A look ahead to an exciting 2010

As some of you may have read in my previous blog(s), my wife and I were working on purchasing some adjoining land to our current hunting/camping acreage. The process started in mid-October and finally all the stars have aligned and the paperwork is finished. We are now proud owners of an additional 40 acres.

So what does that mean? Well in 2009 I created 2 small food plots on my 80 acres. One designed for whitetail nourishment (3/5 acre) and the other for turkeys (1/4 acre). That was my first experiment. The whitetail plot took 2 separate planting and the turkey plot never matured. There were two other small openings between a tamarack and muskeg swamp and oak hardwoods. These openings became my campsite. And unfortunately, they also disturbed natural wildlife movement. Now we will be able to move our campsite almost a full 1980 ft (3/8 mile) away and turn those prime openings into hunt plots. The new 40 acres included approximately 12 acres of open hay field which ran diagonally across the property splitting tamarack and muskeg swamp and open hardwoods. This field and the small openings will become my project for 2010.

As the snow starts to melt, I will be blogging the planning and execution of my property transformation. I will bring you along to experience the ups and downs of “work” to make this all happen. Not only for you to learn from my mistakes and triumphs, but hopefully to gather feedback from those who have gone through the same experiences and can provide some helpful advice.

To get those of you with creative minds started with your own thoughts on what to do, I have posted some photos.

• Yellow is property line.
• Red "H" are houses of permanent residence.
• Red "C" will be my campsite
• East side of property is a gravel road.

Same key as above with the exception of wetland coloration has been added.

• Blue is wooded wetland
• Orange is seasonal wooded wetland
• Pink is seasonal wetland
• Purple is open wetland

A 1991 Black and White aerial photo which depicts contours, wetlands, and openings better. Some of the woodland openings have had poplar regrowth causing smaller clearings.