It’s
been a lovely October such as we have here in the great Pacific Inland
Northwest – cool mornings and beautiful warm afternoons. The only drawback is
that one has to get dressed twice – a sweatshirt in the morning and shorts and
a t-shirt in the afternoon.
Last
week an inversion caused our valley to fill with smog. As we left town for the
farm on Saturday (Oct. 26), visibility was especially poor near the mill as
white clouds of whatever belched out of its chimneys. It felt good to be
getting out of town for a few days.
We stopped at the NAPA Store in Orofino where a geocache
was placed to draw attention to wall art on the store. Mike readily found the cache
and I took a few pictures. 
The
day was sunny and pleasant, but a change in the weather was predicted. Once at
the farm, we scurried to do outdoor things. I hung out two loads of laundry,
planted more bulbs, and took the dogs for a walk. Mike took himself on a 25-mile bike ride.
How
nice and neat the fields look now that they are plowed and planted in wheat. Plowed fields don’t
make for great hunting, though – difficult to hike over, no bird cover, no garbs to lure the deer. Perhaps
that’s why the deer have been munching trees and bushes in the yard.
Supposedly
deer don’t bother lilacs, but they just won’t leave mine alone. I rejoiced that
a lilac bush I bought and planted ten years ago was finally making progress,
but alas! – it has been decimated by the deer. 
Usually
a little protection will dissuade the deer, but here’s something that amazed us:
they pulled the protective wire fencing off the poplar trunks and proceeded to
scrape their antlers. Over the years, the poplars have sustained deer damage
but have survived because – well, because they’re poplars. We had hoped to
protect them from further damage, but I guess not.
I
was glad to see that the daffodil bulbs I planted two weeks ago stayed in the ground,
but that was only because Bess was with us. I planted a couple dozen more
bulbs, and then it was a fight to keep them in the ground.
I planted – she dug them up. I replanted – she dug again. Did I mention that Bess is a digger? KW
5 comments:
Those darn deer! They just can't mind their own. Bess is a funny girl, isn't she!
Bess is a character! She has lessons to learn. With this trip, Mike let her ride loose in the back of the pick-up because he says it's time she learned some lessons. On the way up, she munched our bread. For the return trip, we protected the food but she got into the Halloween napkins, chewed Mike's kneeling pad, and also gnawed on a piece of cardboard. For her indiscretions, she had to spend some time in the kennel.
"I told her not to," said Nellie.
Bess says, "This Mike guy is a character. He's letting me ride loose in the back of the pickup. I'm going to teach him some lessons and I'll start with this bread."
Ha ha!
Oh my!! Miss Bess does indeed need to learn. Copper was such a good puppy--the only thing I remember he chewed what the foot off a cheapie fake Barbie Ann had acquired somewhere. I was grateful then, and I'm doubly grateful now!
As to the deer, I think that because people really don't hunt any more, they are so numerous that they are definitely nuisances now. Mom and Dad can't have anything planted at their house anymore. They even ate the marigolds down to the roots!
I agree about hunting, Chris, and the deer are a nuisance. There are too many of them, and I think it's a phenomenon that affects much of our country.
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