Regular readers of this blog, after perusing the title of this post, might conclude that I have a wildlife feeder fixation.  These readers would be correct – I do have a dogged determination to keep my wildlife feeders reliably operating at all times.  There is something very gratifying to me in seeing turkey or deer from my window on a regular basis, which is why I go through all of the fuss and bother keeping the feeders operating properly.  And fuss and bother it is, indeed.  The feeders that I have used all seem to have a common trait – they are built cheaply and lack any semblance of durability. Perhaps this is because feeders are mostly used by hunters for only brief periods of time each season, and therefore manufactures don’t feel the need to produce a high-quality product,  or perhaps it is because I have just not stumbled upon the right manufacturer yet.  In any case, I will probably end up having to write many posts about my episodes in keeping the feeders running.  It just might be the nature of the beast, as they say.

The first post was on my experiences with battery life and solar charging.  The second post was on the topic of general feeder maintenance.  You might recognize the following photograph from the general feeder maintenance post-

This was the type of feeder timer/motor unit that I had been using in one of the feeder stations.  There were several things I did not like about this device.  Changing the battery was a task that required three hands, an abundance of dexterity, and a little bit of luck to accomplish.   When the battery was changed, the timer unit would have to be reprogrammed with start times and feeding durations for each of the feeding times you desired to set in a day, and the current time would have to be reset as well.  Setting all of these parameters was a tedious chore, due to the design of the user interface.  A major annoyance was the lack of a “test” button.  As the battery weakened, there was sufficient power to run the programming circuit, but insufficient energy left to spin the motor.  Without a test button, there was no way to determine the condition of the battery.  But the worst problem with this unit was it’s lack of durability.

The photograph above shows a broken spinner plate.  I had replaced the spinner plate on this unit once already, and the fact that the replacement spinner also broke is testament to the inferior quality of this feeder unit.  With all of it’s other shortcomings, I decided to replace it with a different brand this time around.

Before I could install the timer/motor unit on the feeder barrel, I had to empty the contents of the feeder onto the ground.  After removing the old unit, I drilled new holes into the barrel using the template provided with the new feeder unit, and then bolted the new timer/motor assembly onto the barrel. 

This is the new housing for the timer/motor unit.  Unlike the previous unit, which was constructed primarily of plastic parts, this unit is built with powder-coated steel, and feels much more sturdy than the one it replaces.  Also unlike the old unit, this one is designed in a manner that makes battery replacement a quick, simple affair.  There is ample room inside for the battery, motor and controller module, and the housing is weather-proof.  The spinner plate, hub and motor shaft are constructed from heavier material than the previous unit was.

The controller module shown in the photograph above has several features that I like.  First, it is encased in it’s own weather-proof housing, providing a redundancy of moisture protection.  Second, the duration of each feed dispensing cycle can easily be adjusted by turning the dial on the upper right.  There is a test button located at the upper left.  Unlike the old unit, this one does not require re-programming each time you change the battery.  The cycle duration is controlled by the duration dial, and the feed dispensing times are set by placing the pegs (stored along the two sides) into the circular dial at the desired feeding hours.  The entire unit is protected by an in-line fuse, so that a jammed spinner plate (from debris in the feed) will not burn out the motor.

There is one other feature of this new feeder unit that I like.  On the old feeder, access was through a plate located on the underside of the unit.  Entry required the use of a screwdriver, and the four tiny screws always seemed to end up on the ground, especially during the cold winter months, when one’s fingers aren’t the most nimble of tools to work with.  If you look at the picture above, you will see that the access door of the new feeder is in the front, and is secured with one large thumb screw.  The thumb screw is attached to the housing with a ball-chain, so that it cannot fall to the ground if it is dropped.

I am hoping that this new timer/motor unit will help to alleviate some of the problems I have been experiencing in my quest for the “perfect” wildlife feeder.  As you may have guessed, I’ll keep you posted.

When you see the grill on the tractor looking like this, you’ll know that I’ve been bush-hogging a field with chest-high growth.  What you see is a variety of seeds that are knocked off the seed head of the plants as the tractor passes over them.  The suction created by the diesel engine’s cooling fan causes some of the seeds to cling to the grill, which requires me to stop and brush the grill clean every once in a while to keep the engine operating at it’s proper temperature.

Now that the fall season is nearly upon us, it is time for me to begin cutting some of the clearings on our land.  I’m not really sure that “clearing” is the correct terminology to use to describe these areas.  We have hay fields used in the regular production of hay, which I believe I correctly refer to as “fields.”  We also have a series of grazing pastures for our horses, which are correctly referred to as “pastures.”  In addition, we also have many areas that were formerly cattle grazing pastures, which I have regularly cut for the past five years, but have not been grazed by domestic livestock for the past decade.  I suppose some might refer to these areas as meadows, but I usually associate the term meadow with a former wetland that has filled in over time to become a meadow, prior to it’s continued evolution into forested land as trees successfully invade the grasses of the one-time meadow.  So the most descriptive term I have been able to come up with for these former pastures is the term “clearing.”

Now that you understand my nomenclature, I can describe the type of cutting schedules that I have created.  There is one set of considerations that determine the cutting schedule for the hay fields, which are described in the previous post entitled Fescue To The Rescue.  The horse pastures have an entirely different set of considerations, which will be the subject of a future post.  The clearings have their own unique set of considerations also, base upon the use priorities we have established for our land.

The two top priorities we have set for our land usage are family recreation and wildlife preservation.  Sometimes these two priorities are in harmony with each other, and sometimes they are in conflict.  The clearings represent an area where the two priorities may conflict.  The wildlife thrive in areas of long grasses.  Deer use the long vegetation for both browsing and for cover.  Ground birds and fowl will nest in the long grasses, and the insects that are ever present in the growth are tempting morsels for a host of creatures.  On the other hand, when we humans take our dogs hiking on our land, we enjoy the ease of travel, the (relative) freedom from massive insect attacks, and the aesthetics of a freshly cut clearing.  It is also nice to be able to see some of the more nasty varieties of snakes as you walk, without having to step on them to discover their presence! 

In an attempt to strike a reasonable balance between the sometimes conflicting uses of our land, we have decided to let some clearings grow for a year at a time, for the benefit of the wildlife.  I keep the remainder of the clearings cut for our recreational purposes.  I schedule the bush-hogging so that each individual clearing is rotated into, and then out of the cutting schedule on a regular basis, which helps to control the emergence of undesirable brush in all of the clearings, be they long or short.

Yesterday morning I took the tractor (as you see above) and cut one of our clearings.  About two hours into the bush-hogging activities, I was startled to see not one large buck, not two large bucks, and not three large bucks, but FOUR large bucks emerge from the edge of the woods surrounding this particular clearing.  I was surprised on two counts.  When I see a deer while on the tractor, it is usually on the far side of a clearing, field or pasture, and it usually flees immediately upon seeing me approach.  These deer emerged very close to where I was bush-hogging, and instead of immediately bounding off back into the woods, they stood their ground and examined me closely as I guided the tractor along.  The second reason I was surprised is that when I see a large buck, it is usually a solitary animal.  These four large bucks all arrived together, and when they departed, they all ambled off in the same direction together.  It was a very nice sighting, I’m just sorry that I don’t keep a camera on the tractor with me as I work.

It was such a fine, clear day out yesterday that after my tractor work, I decided to go up to the top of the mountain to try my hand at panoramic photography (see yesterday’s post).  After taking the series of photographs that I needed for the panorama shot, and then enjoying the view for a while, I decided to return to the clearing I had just finished cutting to snap a few photos for a possible blog post for today.  As I approached the clearing, through some brush I was able to make out the form of what I thought was a coyote nosing around in the freshly cut field, probably looking for displaced rodents, or rabbits, or whatever to snack on.

With camera in hand, I mustered up all of the stealth that I could, and approached my photographic target.  There he was, at the far edge of the clearing.  Knowing that I would probably get only one chance for a decent shot, I slowly drew the camera up into viewing position, and snapped the following photo. 

He raised his head and spotted me, turned, and trotted off into the protective cover of the nearby woods.  I shot another picture, and …DARN, DARN, DOUBLE DARN …. I saw that the camera was still set up for the low-resolution panoramic photos that I had just finished taking on the mountain top!  Oh well, the pictures aren’t as good as I would have liked, especially since I don’t see coyotes during the day too often, and particularly when I have a camera in hand, but they at least prove that I wasn’t imagining things.

Anyhow, when I was finished cutting the clearing, it looked nice and neat, as shown in the following photograph.  This clearing will now stay short for the next year, while an adjacent clearing will be allowed to stay uncut during this same time period.

On the edge of this clearing is a rocky section that all of the previous landowners (myself included) had bush-hogged in the past.  After ruining several sets of rotary cutter blades, I decided that this was a fool’s errand, and so I have left this portion to grow over with brush, as seen below.

Although I tried to be careful about leaving all of the rocky area uncut, I missed a couple of spots, which could cause equipment damage in the future.  The following photo is of one of the emerging rocks that I missed.

I will probably place marker stakes at these rocky spots this winter, so that when I cut this clearing next time, I will avoid these areas.

One last surprise was the discovery of a small cactus patch growing in this clearing.  I have seen this occur in a couple of other clearings and pastures, but never in this one.  Maybe I wasn’t sufficiently observant in the past, or maybe this has recently spread to this part of the property.  Who knows?  But I do know this – yesterday was a fun day!

 

When people talk of the Ozarks, oft times you will hear them referring to the landscape of the area as “hills and hollers.”  If you visit a local real estate brokerage and mention that you are looking for some acreage to buy, odds are that the agent will ask if you are looking for a hill, or if you prefer a holler.  We are very fortunate to have both a hill and a holler on our land.  About half of this property consists of a kidney bean shaped valley (holler), which is where our house and outbuildings, hay fields, some woods, many pastures, and most of our water sources exist.  Most all of the photographs that you may have seen on this website have been taken somewhere or another within our holler.

Today, I plan to introduce you to our hill.  For lack of a better name, we refer to this hill as the “mountain”, although that term is probably a little pretentious, as the maximum elevation of our mountain (hill, really) is only 1238′ above sea level.  There are currently no structures of any kind on the mountain, except for two gates at the base of the fire lanes that lead up the hill.  The gates (one of which is pictured below) are there to deter any intruders who might seek to disturb the peace and tranquility of the mountain in any way.

Approximately half-way up the mountain there exists a large, crescent-shaped pasture area of about 20 acres.  Additionally, the remains of an old lead-ore mining extraction operation can be found (which will be the subject of a future post).  There are a few seasonal streams to be found on the mountain, as well as two wildlife ponds (one of which is dry).

The primary value of the mountain to us is twofold.  First, it provides us with a buffer zone and sound shield against the vehicle noise that is generated along the paved road that lies about two miles from our ranch.  And second, it provides us with a wonderful location where we can relax and enjoy a grand view of the surrounding countryside.

Click here to view a large panoramic photograph of the view from atop the mountain.   (This is a 800kb file – it might take a minute to load – be sure to view it full-sized in your browser window.  It should fill the entire height of the window.)

If you take the time to load the panorama view from the mountain top, you will see that the view is too lovely to waste, so Retta and I have decided to build some type of recreational structure up at the apex of the peak.  We have not settled upon any particular plans as of yet, but we are leaning towards a large covered deck, perhaps with an outdoor fireplace and built-in stone BBQ.

Anybody out there with any other ideas?