Frank's outdoors...

One of the things I wanted to get done this year was to prepare a "poor man's" quality food plot.  I don't have a tractor, I don't have a disc, I don't have a [fill in the blank].  I can't remember if I posted this previously, but I found out about a device called the " Plotmaster ".  You can buy one of these bad boys for around $4K, but that is not the route I wanted to go for sure.  I figured I would be able to rent of these from the local rental agencies (US Rental, Allied, Sunbelt, etc.) but none of them had even heard of such a device. So, my plan has been focused on how to reasonably prepare my foodplot.  Last year, I had to do a major overhaul on my field as it was overgrown with tall grass and pine tree saplings.  This year, I intend to mow the grass short, possibly till it, then use a drag harrow to level and smooth the seed into the dirt.  The cost of renting a tiller/mower compared to purchasing is a no brainer at the moment, however

I have been feeding all year round.  I was feeding twice a day during the rifle season last year, and switched to just a morning drop for the rest of the year.  In the next couple of weeks, sometime in early October, I'll change the timers on to add the second (evening) feed session, but for now I just have the feeders running at daybreak.  From the looks of the pictures on the camera, the deer are looking much better than before, and there are even a few fawns in the pics. 2 does and a fawn Doe and a fawn On my other camera is a big black hog.  This one is different from the hog that has the white patches on it.  Looks like an evening hunt is in order to take care of this bad boy... Big Texas Boar I am not sure this pig is as big as the black/white one, but he is a haus and needs to be cleaned out.

Spotted my first tree rub of the season.  Pretty cool, looks like a big chunk was taken out of the tree.  The great thing is that this particular rub is right between 2 of my stand locations.  The "rub" It was right on a major trail that leads to one of the only water sources left on my property.  There are quite a few creeks that run through our property, but none of them hold water throughout the year, particularly not when its a dry season. When I have time, I want to walk this trail and look for other rubs.

Alright, so we pulled the pictures from the camera that is keeping an eye on our hog pen.  This particular pig is all AROUND the trap, but has yet to enter as far as the camera has shown.  We know that the coons are in there picking on the corn, but the boar remains on the outside. Bacon - rear view Bacon - side view Dang 'coons. How do we get this booger in the pen?!?!  We are open to ideas here.  We (my buddy Mark and I) are thinking of making the pen significantly larger and changing the gate and its closing mechanism.  Given the drought, I am thinking a trough of water might be a catalyst...

In an effort to improve our chances of catching a hog in our trap, I picked up a jug of Pig Liquor to pour on the corn/ground inside the trap.  My buddy Mark has a game camera watching the trap now, and all of the pics show the pigs all AROUND the trap, but certainly not in it. We have had the trap setup now for over 2 months, and not a thing in it.  Our property is not riddled with pigs, but there are some whoppers on camera as I have posted before. This Pig Liquor bait has a rather sweet aroma but I hope it will attract the pigs into the pen.  I poured it over the corn, the ground, and slung some onto the tree.  WE have tried quite a few things, including souring the corn, and broadcasting it up and down the trail.  Again, seeing activity, but nothing in the pen other than raccoons and a deer.  I am going to get some pictures from the game cam and post them here. Picture of Pig Liquor, looks like blood on ground/tree

So I went out to the lease to get ready to start the preparations for November.  I took out 16 bags of corn, fresh feeder batteries and one of my game cameras (and a few suprises below).  Spent about 2 hours getting the corn loaded and batteries changed out.  The biggest thing I noticed was how dry it was.  I mean, the trees look like they are already in the late Texas winter (Jan/Feb)... all the leaves are brown, crispy, and falling to the ground.  As I write this, my house 30 min south of my lease is getting rain, so there is hope. I was at Gander Mountain looking for some food plot help, and they had some mineral licks on sale.  So, I picked up 2 twenty-five pound blocks to put at my main feeders.  I also setup my game camera on the front feeder aimed right at the mineral lick with the feeder in the background.  Now, knowing that there isn't water is a factor, but we'll address that later. I took some pics of my 2 spots where I setup with filled corn, batteries, and  min

Alright folks, deer season is just around the corner, and preparations are well into the works.  I wanted to give a breakdown of what I had done last year (my first year on the lease), and what I am doing differently this year.  I will be heading out to the lease this week/end to take some pictures and do other prep in a follow-up post. Last year I started the season with single "permanent" tripod stand at the front of my acreage.  I moved it up into the trees and added a camo skirt to it for extra concealment, and that worked out quite well.   I also got a tripod cleaning station so I had a place to clean game.  I picked up just the thing from Sportsman's Guide .  I had bought from Academy the Low Boy feeder , and that thing is a beast.  I love everything about it, except that the battery and timer unit are in a separate box from motor.  The raccoons hanging on it caused all kinds of issues and I have had to do some reinforcing.  I had bought a Wildgame Innovations IR