Little Deer is still Here

This morning around 5am I was walking through my house and I was shocked to see the thin face of a deer peering in  my front window watching me!

No worries - it was just Little Deer, who comes up to my front porch every day.  I'd prefer she didn't come up and eat my bushes and flowers, but alas, this is where she lives. 

Good morning, Little Deer!

Little Deer

I'm back!  I was gone for the past three weeks on travel for my work.  I have the best job in the world and go to the most amazing places.  However, during my travels this blog sits empty, making it appear as if nothing is going on at Razzberry Corner.  Quite the contrary - there's always so much going on at the farm!

While I was gone a baby deer moved to Razzberry Corner. 

She appears to be a late baby from last year.  Her mother was either killed during the winter hunting season, or the mama doe has pushed this baby away because she has new babies.  Normally I see last year babies still hanging with pregnant does.  After the doe gives birth she forces the yearling child away for a few weeks, maybe a month, and eventually the yearling is allowed to join back up with the doe and the new twins.  Our whitetail deer give birth to a single baby their first year, then after they usually have twins.

Now that I mention it, there is a doe with twins hanging out in our backyard.  Maybe she is this one's mama, and she doesn't want this yearling near new newborns.  The twins are tiny and spotted still.  I'll try to get some photos of them!

Little Deer hangs out around the house.  Every day she comes to the guinea feed area and chows down on feed that we provide the guineas.   The guineas don't mind her too much, the chickens don't mind her, nor do the outside cats mind her.  I guess she has become part of the family.

Here come a couple guineas to claim their feed!

The guineas won this disagreement and claimed their feed.

"You stay away from MY food!" says Mr. Guinea.

The guineas seem to win every disagreement, except those involving fox or owls.  They are brave birds.  I've seem them face off cats, woodchucks, deer, fox, cars, me, snakes, mice, you name it.  I'm always afraid I'm going to run over them with the car, as they chase cars and run in front of them.  So far they've survived the face off with cars.  

See you tomorrow, Little Deer.  May you grow up big and strong.

I have some interesting information about our guineas.  I will post it next time!

I'm baaack!

Sorry everyone, I needed a break from the blogging world!  But now I'm back!  And it's gonna be great!  Spring is here, the weather is great so much is going on, my only problem will be finding the time to write it all all!  So get ready and hold onto your seats, it's gonna be an awesome year!

Our winter egg production was down to 7 or 8 eggs a day, from 16 hens.  Still more than I'll ever eat!  Thanks ladies!!!!  Egg production is already starting to rise since the weather's been so nice.










Muffin the rooster has been feeling his oats and has started chasing me and attacking me when I enter the chicken pen.  Silly boy.  I remember from my lessons learned in the past to carry a broom, and he remembers getting swatted with the broom a few times, so he leaves me alone as long as I carry my broom friend.  It's funny that he looks to see if I have the broom or now.  He's too smart...

A baby deer spent a few months in our back yard this winter.  I assume her mother was killed by hunters.  This seems to happen every year.  I guess the mothers bring their babies to our backyard before hunting season a lot.  We have good grass and brush for deers to eat and provide a salt block.  When the mother's are killed, the babies seem to come back here, where they remember.  Luckily, a large number of deer travel through, and the babies join another herd.  If they're lucky, there's another baby deer in that herd so they have a playmate.

This little deer spent a few months with us, she was wasn't afraid to come up to the house, as long as we were inside.  Herds passed through, some even spending a few days out back with her, but she refused to go with them and leave the backyard.  Guess she was waiting for her mother.  Too sad!  Eventually she left with a herd, and we haven't seen her since.

The guineas have been feeling their oats, too.  They've been chasing each other and are pairing up and going off alone in pairs to make nests and lay eggs.  The only prob is that we don't have enough females to go around, so quite a few males don't have mates, and they aren't happy about that.  It seems that each female picks a mate for that season (maybe longer) and they stay together as a couple.  When the weather gets cold again then they all stay together as one flock to deal with winter.  We have a group of guineas that we raised from eggs from the last parent guinea flock.  The parent guineas, all except for 2 males, were killed off by a monster that lived in the woods.  I don't know about these guineas mating, because they all may be related, father and daughter, brother and sister, and these ones aren't that bright, so I can only imagine their children will really not be too bright.  Or maybe it doesn't matter if birds inbreed???  Let me know! 

The guineas are very friendly to us, and greet us every time we are outside.  They hate and attack chickens.  If a chicken gets outside the chicken pen they will eventually kill it by pecking it to death.  Even if I'm out there with it, beside it, they still attack it.  They don't attack cats or people. They love people, people sometimes have treats.  They do attack deer and woodchuck and especially love to chase cars.  Strange birds, these guineas are.  But I love them still.

I could go on and on, but theis is getting long, so I'll save the rest for later!

Cupcakes & Deer Tales

It's cupcake Thursday.  What better way to celebrate the almost weekend?

These ones are lemon with vanilla buttercream icing.

The whitetail deer does that have been hanging in my backyard are all having their babies.  The fawns are so adorable.  And so small.



These twins didn't belong to the doe right behind them - their mama was a little behind them in the further field.  There's an old barbed wire fence behind the doe pictured here and the other mother is behind that.

There's their mama on the left in the photo below.  There's the fence between the two female deer.

When the twins decided to return to their mama, one of them got all hyper and started bouncing around the adult deer like a goofball.  But she went to the wrong mama deer.  Her fellow twin happy followed her to the wrong mama.  The wrong mama deer didn't want to put up with the playful babies are started kicking out at them. 

The playful baby quickly realized her mama was on the other side of the old barbed wire fence, so to get away from the crazy kicking doe quickly, the baby jumped through the barbed wire fence!!

Not a good idea. 

Of course her back legs both got caught in the fence - her upper body made it through.  And then she was hanging in the fence, kicking like crazy.

Oh, no!

I quickly put down the camera, opened the back door, and ran to the back porch. 

Luckily I didn't have to intervene - the baby pulled free from the fence.  I hope it's not too hurt from the barbed wire.  The other baby walked around to the gate in the barbed wire fence and joined her mama like a civilized fawn.



Just another day in the life of a deer...

Sorry for the bad quality of the deer photos!

Happy almost weekend!

Happy 4th of July

We don't know how to take a break around here. 

A holiday from work means we have more time to work around the farm. Yeah!

This weekend we spent alot of time outside. 

Not at the beach, but in the fields.

 

Trees grow like weeds here - it's hard to keep them down. Many trees grow that really aren't that valuable trees, and they kill off more valuable trees. By pruning and cutting back trees we don't want to take over, we are able to make more room for growth of good trees.

Randy cut back trees and I mowed the fields with the riding mower.  I love to mow with the riding mower - it's relaxing to me.  And I get to listen to my iPod and have some "quiet time".  These photos were taken before I mowed.



  Recently 2 pregnant whitetail deer have been living in our backyard near the old barn.  They know it's a safe place, and have been waiting for their babies to be born.  There's plenty of grass and trees to to eat, and we don't disturb them there.

The other day last week I was baking carrot cake cupcakes for a co-worker, and I looked out the kitchen window and saw one of the deer had twin fawns with her!!!

One of the deer had her babies!  They were staying very close to their mama. They had long gangly legs and plenty of white spots all over them.   As I was appreciating them, before I got the camera, I heard a loud screaming noise. It sounded like a bird was being killed. I thought maybe that Bobby, the outside cat, caught a bird in the backyard. It was very close to the house. I looked out the window as close as I could to the house, but didn't see any cat or bird or anything.

Then suddenly, the oven timer went off. I rushed to get the cupcakes out of the oven and get them out of the muffin tins. I was really distracted by all the screaming outside, which was growing louder.  As soon as I could I rushed to the back door, threw it open, and started to run outside and around to the kitchen area where the noise was still coming from.

Then, to my absolute surprise, I looked down and saw a mama raccoon and one infant raccoon standing by my feet eating from the cat food bowl.  The baby coon was all head and feet.  It was beautiful.  I looked around and realized the screaming was coming from the edge of the woods where another infant raccoon couldn't climb over the fence and enter the backyard.  He was screaming because his mama and sister left him.  I stood there for a minute, just looking at the baby, realizing how amazing it was to see the deer and coon babies all in the same few minutes.  At that moment I loved where I live.

Then, suddenly, I remember how just the day before I chased a large red fox out of the backyard right near where the baby coon was stuck outside the fence.  An infant coon would be a great snack for that fox.  The coon was making such noise, I would have been surprised if any wild animals in the woods didn't come to investigate.  And it had been alone for a while now, for at least 10 minutes.  I worried for the little baby, and so I chased the mama coon off to her lost child.  She quickly scampered away and disappeared over the fence and into the woods, and she left her other baby with me on the back porch!!! 

The coon baby stood up on her hind legs, looked at me in terror, looked around to where mama used to be, and then she started screaming!  Her screams where just as loud as her brother's screams used to be.  Coons make such a unique noise.  I could have reached down and picked up the baby, she was so close.  I pointed to where mama coon went.  The baby coon looked, and timidly started off.  She got confused a few times, but finally heard her mama in the woods.  She climbed over the fence with a little trouble, falling on her butt a few times, but eventually made it, and disappeared into the woods.  That is the last time the mama coon brought her babies to my door.

Jack the cat made the most of the holiday.  He got lots of sleep.  Oh, wait, he always gets lots of sleep...
I love to see his pink toes and nose and ears in the photo below.  He's so cute I just want to hug him.  Jack loves hugs and snuggles - I've never known a cat who loved to be held like Jack.  And to think, he was once a wild stray.  Now he's spoiled.

Jack has the biggest smile that I've ever seen on a cat.

It wouldn't be a holiday without something from the oven, so I made blueberry muffins to celebrate. Yeah!

Happy 4th of July!!

Another Little Deer

Another little deer has been coming up to our back door.  After every hunting season, it seems there is a motherless baby deer left behind.  Often the fawns are born late in the season, and are still very small come February.

This little guy has been hanging out in our back yard right outside our back door.  If we go out back he runs away, but seems to return to the area soon.

This morning at sunrise he was out there, but now at 10:30 AM he is off hiding somewhere.

Last year's Little Deer joined a herd of does and other young fawns.  I'm sure this little guy will join up with some others soon, too. 

I feel like the surrogate mom for lost deer children.  Wish they were more friendly!  I'm heading out back to put out some cut up apple pieces for him.

Visiting Deer

We've been having a lot of whitetail deer visiting us recently. 

I love deer, I think they are fun to watch, are very gentle.  And the fawns are so much fun, they act just like puppies when they play. 

The deer don't really damage anything - we keep the garden fenced.  We don't like having deer ticks around, but we raised the Guinea fowl to take care of that issue.  Plus we've been visited by wild turkeys for the last week, and they love to eat bugs.  We used to have so very many deer ticks and large dog ticks, but this year (so far) the ticks haven't been much of a problem.  Although I don't credit the Guineas for this at all, as they don't leave the chicken pen area. 

We provide the deer with a salt and mineral block in our back yard, and a bucket hangs on the fence - I fill it with corn during the winter months when snow is on the ground and food is hard to come by for the deer.

These are the latest deer that have been visiting this past week- two young bucks.

Two bucks can't share one salt block!

Two bucks, the smaller one is angry because he gave up his turn at the salt block

Previously two does and two fawns had visited.  They were both first year does, both still nursing their first babies.  The fawns still had their spots.  Early in the mornings when the sun rose the fawns liked to romp, jump, run and chase each other around the back yard.  It was always a pleasure to watch them play.  I wish I had taken some pictures of them.  The does and fawns stayed about three weeks.  Sometimes other does and fawns would join them and stay for a day or two, then leave.  When the two bucks arrived the does and their young left. 

Here's a flashback to last winter's visitors.  This herd stayed with us quite a while - so long I started to name them!

Deer in backyard January 2010

I named this little fuzzy guy Little Deer

We always find antlers on the ground in the yard.  The bucks shed their antlers every year and grow new ones.

This is the latest to our antler collection - a young buck had died out in our woods near the main road.  We collected this last month.

Memories from the February 2010 snowstorm.  The deer found safe haven under the cedar trees in the back yard where the snow was not so high.

Broken Trees and Little Deer

Following the Blizzard of 2010, many tree limbs around our house have broken off because of the weight of the snow.  This is just one of many trees in our backyard. 

Spring cleanup time will soon be here.  Meanwhile, the deer have enjoyed the cedar branches on the ground. 

Speaking of deer, I noticed today the deer herd that has been wintering in our backyard has left, at least for the day, but Little Deer stayed behind.  He stayed by our barn and in our backyard by himself.  He even came right up to the house to check the bird feeder area.  It's funny how he seems to always stay in our yard, even when the others leave.  There are other fawns in the herd who aren't much bigger than him, but Little Deer is not afraid to stay alone.  He's my Little Deer. 

Look Who's Back

In the end of December, we were visited by Little Deer, who hung out in our backyard for several days.  Because he was all alone, I was worried that he lost his mother to a hunter.  He was so small, why are fawns born so late in the year?  All the other deer that I've seen have been bigger than Little Deer.

Anyway, Little Deer hung out in our backyard for about a week, then he was gone.  Saturday he came back, leading a herd of does and fawns to our backyard.  He went straight to his favorite grass spot and showed them where the good grass is.  It was nice to see him again.  The herd had seven deer, including Little Deer.  Only two were does, the rest babies.

Here's most of the herd, taken from my kitchen window.  Little Deer is closest to me, near the left, head down.

Here's Little Deer looking at me.  His friend is a little bigger and is a baby buck - he has little horn bumps.

You can tell they are whitetail deer.  In this pic you can really see the horn bumps on the other baby.

Here's one of the does looking right at me.

This small herd of deer stayed in our backyard for over an hour, then a much larger herd of does and babies joined them.  The fawns romped and played together, chasing each other all over the yard.  It's nice to see wildlife so close. 

This is the reason we have to fence in our garden in the summer!

Little Deer

Today we were visited by Little Deer.  He came right up to our back door to eat the grass there.  He looked in our windows and said hello to us.  Eventually he wandered back down to our barn area.  I always put out corn to my deer feeding area, which is near the barn, and it attracts the deer.  In the past few weeks Little Deer had been visiting us with his mother, but today his mother was nowhere nearby.

There have been alot of deer around our property lately, probably chased by hunters.  In fact, this morning I heard many gunshots in the woods - the shots always sound so loud in the winter woods, even though they are far away.

Little Deer, stay close to our house and you will be safe.