2023-2024 Preseason

[jrock75]

Been busy working on projects and equipment trying to take advantage of the second dry summer in a row we have had. Rare occurrence to get work done. Last year I posed a bunch about the freshwater marsh cleanout and blind project we did. This year we are focused on two 100 acre fields at the far south end of the farm. These fields have been grown up for the last 5-10 years full of cattails and phragmites. Both fields are between 0-1' of elevation so they require a pump to completely drain and that pump was broken when we bought the property. Last year we put in place new water control structures and we got the pump fixed this year and were able to dry everything out. We aerially sprayed both fields this summer and got a good kill on one of them and an ok kill on the other. Burning is what we really needed but they put in place a burn ban in early July just as we were ready. We mowed what we could but it was so thick it was giving the equipment hell. Last week we spoke with the fire marshall and found out that farm fields were exempt since we are planning on having these planted in rice in the spring. We lit them up on Saturday and got one of the fields burned really well. We will run a disk across it next week.

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The image below shows our plans for this unit. We are going to beef up the cross levee to handle ATV traffic with a big blind in the middle. The north half of the field will be managed as moist soil. We will take out all the sub levees in the bottom half of the unit and it will be a reservoir where we keep 1-2' of water on it year-round and grow submerged aquatic vegetation.

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The field that you can barely see at the very top of the picture is the one that didn't die as well with the spray. We are in the process of mowing it and will then burn and disk it if it stays dry for a couple more weeks. It will probably be a rest field that we keep 6-12" of water on.

[BGkirk]

Looks like a lot of fun. Glad ya figured out ya could burn.


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[Duck Engr]

That’s pretty exciting. Looking forward to updates!

[5 stand]

I agree thanks for the update, it's pretty cool to see what others do, to try to kill a duck...

[Rick]

...Last week we spoke with the fire marshall and found out that farm fields were exempt since we are planning on having these planted in rice in the spring...

Was about to suggest you check on that. Here in Louisiana the ag land burn ban exemption even extends to marsh.

Sure envy your project and look forward to following its evolution.

[Deltaman]

Glad Ma Nature gave you a another break long enough to get those fields opened back up, and looking forward to seeing and hearing about your success during the season. Nice Job

[Darren]

Sure like where this is heading ! Best of luck with it, thanks for sharing

[jrock75]

...Last week we spoke with the fire marshall and found out that farm fields were exempt since we are planning on having these planted in rice in the spring...

Was about to suggest you check on that. Here in Louisiana the ag land burn ban exemption even extends to marsh.

Sure envy your project and look forward to following its evolution.

I also found out that there is a broad exemption for any controlled burn that is managed by a certified burn manager. We also have some pretty rigorous notification procedures for what they call "salt marsh" which for us would get the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge (our neighbor on most of 3 sides) involved and I am sure that would slow the process to a screeching halt.

[jrock75]

I agree thanks for the update, it's pretty cool to see what others do, to try to kill a duck...

No doubt. The stage of my waterfowl "sickness" has progressed far beyond killing ducks. Much to my wife's chagrin, with this habitat creation obsession I somehow found a way to spend way more time away from the house than I do hunting.

[Duck Engr]

I agree thanks for the update, it's pretty cool to see what others do, to try to kill a duck...

No doubt. The stage of my waterfowl "sickness" has progressed far beyond killing ducks. Much to my wife's chagrin, with this habitat creation obsession I somehow found a way to spend way more time away from the house than I do hunting.

Quote from my wife last summer “I swear I think you spend more time and enjoy fooling around with planting and tractor work than you do actually hunting.” Only took her 13 years to figure me out.

[Ducaholic]

Labor of Love...

[jrock75]

Still dry so we are still working. Our mowing tractor continues to give us fits. Can't figure out why it continues to overheat. Its 140 hp so it should have no problem running the mower even in our current oven like weather. We keep the air filter and radiator screen clean, flushed the radiator and hoses, and changed the thermostat and water pump. It will run for 2-4 hours and then heat up and it is done for the day.

Got ~45 acres disked over the weekend and Grant got a turn manning the wheel of the big tractor. I spent months looking at auctions and calling around to find the right tractor and disk, and then invested a crazy amount of time and money working on it over the last few months so it is very satisfying to finally see it doing exactly what we need it for and doing it well (i am sure I just jinxed it). The area that was mowed and burned disked wonderfully. The area burned but not mowed did pretty well. The green areas that didn't burn and were not mowed were unsatisfactory. So much cattail residue it is hard to see how well the soil actually got turned there. We will try to burn all of that this weekend and may disk those spots again next week.

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Current focus is on the bottom end of the south field on the map I posed earlier (~45 acres). Have a trackhoe pulling down the sub levees and the tractor and disk working in there today. If we can knock that out over the next couple of days we will move the tractor to another property 10 miles away, burn the remaining area at the farm and bring the tractor back to disk it next week. Water control structures are ready so those probably get installed next week as well.

Moving a dozer into a dry marshy property on Friday to open up some overgrown holes in one area and build up the island blind that we made last year in another area. I bet this area has only been dry enough to put a dozer into once or twice in my lifetime.

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[Ducaholic]

Doing it Right

[Rick]

Hating this drought from my own perspective, but it's nice to know some good is coming of it for others.

[Duck Engr]

Awesome work and thanks for the updates! I’m sure the young fella was grinning ear to ear driving a machine that big.

[SpinnerMan]

Always fun to play with the big toys. My wife asked if she could drive the tractor, so I took her out to play the other day before I plowed the food plot. Even big kids like to play with the big toys.

Your toy is a little bigger than the one I get to play with

[DComeaux]

Love it! So satisfying.

[5 stand]

No kidding, I want to play on a tractor...

[Darren]

Looks and sounds like a great time.

[Deltaman]

Still dry so we are still working. Our mowing tractor continues to give us fits. Can't figure out why it continues to overheat. Its 140 hp so it should have no problem running the mower even in our current oven like weather. We keep the air filter and radiator screen clean, flushed the radiator and hoses, and changed the thermostat and water pump. It will run for 2-4 hours and then heat up and it is done for the day.

Got ~45 acres disked over the weekend and Grant got a turn manning the wheel of the big tractor. I spent months looking at auctions and calling around to find the right tractor and disk, and then invested a crazy amount of time and money working on it over the last few months so it is very satisfying to finally see it doing exactly what we need it for and doing it well (i am sure I just jinxed it). The area that was mowed and burned disked wonderfully. The area burned but not mowed did pretty well. The green areas that didn't burn and were not mowed were unsatisfactory. So much cattail residue it is hard to see how well the soil actually got turned there. We will try to burn all of that this weekend and may disk those spots again next week.

IMG_0770.JPG

IMG_0773(1).JPG

Current focus is on the bottom end of the south field on the map I posed earlier (~45 acres). Have a trackhoe pulling down the sub levees and the tractor and disk working in there today. If we can knock that out over the next couple of days we will move the tractor to another property 10 miles away, burn the remaining area at the farm and bring the tractor back to disk it next week. Water control structures are ready so those probably get installed next week as well.

Moving a dozer into a dry marshy property on Friday to open up some overgrown holes in one area and build up the island blind that we made last year in another area. I bet this area has only been dry enough to put a dozer into once or twice in my lifetime.

Picture6.png

What a Great picture of you and your son in that big tractor cab
Build those memories dad!!!!!!!!

[BGkirk]

Get after it!


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[jrock75]

We continue to make progress on various projects. Pics below are of what we call Field 13. It is the northern field in the aerial image I posted earlier. We tried burning this field three weeks ago but didn't make much progress because it was too green and wet. After another couple of weeks of drying and some mowing, it burned really well and is now ready for disking if we can keep the dang think running. We are eating disk gang bearings like cake. It is hard to believe that at the beginning of summer this entire 100 acre field was nothing but 10' tall cattails in 6" of perpetual water.

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Getting the structures installed on Field 14. Much bigger project than we thought because there is no "bottom" from which to rob clay to dam up the ditch.

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We went out to the brackish marsh pond that we hunt down on the Bolivar Peninsula. It was an absolute desert. We will dress up some of the holes caused by 15 years of Marsh Master use but not much else to do here. Needless to say that our most productive blind will be off limits for teal season unless we get a tropical system and even then likely won't hold the birds it usually does. When walking around it you can see all the dead stubs of submerged vegetation that make this pond such a waterfowl mecca.

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[Duck Engr]

Truly mind boggling to see the transformation you guys have accomplished so quickly! Nicely done. Glad you guys are making hay in this dry weather. I noticed your corrugated pipe with the water control structure. Im sure you know this, but take extra care to get a water tight seal under the pipe. I failed on mine last go round and am about to pay the stupid tax of getting to do it again. Plan to use flowable fill or just a good ol fashioned high slump concrete under it this time.

[jrock75]

We had some really high tides over the last week and I bet we got intracoastal water pushed up in our brackish marsh. Good news is that two of our best historical blinds are now back in the rotation. Bad news is that the intracoastal water is really salty given the lack of rain. Will be interesting to see how those ponds hunt this year with no food. I bet they are still dynamite as they are just in areas that ducks always use.

[Deltaman]

Looks like we might get some coastal relief this week, with rain forecast from the disturbance in the Western Gulf, fingers crossed!

[jrock75]

I was out in the marsh on Saturday and confirmed that the salt water did indeed back up over the control structures/levees and pushed into some of the previously dry/fresh marsh. The new blind that we built and opened up this summer is full of salt water but the one we made last year is somehow still dry. Clearly I don't understand the hydrology as well as I thought I did.

The purpose of the trip was to burn two units (40 acre "Square Pond" and 60 acre "Big Reservoir") that we recently acquired that the prior owners had let fall into disrepair. This property is ~10 miles west of our main farm but is adjacent to some freshwater marsh property that my partner owns that contains the main marsh pond I have hunted for the last couple of years. Like some of the other land we have acquired, these units were choked full of 10' tall cattails and reeds. Completely unusable for ducks or frankly anything but wild hogs. We sprayed them aerially early this summer and got a great kill. Then in the peak of the drought we tried disking and mowing but both activities proved futile because of the sheer mass and density of the dead material. It was tearing up the disk and mower and both would just ride over the thick mats of vegetation. The burn ban was lifted a week or so ago and we didn't waste any time lighting it up. I was blown away by how good these units burned. Am excited to see what the future holds for these ponds.

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[5 stand]

The burn does look clean...

[Duck Engr]

Awesome work! Thanks for sharing!

[Rick]

Be interesting to see how much of a fight it is to control the regrowth with such a clean shot at what tries to come back. Probably lots of time, money and experimentation in its future. But what a legacy for Grant.

[Ducaholic]

Be interesting to see how much of a fight it is to control the regrowth with such a clean shot at what tries to come back. Probably lots of time, money and experimentation in its future. But what a legacy for Grant.

Up here in Avoyelles Parish it's a constant battle for a friend of mine on his low land. Your summation is likely on point. But no doubt it's a good year to try and kick it in the rear, knock it down, and hopefully keep it down for a while.