some recent pics

[songbird]

decorations: top 2

tasks: bottom 2 (before and after)

critters: bottom 1

beans: bottom 2

songbird

[Frank]

Nice.

[songbird]

Frank wrote: ...

:) thanks, feels good to finish up something and so i took a little break yesterday and enjoyed...

songbird

[Frank]

Most of my gardening today is looking at it. Deer, shade and age cut it severely. We only grew a few tomatoes near the house and I will have a lot of chestnuts next month. The wife does some flowers but just came in to tell me the deer had eaten most of them.

Frank

[songbird]

Frank wrote: ...

we fenced one area where we grow the most veggies. other animals get in there and cause some havoc but that fence saved the slight strawberry crop this past spring. all my strawberry patches outside the fence were eaten. i need to fix another fence to block the gap the deer are currently using, but it is not going to be easy to do it with wild grape vines smothering the area.

i have some of that going on too now, but the cedar trees are growing slowly enough i should still be able to take them down myself when it gets to be time. i'm hoping to get some usable fence stakes out of them.

age gets us all. i have problems i work around and it is only by moving that i keep the back issues from getting much worse. one of my knees isn't particularly happy with me at the moment, but i'm trying to be careful and still get things done. some days it is a delicate balance between resting and plans.

yeah, everything outside the fenced areas gets grazed heavy here sometimes. the deer have entire farm fields they could be eating instead, but they must like the variety (like people :) ). i see fresh tracks in various gardens every day this past year (since the fence got pushed down by snow and deer going over it). i have to get that fence fixed before winter. it's not a complete fence though, so they can go around if they are persistent. it is very likely they're gonna be... ah well, i'm ok. if i really want to fence most of the rest of the yard i could do it for about $1000 and the effort, but i'm trying to avoid that and use pieces of old fence to deter them.

songbird

[Frank]

I would have fenced my garden if not for the shade. We live in a very hilly area on 0.8 acre lot and garden was at the bottom of our lot 2 flights of stairs down terraced slope. Originally surrounded by fields and predominate beasts were pheasants which did not bother the garden. Then it was rabbits which respond easily to small fence. Then as trees grew, deer predominate and I would fence except shade is excessive now.

Deer respond pretty well to just netting unless you get a lot of them running around and they just might crash through it. I had netted off a group of hydrangeas but when my chestnuts came in and the yard was full of deer they crashed through it. Planting 2 Chinese chestnuts was a mistake. The trees are healthy and I get more chestnuts than I and neighbors need at sacrifice of garden. Most of our neighbors only cut the grass around the house and leave the rest grow wild. A couple of years ago when a granddaughter stopped around in late winter I took her looking for deer sheds and found a 5 point one in next door neighbors back yard.

My deer hunting days are drawing to an end and it is frustrating when you hunt all day without seeing a deer to come home to see deer in your front yard.

Frank

[George Shirley]

I'm in that same boat Frank, went from acres to a small house on 6500 square feet and a small garden. No deer in the property but I see a few on the pipeline behind us. Have had a lifetime hunting and fishing license in Texas for about 25 years, don't even bother to renew it nowadays. Middle grandson hunts and fishes and I let him use my rifles then I get venison for the winter. We have three fruit trees, very young as yet but they produce enough figs, pears, and kumquats for us to make canned stuff and jellies and jams. Our only other problem is vendors knocking on doors who, obviously, can't read the signs on the three ways into this small subdivision and the other sign on my front door. Out of three hundred homes there's only about a dozen old people living here and we don't make much noise. A young couple recently moved in a few doors away and they keep posting on our web page that they want to put on barbecue's, etc. once a month. No one answered that. Most of the young folk go out to work in the morning, come home in the afternoon, and mind their own business, and we old people like it that way.

George

[Frank]

In Delaware, over 65 you do not need a license but need to get a free license exempt permit number every year as they like to keep track of number of hunters. I also get a free state parks hunting permit but this might be my last year.

I agree with your comments on what us old folks like. We only have 20 homes here with one entrance to two cul-de-sac streets and only noisy traffic are the garbage trucks that come in. I often recognize who is driving up the hill out front by the sound of their vehicle's engine before I can see them from my den's window.

[George Shirley]

If I remember correctly Texas does much the same at age 65. Even with the lifetime card I have to go in September to get my tags for free, that includes certain birds and deer. Even if I don't hunt much I still go get my tags, just in case. One grandson married into a family with a lot of acres out in the boonies. May get a shot at hunting there one day. Even if I don't he brings us venison just for the use of the rifles and, his oldest boy just turned fourteen, unfortunately he doesn't like to hunt. Texas, if I remember correctly, you can get six deer, one buck and the rest does. We're overrun with deer, see them dead on the side of the road often. Road kill goes to charity if I remember correctly, that means old folk homes, orphanages, etc. All good places to send properly dressed road kill.

Just looked out the back gate, raccoon was fishing in the detention pond. Hope it gets a lot of frogs, they sing for us every night and morning and sure make a lot of noise. When the flooding was going on they were singing 24 hours it seemed like. Guess they were just happy.

Our district has brought in a different garbage company, I never hear them picking up my garbage. The old company was really loud and so were the workers, always hollering at each other and banging the garbage containers on the back of the truck. We have twice a week pick up, one is recycling and garbage, the other is just garbage. We have neighbors, young families with children, that put out two or three garbage cans and the one recycling with extra bags. We put out recycling once a month or so, garbage once a week and it is a wee little bag. Of course there's only two of us and a little dog but I see a couple nearby with no kids still putting out a lot of stuff. Probably only eat out of cans and container.

[Frank]

We have 3 or 4 individual collectors come in as garbage is handled by owner not a district. We could cut them back by agreeing to single collector and get somewhat cheaper rates. There is a separate recycle container so up to 8 trucks could come here every week.

[songbird]

songbird wrote: ...

the early sorting is coming along :)

songbird