My dad grew up in Selma, Alabama.  His father and two of his uncles worked on the Southern Railway.  At that time, Selma was a railroad town.  Now like many other places in Selma, the depot is on the National Register of Historical Places. A few years ago, we visited the Old Depot Museum and toured some of the places that my dad remembered from childhood.  We saw where he would ride his stick horse to town, where he went to high school, and where his paper route was.  We also rode past the house where he grew up, the church where he was baptized, and the cemetery where my grandparents are buried.  We couldn’t visit the one place that I had always wanted to see because it was closed to the public.  When my sister and I would ask my dad about his childhood, he would usually include a story about riding his bike to Kenan’s Mill to go swimming or how when he was older he would go with his dad to Kenan’s Mill to fish.  It always sounded like a really great place.  Kenan’s Mill is a grist mill that was built in 1861.  It used the creek running behind the mill to grind meal, grits, and corn.  The Kenan family donated the mill to the historic society in 1997 and it has been renovated so that the mill actually works again.  They now have a Kenan’s Mill Festival in the fall and the place is open to the public.  As soon as my sister and I heard of the festival, we knew that we had to go.  This year was my dad’s 75th birthday so we decided that this would be a great way to celebrate his birthday.  My dad, mom, and I met my sister and her two children in Selma and then we all drove out to the mill. 

We had a great day at the festival.  Everyone enjoyed seeing the mill, crossing a swinging bridge, going on a hay ride, listening to music, but most of all we enjoyed spending the day with my dad.We are still trying to solve a mystery about the mill, though.  My dad remembers there being a water wheel on the mill.  One year, we found a painting of the mill at the Art Festival in Foley, but the mill was minus the wheel.  My dad talked to the man who was grinding the corn and he said that the mill never had a wheel and had always used the water turbine.  The funny thing about that is the side of the mill has an opening that looks like a wheel could have been attached and the festival T shirt shows the mill having a wheel.  If anyone reading this entry can shed light on this mystery, I’d sure appreciate finding out who has the better memory;  my dad or the miller.

One of my favorite childhood memories is of a family reunion of my Mother’s family. My Mother’s family did not get together much as I remember. Probably one reason was that her parents were divorced. Although they were divorced, they both lived in the same community and got along well. The reunion that is burned into my mind was held at a “rock mill pond”. Many of you probably have never heard of a rock mill pond but during the 1960’s and 1970’s they were home of some record sized bass. The reasons for the large sized bass were the thousands and thousands of bream which grew in these ponds.I grew up in Crenshaw County on a small farm outside of Luverne, Alabama. Much of the land in Crenshaw is of the heavy red clay soil type which constantly stained our cloths and bare feet. In this clay was a sometimes vast amount of iron ore which was mined in a pit. A critical part of the pit was the pond constructed to provide water required to wash the clay off the ore.The iron ore pits and ponds were crude affairs and built as cheap as possible. To construct a pond, they would locate a small stream and dam it up with out clearing up the pond site. Therefore, years after the mining operations had ceased, the trees had died and fallen down into the water. You can imagine the vast amount of cover afforded the bream which made full use of it to produce thousands of offspring.

In nature when food is plentiful, prey animals such as bass also increase. Although these ponds contained vast number of fish, they were difficult to catch and mostly all you caught were small bream. My Aunt and Mother often took us fishing and we caught hundreds of small bream while replacing many hooks and broken lines. Of course for a young boy the size of the fish and lost hooks did not matter because we were fishing! Young boys and fishing have always been for each other. I am sure it was during one of these trips when my Mother and Aunt decided to have a family reunion at this old rock mill pond.

On the selected date Grand Parents and most of my Aunts and Uncles and their families showed up and starting fishing. Grand Daddy was placed in charge of cooking rather than Grand Mother who loved to fish. Someone had brought a few cast iron cooking pots and oil to fry the fish and hush puppies. I helped Grand Daddy locate a few large rocks, probably iron ore left over from the mining. I remember that the site was fairly clear due to the lack of top soil on top of the red clay. After we got setup, I joined my many cousins and started fishing.

After we had caught a good many fish, the adults began cleaning them and Grand Daddy starting cooking. In my memory it seemed that we fished, cleaned fish, and ate fish for several hours. I do not remember anyone catching a large fish but it created a large memory for me about a great family reunion in the outdoors.

Photo by Jwinfred

Being outdoors in nature and having a great time doesn’t require much money or equipment. I wonder if that old pond still exists where I can take my grand son for an outdoor adventure and catch a few fish.

Quail have always been one of my favorite bird since I was a small child.  I remember my father telling me stories about the many coveys that called the family farm home and even at a young age I always knew the distinctive “bob-bob-white” call from the beautiful birds.  Whistling the “bob-bob-white” call on my grandparent’s back porch as the sun went down in the evening is one of many cherished memories that I keep from my late grandmother.  She loved the outdoors and nature as much as anyone that I have ever know.As I grew older the quail covey sightings on the farm became less and less frequent.  Most of the farm became plots of planted pines and very little of the land was used for cultivation.  I still had fun walking around the farm trails and the occasional open areas finding a covey, but the sightings were rare.  The most important thing to me at the time though was getting outside and hiking around the farm on my own.  I was not very good at shooting them anyway and I really enjoyed getting out and finding them more than anything.  I’m sure I would have been more interested if I had a great bird dog on my side, but even today I would rather watch the dog work to find the birds.

The older I got the more interested in hunting I became and the more I started to learn about how to improve the property for wildlife.  I read a lot of information form county wildlife extension offices, books, and also met with county wildlife agent to help access the property for all types of wildlife.  I will discuss many different improvement areas in the future, but for now I will mainly focus on quail habitat.  Most of the ideas for quail are also good for your turkey population and many other wildlife species. 

One fact that you can not ignore

If you do not have any birds, no matter what you do to improve your habitat it will not help.  To improve your quail population you must first have some population.  Your best bet, if you do not have any birds, is to purchase and release some good quality and well raised ones.  Make sure that you purchase them from someone with a good reputation for raising birds that are to be released to the wild.  The birds should have been raised in isolation with little or no exposure to traffic noise, humans, dogs, predators, domestic animals, etc.

Hedge your bets

Any hedge rows, old fence lines, or uncultivated or unharvested rows you can leave on your property, by all means leave them.  Quail need nesting sites and cover from predator as much as anything else.  The lay of the land years ago was a great number of family farms split by various means, all of which created little hideaways, of fences, uncut borders, hedge rows, etc.  By leaving or creating these type of areas on your property you are allowing the quail to hatch and raise their young easier.  Reproduction is the key to increasing your quail population.  The government in many cases will also offset the loss of revenue associated with wildlife management practice, so check with you local county farm agency for details.

Giving up some short-term gains

When dealing with planted pines, giving up some short term gains by thinning prematurely will pay long term benefits to your quail population.  With normal pine thinning almost all the undergrowth is choked out by the needles.  After about five years the planted pines will shade and cover the ground with needles enough to kill off most of the weeds and other sources of food that quail must have to sustain.  By thinning your pines before the food source is eliminated the quail have a diverse and steady supply of food.  Another must for planted pines is to adhere to a good burning program so hardwoods can be suppressed and the steady build up of litter can be eliminated.  It is also a good idea to routinely disc areas around your pines, not only for fire prevention but for diverse habitat for your quails.  Young quail need soft areas to find and hunt insects and seeds.

Diversity and Food Sources

The last thing I want to talk about is diversity and the types of food sources that are available to your growing quail population.  I touched a little on diversity in the last section but here is a list that I feel you need to ensure proper diversity.

• Borders to allow hide aways from predators and nesting areas.
• Various forms of food, planted and native.  Improving and increasing the yield of your native food sources is on of the best practices that can be done easily and does not cost a lot of money at all.
• Uncultivated and uncut areas.  If the property you are working with is being cultivated, try to arrange a 15 foot border that will not be harvested or cut.  Be sure to leave areas uncut for a couple years to allow good nesting areas on your property.
• Limit the number of pesticides that are used on crops and planted plots.  By killing off the insects you eliminate a valuable food source for your quail.
• Create patches that allow your young quail to flourish.  Basically all of the above with added areas of disc or plowed soil to make it easier on your little quail.

To me the most valuable and cost effective ideas is to supplement your native sources of food.  If you have native grains, berries, or nuts on your property simply fertilize those areas to increase your yield.  Native plants are almost always more hardy than anything you can plant and are also more resistant to local insects which might damage planted crops.

I hope this article will give you some ideas on simple ways to improve your quail population.  There are many source out there, one of the best being your local county agencies, that can be found so be sure and read them all.

On the trip up my son, always the thoughtful young boy, asked how we could distinguish between the wild doves and the “tame” doves.  After a few minutes, I told him that the neighbor’s doves could not fly that far.  Although he did not come out and say, I was certain he was uncomfortable about shooting the tame doves.

As anticipated, we had a great time and shot a few doves.  One or two landed a few feet from us just like I had bragged in my stories.  We were thrilled that we were able to create a similar experience as I had as a young boy.  What cemented the memory in my mind was when he put his arm around me and asked if we could spend another day and hunt again.

Although my new job prevented us from spending another day on this trip, I made a special effort to spend as much time as I could with him.  I now have a grandson and I can not wait until we get to take him dove hunting in the black berry bushes on the family farm outside Luverne, Alabama.  Maybe my little grandson can shoot the 20 gauge shotgun that my son now owns.

Take time out of your busy schedule to spend time with your children.  Outdoor adventures are a great way to spend time with your kids and you will create memories that will last a life time to you and your children.

Photo by NotQuiteSonic

Photo by Elle Rigby

Living4Outdoors is a place for myself (Brad Baggett) and my father, Kyle Baggett, to express our great appreciation for outdoor living and the fun times that we have had outdoors.  Living4Outdoors is a way to promote all things outdoors including becoming closer to your family and children outdoors.  We have both lived in the state of Alabama for most of our lives and have always loved being outside and really just enjoy nature in general. Throughout my childhood I remember watching nature shows, dog shows, camping, hunting, and fishing with my Dad.  Since I started JuiceofChampions, I have wanted to start another weblog and thought that one about the outdoors would be a great project for me and my Dad.  Our whole family loves the outdoors and the tradition is being carried on with my 15 month old son, who we can hardly keep inside.  Everyday he goes straight to the back door and wants to go play outside.  The apple did not fall far from the tree because I remember countless times coming in after dark after play sports outside in the neighborhood.  My friends and I would play basketball, football, baseball, swim, and any other outdoor activity from when we got up to when we were pulled inside. We hope you enjoy the new website and really hope this becomes an interactive place for everyone to promote the great outdoors.  If you have any stories, memories, tips and tricks, or just want to drop us a line don’t hesitate and get in touch with us through our contact page.We will post articles on pretty much any thing about outdoor living.  Here is a short list of subject that we will start writing articles about soon:

• Camping
• Hiking
• Hunting
• Fishing
• Outdoor Sports
• Swimming
• Growing closer outdoors
• Outdoor adventures and stories
• Gardening
• How to tips for various task outdoors
• Property management
• Wildlife management
• Wildlife and environmental conservation
• Childhood memories and adventures