Photo by Becky
Did make Farm Side deadline. Wrote about car deer collisions (amazing huh). You might be shocked how much damage is done by them annually. I certainly was.
By the time that was done, Liz was back from taking Beck to school (her "day off", meaning she works here instead of there). We hurried off for a serious grocery shopping trip. Cupboards were bare and have been, but last week's power failure made it impossible to shop then. Came home and did some high speed house cleaning. (About as effective as dipping out the Atlantic with a spoon during mud season, but you have to try.)
Then back to school to pick up Beck. I really hustled as her class gets over at seven and I have yet to get the headlight that the deer broke fixed. On the way home we saw these (and many, many other) deer. It is no wonder I hit one. There must be hundreds of them out feeding all hours of the day now.
Also by BeckyThen we spotted these little ducks in a small roadside pond. They looked so unusual to me that I turned around (to heck with the headlights) and drove down to take hurried pictures out the car window (no pull offs). I believe they are buffleheads (mon@rch, am I right?). If so they are only the second ones I have ever seen.
Home to find the rest of the crew still milking and our wonderful and highly regarded feed rep visiting to tweak the ration. He brought pizza and some neat things, including little mugs made out of corn plastic, which I will photograph later when time permits. He is a great guy; helped Liz figure out how to best handle a total rearrangement of our feeding as we have run out of both haylage and corn silage and are feeding straight dry hay, grain, corn meal and soy bean meal. (She has been doing a good job with it btw.) By the time all was done it was well after eight. Alan had some pizza, but we saved the rest for breakfast (LOVE cold pizza for breakfast) as Liz had made marinated chicken breasts over rice with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and mushrooms and her pasta salad with lots of raw vegetables, which is always great. I am reading a really good book by Faye Kellerman, but I didn't get through two pages before my eyes started closing on their own and I gave up for the night. I sure will be glad when the internship is done and Liz is back home all the time.
That is a lot of deer! A friend told me in VA that they can hunt them like you fish - so many a day. We have less in #'s, but they are bigger. I'm glad you're OK after hitting one.
ReplyDeleteSeeing the price's of everything - don't you wish you got paid sufficiently for your family's hard work.
Nothing surprises me when it comes to deer and the damage they can do. I live in PA. I don't think any state tops us for deer/vehicle accidents.
ReplyDeleteMmmmmmm buffleheads with orange sauce. (drool)
ReplyDeleteOk, ok, just kidding!
Double ditto what Nita said. That is such an extraordinarily busy day for you.
And do you want some extra deer? The ones here love my plants (rose, primrose, gardenia, mock orange, camelia, snapdragon, vines and such). Sure am glad I'm keeping them well fed. LOL.
Stay warm.
Farming is such demanding work. It has to be a labor of love for sure. Sadly, you never get paid what your worth. My hats off to all of you.
ReplyDeleteWe saw our first deer of the season last night as we returned from parent/teacher conference. Thankfully they were on the south side of a pasture, away from the road. We still have so much snow here that it's difficult for them to get around.
The state just put out a bulletin yesterday that we will have reduced deer tags issued in the fall due to heavy deer loss this winter. Extremely heavy snow and lack of food, no lack of predators.
Bufflehead for sure! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteNita, it is spotty here in NY. If there are Amish there are few deer. No Amish and hard-to-get-to land...lots of deer. We saw at least twenty the night Beck took those photos.
ReplyDeleteI do wish we could make enough money to keep things up and keep going. As I am sure you know from your close perspective of farming, it is a real challenge
Stacy, PA is indeed the top state for car deer collisions. We went down to Lancaster for a cattle auction when we were dating(we knew how to do romance right lol) and we counted 181 dead ones on I 81 from the NY border to that town. I have never forgotten the number even though it has been many moons because I was so amazed.
Steve, they would make a mightt small dinner, being little bitty ducks...and thanks, but no thanks, we are well supplied. I think my favorite one is out in the freezer on the porch.
Deb, I guess you had a lot more winter than we did. It was miserably cold here all winter and we had lots of snow, but it melted a lot between storms so they never yarded up and could eat well. Our state offers deer management permits for farms with a real excess. We have Amish right here near our farm, but we post our own land, so we have a decent balance...enough to get one or two for the freezer every fall, but not quite overrun. They have brought deer ticks right into the back yard over the past couple of years though (they like my lettuce), for which I do not thank them, being very concerned about Lyme disease. I need to get a few guinea hens I guess.
Mon@rch, thanks so much. I was really hoping that you would stop by and confirm my identification. We think we got some very distant shots of some shovelers yesterday, but we can't be sure. I hate to post them, because they are pretty bad, but maybe I will to get a confirmation of ID.
You can always email me if you ever have anything in question! tom at monarchbfly dot com
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tom, I appreciate that very much! Mine is threecollie At Gmail Dot com
ReplyDelete