Cool, Rainy Weather: I Love It.

Today was (knock on wood) one of the coolest summer days I can remember over my 71 years. The temperature was in the low 50s at daybreak today and it wasn't broiling hot after the heavy early-morning rain.

And just think! The weatherman forecasts another four days of cooler temperatures and more rain. That will help bring more salmon into spawning stream

It's perfect weather for building up and working on my food plots. I've accomplished a bunch of work on my green fields, and recently decided to try watering with hose and sprinkler. The rain finally came today, and more is on its way.

I welcome today's rain and hope for more to come.

It has been a taxing effort to handle all the tree stand and ground blind preparation. If it doesn't rain hard tomorrow, I've got two, and possibly three stands to get up.

I always try to get all of this done in July or August, but the Traverse City newspaper had an article about this year's summer being one of the hottest on record. It said we've had 31 days of 85-degree or warmer weather this summer. I find it difficult to function in such extreme heat.

There is still some thought of planting a fall food plot now that we're getting some rain. I've done that the past three or four years, and have been hoping to go the full season with just my spring food plot.

I've enlarged one of my food plots, and may work on enlarging another in another location in Grand Traverse County that isn't near my home. My food plots near home were tore up last December as some neighbors cut firewood for their home heat with my permission.

Big unpicked cornfields concentrate late-fall deer.

Many of the deer last year were on my neighbor's cornfields because it became too wet in those fields to pick the corn. So, the deer had a major food source all winter and they didn't have to move far to find food.

My wooded trails still need a more work to firm them up, and  another location has grown up to  berry bushes, which I hope the deer will use for cover and food. Once I get the existing plots going, I'll still have some time to work on my home green fields and get them ready.

I've learned that the success of a food plot often depends on how the seed bed is prepared. Do it right, and with some rain and warm weather, it produces. Prepare the seed bed wrong, and no matter what you do, it ain't right.

I believe that some equipment made for use behind a 4WD ATV is in my future. I need something to turn up the ground, roll it over, and make it ready to be sprayed with herbicide and then limed and fertilized before planting.

Farming gear is needed but so is sweat equity.

Sweat equity is one part of producing great food plots but I'm growing tired of lugging large stones, piling them up, and then loading them into a sturdy wagon to be transported to the house for a replacement of grass on my lawn.

Most springs I will move 20-30 tons of rocks, and it's not bad when the mornings are cool but it becomes a potential killer on those 80-90 degree days. I refuse to work when it gets that hot.

I also refuse to work this hard another year without some mechanical help. I have no need for a big tractor, but do have a need for equipment that can be towed behind a 4-WD ATV to make my life easier. I plan on spending time this winter studying what is available on the market in a price range that I can afford.

I want a mower that is adjustable in height, a disc, a sprayer for lime, fertilizer and seed, and a cultipactor to flatten out the seed bed without driving the seed deep in the soil. Up until now, I've broadcast the seed by hand and driven over it with my Polaris and that pushes the seed just into the dirt.

My idea of ideal summer weather is temps of 70 degrees or slightly cooler. My metabolism slows down as the air temperature goes up, especially when moving rocks out of an open field with little or no shade.

This year one field will be planted with a clover mix. The other fields will be planted with brassica, clover, rape and purple top turnips.

Food plot plantings are something I strongly believe in, and I'll continue to do it as long as possible. In the meantime, between now and mid-September, let's pray for more rain.

It's not good for crops to become too dry or too wet, and it also can become a horrible fire hazard when we go weeks at a time without rain. Meanwhile, the cooler weather and rain is a welcome addition to my life.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors