is just a way of life. Every young person should be required to spend a month with an old feller like that
:angel
I would not let the lack of deer sign concern you one bit. If there is one thing I have learned over the last couple years...is if a spot has everything a deer needs (food and cover), then they will be there when the time is right
By the time your season kicks in you will have more deer than you can shake a stick at
Thanks for the story of your friend. We had two such men as friends when I was a young man. Neither married and lived at home with their mother on the farm where they were raised. The mother cooked on a woodfired stove and when they offered to put in a gas one for her she told them if they ever did she was done cooking.
We used to get REAL home made butter from them AWESOME! They used to help us butcher our pigs and did it the old way by boiling water in a big tank on an outside fire. Lead the pig to the tank, hand stick it with a knife, then hoist it up into the air and lower into the water. Take it out and skinned all the hair off off it with a special knife that they had. They always left the hide on when they butchered. not sure why.
Anyway, It is amazing what you can learn for folks that use to do this stuff for years the "old fashion way".
Oh and on your corn crop, Do not be concerned about not finding signs of tracks leading into/out of the corn. I am willing to bet you have a herd already living in it. Deer love corn because it provides them with everything they need. Food, Cover, Water can be found in puddles within rows. I have seen/found many deer that enter the corn fields once it gets to the right stage and never leave until it gets cut.
One year in PA no one was shooting any bucks in their normal spots. A farmer had left his corn up longer that he normally did. Someone got the idea to do deer drives (set up guys to watch and guys to walk through the area, in this case the corn) and they killed a ton of bucks. They were all bedded and living in the corn.
Day 138 Corn patch food plot
Weather has been nice, couple mornings it has been in the 50's but warm up to the high 80's. Now in a warming trend with rain forcast for week end. Good for drying corn on the stalk.
After dinner today I drove a tractor from the southeast corner of the plot towards the shooting house. Locked on the center of the open window and drove over the rows, then went around the patch and followed the track widening the lane to 12'. Will pick up most of the corn we knocked down for seed for next season and enough to make some corn meal. As time allows I will do this 3 or 4 more times to create the shooting lanes we discussed earlier.
Still haven't seen the right spot for a camera, tracks are random. Camera is now set on a trail that is used every year during hunting season where the deer come from some rough woods, across an old woven wire fence into some planted pines then into the plot.
Pictures today show from the ground back to shooting house and visa versa.
Treefarmer
Very sorry to hear about your friend Treefarmer. They don't make 'em like that anymore I can tell ya. Plot is looking good. Thanks for all the updates. I always look forward to your posts.
I went to Lowe's today to grab some stuff....they were selling dried corn (Literally a dried corn stalk like you have there with one ear of dried corn hanging on it) for $4.50/stalk. Guess its for decorative purposes.
You were the first person I thought of
