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Along with our extremely dry, drought ravished lawn?
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.
A pair of young bucks.
.
.
They’ve been coming for a nightly nosh since they were born and are now sprouting their first sets of velveted horns.
.
.
Adolescent male deer will stay together until they’re ready to rut.
.
.
Then it’s every deer for himself.
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Our raccoon friend is showing up early most every night now.
.
.
Waddling across the back lawn..
.
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And chowing down.
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I love to watch him. (Her?)
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The deer aren’t as thrilled…
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But I think they’re getting used to him.
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A name might be in order.
Any ideas?
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,
The deer are used to sharing the backyard spread with skunks.
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.
But lately a trash panda is beating the stinky little critters to the buffet.
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I’m thrilled because while we have nightly raccoons…
.
.
They rarely show up before it’s too dark to get a photo.
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And though I’m tickled with the little masked bandits…
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The deer don’t know what to make of him.
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Especially when raccoon #2 waddles in.
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Proving two raccoons is two too many.
🤣
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Because they took care of our cat while we were in Newport, I returned the favor and watched our neighbors two cats while they were in California. Upon return she brought us a thank you gift of regional beer.
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.
But not just any beer.
.
.
Beer with a sense of humor.
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.
Ah, spring in Maine. It can go from 70 degrees to snow in 24 hours.
.
.
And when the grass starts to green…
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The deer start blowing winter coats.
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They look like scruffy ragamuffins..
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And we find clumps of hair all over the lawn.
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.
We definitely did not.
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.
Unfortunate typo aside, I’m going to try this and report back.
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.
Our herd was back again for their nightly snack.
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.
This time with the funky antlered buck.
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.
His horns were oddly shaped all year… and now that’s he losing them, they’re even odder.
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He’s the leader of the group and doesn’t like it when the kids beat him to the food bowl.
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.
A well placed kick scatters the youngsters.
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And he has the bowl to himself.
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.
For a little while anyway.
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.
😊
.
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After an odd winter disappearing act, the deer are back.
.
.
And they are just the sweetest things.
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.
We’ve had herds for two decades now…
.
.
But it never gets old.
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.
Living where we do has some drawbacks.
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.
But this isn’t one of them.
❤️
.
,
These winter pictures popped up on my Facebook memories recently and I thought it would be fun to share.
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Backyard deer on their path. They don’t stray very far from it once it’s cut.
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.
That’s my husband shoveling out our neighbor who thought she could make it down her driveway in her car before plowing.
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She couldn’t.
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And here’s my husband a year later pushing his snowblower next door….
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.
To help dig out her husband’s plow truck.
My husband is a good neighbor to have.
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This is Mr. White, a beautiful boy who is no longer with us. He always wanted to go outside in the winter…
.
.
But didn’t really like it once he got there.
❤️
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.
We never know how many deer are going to arrive in our backyard on any given night…
.
.
Could be two, could be ten.
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.
They always show up at dusk so pardon the poor quality photos with reflections from the windows.
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.
When the snow starts to pile up?
.
.
So do the deer.
Fourteen was the count when I took these photos.
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.
💕
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.
We’ve been having a number of small snow storms lately, 2-3 inches at a time, and thanks to some cold temperatures…
.
.
It finally looks like winter in ye old state of Maine.
I enjoy the change of seasons and while winter can be challenging, it can be beautiful as well.
.
.
Especially when our backyard visitors show up for a nosh.
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.
We usually see them in the evening, but the other morning these two showed up for breakfast.
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.
My husband was out front shoveling the driveway…
.
.
And the minute they spotted him?
.
.
Nothing but fluffy white butts.
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.
😊
.
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.
Our nightly deer herd showed up a little early the other day and I was able to snap some pictures.
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.
On our snowless back yard.
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I dislike the lack of white stuff this year, but the herd happily munches the still green patches.
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.
We started with three in the fall…
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.
But now have 7-9 visitors.
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.
So sweet.
💕
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River's world..... 