Darn Deer



Today was full of sadness. My sister in law and her two sons left this afternoon to return to their home in Abu Dhabi, UAE. They lived in Ada for nearly two years. The kids are sad and it will take some time to get used to not having them here. Besides my nephews were the best chicken catchers ever. What shall I do when the chickens misbehave??

Overall, it was a quiet day on the farm. (I know this is hard to believe). However, I was enraged to see that the deer have eaten some of my landscaping. It was bad enough that the chickens tore up everything, but to have deer eat the perennials is really too much. Two days ago I was out spraying that stinky deer off on everything. Can you imagine that the deer have eaten the lower parts of the pine trees in our yard? I am generous in spraying the plants but not zealous. My prize plant is a beautiful stargazer lily. My neighbor, Karyn, warned me that the deer would eat the blossoms. I was thinking that I had possibly averted fate because the blooms were nearly bursting open. Ha! Ha! I thought I had beaten the deer. I sprayed the entire plant--twice. This morning when I went out to fill the bird feeders I noticed that each bud was bitten off!! I nearly fainted. It rained last night and the stupid deer must have had a gourmet dinner on the stargazer as well as the coneflower and daylillies. Grr. Fine. I grabbed the deer off and began to get to work. I sprayed everything very well. I planted 4 flats of red and white petunias or 192 petunias. Yes, every single one of them got a shower. When I finished about 35 minutes later I smelled horrible. No wonder deer don't eat the treated plants. I know I did a good job because we have a flock block sitting by the bird feeders. The block is for the wild turkey and her chicks, but the chickens get into it and apparently so does the infamous deer. She approached the flock block around 6 pm. She began to nibble on it and then turned her head towards the daylilly growing nearby. She sniffed, shook her head and backed away. Victory! I hope it doesn't rain tonight. Tamara


Note:

I know I will be sadly missed but I am headed to National History Day Finals with Noah. We come back on Thursday and I leave Friday with Sam to Verona, Italy. So I am leaving the blog in the capable hands of Miss Taima. She is at a horse show, but will be returning on Sunday p.m. She does not know that I have bestowed such a high honor upon her. She will surely be surprised.

Comments