Stone Branch

Stone Branch · Jan 6, 2023

We hit the slopes today,

overcame challenges,

and exhibited some problem solving skills by taking the low road.

He was a real trooper and team player today, no puppy obstinance whatsoever.

G

bowhunter269 · Jan 7, 2023

Sorry to hear your story, but glad you shared it. Always enjoy the photos.

Drahts · Jan 7, 2023

SB sorry to hear bout Tiny, but agree it was the right thing! Spike looks like a winner. I'm sure that fight was hell. My first Draht got attacked by a lab as we were coming out of a marsh in South Dakota. I couldn't hear it coming, she couldn't hear it coming as we were breaking ice as we walked back out. With 3 doz dekes on my back, my blind bag a gun and a bag of spinners, all I could do was kick and stuff the lab under the ice with my boot. I would have killed it if I could have. Guy came screaming at me. That almost got really ugly but he backed off with his dog. Sad thing is my dog has never trusted another dog again and that has made life difficult with other dogs in the same household. Dog fights suck but can be part of multiple dogs.

Stone Branch · Jan 8, 2023

bowhunter269 said:
Sorry to hear your story, but glad you shared it. Always enjoy the photos.

Drahts said:
SB sorry to hear bout Tiny, but agree it was the right thing! Spike looks like a winner. I'm sure that fight was hell. My first Draht got attacked by a lab as we were coming out of a marsh in South Dakota. I couldn't hear it coming, she couldn't hear it coming as we were breaking ice as we walked back out. With 3 doz dekes on my back, my blind bag a gun and a bag of spinners, all I could do was kick and stuff the lab under the ice with my boot. I would have killed it if I could have. Guy came screaming at me. That almost got really ugly but he backed off with his dog. Sad thing is my dog has never trusted another dog again and that has made life difficult with other dogs in the same household. Dog fights suck but can be part of multiple dogs.

Thanks guys.

G

Stone Branch · Jan 18, 2023

New tool, fire is returning to the land scape this year.

Spike had his first deer bloody kibble tracking training session a couple of days ago and it went pretty well, he will be a tracker.

Just when things were going rather smoothly i brought home a 2 year old intact female Cane Corso rescue out of west Columbus, this evening. Right out of the door Tank reacted just the way that I expected him to when a strange bitch intrudes upon one of his farms, he wanted to rip her to shreds. I saw her Craigslist ad two weeks ago with pictures when I was looking for a new puppy, then I saw the ad reposted a few days ago without pictures.

She is chill and a well-behaved dog all things considered. She is skin and bones and the muscle tissue that she does have is like mush.

Tank has since mellowed, I can now take her in and out on lead past him. No man or coyote will be sneaking up on us with her on guard.

G

Stone Branch · Jan 19, 2023

I tried a group walk this morning, it started out hectic with the puppy mobbing Bell. I switched the lead onto Tank and a quarter mile down the drive the puppy got stepped on by me and he squealed, Bell growled, and that almost tripped Tank's kill switch. I picked up Spike, talked to Tank, and we turned around and made it back.

I then took just Bella for a 2 mile ridge loop. At one point I thought that I might have to finish carrying the dog up, but we took it slow and she made it up.

She stands at minimum breed standard height of 23.5 inches but at 70.6 pounds she is 17.4 pounds shy of breed standard weight. That seems like a lot of weight to have to make up. She got a full spectrum worming today, a dawn dish soap bath in my old bathing hole in the creek, a new collar, and a topical flea and tick medication application. I think that she is a pretty girl and she is a total sweetheart. I just need Tank to allow her to join our pack.

G

Stone Branch · Jan 27, 2023

My little bull terrier has been out on a couple more bloody kibble trails, he is a pistol.

Tank has accepted the new bitch into his pack.

She put on 3 pounds in a week. I like her, she is a perfect hiking buddy.

G

Lady Hunter · Jan 27, 2023

Glad to see everyone is settling into their places. It's always a few uneasy weeks adding new members to a pack & yours went thru a lotta changes in a very short time. Good job!!!!

Drahts · Jan 27, 2023

Nice SB. I'm sure its total situational awareness 24/7 til the pack is fully melded. Crazy how fast something can change in a heartbeat.

Stone Branch · Jan 27, 2023

Thank you gals and guys. Last week a group outing was potentially dangerous, this week mostly just chaotic. Then I started working spike with Tank and Bell with Tank. Tank now relishes his position as the perfect role model dog to both. Today was our first official/successful group, morning coyote patrol down the drive.

The trip down is mostly about coyote

The trip back up is mostly about the best stick in the woods.

G

Stone Branch · Feb 10, 2023

I'm back in the wood,

Heading north through the wood, to the right some hinge cuts and my property line 40 or so yards over. To the left the area that I waylaid red maples, I believe, 3 summers ago.

In this area of regeneration, I have lots of little oaks that would soon be shaded out by red maple resprouts, and a serious load of ash sprouts. This is why this year will be the year of fire, returning fire to the landscape.

Im cutting out a trail that will double as a fire break. The trail will also serve as an alternative for deer to circle back on my property instead of exiting out the main ridge trail.

I'm hinge cutting maples along the property line.

Looking out into the neighboring lease into the barren understory.

Looking in at a bunch of maples to be cutoff and turned into mineral stumps (reference Dr. Marcus Lashley). We have always cut off trees and let them grow back as deer browse but it was Marcus who did the nutritive analysis of the browse cut stumps and found them to be packed with 10x-30x the nutritive value of the browse from the original tree. All of the nutrients that would be going up into the tree is now going up into fresh sprouts. When I first saw his videos titled mineral stumps, I thought that he was just talking about stumps with a bag of minerals dumped on it. The trees on the ground in the fore were supposed to be big hinges but they broke off the other day when it was below freezing out.

Trails getting cut

This trail joins a skid trail that drops all the way down into the cabin food plot.

With out the maples I will be left with white oaks, hickories, and mineral stumps, a spot with good habitat and hunting potential.

G

Stone Branch · Feb 10, 2023

I started heading back west

and met up with the old rim logging trail

I ended this day debating widow makers along the trail

I came back yesterday and cut one and found out that it was still a solid tree. It is white oak, I cut it up for firewood. I decided not to fret over the ones remaining that aren't over hanging the trail.

3 years ago when I cut the maples down I went back and cut the fallen maple tops off of the trail so as to keep it open for deer travel.

The burn unit above the trail is around 3-4 acres and much of it was left a mess. My plan is to light it up and see what happens. There is great potential here for making some deer habitat and regenerating an oak forest.

G

keeruss8 · Feb 10, 2023

Stone Branch said:
I started heading back west

View attachment 110110

and met up with the old rim logging trail

View attachment 110111

I ended this day debating widow makers along the trail

View attachment 110114

View attachment 110113

I came back yesterday and cut one and found out that it was still a solid tree. It is white oak, I cut it up for firewood. I decided not to fret over the ones remaining that aren't over hanging the trail.

View attachment 110115

3 years ago when I cut the maples down I went back and cut the fallen maple tops off of the trail so as to keep it open for deer travel.

View attachment 110116

The burn unit above the trail is around 3-4 acres and much of it was left a mess. My plan is to light it up and see what happens. There is great potential here for making some deer habitat and regenerating an oak forest.

View attachment 110112

View attachment 110117

View attachment 110118

G

Happy to see your back at it and posting new pics. I'm getting ready to do some of this stuff on my place. I like listening to Lashley and try to listen to all his stuff along with Craig Harper.

Stone Branch · Feb 10, 2023

Thanks for the likes, everyone.

keeruss8 said:
Happy to see your back at it and posting new pics. I'm getting ready to do some of this stuff on my place. I like listening to Lashley and try to listen to all his stuff along with Craig Harper.

Happy to be back on the ridge with a plan. I really don't pay attention to anyone on the web so it took me awhile to catch on to Dr. Lashley. I reached out to Dr. Harper 15 years ago at the University for some clarification on what he said about autumn olive on a recent fieldtrip to Michigan, and he responded in 5 minutes, super cool dude.

I took a picture at the road ahead this am.

Up to the left was the area that I went back and mulched red maples to the ground with my saw. There are a dozen rubs in this photo along the up and down corridor that I created.