Between our house and the neighbors is a Mulberry Tree that the deer love.  There is no fruit on the tree - only large leaves.  The deer seem to congregate under this tree and try to eat leaves (that they can reach).  All the leaves that were close to the ground have been eaten so it is not unusual to see one of them stant on their hind legs to reach the leaves.  They even bring their babies to this tree.  Makes me want to taste one of the leaves myself.  Must be like deer candy.  Here are a couple photos:

This morning I looked out in back of our house and saw something that looked like “ears” against the house behind ours.  I got the binoculars to get a closer view and it was a fawn.  This is the first one I’ve seen this season – there will be many more to come.  We walked over and took the photo.  I got within about 5 meters to take the photo.  The mothers will leave the babies for a short time as they go find something to eat.  The babies will stay very still to avoid detection – I could have probably picked it up but that would risk hurting both the deer and me.

While I was working in the back yard today Pat took a photo because there were some deer watching me.  They don't seem to be bothered with me in their "space".  I counted 4 deer when I looked at the photo.  Here is the photo:

We have been having some problems with our shrubs being eaten by the local deer.  Some refer to these Texas white tail deer as neighborhood pets - some residents feed them which they are not supposed to do but they look so cute.  I have placed wire cages around some of the plants to protect them but the deer will eat anything that extends through the wire or above it.  I decided to try one of those motion activated devices to place in one place to discourage the deer from eating those plants.  Looks scary doesn't it?

Yesterday we watched as a herd of about 7 deer approached the device.  The largest doe came close and stamped her feet - at that point the device started speaking and making noise and they all ran away as we laughed.  They are not afraid of the looks but they don't like the noise that it makes.

We took a seven day trip down to the Caribbean this last week.  The first stop was Roatan, Honduras, a lttle island just off the coast of the Honduras mainland.  This is a beautiful place.  Here is a photo of our ship:

 The Voyager of The Seas

While visiting our daughter and her family in Laramie, WY I took the opportunity to drive (about 1 1/2 hours) to Saratoga, WY to visit the hot spring pool there.  Saratoga is a small town of about 1,200 people.  The pool has been named "Hobo Pool".  I'm not sure why because I haven't seen any "Hobos" there on any of my visits.  The water temperature varies from about 106 degrees to 110 degrees F depending on how close you are to where the hot spring flows into the larger pool.  I was told that the pool remains free to the public because it was a condition imposed by the local American Indian tribe that donated it to the City.  The pool is about 30' square and is open 24 hours/day.  There is no fee nor life guard.  It's really nice to sit in the hot water while the local temperature is below freezing.  The hot spring flows into the pool and out into the adjacent river (North Platte River).  I really enjoy visiting this pool - Pat does not like the sulfur smell.

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This Christmas was great and we had lots of family and friends in the house.  Actually we had 2 Christmas dinners - one on the 23rd and another on the 25th.  I have been wanting one of those old cast iron wood buring stoves to sit on the front porch.  This is actually a "down home" version of a chiminea that are being sold virtually everywhere - I like the antique style vs the ceramic chiminea.  Now I can sit on the porch in my rocking chair and I have a place to put my coffee cup.  The weather has been a little cold and wet here recently so I built a fire in it yesterday.  It works great.

Sunday evening we were coming home to see this special visitor in our lawn.  He seemed be to at home and even stayed a while after we parked and went into the house.  He walked around as if he owned the place - he walked into the back yard and eventually moved on after about 30 minutes.

This is the kind of view we have in our back yard and even in the front yard on occasion.

The following map shows our route for the road trip that we took in May.  We began from our home in Huntsville, Texas and drove to Herndon, Virginia where our son and daughter-in-law live.  Then we drove to where our daughter and her family live in Laramie, Wyoming.  Our next major stop included visiting some dear friends in Seattle, Washington, Orcas Island, Washington and then a short trip to Victoria, British Columbia.  After this we drove back to Laramie, Wyoming and then home to Texas.  We took the opportunity to stop in many different places along the way – our trip was about 9000 miles and took about 5 weeks.

Pat has added entries into this website that provide details of places we visited along the way.