The Land

170 acres, 30 fields, 40 hardwoods, the balance in pines.   The pines on the west side total around 12 acres and are very well managed.  there are roughly 90 acres of pines on the east side and they were neglected for several years.   The plan is to hire a forester after the purchase and go from there.   The river runs north to south right down the middle of the property.  

 Some views of the fields:

Some views of the river:

These are the pines on the far side, they were not planted in rows.  They were allowed to grow un-thinned for tooooooo long, after the thinning around 10 years ago, they have rebounded some.

Brush Clearing

Went down the past couple of weekends to work.   there were a few areas I wanted to clear before full summer growth rendered things beyond repair.  There were also a few other tasks I want d to get started on.

• Clear chestnuts.   A few left still on the lower bottom.
• Clear/Kill growth around barn and house
• Set trail cameras 
• Clear big dogwood and pecan
• Attempt a river crossing on the four wheeler
• Fire up and run the tractor, inflate tire to see how long it holds air
• Cleared back road to creek 

I was able to get in and out of the river on the near side,  waiting till I have a partner with a quad to attempt the full crossing.  The goal is to create a rolling list of duties.  

Little River Farm.....

testing to see if i can still make a decent entry.   the potential exists, that my family may soon aquire this 170 acre farm in Abbeville county SC.  looking to use the blog as a place to catalog the progress/activity.

My first deer

It's been a while since I posted anything and I apologize for that - to all our 3 fans out there. Over time I would say David has maintained his status as the main hunter and fisherman, followed by TR, and then me. In fact, I had never actually hunted for deer until last November. But thanks to David and TR for inviting me to their overnight hunt, and of course for providing me with a rifle. I may have shot a rifle one or two times before this - years before - but never at anything more than a target. So after arriving at the camp, I received my 30 second rifle training and took one practice shot. Good to go. I positioned myself in a nice little tree stand with a clearing to the left, a clearing to the right, and a bit of clearing directly in front of me. I honestly didn't think I would see anything, and even if I did, I didn't know if I would pull the trigger. In addition, I wasn't exactly attempting to be the best hunter. It was cold. It had snowed the night before. So I was bundled up and probably noisier than I needed to be. I also had to take a leak - twice - and I didn't want to climb all the way down this super tall stand - so there goes the waterfall. Even with all of my amateurishness, I was one lucky son-of-a-gun. I feel like I sat for a few hours and didn't see anything. But just as the sun started going down, I saw a little doe right in front of me. She was in some shadows so I really couldn't see her that well. I lined up my rifle and watched her through the scope for a few seconds and decided she was just too small. Plus, I didn't feel comfortable with the shot. But then something caught my eye to the right. A larger animal quietly crept out of the brush. It was just about too dusk to see anything and I knew it was about time to call it quits. But there was something about the way this deer held its head. Like an animal wearing a crown - it was a buck. I trained my rifle on it, which was hard since I'm right-handed and was shooting to the right, and again watched it through the scope for what felt like a minute or so. Finally I decided it was now or never - BOOM! The fella never took another step and fell right to the ground. I quickly climbed down from the stand and called David. Since I had never shot an animal before, I was actually kind of nervous to approach it. Adding to the apprehension was that I couldn't see any blood or wound on the deer. Had I actually shot it? Was it dazed and about to jump up and stab me with its antlers? I decided to step back, make sure my rifle was unloaded, and wait for David. When David arrived he too couldn't find the bullet hole. But he poked his finger in the deer's eye - no movement - and we were pretty sure he was dead. After further inspection, we discovered the shot had gone through one shoulder and into the next. The bullet was poking out the far-side shoulder but didn't even break the skin. And there was no blood. Since this was my first deer, I decided to have it mounted. It could be my only deer, and it was a good one. He wasn't the biggest deer ever or anything, but he was just a great looking deer. In addition, I've been eating venison ever since. Not a bad first hunt!

After some time off...

Its been a while, a long while, since anything has been posted here. So i thought i would update things a bit. The one thing i am concentrating on now is the up coming deer season here in SC. Bow season starts September 15th, and here are a few of the deer i am after.

These are the three biggest deer i have on camera at the hunt club this fall. Two of them are bucks that I had pictures of last year. The first deer is probably 4.5 years old, last year he was a ten point, and this year he is an 11, although technically i could call him a 13'er because he has some extra junk sticking out from one of his bases, and a kicker sticking off of his left G-3. He would be my #1 target. The second and third are probably each 3.5 years old.

Outer Banks: Success!

I'm back from my first deep sea fishing trip, and I would call it a success. But first, I have to correct my previous post. We actually departed from the Hatteras Harbor Marina and not Oregon Inlet. We fished aboard the "Big Eye", a 46' custom charter boat, with Captain Donnie Smith, a.k.a. Squeaky, and his first mate, Jay.
We stayed in a nice little room above the marina office/store/cafe. We left the dock at 5 a.m. on Friday morning. It was pretty sweet waking up and walking right onto the boat without having to drive anywhere. I credit Jason for setting everything up so perfectly. On the evening before we left, we watched the boats come in so we could see their catch. There were some good fish, but I was actually a little disappointed with what people were hauling in. However, what made me more worried was the weather report. The boats coming in said the seas were very rough, and Friday was supposed to be just the same. And indeed it was. The ride out to the fishing grounds was very rough. I started out in the cabin trying to sleep, but that didn't work. I kept getting knocked out of my seat. At this point my story could take one of two directions. I could talk about how I was sick the whole time, or I could talk about the fish we caught. I'll go with the fish. At some point during the ride, I heard the captain start yelling something from above, and all of a sudden we were on top of a school of Dolphin fish. We had at least 6 lines out and all of them hit at the same time. I think Brittany pulled in the first one. It was truly amazing, and crazy. As soon as you put your line in the water, you had another one. I wouldn't say we caught any huge ones, but we caught 54 dolphin in about 15 minutes. With so many lines out, you had to be careful not to tangle the lines, so we were constantly running around, over, and under each other. It was awesome. Unfortunately, it was so hectic that I don't think anyone got any pictures of the action. A few minutes later we started hitting the Blackfin Tuna. These bullets weren't all that big, but they felt huge! Pulling in the dolphin was easy, but the tuna really had some fight. Each time I reeled one in, I thought for sure it was going to be a big monster, but it was just average size. Really fun, nonetheless. At some point the captain yelled out that a shark was chasing the tuna, but we couldn't see the shark. By around 9 a.m. we had already caught 83 fish. The ice box was full, some of us weren't feeling so good, Jay said something about fish not biting after 9 a.m. on the morning after a full moon or some such lore, and so we headed in. Jason said it was the earliest he'd ever gotten in, but it was actually pretty nice. We had a whole half a day back in Hatteras to check things out. Back at the dock, we definitely had the best (at least most) catch of the day. No one else came close to 83 fish, and lots of boats were out all day long. The total weight came to around 400 lbs. They have a pretty awesome system at the dock as well. The mate throws the fish up on the sidewalk for the cleaners to come and collect the fish. This provides a good chance for everyone to stand around and "ooohh" and "aahhh". Then the cleaners take the fish straight to the cleaning shed, where the fish are cleaned and bagged by species. We all decided to go ahead and have our fish split up and vacuum packed for the trip home.
Would I do it again? While I was on the boat I didn't think so. But I think I would. Next time I'll try to the Dramamine patch rather than the pills. If that doesn't work, then it could be my last trip, but I'll give it another shot. Now let's have a fish fry! PICTURES

Outer Banks

One week until my first deep-sea fishing adventure. I'm heading to Cape Hatteras, or more specifically the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. There have been some great fishing reports in the past few weeks. Let's hope it keeps up. I'm a little nervous about the whole sea-sickness thing, but I plan to use Dramamine.