Getting the Deer Out
Gardening can be a very frustrating activity. Perhaps my greatest frustration in this regard has been the deer. In years past I have worked the soil, planted seeds, watered, and weeded only to have the deer decimate the garden in one night.
Deer love vegetables; they are browsers after all. They have eaten the tops of my bean plants, nibbled young tomato plants to the ground, and walked indiscriminately over and through everything else in the garden, nibbling as they went.
Did you know deer like gladiolas? Check that. They LOVE gladiolas! One year, just as the glad buds were ready to open, the deer went down the rows and ate the buds off the stocks. Ate them like candy! I’m not talking just a few flowers here. I had three 40 foot rows of gladiolas growing in hopes of selling them locally. The deer must have had a party!
In desperation I went to the County Extension Office to see what they could tell me that would help keep the deer out of my garden. The nice people there gave me a brochure prepared by the University of Missouri or maybe it was the Missouri Department of Conservation. Anyway, the gist of the publication was “organize a hunt”. That’s right, organize a hunt and kill as many does as legally permitted and thus reduce the number of deer browsing through the garden.
Well, there were two immediate problems with that approach. One, this was not during hunting season. It was summer and the deer were using my garden as their version of an all-you-can-eat restaurant. And two, my neighbor’s wife, dearly loves deer. Temporarily stymied, I resigned myself to give up gardening.
This spring I found I could no longer suppress the urge to cultivate the soil and plant a garden. But I had a plan. I tilled the soil and planted as usual. Potatoes were the first vegetables I planted. Just about the time put the taters in the ground I started placing my super-duper deer deterrents.
The neighbor lady mentioned above has a hair cutting shop in her basement. She cuts my hair and the hair of most of my extended family. She is more than happy to give me bags full of hair. Some of it is unwashed, some washed, some permed, colored, highlighted, whatever, and 100% human-scented. I dropped wads of hair here and there over the garden. Then I tied one of those ubiquitous plastic bags from you know where full of hair to the handle of my push plow. I parked the push plow at the south edge of the garden so the prevailing breeze would carry the scent through the garden.
To augment the scent of the human hair, I also collected my urine for several days and poured small amounts of it around the perimeter of the garden. I then placed a bucket containing a few ounces of urine at the south edge of the garden along with the aforementioned hair. When I planted tomato and pepper plants, I placed thick hay mulch between them in the rows. I have routinely poured a dollop of urine on the hay between every third and fourth plant.
How, you ask, is this working out for me? Very well, thank you. There was one instance where a couple bean plants were lightly nibbled. No significant damage has been done. Perhaps even more encouraging is the fact that the number of deer prints in and through the garden has dropped drastically. They seem to have altered their browse pattern to avoid the area.
If you are plagued with deer, give this a try.
There is a down side to this. I had made tentative plans to have a deer hunt with some friends this fall and now I’m not sure I can deliver the deer. What about the lady next door? Well, I am trying to take her lots of tomatoes this summer. Maybe we can have our hunt when she and her husband are out of town. We’ll see.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence
It was the spring of 1976 and from sea to shining sea planning was in full swing for many exciting events to celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of America. Meanwhile, in southwest Missouri, my wife and I were signing our own declaration of independence.
As we signed the Deed of Trust to purchase five acres outside of Springfield, Missouri, we were declaring our independence from landlords and from the corporate providers of food and fuel. No longer would we pay someone else for the privilege of living in our mobile home on their land. On our five acres we would be able to grow a garden and raise chickens, rabbits, pork, and beef. Our plans to build a home included a wood furnace which our woodlot would fuel.
Our acreage had been part of a 40 acre tract that had been “cleared” a few years before. There were still windrows of partly burned trees grown up in brambles that stretched from the front of the property to the back. Some of these we grubbed out by hand. For others we hired a bull dozer. Bull dozing was definitely easier. We had a well drilled, a septic system installed and electricity brought onto the property.
As the first few years went by we made good progress toward the independence we desired. We planted a garden, built a chicken house and a barn. We built a little house with a wood furnace for the two of us. New fences were put up around the perimeter and across the property so that we could pasture a couple of cows and their calves. I built a large (80’ X 80’) hog lot in the woods and started farrowing pigs.
Then a funny thing happened. We got us a baby boy. I have to tell you it was a lot more fun playing in the house with him than doing chores. Besides, I was making pretty good money at my day job. The hogs were the first to go then the cows. The chicken house was emptied and after a while I tore it down. We added on to the house and the mortgage.
In another two years a little baby girl came along. In the next few years it got to be a hassle trying to garden while keeping up with all the soccer games, t-ball and what have you. Besides, it seemed like the deer were eating most of our veggies anyway.
Fast forward to 2008: The kids are grown. Peak oil and peak grain are new to our vocabulary. It’s been years since I made as much money as I thought I was making in the early ‘80’s. The economy is “soft” (LOL). Our once-paid-for homestead is mortgaged again. Somewhere along the line we lost sight of the independence we declared way back in 1976.
I believe the same is true of our nation. I think as a nation we have lost sight of the vision that prompted those men in 1776 to pledge all that they were and all that they had to see a free and independent nation established on this continent. I am not smart enough to list all the ways in which our nation has wondered off the path that seemed to have been set for it back then. But I know that we have big problems and many of them relate to the fact that a very great many of us have given up our independence in the act of getting in line or online to let the government do one more thing for us.
Was it Thomas Jefferson who said that a government big enough to give us everything is strong enough to take everything from us?
Well here at Way Haven we have started to reclaim some of our independence. We are growing a garden and so far getting the deer to leave it alone. (I’ll write more about that in another Blog.) And we are raising chickens. We have 24 Cornish X and 13 Buff Orpingtons in a chicken tractor. I am resolved to establishing a self-sustaining homestead here on this 5 acres as God gives me strength. I will quickly confess my dependence on Him.
Here’s hoping that our nation, WE the people, will wake up, shake ourselves, and reclaim our independence, “One Nation, under God!”
Have a blessed July 4th.
It was the spring of 1976 and from sea to shining sea planning was in full swing for many exciting events to celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of America. Meanwhile, in southwest Missouri, my wife and I were signing our own declaration of independence.
As we signed the Deed of Trust to purchase five acres outside of Springfield, Missouri, we were declaring our independence from landlords and from the corporate providers of food and fuel. No longer would we pay someone else for the privilege of living in our mobile home on their land. On our five acres we would be able to grow a garden and raise chickens, rabbits, pork, and beef. Our plans to build a home included a wood furnace which our woodlot would fuel.
Our acreage had been part of a 40 acre tract that had been “cleared” a few years before. There were still windrows of partly burned trees grown up in brambles that stretched from the front of the property to the back. Some of these we grubbed out by hand. For others we hired a bull dozer. Bull dozing was definitely easier. We had a well drilled, a septic system installed and electricity brought onto the property.
As the first few years went by we made good progress toward the independence we desired. We planted a garden, built a chicken house and a barn. We built a little house with a wood furnace for the two of us. New fences were put up around the perimeter and across the property so that we could pasture a couple of cows and their calves. I built a large (80’ X 80’) hog lot in the woods and started farrowing pigs.
Then a funny thing happened. We got us a baby boy. I have to tell you it was a lot more fun playing in the house with him than doing chores. Besides, I was making pretty good money at my day job. The hogs were the first to go then the cows. The chicken house was emptied and after a while I tore it down. We added on to the house and the mortgage.
In another two years a little baby girl came along. In the next few years it got to be a hassle trying to garden while keeping up with all the soccer games, t-ball and what have you. Besides, it seemed like the deer were eating most of our veggies anyway.
Fast forward to 2008: The kids are grown. Peak oil and peak grain are new to our vocabulary. It’s been years since I made as much money as I thought I was making in the early ‘80’s. The economy is “soft” (LOL). Our once-paid-for homestead is mortgaged again. Somewhere along the line we lost sight of the independence we declared way back in 1976.
I believe the same is true of our nation. I think as a nation we have lost sight of the vision that prompted those men in 1776 to pledge all that they were and all that they had to see a free and independent nation established on this continent. I am not smart enough to list all the ways in which our nation has wondered off the path that seemed to have been set for it back then. But I know that we have big problems and many of them relate to the fact that a very great many of us have given up our independence in the act of getting in line or online to let the government do one more thing for us.
Was it Thomas Jefferson who said that a government big enough to give us everything is strong enough to take everything from us?
Well here at Way Haven we have started to reclaim some of our independence. We are growing a garden and so far getting the deer to leave it alone. (I’ll write more about that in another Blog.) And we are raising chickens. We have 24 Cornish X and 13 Buff Orpingtons in a chicken tractor. I am resolved to establishing a self-sustaining homestead here on this 5 acres as God gives me strength. I will quickly confess my dependence on Him.
Here’s hoping that our nation, WE the people, will wake up, shake ourselves, and reclaim our independence, “One Nation, under God!”
Have a blessed July 4th.
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