Electric Cart Demo - Food Plot Checkup

Well, I made an unscheduled trip down to the land today to try out a lifted electric golf cart. I saw an ad on craigslist for them talking about a big federal tax credit on them (64% of the cost of the carts I'm looking at) and started checking on it and everything seems legitimate on it. To qualify for the tax credit, it has to be street legal so it has a horn, blinkers, lights, etc., etc. I have kind of toyed around with the idea of buying an old golf cart and doing a bunch of work on it and then using it down on the land, but this ends up cheaper than about any option I was looking at and you end up with a brand new street legal cart with a 4 year warranty. Top speed is only 25mph but that's plenty for what I'll be using it for.

I test drove one at the dealership and was pretty impressed, but I wasn't sure if it would make it up the big hill to my hunting blind down on the land. I test drove it at my house and tried to get it to climb out of the caliche pit, but that was a little beyond it's capabilities (I'm not sure our 4x4 pickup could have made it where I was trying the cart). I've been waffling on whether or not to buy it and the salesman told me that I could take the cart down to the land and find out for sure if it would make it up the hill or not, so I decided to take him up on the offer.

My company car and the little trailer got called into duty again to haul the cart down to the land. The cart isn't huge, but it is quite a bit bigger than a regular ATV.

Here's a closer view of the cart on the trailer. It fit pretty well, but the front rack was a tiny bit too tall to fit under the front deflector on the trailer so I couldn't pull it all the way forward on the trailer. I still ended up with enough tongue weight, but I may go ahead and remove that deflector since I've never really liked it anyway. It also makes it a little harder to strap the cart down since you can't just loop over the front axle and ratchet it down.

Here's what I brought it down there to find out whether it could handle. Hills never look as steep in pictures as they do in real life, but you can get a general idea. I always put the pickup in 4wd to go up this hill, I don't think it would make it otherwise. The cart is 2wd and although they do make a 4wd version, it is much more expensive and doesn't qualify for the federal tax credit. Anyway, the goal of this trip was to see if the 2wd cart would make it up the hill. My 2wd ATV can go up it so I was hoping the cart could make it up it as well. Long term, I'm thinking that Eli and I would be riding to the top of the hill and getting into the hunting blind in the early morning instead of walking in the dark with a 5 or 6 year old. Well, it made it! Didn't have much of a problem at all. It felt a little light in the front end at the top, but the front wheels never left the ground so that was good. If it was wet it might not make it up there, but that's pretty rare around here!Here's another shot of the cart at the top of the hill with the new hunting blind in the background.
Besides running around in the dark in stealth mode (the electric cart is VERY quiet compared with an ATV) the other use for the cart will be chores. The back seat folds down to haul things. I'll probably build some type of a wooden box to set on the platform for times when I will be working down on the land. I'm thinking that it will be hauling a chainsaw, lopers, rope, weedeater, etc. when I'm down there doing habitat improvements. For now it was hauling a new tripod stand that I'm going to be putting up.
So, the demo was pretty much a resounding success. The cart has a few creaks here and there that I think I can fix pretty easily, but overall I was very impressed. The demo version is in camo, but the solid color versions are $400 cheaper so I'm planning on getting a solid color one. I had pretty much decided on black, but the only negative is that they are selling so well that during the time I was debating on buying it, all of the carts that are coming in at the end of October are already sold so it looks like I won't be getting one until mid November at the earliest.

While I was down there I was able to check on the food plots that I planted a couple weeks ago and I was very happy with how well they were doing. Here's one of the shooting lanes that I planted with the fancy mix with some added winter peas and clover.
Here's a close up of the plot. It looks like the clover and alfalfa are getting a good start.
Not the best picture, but here's the shooting lane from the blind up on the hill. Before I cleared the shooting lane, animals could move through without ever being seen.
Here's the smaller field that I planted in the Turner Seed Fall Deer Mix. The greener spot is where I added some extra rye, oats and clover on top of the mix. On this field I had the drill set too low and had to go over it several times.
Here's the 13 acre field that is planted in pretty much just a Rye/Oats mix. I added a tiny bit of winter peas to it, but not enough to probably matter. The tripod stand that I'm putting in will be in a pinch point between these 2 fields.
Part of what I'm planning on doing this spring is planting switchgrass for the deer to use for bedding cover. I've been researching out different varieties and trying to find some that will grow with our limited rainfall, but still get 5 or 6 feet tall. It is crazy that Johnson grass is growing that tall in this field and I didn't even plant it. I'm curious if it will stay standing this winter or if it will get knocked down.
In my last post I noted the bumper crop of berries on the chittamwood trees and it looks like the pigs are enjoying them for sure. I noticed that they are falling to the ground now and based on this it looks like the are pretty much eating them exclusively right now.
Always good to end a post with a picture of a big 'ol pile of pig poop, but that's about it for now. I still need to get back down there and plant the 33 acres of wheat and I may spend the weekend and try to thin the pig population down as well.

That's it for now. Nathan