Saturday, August 08, 2009

UH OH! Backyard alert!

Yesterday on my drive in to work I had to pause while there was an indecisive deer that couldn't make up it's mind. Did it want to be in the road, or over in the corn field. Back and forth, back and forth. This happened just before a hill in the road, so I stopped completely, wondering if a car might come flying over the hill and deciding the deer's fate. Luckily it finally settled on the cornfield (although the woods on the other side of the road would've been just as acceptable).

A little later that morning I emailed Brett at work to tell him about my morning adventure. He just haaaad to one-up me, pointing out there were some pictures on the camera at home.

Apparently this is what he saw in the backyard after I left for work that morning:


Not the clearest of shots, hunh? How's this?


Now when you've got a veggie garden, and landscaping beds that you've put a lot of time and money into, and you see this, there's not much you say that isn't the equivalent of "oh shit!"


Especially when there's a picture of the deer giving themselves a tour of your veggie garden!!! (Notice the corn tassles are higher up that the antlers on the deer!)



Between Brett trying to get the perfect picture, and Doogie doing his "alert! I'm nervous! there's something strange!" woof-bark, the deer got spooked and took off.



Now I've been trying to figure out what some of the holes are in the mulch beds lately, assuming it's chipmunks digging around (I even picked up mothballs today as a treat for the chipmunks!)....but now I'm wondering if it's not also the deer digging around. I've seen signs where they grazed the top off on corn stalk, and only one of all the clumps of swiss chard I have (they were very selective - it was only one color of chard in one bed - hm!). I wonder if there's anything else they're after that I've missed?

Andy - wanna get your gun?

6 comments:

Kris said...

Noooooo not mothballs. The camphor is poisonous to earthworms and other beneficial critters. Please don't use them. And, bottom line, they don't really repel anything.

There's better way to get rid of chipmunks. I've been pretty chipmunk-free this summer....

Jeph said...

Uh oh - I had no idea! Thanks for the tip. Hm. Well, we'll save the mothballs for household stuff I guess (not that I've ever used 'em before). So I guess I need to go scour your site for your chipmunk trick? Or do you want to share here?

It might be mice actually - don't know if they dig holes in mulch, but we've killed five in the basement since spring. Well, let me rephrase - I've caught three in traps, and our cats have handled two of them. But I don't know if mice dig up mulch outside.

Kris said...

Jeph, send me an email. I'll send you info and pics on chipmunk controls (which also has reduced my mice/moles too).

Unknown said...

nice bucks!

the ginger tabby said...

OMG...can't believe you have deer in your backyard!!

Jeph said...

Believe it! And check out those antlers!