Antlers and Fawns are Growing.......

It is only the end of June and the bucks on the C4 are looking AWESOME! We have had good, consistent rain all spring and early summer and that is the key to good bucks here in Texas. It keeps the food plots green and the natural browse growing. The bucks don't have to travel far at all to find a bite to eat and they are showing it. It looks like there are going to be some good ones this year!

We are seeing more and more fawns on the cams and occasionally see one in person. We have to continuously battle the predators to keep them from knocking a hole in our crop of fawns. Some of these will be our super bucks that some lucky hunter will be able to go after in about 5 years.

If you are interested in going after one of these bucks then go to www.c4whitetails.com for more information on booking a hunt.

Restoring Chestnuts to East Texas

Did you know that the greatest ecological disaster that has ever occurred in North America happened right here in East Texas? That's right - the extinction of the American Chestnut in the South (which includes East Texas) is the worst ecological disaster science has ever seen on this continent. In 1909 the US started importing chestnuts from China to satisfy the insatiable american appetite for "roasted chestnuts". What they didn't realize was that those imported Chinese chestnuts brought along a blight that our great American Chestnut could not fight off and within a few short years it had killed over 4 billion chestnut trees - yes, you read that correctly - BILLION with a 'B'.

Well, fortunately, there were a few really smart individuals that managed to save a few up north and start a process of developing a chestnut that was immune to the Chinese chestnut blight and today you can buy those chestnuts trees from a few select nurseries that  have spent decades growing enough to develop a market for selling them. Here at the C4 we feel it is our duty to help restore some of those great trees so we have started a process of planting a few every year and the first actual chestnuts are starting to bloom!

Chestnut Blooms

We plant them along the edges of food plots to give them plenty of sun and to make it easy to care for them. We have developed an easy and inexpensive way to water them and we have built exclusion cages around them to keep the deer from killing them (bucks love to rub them). We are looking forward to "roasting chestnuts over an open fire" this year and eventually they will produce enough of a crop to be a real benefit to the deer herd. Chestnuts are high in protein and digestible energy, they produce every year as opposed to every other year for oak trees, and some recent studies done by Dr. James Kroll have shown deer prefer chestnuts to acorns 100 to 1.

Chestnut trees in a food plot

If you would like to know where you can get some Chestnut trees of your own and help to restore this magnificent tree to your area then contact us through our website at www.c4whitetails.com and we will tell you all you need to know.

New Day Camp Making Progress

Chase installing the new door onto the patio

A couple of weeks ago I posted that we are building a new "Day Camp" in the barn out at the ranch to give us another place for hunters to take a break and relax and have some lunch in the middle of the day. We are making good progress for people who are NOT carpenters! The electrical and plumbing are in, the insulation is installed and the backing boards are on the walls. We spent this last weekend installing doors and windows. Next will be cabinets for the kitchen and then the wall coverings which will be old weathers fencing boards and stone - it is going to look awesome!

New patio door - love the Texas Star!

Summertime on the C4 is a time to complete these type projects because we certainly won't have time once deer season starts. We spend the balance of the time fighting the "war against vegetation", hunting and killing predators, and monitoring the deer herd. The does are starting to drop the fawns this time of year and bucks are busy growing antlers. I will post some updated scout cam pics of bucks showing their progress soon.

The Newest Member of the C4 Team

Mahlon Butler

We would like to give a big welcome to Mahlon Butler, the newest member of the C4 Whitetails team. Mahlon is a member of the Corp, and soon to be graduate, of Texas A&M University and is fulfilling his internship requirements for his degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences as the charter member of the C4 Whitetails Internship Program. He is a hard working young man and loves whitetail deer and the outdoors. He works at the ranch every day - weather permitting - doing whatever is necessary to improve the the habitat for our wildlife, including clearing roads and fence lines,and even fixing broken down equipment and trapping predators. We share everything we know about what we have learned from our experiences here at the C4 implementing the wildlife and habitat management program created for us by Dr. James Kroll - the undisputed leading authority on whitetail deer management.

If you are a ranch owner and will be looking for a wildlife manager who is hard working, well educated, and very enthusiastic then give Mahlon a call. He will be graduating in December and will be ready to go to work! You can contact him here at the C4 - go to our website at www.c4whitetails.com for contact information.

If you are an aspiring Wildlife Manager and would like more information on the C4 Whitetails Internship Program then go to our website and give us call - we would love to have you.

New Day Camp

Even though the ranch is only a few miles from the main waterfront lodge on beautiful Toledo Bend Reservoir we decided  we wanted a "day camp" right on the property. It would be a great place to have BBQs, lunches, and gatherings right on the property and an awesome place for our hunters to relax and "warm your bones" after a morning of deer hunting. It will be complete with a full bathroom, full kitchen, a large den, and a full covered patio with fire pit and sitting area!

A few weeks ago we framed up the main structure (okay, okay......CHASE framed up the main structure....but it was MY idea)! We then brought in a plumber to stub out the plumbing and an electrician to wire the electrical - we feel these two crafts are best left up to the professionals.

The framed out bathroom

In the meantime, April has been doing her thing with the interior design picking out fixtures and doors, flooring, and wall coverings. We want it to have that "rustic, warm, classy Texas" look and that isn't as easy as it sounds. Most of the materials you buy off the shelf just give it a cheap look and we want it to be much more than that so we are having to basically make everything ourselves from old re-purposed items that we have found all over the place. Take the bathroom lavatory for instance:

Whiskey Barrel Lavatory

April found this real whiskey barrel (it even smells like whiskey inside - way cool!) She then added the copper basin on top and we found a high rise sink fixture to finish it off. A door was cut in front to access the inside for storage and there you have it - a one of a kind rustic bathroom sink lavatory.

We have items from as far away as northern Oklahoma  and central Arkansas that we found while traveling (April is incapable of driving past an antique store or re-purposed materials shop!)

There is A LOT more to do and it will take time because you can't just buy this stuff at Home Depot but when it is finished it will be awesome! Stay tuned for updates - I will post pictures as we make progress. If you want to experience the C4 then give us a call or visit the website at www.c4whitetails.com for more information.