One of Hartman's first successful moves toward establishing the haven for wildlife he had planned was to contact Dick Connelly, a wildlife biologist from a Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA). Dick met Gene at the property and, after riding and looking over most of the land, they sat down and drew up a five-year management plan. There were a number of early obstacles to overcome. Most of the land had been planted in fescue, which, of course, is only slightly more beneficial to quail than a parking lot. Next, the property was overgrown with undesirable hardwoods and brush. One of Gene's first tasks was to eradicate the fescue pastures and convert them to native, warm season grasses.

Hartman was no stranger to wildlife conservation. He is a life sponsor of Ducks Unlimited, a life sponsor of Quail Unlimited and a supporter of the Tennessee Conservation League. He got in touch with the local Quail Unlimited chapter, which, in this case, happened to be the home chapter of Quail Unlimited President, Steve McGhee. Steve met with Gene and advised him of landowner assistance that he could expect from his local Volunteer Chapter. Gene advised all those that he was working with, from TWRA to QU, that his primary objective was to establish a quality quail habitat on the property. A secondary objective would be habitat that would support healthy populations of deer and turkey.

They decided to spray all the fescue pastures with Roundup® and use a bulldozer to begin to open up more acreage. Gene even went so far as to purchase a D-6 dozer and then taught himself. how to use it. He knew that this would be an ongoing work in progress. It would also be a labor of love and time well spent outdoors.

With the eradication of the fescue, the next step was to burn all open fields and pastures. This was done with local help from the QU Volunteer Chapter. The next step was to establish healthy stands of native warm season grass. Dick Connelly suggested several varieties and Gene settled on a big and little Bluestem mix, along with Indian grass, switch grass and eastern gamma grass. In addition to the native grasses, Hartman established field borders of bi-color lespedeza, autumn olive and Russian olive. He also established healthy stands of partridge pea and Kobe and Korean lespedeza. He added several varieties of millet including pearl, foxtail and browntop. For annual food plots, he established areas that included corn, sunflower, grain sorghum, oats and wheat.

After the first year, when all the grass varieties had been established, he put the entire farm on a two-year burn rotation. Fifty percent of the property is burned each year. Additionally, light disking after the first year helped establish healthy stands of native, warm season grasses.

Gene learned about a program offered through TWRA in which he could have sludge, a by-product of wastewater treatment plants, spread on his property in lieu of fertilizer. In this case, he found that this was a federally approved program and one in which the agency assisted in finding a location for this otherwise not so pleasant product. In Gene's case, the sludge proved to be extremely beneficial as a fertilizer for his open fields. It also eliminated the need for lime applications, thus saving more money.

During that first year, he began construction on a 3,000-square foot lodge, which will sleep up to 20 adults. Gene wanted an attractive and comfortable lodge where he, his family and his friends could gather and enjoy the outdoors and each other's company. He chose a log design with three bedrooms downstairs and two upstairs. One of the bedrooms, with its three bunk beds is used when there are a number of hunters or guests to accommodate. The front of the lodge is mainly glass so that guests can enjoy the view and the wildlife from the great room. The lodge features two front porches, a screened back porch and a cozy concrete area in the back where hunters gather around his fire pit in the evening.

Perhaps most interesting is the conversion that Hartman made to the feed trough-from a cattle feeding area to a people feeding area. The former owner had maintained a 250-foot long brick and concrete feed trough for his cattle. Gene rebuilt the roof and then covered the feed trough area with plywood. This area can accommodate several hundred diners at once for social functions such as the QU Volunteer Chapter annual fund-raiser. Now, when Mr. Hartman rings the dinner bell and advises his guests to "belly up to the feed trough," he means it both literally and figuratively.