Blue Collar Farm Project June Update

Well, here's the latest. In May I was able to get in and do a bunch of cutting (see BCO on YouTube Episode Three). It was a great day, other than being bluff charged by a sow with cubs lol. I was really able to grasp what was going on deer movement wise. There's a very defined moment following the creek, and two major crossing points on that creek. I was also able to find the major bedding area on

the property (see image 1). It's almost in an ideal location, and was actually set up well and didn't need any cutting. I'm still very certain that the majority of the deer are bedding off property, and this is also ideal. I was able to get two staging

area's ready, to help direct the deer movement past our stands and improve the browse. I also hung a camera on one of the new spots.

David and I were able to have a work day in early June. There we sprayed both the patch of burrs and access and exit trails in (see image 2). We checked the camera and found one antlered deer frequenting the area, and saw a buck just off the new alfalfa in the sw corner of the property. We also cut shooting lanes and prepped some trees. Unfortunately we didn't get any video or pictures of the stand sets as there was rain in the forecast and I didn't want to risk

getting the camera gear wet. We've settled on four sets, three keying on pinch points and staging area's along the creek, and one field set in the sw alfalfa field (see image 3). The trail leading to that field from last fall is amazing, and there's a great fence crossing within easy bow range.

We're going back in July to hang stands and I will video that and explain why we're hanging where we are. We also have planned some strategic planting for next spring. The east alfalfa field actually is mostly grass with small pockets of alfalfa and clover. We can vastly improve the productivity of the hay land for the owner and provide better browse/forage for wildlife. I'll touch on this during the winter.

One thing I've learned over the years of doing this is that a chainsaw is the strategic deer hunters best friend. I'd say 80% of the work I've done on this place so far has been chainsaw work. Something to ponder for all those who say this type of hunting and land management is only for the rich. We're well under our year one budget of $600.00, and will probably stay under even with stand purchases. We're also right on point with time allotment, we will have worked three days after setting the stands.

So watch for an update in July some time. I'm sure we'll have some good scouting camera pictures to share.

 

Blue Collar Farm Project, April Update.

Well guys, David and I finally got a chance to go for a walk about on the farm. There was still lots of snow but we where able to walk on top, making things a little easier on both us cripples (David has a bad ankle, I've got a bum knee).

First impressions on the farm are good. Most of the pre determined locations I had map scouted turned out to be keepers with great trees to hang stands. The north side of the farm was lacking in buck sign from last year, but there's already deer moving through there, plus the land owner mentioned that he often sees deer come out of the north east block of timber, so there's deer there.

 I'm assuming that it's most likely a doe group, the ultimate buck bait in November. The south side of the farm showed a lot more sign from last fall, including a couple of rubs that looked decent. I'm sure there's a good reason with the new alfalfa field on that side of the farm and the fact that the cover oats was harvested late last fall.

I get a sense that the majority of the deer are actually bedding off the farm on the timber both to the north and south. We'll be able to tell better once the snow all melts. If this is the case I may do some hinge cuts where the timber is the deepest to help define the movement a little better. This will give us more cover to access stands in the evenings.

David and I were able to predetermine seven different potential stand locations that offer both safe access and exit along with scent management zones (see stars on picture).

There's four that are particularly strong that we'll key on this year. Three of these spots are going to need substantial timber cutting, both harvest and hinge, to make the locations both more desirable browse wise and to create staging area's, and open up filming and shooting opportunities. There's also some burdock that I will be mowing and spraying out this year.

The back alfalfa field looks like a great location to improve on the already existing ag. There was really well defined transitional edges on both the north and south sides of the field, and a land bridge across the boggy type creek. The alfalfa that's in there is old, woody and offers very little nutrition wise, we'll be able to improve that with some new zero till/rotation techniques that have been developed over the last few years in the states. But that will be in year two.

So it would seem we've found a better spot, now it's time to make our spot even better. David and I will be putting in a day of work in May (should have been today, stupid snow). We'll take lots of pictures to share.

Building a cleaner, brighter future for society.......by being your own person.

Choosing to Live life by societies standards

Grow up, go to school, graduate, go to collage, graduate, get a job, get married, get a mortgage, buy a house, have kids, raise those kids, pay for collage for kids, pay off debt with job, retire, sell house bought with mortgage to survive in retirement, pay taxes that whole time..........then die.

Be a slave for the system

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

or choose to live your life by your standards

This post is going to deviate from my usual material, but it will fit in down the road with what I'm doing.

I'll be honest, my mind has been wandering as of late. There was a point in my life I wanted nothing more than to live “the dream”. Do all those things in the previous paragraph. I'll admit, some of those things are important, such as school, getting a job and paying some level of taxes. But I'm beginning to question the other things. There's a set of societal standards that have been put in place over the last 50 years. Some of these standards are even written into law, such as building permits, standards and inspections, government run retirement plans and pensions, and government mandated living standards.  These laws and systems are supposed to be in place for our protection. But as knowledge and technology has advanced some of the laws in place have become obsolete. Things such as the need for running water, electricity and sewers/septic all have reliable and safe substitutes, substitutes that remove a person from reliance on government or monopoly utility providers. You would think that society and governments would embrace these developments as a good thing and a way to reduce wasteful spending and harmful actions against the planet............but this hasn't been the case.

Now lets drift back to “the dream”. A person has to mortgage to purchase or buy a home. This home must meet these standards that are in place for our “protection” in order to get the money to buy/build. This simple rule eliminates alternative lifestyles and homes. They also ensure that the buyer is reliant on the service providers, and that they are locked into a mortgage with the bank (aka debt slave). All these systems have been put in place to ensure that a person contributes to society, in a fashion that makes companies and governments money. Here in North America government and corporations are tied together, and pander to each others greed. Add in that housing prices have skyrocketed in recent years, well beyond what I'm willing to put myself into debt. So there was a short time where I figured my dream was over.

There had to be another way?

Then I began to think.........really think. Not of how I could do better so I can make someone else richer, or put myself into a deeper hole financially. But instead on what's important to me, and what is actually a necessity and what's a luxury. Things such as house size, how that home is looks vs how functional and efficient is is, how necessary utilities are procured and used and so on. Over the last few years I've been lucky enough to secure a roof over my head that I own with zero debt, but I'm still locked into a monopoly utility when it comes to water and power. So, the solution for me is simple. I'm currently developing a system that breaks reliance on utilities and banks. I'm going to take my current home and develop responsible and clean energy, water and waste management systems. I'm doing this on a budget that anyone can afford. The ultimate goal is to develop this system to the point where I'm 100% self reliant and sufficient.  It's a slow process that will have some hiccups, but I'm set on succeeding.  After that the plan is to buy an acreage I can afford, sell my current home and build a house and greenhouse using reused and re-purposed materials, grow my own food and live completely free of utilities and any societal “system”. All without a mortgage, all without being a slave.  I will save for my retirement in a way that doesn't make someone else richer.  I will be my own man, I will be free. And I plan on sharing it with the world.....

I've chosen to be happy, not to make others happy. I've chosen to live my life as I see fit, in a way that will be proven to be better for me, my neighbours and better for the planet. I don't need someone to tell me how to live..........I've decided that.

The Blue Collar Farm Project

Happy march 1^st everyone! What an amazing day it is, -30 and windy as heck. But regardless of those conditions I really feel spring is in the air. I've got some big projects coming up, and I'm going to introduce this one to you all.

A huge part of how I hunt deer is based off of a system of stand placement, seasonal tendencies and habitat management. I've taken a few different styles and systems that I've read about and then adapted for hunting in Canada. My “test farm” has benefited greatly and so has my hunting, but there's not much work left to do there. I think it would be more beneficial to share the work done from scratch, and I've been lucky enough to make that happen.

In December 2013 a friend, David and I gained exclusive access to a 210 acre property. Over the planing and permission granting stages David and I decided to share our scouting, prep work, habitat improvements, and then the hunts on this farm, and do it with a realistic time and monetary budget. So we've decided to call this the Blue Collar Farm. The idea is to show that property specific strategic whitetail hunting and habitat management (this includes the use of creative agricultural solutions) doesn't cost a fortune, and can be pretty much implemented by anyone.

This is what I know of this property as of right now. It's divided up into three parcels, one new alfalfa field, a pasture, then timber. As of last year there was no cattle in the timber. This timber also has a nice 30 acre alfalfa field that is at the end of its cycle. I also noticed when I had a quick look in

December that most of the timber is over mature mixed boreal forest with some small slough type water, and a seasonal stream. I've created this graphic outlining the farm in red white, red is roads/trails, green is timber and yellow is pasture/ag.

Dave and I have set a budget of $600.00 per year ($300.00 each) for stands, camera's, seed, fertilizer, fuel and other equipment. We're going to try our hardest to do all our spring work this year in three days. This includes scouting, pre hanging stands, selective timber harvest and hinge cutting. I will also create a three year plan that works on the weak points habitat wise on this property.

So right now the plan for year one is to focus our hunting plans around the new alfalfa. This alfalfa will be a deer magnet, pulling multiple deer off of the surrounding properties. This plan will simple in year one, scout out ambush sites that offer both safe access/exit and scent management zones, do some selective timber harvest at selected stand sites thus creating staging areas, hang sets and set up one or two scouting camera's. The plan also includes setting up some new bedding area's by hinge cutting in strategic locations.

Moving forward I'd really like to work some “creative agricultural solutions” into the mix, especially in the 30 acre alfalfa field. This would include the use of a cover crop that nurses frost seeded alfalfa and clover. This is a working farm and thus agricultural solutions such as this can be used to bypass the food plot laws here in Manitoba, something that I'm more than raring to share with the hunters of Manitoba.

So I will be sharing this project on my blog “The Blue Collar Outdoorsman”, on a thread on Manitoba Hunting Forums and also doing some segments on Blue Collar Outdoor TV on YouTube. I really hope that this particular project will be informative and help sportsmen of this province gain insight on how to both improve their hunting while at the same time helping wildlife out, and doing this within a budget that pretty much anyone can afford, and time-frame that is more than reasonable. So watch for my first post on this property some time in April (depending on thaw) and first BCO TV segment in May.

Late Winter's Spring Madness.

Well, it's finally starting to feel like the end is near...........the end of winter lol. It's been a while since my last post, I've been rather busy with family health issues and haven't had much time to write. Lots has transpired since my last post in regards to Blue Collar Outdoors. I've been out filming some ice

fishing with great results.  My girlfriend Melissa and I have had three great days out on the frozen H2O and I have basically put enough content in the bank for a great episode of BCO TV on MTS telling the story of the Pelican Lake recovery. There's two more filming sessions left to film for this particular show, one with a Manitoba Conversation fisheries biologist as he tests oxygen levels on the lake, and explains how winter kill happens, and the other putting some late ice pike on the ice.

Then it's one show in the bag for MTS TV's season two of BCO TV. The plan is to produce six episodes for MTS again this year.

So what's a guy who doesn't have enough time already supposed do? Well, start more projects hahahaha. I've decided to launch a web based hunting and fishing variety show under the BCO banner. I've got the first episode done up and posted the YouTube link to the trailer just before this post, the show will go live march 24^th. I'm very excited about this particular project. I will be contributing content, but the idea is to take the adventures of other outdoors folks and produce a show with the video they've shot. As of right now I have four other folks who have agreed to produce. The plan is to produce at least a show a month for one year. As of this point there's zero sponsorship for this project, I'll be taking a loss on it. I've also started filming and producing video for others, watch for a neat video in the near future.

One segment I will be contributing to this show is a video journal on how to set up a new property for deer hunting. Just prior to Christmas a friend and I gained exclusive access to 210 acres of PRIME deer hunting land. We've decided to call this the “Average Joe” property. We've set a budget of $600.00 ($300.00 each) to use towards stands, cameras and any habitat improvements that are needed. Moving forward we will assess the property, create a three year plan, scout and hang stands and then hunt it in the fall. The whole idea is to show that setting up and then managing a property for deer hunting isn't only for those with money, and with any luck we'll be showing a successful hunt off of this property from 2014. I'll also be working on my current hunting properties, doing some habitat improvements and working with local farmers on some create agricultural solutions that benefit wildlife.

I've been pencilling in some hunting plans for this spring. I've been very lucky to be invited on a father /daughter hunt where I'll film them hunting bears for MTS TV. I'll also be going on my own bear hunt, and will be filming Ty Pettyjohn on his bear hunt. If all goes well I'll line up a turkey hunt or two as well. I'll also be filming some trout fishing on the amazing stocked waters around western Manitoba, and will be going up to Lake Athapapuskow with some friends to film them catching giant lake trout. And I'm sure I'll be doing some open water fishing in May and June.

So the plan is to bring you all along for the ride. I hope to be able to blog at least once a month starting now. I will post an update in late march, right around when BCO TV on YouTube goes live.

Blue Collar Outdoors on YouTube Season 1 Episode 1 Trailer

BCO Volume I (DVD) Two Years In a row Redux

A great hunt that defined BCO Volume I.