Check out these pictures!
One morning, as we were getting something ready for dinner, we looked out the dining room window and saw this! A buck looking back this way.
The picture was through the window so it wasn't as sharp as I would have liked but if I had gone outside, he would have run off.
But here it is zoomed in.
Then a few days later, we looked out the front window at the kitchen sink and saw movement. There were a couple more deer!
While the buck was on the property behind us, these two were on our property, the part of our acreage that is undeveloped/uncleared so there is no telling how many deer are out there. It's about 7 acres or so of dense brush and trees so there could be a small herd out there. We aren't hunters at all, so they are welcome to live their lives safely there. Just don't eat the garden when we get it built, ha. They have left the fruit trees alone since I put up the fishing line.
We love living out here!
We do not hunt our 20 acres either but after 9 years the deer are ruining a lot of stuff. They find ways around everything and eat the trees and ruin them. They come up and eat the birdseed, suet and sunflower seeds I put out for the birds. And when there is snow, they dig at it until they get to the grass and then they dig and dig and dig.
ReplyDeleteWe live on 8 mostly wooded acres not far from Richmond, VA and have deer, fox, a bazillion squirrels, a rare bear, and one wild cat that we've seen. About 18 years ago, after we moved my in-laws from TN into the house next door, we decided to put in a veggie garden. DH and MIL decided on a orange hurricane fence reinforced with 8' leftover chain link fencing. We read on-line someone had woven rubber snakes (school supply site) in their fencing so we did that, too. No trespassers! The other thing we did was bury the bottom foot of the small hole hardware cloth (metal) so it would be difficult for any animal to tunnel into the garden. We also had a scarecrow in with the field corn. Hope our experience helps y'all!
ReplyDeleteHugs!
Sadly, we've aged so we can't garden like we used to.
I hope your garden will be fenced in. We have deer all around us and if it wasn't for our 6-foot-high fence around the back yard we wouldn't be able to grow anything. We can't have anything out front because they will come right up to the porch and eat it.
ReplyDeleteThe deer are so beautiful! The buck looks like it was posing for a picture.
ReplyDeleteThey are beautiful animals. We live in the suburbs and have early morning deer visitors occasionally. I am pretty sure they eat some of the pears from the pear tree.
ReplyDeleteIf you plant it, they will come, eat everything and invite their friends
ReplyDeletebesides the fishing line, you might want to tie on some "flash tape" ... metallic mylar maybe ... I use about 10 or so inches folded in half ... it flutters randomly in the breezes and keeps a lot of birds out of tomatoes, blueberries etc we have in our yard ... i'm guessing good for all kinds of critters due to it's random fluttering. Glad you found out about them early on so you can protect plants of all sorts.
ReplyDeleteIf you put out shelled corn in a few small piles, they will come regular after they find it That way they will stay on your property when hunting season comes around.
ReplyDeleteIf an area is not hunted for a while it becomes overpopulated with deer and they start to die from starving. That is a terrible death for them.
ReplyDeleteIf you start feeding them deer corn, a deer block or whatever; you may end up with more deer on your property than you bargained for.
ReplyDeleteThe more deer, the more damage they can cause. Nice to see them from a distance, but the last thing you will want is them getting into your garden, orchard, flower beds, etc.
Deer just love eating the fresh leaves and buds along with your fruit from fruit trees and it won't be long before your trees will start to bud out. Looks like they are ready and waiting for that time to come.