Deer Fishing is something Shaw & Papa invented. We have an apple tree in the back yard that provided us with a surprise bumper crop of tiny, tender, sweet apples. Shaw put an apple on a long stick, prop it up against the fence and wait. Soon a deer would come and eat the apple off of the stick. Then more deer would come. Then we gave up on the sticks and just rolled the apples to them. Aubrey would toss apples and even hit a buck in the head. He just stared at her for a moment, then bent down and ate the apple. Now they just wait at the back deck for us to come out and feed them. They won’t eat out of our hand, but get pretty close. The other day Shaw was feeding them from a bucket of apples that was in the kitchen. He would take a bite of each apple before he rolled it to the deer.
Shaw has named them, all of them. There is Sweet Mama & Sweet Baby. Sweet Little Mama and twin fawns, both called Sweet Little Baby. Cute Daddy, Big Cute Daddy and Sweet Daddy. Do you sense a pattern? There are more that hang around, but these make up the little group that stays around our house the most. Of them all, Big Cute Daddy is the one most coveted by the hunters in the family. He’s off limits though. After surviving Aubrey’s apple thumping and still coming around, he’s part of the family.
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| Cute Daddy in the side yard. |
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| Sweet Daddy under the pines. His coat is turning for winter. |
Of course deer are not the only wild animals that come around, there are squirrels, chipmunks, mink, bears & mountain lions. Thankfully, we've yet to encounter a bear or mountain lion, but we've seen the evidence that they've been here.
There are about a zillion different birds. Ducks, geese, hawks, eagles, robins, finches, woodpeckers, hummingbirds and magpies to name a few. A lot of them have left for warmer climates, but a surprising number remain.
There are about 12-14 wild turkeys that come around every few days. They watch Jim climb up and down the ladder, fascinated by his amazing human trick. The Tom turkey will fan out his tail & puff up occasionally, and that is as impressive as Jim’s ladder antics. They don’t stay very long, Shaw or Bandit will keep them stirred up until they’ve had enough and sashay on down the road, chirping and fussing along the way. Sometimes they are in the trees on the property behind us. I had never seen turkeys sitting in trees before, and they are almost invisible against the foliage and tree bark. Oh, and never, ever walk under trees with turkeys in them.
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| They've had enough of Bandit & Shaw. |
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| Turkey in a tree. You don't see that every day, unless you live here! |
