Got home from our usual morning walk and Mrs. PHPaul spotted a deer sniffing around in our garden.

Last year was a disaster weather-wise, year before that, the damn deer ate EVERYTHING right to the ground, including the potatoes.

This year I planted a row of potatoes in a new spot (we like new potatoes, otherwise not worth the effort) and put fence up around them to deter the deer.

So anyway it was checking them out and I yelled at it (and insulted it's mother too!) and it sort of ambled off in the general direction of the line fence, where it stopped and looked back over it's shoulder at me.

I figured I'd put The Fear of Humans in it, hauled out the little .22 Mag LCR I carry all the time and cranked one off.

And the sonofabitch just stood there looking at me like "Ooooooooooo, I'm SO scared..."

Why won't they do that during hunting season?

Run out of the house, toward the deer, across the yard, flailing your hands over your head, screaming like a mad man. That'll keep the deer from coming back......as long as your wife posts the video here.

I'll usually ignore deer around the house until they start tearing up the landscaping. At that point I'll wing them in the butt with a BB. that gets them moving pretty quick.

Yep. Woke up to find a big bed of begonias munched on heavily. Deer have been snacking on lots of my landscaping but haven't eaten my meager garden yet. Just a matter of time .

I'd love to get at least a couple of messes of okra first though.

The deer in the Yoop are mainly hood ornaments. An accessory your motorcycle doesn't need.

All you do for those chickens and they won't keep the deer out if the garden ?

Ungratefull cluckers!

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
All you do for those chickens and they won't keep the deer out if the garden ?

Ungratefull cluckers!

Well, they are kinda chicken shit about the whole idea.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
The deer in the Yoop are mainly hood ornaments. An accessory your motorcycle doesn't need.

When my brother(Idaho state trooper) was working his territory he had to clean up a vehicle accident. 2 women in the car, both dead due to the freaking MOOSE that had come in thru the windshield.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:

Ungratefull cluckers!

The ones that have had baby chicks -- are they mother cluckers?

quote:

Why won't they do that during hunting season?

Because they get the annual Deer Anti-Hunting calendar.

They know things...

Absolutely love new red potatoes. A few years ago dad had grew some fingerling potatoes that were really good too.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
...This year I planted a row of potatoes in a new spot (we like new potatoes, otherwise not worth the effort)...

I think you want NEED a potato digger

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:

I figured I'd put The Fear of Humans in it, hauled out the little .22 Mag LCR I carry all the time and cranked one off.

And the sonofabitch just stood there looking at me like "Ooooooooooo, I'm SO scared..."

Why won't they do that during hunting season?

I think deer have an internal clock that alerts them to the start and end of hunting season.

quote:

Originally posted by phydough:
Run out of the house, toward the deer, across the yard, flailing your hands over your head, screaming like a mad man. That'll keep the deer from coming back......as long as your wife posts the video here.

That worked for us exactly once. I added a tactical flashlight set to strobe to improve the effect. My wife was laughing her ass off

We actually didn't see another damn deer for about a week after that.

The next time I tried that they ran away and then were right back the next evening.

We've tried everything in the book. Nothing works for long.

What I don't get is they have an entire field and a bunch of woods rich in all kinds of wild vegetation out there, but they have to come and destroy my wife's gardens.

I don't hunt, but I'm now so pissed at the verkakte deer I'd shoot 'em if the township would allow me. Seriously.

quote:

Originally posted by ShouldBFishin:

I think you want NEED a potato digger

Might be just a leetle overkill for one 25 foot row of potatoes...

Told a neighbor "I'm gettin' a backhoe." He looks at me. "I'm fed up with the verkakte deer. I figure it'll work like this":

Deer shows up in the yard in the wee hours of the morning. *BANG* Maybe wakes a neighbor. "What was that?!?!" "What was what? I didn't hear anything. Go back to sleep, dear." Next day I fire up the backhoe. One down. A few days later: Wash, rinse, repeat.

Then, one day, somebody remarks "I wonder where all the deer went?"

my friend's brother designed and sells these modular greenhouse things that apparently sell pretty well, and my friend was telling me that keeping deer/pests away from the plants is one of the top selling points for some buyers. I'm starting to see why.

I was gone for a few days and the deer cleaned me out. Hostas,begonias, lantana, and lastly all nineof my tomato plants. No home grown tomatoes this year for 9x18.

A few of these roving combines took a row a sunflowers from 2 feet to no feet overnight. Rotten Buggers.

quote:

Originally posted by mcrimm:
A few of these roving combines took a row a sunflowers from 2 feet to no feet overnight. Rotten Buggers.

I planted a bunch of sunflowers, but being smarter than the average bear, I put netting around them to keep the deer out.

Several days later, no sprouts. Hmmmm. I'll replant.

Several more days, still no sprouts. WTF?

Happened to be in the right place at the right time and spied a little red ground squirrel going under the netting like it wasn't even there, dig up a sunflower seed and chow down, dig up another one...

No point in shooting the little bastige even if I could manage to be armed and catch him, he has about eleven-teen bajillion cousins.

Too late this year, but NEXT year, I'll start them in the house and transplant them into a fenced enclosure.

Pain in the ass but they look nice and the chickens love the seed heads once they've gone by.

I've had exactly one tomato this year thanks to the squirrels. I don't even understand the physics of how they can carry them. Just last night a tomato fell from the sky as they were chowing down on one of mine from a tree above.

Assholes.