40°f/4.4°C, clear.
Early morning, returning home
We were out early today, leaving the house about 5:30am for the free food pickup. We were picking up this time for a friend, as we really don't need anything. The stars were so brilliant, the dipper clearly visible. What pleasure to be out early enough to see the morning stars! I sometimes see the night stars before going to bed, but rarely the morning ones.
One good witch, 2 bad witches?
The open mic Tuesday evening went well, but boy is my voice out of shape! Not singing or telling for so long has let those muscles go to seed, I'm afraid, so I must get back to doing a little more, just for the fun and vocal exercise.
Yesterday was a whirlwind of a day. I canned the turkey broth first thing, because our friend Crystal was coming over to help clean the windows. She does housecleaning for a living so this was business, but still we had a great visit while working. I fixed the turkey noodle soup leftovers for lunch, and made biscuits. That, cider, and fresh butter and apple butter made a good meal. Then, as Crystal was leaving, Sarah arrived from Colorado, having driven almost through the night so she could get here before dark. She also had soup and biscuits before heading up to her cabin. But as she was leaving, our friend Jeff arrived, so of course more visiting.
Jeff was checking out the deer situation as hunting season is coming (and bow season is already in). There are no deer to be seen up here; that EHD disease seems to have taken them all on our hill. On Trace Fork, one of the roads we can take to get here if we are coming from the north, we usually will see 100 or more deer along that 9-mile stretch of road. Last time we came that way, we saw two.
We can smell a decaying deer outside, and at night the coyotes are loud, and close. Larry shoots off a few rounds from the .22, which scares them away, or quiets them down at least, but the dogs are uneasy and often barking at night. I am afraid that with so much to eat, we may see a boom in coyote population, which would certainly be a bad thing and make deer resurgence more difficult.
One upside to the loss of so many deer is fewer accidents. West Virginia is #1 in the country for deer-vehicle collisions. Of course our neighbor who owns a body shop might not agree that fewer banged up cars is a plus! As low as the deer population now is, we will not be allowing hunting on our place, and I am not sure what the situation is at the farm where he usually hunts with our oldest son.
Well, we are heading out again. The electric is off for maintenance and we need to go pick up from the auction, so we will have late breakfast in town. I hope when we get home, we will have a nice nap!
Collisions with deer are common up here too.
ReplyDeleteOur county also has its fair share of deer and accidents. It has happened to me right in town.
ReplyDelete...watch for the deer!
ReplyDeleteWhat will you do about the decaying deer? Just leave it to Mother Nature and the coyotes?
ReplyDeleteNot sure about the deer population here. It's got to be lower than what we had at the beginning of this century in Maryland. we rarely see deer here.
ReplyDelete