🎶 It's a Family of Five 🎶

We are getting to know our local deer herd. Our resident group (most helpful in grazing our septic mound) is a group of five, with some occasional visitors.

These two does and last year’s fawns, in addition to a buck who is off camera, make up the core of our local deer herd. They have occasional visitors, that they seem to know and get along with well.

If you follow our blog, you know that we are working on a plan to get our local wildlife to, effectively, do our yard work for us. First goal: Get the local deer to graze our septic mound so that we don’t have to mow it. Call us lazy if you want. But, what is more fun, using a giant carbon-spewing machine to destroy the place periodically, or attracting native grazers to do the work for you?

We have clearly settled on the later option and are having so much fun doing so. We have planted the septic mound in deer-friendly cover, and we occasionally put out some treats to draw them to the grazing area.

They have immediately taken to the new situation and spend hours each day and evening grazing in the exact spot we want them to graze. While doing that, they are also leaving the plants we want to keep alone. They have not touched any of our plantings that we can see. So far, it is a win-win and we enjoy watching them more than we can say.

Last year, though not yet living here, we got to see the fawns that are now still with their moms and nearly grown. Back then, they had spots and were tiny. Now they look like small adults. The moms are clearly pregnant, which means our family of five will soon be a family of seven and we will have the joy of watching another set of fawns grow to adulthood.

We have other gardening projects we plan to give to other local wildlife. Wasker (our resident woodchuck): we will have a compost pile for you to dig up soon!