I was out there today with my brother, nephew and grand nephew. The nephews just rode around on the trails and had fun. Got into the lake bed and muddied up the ATV pretty good. Meanwhile, my brother and I went down to the creek and tried to break one of the small dams on the low end. I cut down the vegitation to the creek by hand with hedge shears, then my brother got down into the creek and went to work with an adz and shovel. We were both pooped out before we got it broken. It was over 100 today. Next week I'm going to the co-op to see if I can get some explosives. It's just too hot to dig these things out by hand. I don't have a back hoe - that would be another way but I don't have one. Forecast is 102 for the next four days in a row. It's just to hot to work outside much unless it's in the AC tractor, and the front loader can't get into the creek bed. If I wait for it to cool off, we'll get more rain and the area will be too wet to work in. Sort of a catch 22. I think there are at least three or four "families" of them on my property, living in the creek that stretches over 1/2 mile across it. I've managed to cut a trail aside about 80% so far. Hopefully, their days are numbered once I get the right recipe to deal with them. Yardley, it's not so far... LOL. You're welcome anytime. Deer season included. Tom, also appreciate your thoughts. What does a good beaver hat go for up there. I bet it would keep your head nice and warm.
Check with the county agent on dealing with beavers. He may refer you to animal control, but I doubt it. Without their maintenance, the dams will erode and fail.
New progress pics. Hired earth work guys again this week. Built a road about 1/4 mile long from Hwy 51 over to the corner of the hayfield. Built a pad for a 60x80 storage building. 50 dump trucks of clay/gravel altogether. Policed the entire creek from NW corner to SW corner of property with bulldozer and excavator, about 3/4 mile as the crow flies, about 1.5 miles as the creek meanders around. Numerous water moccasins and cottonmouths killed, beavers left homeless. Good riddence. Clearing about 8 acres of woods and brambles to improve drainage and make more hayfields versus scrublands. Despite the drought, water is holding in the new lake bed. Need another 10' of water or so to fill it up. New tractor is earning it's keep. In the pic it's clean, but not anymore. It's covered in dust. Down here it's been 95 or over almost every day in August, over 100 at least 11 days. If not for the AC on the tractor it would be a nightmare taking care of this place, keeping it from getting overgrown despite the dry weather. Tried to upload pics but couldn't. I feel pretty good about the progress I'm making. I had a cement contractor in today giving me estimates to put a new floor in the back half of the cabin. Will be looking into steel buildings for the 60x80 pad.
Well, the cement floor is in the back of the cabin. Really cuts down the amount of dirt being tracked in. Got a telephone installed out there yesterday. It took three weeks. Turns out I'm the last house on the north end of 601 area code. The next house north is 662. It took countless calls to the phone company for them to admit my address was valid since it wasn't in either area code ever before. They had to pull over 2000 feet of wire in the ditch and about 300 feet from the ditch to the cabin to hook it up. Now they'll have to bury it, including where it crosses the creek. This is going to be expensive for them. I decided I need a phone there for security, especially if I'm going to bring the cars out there. You need a phone line to connect up to a good security system. Incidentally, I got a USDA trapper to come out to trap the beavers out of the creek. Since it runs under the highway at the corner of my land he's charging the highway department and do it for free from my standpoint. Although he's been and gone I still see beaver tracks and wood going back in. I've called him numerous times and no return call. Frankly, I hope he's okay. It's a dangerous job, there are a lot of snakes around the beaver dams. Cottonmouths especially. Tomorrow a contractor is coming out to look over the building site and if all goes well we'll be getting started on my 60X80 dream garage. It will be a real kick to get all my Buicks under one roof. At this stage I have seven in MS, one in KS, and one in CA. Five of them in MS are in rented storage, that will be a good expense to get rid of. More pics when something happens. First step will be to just put up the shell and finish it out over time. Still no rain to speak of. The Bass Lake looks just about the same as it did in August. Still empty except on the deep end below grade where we took out dirt to build the dam.
You can't beat a quarry for swimming .The pictures I just posted..Oct. 8th, show how clean the water is and how well looked after it is. The limestone in the water ( why the colour is so green )makes the water very soft....like treated water, but nicer.:Smarty:
Well, the saga continues. Farming is a slow business especially when mother nature rules. After a couple big spring rains, the lake has started to fill quite a bit. Just three feet to go (or so) before it's full to the top. Here's a new pic along the front of the dam. Today I put in 8,000 coppernose bluegills, 2,000 redear sunfish, and 10,000 flathead minnows. Next Monday, 10,000 shad. Then in abut eight weeks, the main objective... About 1,000 bass. All hatchlings. The cradle of fish life has begun in my little lake. Also, I'm hoping the fish get active in time to forestall an infestation of frogs. The tadpoles are thick. Turtles have already found it too.
Dang Mike!!!!:TU: Can''t wait to see it person. Don't care about another cabin. Just need a place for the tent:laugh: . Well Before it gets to hot that is.(Brandy's been askin'bout your place) Ar eyou looking into "rubble piles" or such? You know some artificial spawning grounds? I used to have a few books but they were lost. I hope you make Kase's we can talk more then, as I'm into this sort of thing. But you seem to have it well in hand!:beer
Catfish may wind up in it anyway, nature is good @ spreading them around. Channel cats are good eating:TU: .
Pappaluv, there are a couple brush piles in there. There's a deep trench going from the deep end up the middle of one of the long ends, trenches along some of the shoreline with ridges and cuts behind them, one panned spawning area, and a couple of deep holes in more shallow areas. So we did customize the lake bed a bit to create some "spots" that should be better to fish. Most of these can be reached casting from the shoreline, but there's also a gravel boat ramp going into the water in order to make it easy to launch and retrieve boats to be able to fish in the deepest water in the center section.
Here's a couple pics of stocking the lake. As said before, already put in 8,000 bluegills, 2,000 sunfish, and 10,000 minnows. This was adding 10,000 shad. The final and most important point will be adding about 1,000 bass in late June. I had the USDA trapper out again today. We set four traps in the creek hoping to get the beavers that are wreaking havok on that part of the property. Three new dams in the last couple weeks. Here's one example...
A stick of dynomite will take care of that beaver dam. Just make sure the little buggers are home when you light it off.
Sounds like you've planned it well!!!!! Ya don't think the trapper would be "stocking" your property do you???? :laugh:
Thanks to about 4" from tropical storm Faye, my lake has finally filled the rest of the way up and is overflowing as planned from the side of the dam. We closed the drain on June 30, 2007, so it took 14 months to fill it up with rainwater. Not too bad, really. Bass went in in June as planned. Now it's just a matter of time waiting for the fish to grow to a size worth fishing for. Probably about another year or two. Before & after shots 1) now filled up; 2) At dam completion. :beer
Mike that is amazing, like I have said before, in my eyes you are living the dream. I love fishing, hunting, farming, and just being outdoors on "your" land. Nothing like the sense of entitlement when your improving/working "your" land. Kind of funny me saying that because I still live at home LOL, but we do a lot of stuff on our land. I love fishing especially for bass, nothing better IMO. Catfishing is fun when you catch one, but can be a lot of waiting. I am a moving fisherman, I live to cast, retrieve, and troll, I like to go to the fish, not wait for them to come to me. Either way, I fish for everything. I am a ways away from you but if you do decide to have a picnic, I might have to take a 5k loan out and drive my 63 down to your place :beer .
What a waste of real estate. That property would look so much better with a straight asphalt road about 1/2 mile long. Really, nice lake. What distinguishes a pond from a lake???
I want to br your friend............P.S. i was pretty good at hunting beaver in my younger days,........:Brow: :laugh:
