The garden is late, and the deer are early!

WARNING !! RANTING AND A DISTURBING PHOTO OF FARM LIFE AHEAD, PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

When we went up to the garden Monday to pick the shell peas, and pull the garlic, this is what we found –  what was left of our 90′ strawberry row.  We now have 75 plants that look just like this.  My daughter had just picked the berries on Saturday, and we were looking forward to a continued harvest until fall.  Now the plants are severely set back.  Next year… .

Normally, in late August, after we have rotated through all the lush grass, and all the hay fields have been cut, the deer start to encroach on the garden.  Usually, we are ready, but not this early.  We still have at least 20 acres of hay to go, and there is grass everywhere.  We have increased our rest period on the grazing, to 37 days, which means, there is plenty of feed in many places for the deer, that doesn’t have fresh cow manure on it.  So my message to the deer – EAT GRASS STUPID, NOT MY GARDEN!!*&5#!! 

When the deer start showing up to dine in late summer, I get out our 7′ x100′ rolls of plastic deer netting/fence.  I plant in 90′ to 100′ rows so I can use this deer fence material without cutting it.  We lay it on top of the root crops that are likely to get any attention from the deer.   It stays on all winter, since we leave our carrots, rutabagas, and parsnips in the ground for storage, and dig as needed.  When spring comes and the deer pressure isn’t so great, we roll it up and store it for the next season.

We have tried several different kinds of deer fences, but the only thing around here (meaning in our area)  that consistently works, is a physical barrier fence.  We have resisted this because of the expense, and once we put a fence of this magnitude in, we won’t be able to expand the garden.  Elk are a problem in this area too, so it has to be 8 or 9 feet high, and it has to be able to hold off a bouncing elk.

Like an iceberg, the deer and elk are just the tip of the problem.  What is lurking nearby is is especially unnerving.  And I’m not talking about our trigger/bow happy, poaching neighbor, I mean the cats that live around here in ever increasing numbers, that have a taste for venison, beef and house cats.

This picture below was taken in the pea row.  That’s my faithful pea sheller walking towards me.
The house is at the far left near the fir trees about 300′ feet away.  The house is sited right on the edge of a canyon, so as not to use up valuable flat ground, and to be near the road.  The main wildlife trail is just to the other side of the road in those trees you see.  We use part of it to get to our house spring which is a 1/4 mile from the house.  The road makes a bend at the house, and from our kitchen table we see the diverse mix of animals that use this trail as they cross the road.

 This picture is taken from the same place, I just turned around.  On Friday afternoon the neighbor called, and left a message saying that he just saw a cougar coming out of our field by the garden and it was headed to Trapper.  That explained why the horse was being silly, and what had been stirring up the dogs.  The hay field is to the left, and providing tons of cover.  My baby turkeys are in the small greenhouse on the right, with the tarp.  and the arrow is pointing to the fence line where the cougar was seen at 2:30 in the afternoon.  If we were in the garden at the time he would have been within 100′ feet of us.  This explains why 3 cats have went missing in as many weeks.  The dogs growling near the barn at night, and not wanting to venture to far into the field, without Mom or Dad.  Lath, the yard calf has been skittish too.  She looks like a candy necklace I’m sure, since I’m tying her at various places near the garden.  She has no Mom to save her and since I have tethered her she is a sitting duck.

None of this is news I know, but it makes me mad.  Every once in a while I will get a comment on this blog, with the gist being I’m not a real homesteader.  That designation belongs to the new enlightened, educated younger people who have just discovered frugal living and trying to raise their own food.   Blah, Blah, Blah.  This land was already homesteaded, you’re too old, you have too big of place, you inherited it…the list goes on and on.  I delete these comments, and I don’t answer them because it’s my blog and I can do what I want.  So there!  But, maybe this rant (it’s always in my head) will clear the air, and I will write about those comments.  I sometimes suspect these commenters may be someone I know, but as I read more blogs, I read these same ideas.  The “new” homesteaders are the broom that sweeps clean, so even though people want to live like the people that are already there, and do some of the same things, the vein is that,  I’m smarter than you, because, well, because, I’m smarter.  And you’re dumber, because you are a country bumpkin you know!  Yes, I know, I’m a country bumpkin, so please quit telling me to paint my house!  I know it needs paint, but it’s low on my priority list.

The next photo is bad, and I’m not kidding.

This is why I’m so freaked out about the world we live in these days.  Welcome to my world!

We had to document this botched cougar “kill” to prove that there are indeed big cats eating their fair share of livestock.   This happened in May of 2005.  I had just come home from a funeral of a very dear friend, and this is what I found.  Its Mama was licking the wound, so painful, then we have to steal the calf, and kill it.   This is the single most jarring memory of my farm life.
Now when I tell this story to some people, they say what is the big deal, you were going to kill it anyway, right?  Well, yeah I guess you’re right, but in reality, would I make it suffer?   NO.  Some people have suggested that it was better than the cougar eating a deer, at least it was JUST a cow.   Since my business depends on killing animals, you probably think I want to annihilate everything I see.  That couldn’t be further from the truth.  I want to find balance in everything I do, and come in contact with.  I don’t believe in feeding wildlife, but we leave fruit in a orchard that is a ways from the house, we take what we can use and leave the rest. 

Our neighbor who is planting our town with his buddies, sends me emails that I don’t like.  One, of bears eating his chicken food, a bonfire in the middle of his hayfield during the summer, and last night, one about not cutting timber to create a carbon sink.  He thinks I need to see these things, and that I think the same way as he and his friends.  It’s not that I don’t agree on some levels, but I resent him acting like I am a child needing to learn something.   Everyone of them is a hypocrite, they have moved into our small community and wanted to change it.  They turn people in for illegal rentals, yet they rent out spaces in their buildings.  They try to shut down the only local restaurant because of traffic issues on the weekends, yet they want to rent the entire restaurant for a special function of theirs.  They vote against cutting large trees on any private forest land, and with a wink and say, I’ll cut mine, no one will know.  And, we have people like that to thank for the law prohibiting hunting big cats and bears with dogs.

So I really don’t know what the answer is, quit farming, because cattle always get a bum rap?  Or do I just keep plugging away and practice the three SSS’s.  Which really brings me back to the beginning of this post.  Why should I have to practice the three SSS’s.  When my grandfather came to this land and homesteaded it, he was surrounded by like minded people.  He had the hard work of clearing this land, and I have grown up with stories of all the trials and tribulations that are the fabric of this homestead and countless others.  I don’t remember hearing any, about needless killing of the wildlife.  Now, the stories of the buffaloes being mowed down on the plains makes me sick, as it should.  But, keeping the hungry wildlife at bay, is that wrong?  In some ways I think homesteading/farming is harder now than it was in the 1800’s. 

My family has been penalized for not selling out, and keeping our landscape looking like it did, since it was originally cleared.  How have we been penalized?  People from 4 miles away, walk by our house every day, because we still have trees, we still have meadows, and the creek is cool and inviting.   We have large trees flanking our driveway that I guess were planted there, to provide shade, and a piss spot for the hundreds of bicyclists that ride by our house every weekend.  I know, I sound like a crank, but come on people, someone lives here!  When you hear a barking dog, or see how upset he is because your loose dog is running through the pasture.  MOVE ON or walk on your own property.  And if your own property isn’t big enough, then buy more.  Or, the best, people come to the country to commune with Mother Nature right?  Well good ol’ MN doesn’t like yelling and loud noises.  Unlike how life is depicted on TV, the cattle don’t bawl unless they are distressed, horses don’t whinny when asked to move out, and dogs don’t (shouldn’t) bark all the time.  If I go to town, I certainly don’t go around yelling and startling all the animals and humans that live there.  If I did, someone would call the cops.  It isn’t just town people, it’s our neighbors too.  We have one guy whose 18 wooded acres adjoins ours.  But, one time when he decided to walk his dogs in one of our pastures, and our dogs tried to kill his, he was mad at me.  My dogs should be able to do their jobs on their own land.  ( I don’t mean their job is to kill other dogs, they are just supposed to alert us to animals/humans that don’t belong here.)   He was there without permission, high as a kite and he told me was bummed out because he liked to come over to our place and watch the sunset, since he has too many trees.  Waaaaa!  This guy is approaching 60… .  I say, cut down some trees, or buy a different place! Period.

We try to live along side our neighbors, I hate hearing  the motocross riders next door, but they did call us and let us know about the cat.  But, they grew up around here and know that we would want to know. 

This post has really gotten out of hand, but what I really want to convey is that when you are voting to save farmland, you have to save the farmers too!!  The world is a diverse place, we need an array of types of farms.  Not just Disneyland’s version, not everyone needs to be a vegetarian to save the earth.  There is room for us carnivores too!  You don’t have to protect the cougars, or forest from me, because if I was a threat to either, they wouldn’t be here.  And we have plenty of both.  Don’t regulate me out of business, or farming, or make me protecting my livestock a dirty thing.  We have offers every week to sell our property, if that happens, the trees will be the first to go, and houses will come next.  So next time you are voting about some law that you think doesn’t really affect you, think again.  That tree you like to pee under in the cool shade, by my paperbox,  will probably be cut down!

So to end it, I think maintaining a homestead, is as hard as starting one.

To calm myself down and you too, if you’re still reading here are some nice pictures.

Ants farming aphid eggs in June.

Here is the result, in late July.  Looks like a good job of stacking to me.  Unless of course you are the aphid.