Back Yard Deer

On Halloween, Margarit and I headed out to Nordegg.  The kids and the dog all stayed behind in the city.  With the teachers strike over, Helena had to return to school.  And the other kids have their jobs and other commitments to deal with.  We brought along some Halloween treats, but there were no ghosts and goblins out trick or treating.  Almost no one was out in our end of the subdivision, so almost all of the houses were dark.  The few young kids that reside in the area must have found better spoils elsewhere.  We also left some treats at home for the girls to hand out, and understand that they saw about 40 kids.

There are a lot of deer around at this time of year in the subdivision.  With most of the weekenders gone for the season, it is a lot quieter.  Hunting season is on, so perhaps that drives them into our area, where hunting is not permitted.  We saw nine antlerless deer in our yard, all at the same time, and have seen at least three different bucks.  They are very tame, and come right up to the windows of the cottage and stare at us.

We have a large apple tree in our yard back in the city and it produced a huge crop this year.  Margarit must have picked and gathered at least 40 large grocery bags full of apples, and there are still some left on the tree.  We used a bunch of them, and gave lots away.  All of the bruised and damaged ones we brought out to the cottage, and allowed the deer to indulge.  Of course this is one of the main reasons why so many of them hang around.  Margarit and I were each able to approach to within about six feet of them, and they are becoming very tame... and spoiled.

Once the apples were gone, I took my bird feeder and put it up on top of my wood pile.  I put some nuts in it as there have been some Whiskeyjacks coming around.  But, the deer figured out that there was more food available, and crawled right up on top of the wood pile to get to the nuts.  I'll have to find some other way to feed the birds.

We got a skiff of snow overnight on November 1st but within a day it was pretty much gone.  It was nothing like the big dump we got on Thanksgiving, when Helena and I were out.  Night time temperatures have dropped as low as -10, and during the day it has only been getting up into single digits... maybe 6 or 7 at most.  But fall is such a wonderful time of year and it is gloriously quiet to spend a few days and relax.