Doug & Pat

We see deer in the yard most mornings while we are having breakfast. Yesterday one came up on the porch within 3” (1 meter) of the back door. I think she wanted me to bring some food out to her. Pat frowns at me for feeding them because it is against the city ordinace here in Huntsville. There is probably somewhere close to 1000 homes in this neighborhood and I”ll bet that almost 20% of the residents put some food out for them. I really enjoy watching them. Here are a couple photos from this morning:

The second photo is a young buck – we don”t see very many bucks – they seem to be more cautious. I have seen as many as 12 doe in our back yard at one time.

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.

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.

Living in Houston most of my life, I am used to fall not really arriving until after Thanksgiving.  But it has sneaked in here in Huntsville.  Even my little Red Oak tree is fully red now, and leaves have fallen from other trees around.  Apparently the deer are pleased with those leeaves on the ground because they have been out in mass eating them.  Here are a couple of pictures of trees in our yard:

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.

Click on the link to see recent photos of where we live.  This is the time of the year that the azaleas and in full bloom – also are a couple shots from the golf course where the dogwood blooms can still be seen.  We are grateful to live in such a beautiful place.

The azaleas around our house are blooming but they are small compared to the older ones in the neighborhood.