Outdoorsman Thread

[Old Hunter]

TF, when you click on the sideways pictures they will enlarge and orient correctly. OH

[treefarmer]

Bruce, they just enlarge to the same position on my desk computer.
These side ways and upside down pictures keep Brother Jerry out of trouble.
Treefarmer

[Hoggslayer]

Hogslayer, looks like your kids are really enjoying themselves being outdoors with you hunting and fishing! Great stuff buddy. Back home now getting ready for Christmas visits from our adult children and significant others - no grandchildren yet to take afield. OH

I hope they enjoy it as much as I do. I try to spend as much time as I can in the wood or on the water with them. I'd give everything I have for one more day on the lake with my Dad. Sorry about the crooked pics, I have know idea why.

[Dinadan]

Very cool photos, Hogslayer! What part of the world are you in? I took the liberty of reorienting a couple of your photos. At first glance in the sideways photo I though your girl was posing with a trophy wild boar!

[Hoggslayer]

Very cool photos, Hogslayer! What part of the world are you in? I took the liberty of reorienting a couple of your photos. At first glance in the sideways photo I though your girl was posing with a trophy wild boar!

Thanks for straightening those up for me. Not the first time I've been acusted of being a pig. I'm from Texas. Just south of Houston to ne exact.

[jlw257]

Southern Pine Beetle has infested our trees. So we’re having to cut them all

[Dinadan]

Southern Pine Beetle has infested our trees. So we’re having to cut them all

That would annoying! A few decades ago everyone in my area was convinced that faster growing short needle pines were better to plant than the native long needle. The short needle turned out to be a lot more prone to problems like yours, if I recall correctly. I can see by the understory growth of yaupon bushes that you are not much if any north of my area, so I guess you have the same problems.

[treefarmer]

Larry, at least they left your deer stand! I've had several stands destroyed by timber crews and some just disappeared when the timber was being thinned.
We've been encouraged to control burn to reduce competition from undesirable growth and burning is supposed to reduce the beetle problems.
Treefarmer

[jlw257]

What’s amazing is the Saw Logs are going to China and Vietnam in 20 ft. Shipping Containers. Why I don’t know

[treefarmer]

Larry, our junk, (natural growth oaks, pines, myrtles, bay trees, etc. in an old clear cut) any and everything the feller buncher cuts is being chipped and sent to a pellet mill in Cottondale where it is made into a fuel pellet and then shipped overseas. The limbs and tops from the good stuff (logs and poles) will also be chipped when they are cut next month or so. If only natural growth pines were removed there would be a lot more site preparation for replanting in a year or so. We hope to replant our place but probably won't live long enough to see it mature as we have this time.
Treefarmer

[Quick Steel]

treefarmer, I heard something on the radio that you will be able to better judge than I. It was said that the great wildfires in the west are not replicated in the eastern forests because in the west most forest is held by the Feds or State governments. Clearing out undergrowth, controlled burns are seldom allowed. In the east more than 70% of the forests are privately owned resulting in clearing and burning the excess which acts as kindling for the fires. Does this make sense in your experience?

[carrmillus]

........I heard that same thing listening to rush l. yesterday!!...makes sense to me!!!............ ................

[treefarmer]

Yes Sir, it makes good sense to me! Several years ago there was a big wild fire on Florida's east coast, adjacent to the Interstate that parallels that side of the state, up around Daytona. Lots of homes were destroyed as a result of woods being left to them selves, so to speak. Any lightening started fires and for that matter any fire was quickly extinguished by fire departments or the Forestry Service and the "tree huggers" were happy. Let the biomass build up over a few years on the ground and there is the setting for a tremendous catastrophe! Those fires killed old growth Long Leaf Pines because of crown fires that can not exist where there is minimal fuel.

Most of old Florida was grazed by woods cattle in most locations for several centuries. But with "progress" came people who did not understand how things worked naturally by God's hand or with the help of cattlemen who desired fresh natural grazing every 2 or 3 years, a burn rotation, if you will! Wildfires started by lightening would burn till they ran out of fuel. If they threatened an area, back fires were started to protect what ever needed preserving. With minimal fuel a fire is usually controllable at least on Florida's flat land. Mountains are surely a different story! When a fire swept through an area it reduced under brush and soon produced fresh grazing for all the critters and with little or no damage to the mature Pine trees.

Land managers learned to control and contain fires with fire breaks, back fires and the wind, common sense mostly. Then comes the folks that can't stand the thought of nature burning up and a lot of government land as well as private land becomes a giant tender box just waiting for something to ignite it. Here in Florida most of the state managed parks and lands do some controlled burning to maintain the look of old Florida as it was prior to the intrusion of Mickey and his hoards. Planted pines get a great boost by controlled burns every few years.

Another issue with the tree hugger is his desire to see no trees harvested, period! Trees are a renewable resource, they sprout, grow, mature then die. The only difference in a planted pine and a natural grown tree is it is set in the ground as a seedling at the optimum time for survival. Harvesting eliminates wasted materials and also lessons the chances of wild fires. Common sense again.

The wild fires in the mountains must be terribly difficult to control as fire so often makes it's own wind currents. I can't imagine what those folks are going through.

Rules and regulations put in place by folks that don't have a clue have allowed a lot of this to be in the headlines today. We had an old pastor that used to say, "I don't want an old maid tellin' me how to raise my children!", like wise, we don't need desk jockeys who have never been off the hard road, writing the rules for our land management. This is a classic example of such a failure!

Here are some pictures from a burn several years ago. No danger of wild fire as it had been burned on a regular basis to eliminate excessive fuel on the forest floor:

Before controlled burn

During the burn

After the burn

QS, you opened the door, brother and I climbed on one of my several soap boxes.
Treefarmer

[Quick Steel]

treefarmer, That was a great exposition. And as you make clear, largely a matter of common sense, a sense which seems to be gravely lacking out west. Thanks for the input.

[Dinadan]

That was a good post, Treefarmer. When I was young back in the 1960s most woods in my area were burned off ever year at the end of winter. I think the reason was to provide for forage for cattle, since most woods had cattle grazing in them. It was an integral part of maintaining the long leaf, piney woods habitat, though I did not realize that until folks stopped burning and the herbaceous ground cover was replaced by a dense understory of brush.

Seeing how the woods have changed over my lifetime does make me curious about just what my part of the world would have looked like before any humans arrived, European or Indian. I grew up in the woods and even though lightning is extremely common in the summer in this area, I have never known of a lightning caused woods fire. Not saying they do not happen here, but they sure are not common. Most of the time lightning occurs just before or during rain in this area, that must suppress the fire pretty effectively. So I wonder just how much of a role fire played back before humans.

Incidentally, that is a problem with folks who want to restore North American to pre-Columbian conditions. Pre-Columbian North America here in the Southeast was already altered from its natural state by the Indians burning areas for probably about the same reason that we kept doing it, to create forage for food animals and to keep the woods open enough to hunt. No one wants to leave a patch of woods alone long enough to get a true climax forest, probably about two or three centuries. And with all the invasive species we have now, even it we left it alone for centuries it still would not be like it was before the Indians came.

[RobesonsRme.com]

My son,Josh, walked his dog this morning and returned home to find this in his back yard.

Looks like an atypical rack, especially on the left side.

This is in a suburban neighborhood.

He also made a video from inside the house with his dog barking its head off. Mr. Buck was unperturbed.

Charlie Noyes

[treefarmer]

Boy oh Boy, Charlie! That's a fine buck, looks like one big tine on the left side. Your son probably needs to take him out before he tears up the trampoline!
Back to the issue of wild fires, Thanks Mel and QS.
Some of the old timers used to talk about what it looked like back in the late 1800's. They usually cursed the oak trees as invasive species in the piney woods. They came as a result of the old growth pine being harvested. I remember one old feller talking about how far you could see in the "piney woods" before everything changed as the Naval stores were depleted. There are not many old "cat faced" pines left standing. There was another story about how far inland you could still hear the Gulf with the right wind, before all the junk was allowed to grow under the remaining pines.
On similar topic, I was amazed at the stories of the wolves that were apparently native to the Southeast way back when the "evil white man" came to this land. I'm surprised that some group hasn't proposed reestablishing them as they have in some areas of our country.
I love the outdoors, woods and water and for that matter cultivated fields, too. We got to take care of them but not allow them to control us by some men's goofy schemes.
Treefarmer

[TripleF]

The 5th Annual Christmas Eve mission was a success.....15 kids and 5 adults (if you count me as an adult....lol).

[treefarmer]

You're doing a good job, Scott! The kids look like they are having a great time and learning at the same time.
It's a shame you can't harvest a few of those Sabal palm trees in the background and boil them boys and girls a big pot of swamp cabbage! Same stuff "fancy folks" eat, only they call it Heart O' Palm and it's in a salad.
That is one thing I really miss living in the interior of the Panhandle, not many Cabbage trees around like we had in the hammocks and where you are camping.
Keep at it my friend, they'll remember you!
Treefarmer

[TripleF]

Thanks Philip!......I came across that swamp cabbage in a YT video and now, there's something I'd like to try....

[bighomer]

Scott good on you man, keep up the good work,T- Farmer they tried to reestablish the red wolf in the smoky mts. back a few years ago, didn't work out, but they have done pretty well over in N.C. I understand.

[jerryd6818]

[TripleF]

Had a few out yesterday....it's A MISSION PER DAY while winter break is on!!

Had to snap this pic in the cypress swamp (knowledge I gained from our own Treefarmer)

[treefarmer]

A week or so back, Philco asked if I would show some pictures of the timber work going on at our place. I figure the Outdoorsman Thread would be the proper place.
We had a few acres of natural growth junk that we decided to cut and there are 3 small tracts of 30+ year old planted Slash Pines to harvest. The "junk" including pines, Bay trees, Oaks, Sweetgum, Maple, Wax Myrtle and even Popcorn trees was cut and chipped. The chips are then processed into wood pellets and shipped overseas. The marketable timber has not been cut yet but has been cruised and marked, "A" poles, "B" poles, logs, etc. When the actual timber cutting starts I hope to add some additional pictures. These portions of our farm we hope to replant with Longleaf Pines in a year or so.
First off, I took some pictures of the equipment being used to harvest and chip the "junk". In addition to this, there was a constant shuttle of 18 wheelers hauling the chips to the pellet mill. Click on the pictures, they should enlarge.

This is the chipper. 700 hp Cat diesel, it is being fed by a loader and you can see the chips being blown into a trailer.

Skidder to move the wood from the tract to the loader.

The Feller-Buncher (saw)

The saw blade.

Skidder pulling "junk" to the chipper.

To be continued....
Treefarmer

[jmh58]

Kool pics there tf.. Thanks!! That saw blade is crazy!!! John