fawn

Captured, and orange sun

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We caught a lovely pair on one of the trail cams this morning!

We’ve got them on the driveway cam, too, running down the road, but the fawn is so small and hard to see against the gravel, it was barely visible.

The girls and I checked on the cats and garden beds this evening. While we were out in the main garden, they called my attention to the sun.

The camera had a hard time showing just how brightly orange the sun is right now. We could look right at it, too, with no discomfort at all. The weird thing it, it doesn’t really seem that smoky out. Certainly not like when we had wildfires all around us during the major drought we had, two years ago. Thankfully, this year we’ve had some decent moisture, though we certainly can still use more rain.

While we were out, we picked a whole bunch of spinach. I’m going to have to remember this variety, because even with the heat we’ve been having, they’re only just now starting to show signs of bolting. So we will probably pull the entire bed of spinach soon. I’ll probably transplant more onions into it after that, since I still have quite a few that need to go into the ground.

I also ended up picking a whole bunch of rhubarb. We don’t use it a lot, but my younger daughter has a recipe for rhubarb cake she got from my sister (who doesn’t even remember giving it to her!) that she wants to make. The girls had gone in by then, and they checked the recipe for how much rhubarb it uses – four cups! – so I went and got another bunch of stalks, just to be sure we had enough.

With how messed up my sleep has been lately, I’m thinking of going to be really early tonight. Hopefully, I’ll get some actual sleep and get an early start tomorrow, and try to make up for the lack of productivity today!

The Re-Farmer

Captured!

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Part of my morning rounds has been to check the garden beds for deer (or other critter) damage. Since we lost several Mongolian Giant sunflower transplants, there has not appeared to be any more damage in that area. In the main garden beds, there has been little more than a few spinach that the row covers aren’t long enough to cover, showing signs of nibbling. That’s it.

As for the garden cam, it’s been getting video of cats going by lately, and that’s it.

This morning, I saw no new damage to the garden, though one of the support poles holding the rope and twine in one of the sunflower transplant rows was fallen down. It had broken and is a bit shorter than the others. I’d tied a plastic grocery bag to it and the rope at the top, but with the winds we’ve been having, it was no surprise to find it fallen. Those bags sometimes act like sails! When my daughters first set this up, the middle support poles were simply slipped through the divided strands of the rope, rather than tied, so for the shorter pole, it would have easily just slide off.

Other than that nothing else was amiss in the garden beds.

Then I checked the garden cam.

I’d say we are very fortunate that there was no damage this morning!

Yes, that is a deer and her fawn off in the distance!

I saw in earlier files that the support pole was already down before they came by, so it was not them that knocked it over. That grocery bag hovering near the mama is hanging off the rope the fallen support pole had been holding up.

In the next file, I watched as the mama casually ducked under the rope, which is what it’s in the middle of doing in this image.

Clearly, the ropes, poles, and flappy noise makers are no longer acting as a deterrent!

There was one last file, and then they moved on. You can just see the spots on the baby in this image!

Watching the files was interesting. While they did snuffle about, they did not try to eat anything in the rows. There are so many miscellaneous plants coming up here that, other than the sunflower transplants, they’d have to seek out individual seedlings in between the weeds. So… the weeds are basically protecting our seedlings right now!

They also very gingerly stepped OVER the rows. Which makes sense. The soil in between the rows is harder, so their hooves won’t sink.

Another thing I noticed is that this pair came from a direction I did not expect. We will need to keep that in mind as we increase our deer deterrents.

There was one more night time file after this; Nicky the Nose making his way between the rows!

The girls and I will move the trail cam again, later today. I want to try it at the opposite end of where it is now, and further away from the beds, so it will cover more ground. Since this camera is not a wide angle camera, it missed a lot where it is sitting right now.

Though it did a great job of capturing these deer!

The Re-Farmer

Morning smiles – and a surprise!

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When visiting the kittens this morning, I was viciously attacked!

By a Nicco! :-D

Saffron has one eye that is a bit gooby, so I took the time to clean and medicate it. Then, after they’d all had a chance to devour some wet cat food, they all went after my legs!

They are tearing my clothes to shreds. :-D

Also, they really, really like my shoelaces.

Even Beep Beep got in on the action!

For a cat that has spent her entire life outdoors, she is really taking to this “inside” thing – and having access to people to cuddle!

Later on, while checking the trail cam files, I found a lovely surprise.

Other than discovering that FedEx made a delivery after we got home yesterday, and left a package shoved into the gate. I never even saw it, when I did my rounds! If I hadn’t seen the video, I would never have known until this afternoon. I was expecting it to come in the mail, tomorrow.

No, it was this surprise that really made me smile.

That baby is so adorable!!!

They found a spot in the fence where they can both squeeze through the barbed wire, without the mom having to jump it.

The baby can fit through any part of the fence, just by ducking its head. :-D

So sweet!

Also, there’s a package in the middle of that gate. It was shoved into the chain.

Even while walking up the driveway this morning, knowing it was there, I couldn’t see it until I was almost right at the gate!

At least FedEx can find our place. Unlike UPS. !!

Lots to smile about, this morning. :-)

The Re-Farmer