New Deer Delicacy

Not long ago I lamented the fact I'd have to get in my goldfish pond to clean it out.  It has been raining nonstop for so long, I haven't been able to.

Be that as it may, look what the deer cleaned out of the gold fish pond for me.  I caught them red handed.  They have never done it before.  Tulips and flowers, yes, but never the water lilies.  

Just wish they had gotten in and chopped up the lily roots for me so I wouldn't have to.  Where are the clothespins for my nose?  Oh well, at least it's a sunny, warm day.

And, my beautiful old Japanese Maple did die, but I replanted it with a blue atlas cedar on the right.  I love those too.

I want to tell you that I almost always comment on your blogs, but I usually get an email stating  message failure to send.  Something like that anyway.  I don't have a clue what it is about, but just wanted you to know I am reading and enjoying all of your posts even if my comments aren't getting through.  Let me know if this has ever happened to you.

The Garden Eaters

Just outside the window, two does are searching for acorns. 

They are used to me and bring their babies around too.  I can barely scare them away.  This summer, they have feasted on my tomatoes, apple tree leaves, and happily eaten whatever they wanted in my garden.  The bucks have even figured out that the turkeys have a feed bowl in their pen and devour it before the turkeys can.  They are really getting to be a nuisance.

Unfortunately, hunting season starts soon, then I feel sorry for them.  I don't let anyone hunt on my farm and feed corn to the deer so they hopefully will stay on my acreage, but alas, from all the shooting around us, I know many will not make it.  I have even put up no hunting signs and one in particular, Hunters Will Be Shot.

The Iceman Cometh

Looks like the geese are stuck in the center of the pond. They have kept a circle of water clear of ice, but would not walk on the ice to come for food. The wild ducks walked around on the icy surface of the pond without fear, but my geese are really chickens.


I counted 31 deer this morning, waiting for me to feed them corn. They wait for me in the morning and evening. I cannot fail them. The little yearlings just stare. My son says I am mother nature, but I am much kinder; I think I have to try and save the world. Up on our rooftop, it sounds like the deer are jumping around with all the ice melting and falling off.

Looks like fun? Not for me and the other states that are suffering from an ice storm. This is one of our Aristocrat Pear trees. Luckily, we received about 3/4 of an inch of ice and thankfully, did not lose our electricity. Last ice storm, it was out for 8 days. No heat, no TV or internet, the list is too long to write here. It is a nightmare, not to mention the millions of trees and branches that were down. To all those suffering with outages, I feel your pain.

Some of my friends

Thought I'd share some of the deer and other animals on our Peaceable Hill Farm this year. Currently, I'm feeding whole corn to about 27 deer as there aren't many acorns this year. I think a late hard freeze this spring hurt the oaks. The doe standing on her hind legs is snap kicking or boxing the others to get them to go away from the corn. They do this a lot; must be some kind of hierarchy. The kitty is one of our barn cats that followed me from the barn to the pond where I was taking pics of the deer. He is so sweet. More about the barn cats later. The geese at the pond just wanted bread. They ran honking and hissing after the deer and the cat shortly after the photo.

Nature

I used to break roly polys in half. They were fairly large and inside of them were tiny white crawly things. Babies, perhaps, or parasites of some sort. Ick. I can take most anything except parasites. Now, I don't kill anything. Karma you know. Oh, I do pinch fiddleback spiders, and the yearly cottonmouth water moccasins that take up residence in my gold fish pond... It's not that they eat my goldfish. There are generations from the calico goldfish my young son won at the carnival years ago. But, I do mind the snakes killing two of my ducks that wondered up to the house and don't want them to bite us or my pets. Supposedly, this venomous snake is aggressive though I have never seen that. All the snakes around here seem to want to get away asap. Be that as it may, if I see the watermocs out sunning on my lily pads...
Notice this year's fawn and my male goose running after it. The rest of the geese are his babies from the spring hatch. Also, my female Bourbon Red turkey peeking out from behind a hosta on the back porch. Which reminds me, did anyone go to the annual turkey drop in Yellville,
AR last weekend? This is a town of about 1500 and they have a celebration every year on the town square and the highlight is a plane flying overhead dropping turkeys. When the turkeys land, (some land dead but don't tell anyone I told ya), the celebrants scramble for the fleeing turkeys. I heard one little boy carried his around the entire day like it was an Oscar. No kidding! I'll see if I can get a still photograph or two.

This is my Emmy; the sweetest, most wonderful dog in the world.


This is Sister; Emmy's ornery little sis; field rat killer extraordinaire.