Wife would not let me leave the house today

Nope, did not go out at all today. We had deer all day up to about 10 minutes ago. At one time there were 8 and then 5 bedded not far from the house. I couldn't even go out on the porch for firewood! Nope. "Don't open that door!" You can believe the deer have it made here. Shoot, 3 times we've even had fawns born in the yard! I guess they trust us.

POIDNH (pics or it.....)

Its funny that I was having a conversation with a relative about that very same subject...he said he was a captive in his own home by all the deer and turkeys his wife was feeding in the back yard. She wont let him go outside if they are around... My brother has had several fawns born in his yard...saw a set of twins born myself once while staying with him.

Where's the big buck ?
If a big buck, then what ? (open the window where she can't see you )

Only toss splits at woodchucks.......

I just go on outside and "scare" the deer off.....eventually. They always come back and are much more entertaining than the TV.

That is pretty cool. If only more people learned to live with, instead of push all wildlife out so "I" can be here.

I use to feed the deer at our former property. They use to come up towards the house and look for me to come out on the porch to throw them apples. They would rarely run throwing apples at them. Was pretty cool. I think it's good karma when an animal feels at ease around your home.

The animals don't seem to come around here as often anymore. I don't see the turkeys, deer, skunk & racoon (thankfully), or the fox. I have a feeling it has to do with the two new additions to the family getting bigger, louder, and leaving more and more "markings" of their territory. If only they would pick up those markings on their own I would have less to do.

We have about 60 apple trees here not counting all the thorn apples. However, I think we had a total of 6 apples this year. I think they are coming to us looking for food. We do feed them at times during the winter months.

Okay. Took this picture last fall from the house. No, wife wouldn't let me shoot.

Same thing here Dennis, about 55 plus apple trees and about 20 apples this year. Last year I had so many drops, the mower wheels were spinning. I was shoveling the drops up and into my four wheeler dump box just so I could mow. Deer are going to miss the apples for sure. That was their nightly snack. Even once the snows came they would still dig at the snow for any little apple piece.

Back one day in mid June,heavy rain that morning.Within a few days the tap shut off & the drought began,barely 5 inches rain from then until early September.Up on deck with zoom lens after a quick lunch,deer was about 75 ft to my SW.They're almost tame,I can be working in an area,within 15 minutes of leaving they wander over to where I was at,nosing around any piles of sticks or brush.Also like to checkout the woodshed & processing area up near the north property fence not long after I walk away from it.Have seen them within 50 ft of me just watching....Once in a while if I'm resting quietly on chopping block or lower stacks a mouse or chipmunk will run across my boot

Feeding wildlife is giving them trouble, IMO.

My wife called me from home when turkeys were all grouped in the yard- one was pecking at its own reflection in her car door. She was swearing and threw a tennis ball hitting the bird (she's a good softball player)- it made some noise, ran around the other side and pecked at the other door.

I have so many deer in my area that are so use to human presence that I could go up and pet one on them. They are nice and fun to watch but they are very destructive, they ruin the garden every year. Some are even bold enough to come up to the front step and eat the pumpkin that the kids carved for Halloween. They are also very bad on the trees depending on how the snow is on the ground, they have a bad habit of eating the bark. I have seen a few eat the food out of the dogs dish. A few deer are fine, but when it gets to a point where you are tempting fate to drive a dusk/dawn then it is time to cut back the herd. Deer hunting starts in MN on Saturday and I wish everybody good luck. Problem is once they hear the shots and see the bright orange (or white as they probably see it), they head into the deep swamp and don't come out until after hunting.

We fed them some corn once hunting season is over. Last year we didn't feed them as there was hardly any snow so they had an easy winter. I did a crown elevation on my apple trees since the former owner hadn't touched them in 10 years, so the deer had all those pruning's to eat were I dumped them in the woods. 55 trees worth. Took me two winters to get them all pruned out so you could get near them to even mow. So the deer had plenty of apple twigs to eat.

Correction. Feeding wildlife can be trouble but not always. As for the turkeys, they are the dumbest bird out there. They really can do dumb things. And pecking at its own reflection? Just watch cardinals. They are really good at that.

And if it is a hard winter, I cut down lots of soft maple. It does not take long before all the tips of every limb has been eaten. It gives them some extra food and we still get the firewood.

Today we had a weird find. We have some fruit trees fenced in and somehow a deer got in. Looks like it had some problems getting in and then even worse problems getting out. Bet it won't do that again but we'll have to do some fence mending.

Dennis , back when I did line clearance, we sometimes had quite a few off road spans to trim. Late in the fall one year, we had just trimmed like 6 spans and everyone took a climbing break for lunch. As we sat there eating our lunch and looked back where we had trimmed, there must have been a half a dozen deer eating all the trimmings we had just built up on the ground, eating all of next years tender buds off the branches. The deer either could smell the fresh wood cuts or knew the sound of our saws running,,, that there would be food there. Amazing how smart the deer are. You'd think running a saw the deer would high tail it out there,,, no sir,, they must have been watching us the whole time. They we're out eating about an hour after we got done with the furthest span away from us.

Around here having a salt lick out for wild life would land someone
in trouble with the Game Wardens.

At first it is the scent then they quickly associate the sound of the saws to food.