20 Jul Mon 2009
The things you can find in a potato patch
So anyway, me and Momma J (our trusty John Deere) are running through the rows with the brush hog when suddenly up pops a fawn. We have had two that have been showing up on a semi regular basis, but I was pretty sure they were bedding down in the neighbor's corn. This little guy spooks and runs around for a minute or two before figuring a way out through the brush row. Aside from feeling bad that I had enough weeds to hide a small deer in, I don't really pay this too much attention.
Later that evening, I am walking out through the field with mom and dad and here is a fawn again. I am not sure if this is the same one or not. We tried to shoo it out of the field, but instead of running away, it runs right at us. We realize we are between the fawn and the potato patch, so I guess this is the same one heading back to where it had been bedded down. It gets within five feet of us before veering off. We get it out of there after a little bit of work, getting back to within almost arms reach of it a couple of times before we can get it to move, and it heads straight for the apple orchard. This is where we really don't want deer to be hanging around or feeling at home, so we chase it out of there and finally get it headed on its way.While we are headed back over to the bean field which is where we were going in the first place, what do we see but another fawn standing there about where the first had been. I am guessing that this was the sibling of the first one. It however is somewhat smarter than its twin and heads straight out when we get close. We continue on with what we were doing only to be interrupted a few minutes later by who I can only guess was momma deer. Thankfully she spooked out fairly easily.
Deer are a continuing problem for us, but we usually don't have quite this level of face to face contact with them. We have some new anti deer stuff this year that has worked very well, but it is at a height that is appropriate for adult deer, and the kids just run right under it without ever slowing down. Thankfully they have not done any serious damage yet, but we are going to have to strengthen our defenses after this series of run-ins. The full anti-deer hedge rows are still a few years from being effective and we haven't even established anything near a full perimeter. I have never been a hunter by trade, but I have the feeling that many a freezer full of venison is in our future.