Because our buck is sticking around with his family this year and I’m enjoying his weird head.
We always see him with his impressive rack in the fall….
But rarely in the spring when they start to grow back.
It really is a strange process.
Yes, I’m talking about you.
We now have daily duck visitors.
A pair of mallards who make me smile and cut grapes in half. It’s the best food for ducks…. though they prefer to nibble on deer grain.
They’re here off and on all day but make a point of showing up about 4:00pm when I put out the nightly treats for the deer.
You would think the considerably larger deer would scare them off.
But in actuality, it’s the opposite.
The deer is frightened of the ducks and makes sure to eat on the opposite side.
Keeping one eye on those terrifying birds the whole time.
Don’t get excited, I’m talking about deer antlers.
And as I was filtering through my hundreds of shots of our buck the other day….
I thought some of you city people might get a kick out of this.
After the fall rut….. (read: deer orgy, where size does matter) ….. the buck will drop his then useless horns.
It’s a slow process that sometimes takes all winter. The blood supply is cut off and they slowly loosen. You often see bucks with one side hanging crookedly… and they’ll rub against trees, fence posts, picnic tables or whatever is around to knock them off.
When this happens, it does look a little bizarre.
And painful, though they assure me it’s not.
But how do the proverbial ‘they’ know?
I doubt anything has fallen off of them lately.
It certainly doesn’t look like fun to me.
It’s been deer central at Casa River lately.
With upwards of 14 at a time.
Lots of repeat visitors from past years, and though they might all look the same to you…. we recognize and call quite a few of them by name.
Alright… Pregnant, the Buck, Little Guy and Dark Doe aren’t so much names as designations. But still.
Our resident buck’s antlers are starting to grow back….
Which always makes me think of Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia’s doughnut hairdo.
They’re all currently blowing winter coats and the lawn is full of hair clumps.
Which the birds, chipmunks and squirrels scoop up for their spring nests.
Mother Nature is a wonderful thing.
Ah, spring!
In Maine? We tend to do it differently.
Like last Thursday, when one of our woodchucks came out of hibernation and said wtf?
The deer weren’t too happy either.
And before we knew it, what was supposed to be a light flurry…..
Turned into a full blown storm.
Complete with heavy wet snow weighing down the trees..
And turning everything into a winter wonderland.
Spring.
It isn’t always green.
Well now you can.
We had a lot of visitors this past winter.
These are pictures from back in January because I’m still playing catch up from the vacation posts.
Our buck kept his rack a lot longer than usual.
But it didn’t stop him from apple picking.
Or sticking his tongue out at the photographer.
Cheeky little bugger.
Father and son…
Or daughter, it’s hard to tell at this stage.
Now that the Virginia vacation saga is finally over, it’s time to clear out the photo files.
If you remember… before we left for the Cape Cod vacation in November, the husband was desperately trying to finish the remodel on our baby barn from Hell before the snow started flying.
He started putting the siding on….
Which was a nightmare of non squared corners and uneven ground.
Yeah, there was a lot of that.
His answer? Plant a shrub in front of it.
He was still using his 1950’s power tools and probably wishing for a larger wheelbarrow.
Siding around the window resulted in some very colorful language.
As did turning the 3rd corner where things didn’t exactly line up.
Unfortunately that’s as far as he got before the weather turned….
And now I have to stare at this split personality horror show until spring.
In other news, our neighbor and her daughter fed our deer while we were gone.
She sent me this picture while we were in Williamsburg, and wanted me to know the child took her responsibility seriously.
And for that she was rewarded.
Flowers for mom and a thank you deer for her daughter.
That little guy cost me a fortune but he was hand made and too damned cute to resist. Look at those feet!
It snowed right after we got back.
But the white stuff sure does make a nice contrast for the sunrise.
We were happy to see our resident buck was still around.
He’s an impressive fellow….
And clearly his women agree.
He’s got quite a little harem going.
With 4 fawns that we know of.
Funny thing is….. as much as I love to travel, it’s sights like these that always make me glad to be home again.
Crazy weather this winter left the wildlife a little shell shocked.
Snow, rain, ice, warm temperatures, then more snow and ice. They didn’t know what the hell was going on.
We had skunks in January and fox in February.
And deer?
Yes dear, we had deer.
Veritable herds of deer.
Who we love to watch.
I mean really….
How can you not?
Such beautiful creatures.
They almost make the slow internet speed we have to suffer in the country worthwhile.
The driving tour of the Yorktown, Virginia battlefield was a strange one and meandered all over the place.
Through the woods.
And past open fields with miles of split rail fencing.
Seriously, it went on forever.
There were creeks and swamps.
And every now and then, a sign.
We saw plenty of fluffy white butts.
And they roamed at will.
We even made friends with a few.
This little beauty had no fear and sidled right up next to my window.
Up our way that would be dangerous.
But this was protected land and they knew it.
Near the end of the tour we saw something a bit odd.
A buck with a funky horn.
And while I can’t say I’ve ever had to tote a rack around (on my head anyway) this did look a little strange.
So this was December 23rd and the husband had spent the last 48 hours trying to talk me into driving down to North Carolina for Christmas Day. When we’re on a trip for the holidays? We usually let it pass without much fanfare. No exchange of gifts, maybe just a special meal. But since our daughter of the heart came to visit with us those few days… he was bound and determined we would celebrate with her this time.
While I normally would have agreed, she had a slew of family members staying the night in a one bathroom house and I didn’t want to stress her anymore than necessary. We checked a few hotels in the area but all of them were full. Husband wanted to go for the day…. but it was a 4+ hour ride down and a 4+ hour ride back. Almost 9 hours on the road is not my idea of a fun Christmas… but he wore me down. Which meant we had to spend the rest of that day (and night) shopping for gifts because I wouldn’t go empty handed.
And leave it to me to decide on the one gift that was utterly unfindable on the 23rd of December. And believe me we tried.
Yup.
I had to give her this.
Because she loves wine…. but can no longer drink it because it gives her headaches.
I was going to give her the gift of wine back! Or die trying.
Which we nearly did.
We tried every single freakin’ store for 150 miles. Large malls and small gift shops. Specialty stores and wine outlets. Big chains and obscure holes in the hall. We walked, we searched, we cursed. (Okay, maybe that was just me.) We shopped until we almost dropped. Everyone had heard of it… very few carried it. And if they did carry it? They were sold out by the time we got there.
Do you know how aggravating it is to look for something for 7 hours straight and then be told by a laughing salesclerk, “Oh, we just sold the last one 10 minutes ago. You should have been quicker.” That woman is lucky she still has her tongue…. because if I could have reached the butcher knife on the other side of the counter? She’d be laughing with a bloody stump right now.
And if that isn’t bad enough?
I didn’t find the perfect gift, but I did find this:
No.
No…
Noooo!
This is wrong on so many levels … I can’t even. What twisted soul thought, “How can I take a perfectly good candy and ruin it beyond all measure? I know… I’ll add Kale!”
All over the world children are weeping. I hope you’re satisfied Archie.
At 9:30 that night the husband was screaming Uncle…. and grumbling about food. We were both too exhausted to care at that point and stopped at the first place on the way back to the resort. An Outback Steakhouse.
I’m not a lover of chain restaurants and hadn’t been to one of these in 20 years.
But $5 Boozy Cherry Limeades sounded pretty good….
And for that price? I had 3.
Their Blue Cheese Wedge salad left a lot to be desired…. and the husband’s French Onion soup was only fair.
But his filet was blood rare and he made short work of it.
My grilled filet and shrimp skewer combo was filling…. and I’ll leave it at that.
There’s a reason we’re not chain restaurant fans, and if we don’t go back for another 20 years?
I’m okay with that.
I could bore you to tears with all we saw that day, but let this suffice..
A portrait of an evil cherub who looks like she’s ready to stab Fido with an already bloody knife.
But no.
It’s just a 17th century pacifier. “Your mouth is sore sweetie? Here… suck on this metal and coral pointy thing.”
No wonder she looks pissed off.
“Inveterate dysenterical fluxes”.
Doesn’t that sound like fun?
The museum was filled with artifacts unearthed from the original site.
And things thrown down the communal well.
Naturally, the husband was appalled at the waste of all those perfectly good rusty tools.
The takeaway from most of the history we read?
We might romanticize the idea of the first settlers… opportunity, adventure, a brave new world etc., but in reality? It was starvation, illness and death.
And Pocahantas…. of whom much is written and little is really known.
The only actual image drawn during her lifetime is this English portrait:
A much later Anglicized version of her true self.
Child trading. A fact of which I was heretofore unaware.
So there you have it, historic Jamestown.
Where a t shirt we saw in the gift shop said it all…..
Leaving Jamestown, we got back on the Colonial Parkway…..
And saw some deer.
Some swamps.
And a whole bunch of these strange mounds.
Too small and numerous for beaver.
Any southerners care to weigh in on what constructs them?
The Parkway slides along the James River….
And was a lovely, peaceful, traffic free drive.
Except for the black vultures.
Which are neither lovely nor peaceful….
And often cause their own traffic jams when they discover a fresh kill.
And no, I didn’t include a photo of the canine corpse.
River's world..... 