Varmints!

 

Day lily season had begun and I happily took the camera out yesterday to record some of the first blooms.  I think it would be safe to say that I was looking forward to even more today.  It turned out that there were fewer and there will be fewer for the foreseeable future.

Deer apparently like day lily flowers.  So, now we have a bunch of flower stalks with no buds and no blooms.  It's very annoying, of course - especially given the space around us and myriad of other food opportunities.  But, they, along with some other varmints, have decided the things that we grow are tastier than anything else out there.

 

The young melon plants were starting to look good and we were preparing ourselves to trellis them this weekend.  Well, I guess there is no need to do that now because the deer made sure to shorten them so that a trellis is no longer necessary.  

Gee thanks.  How thoughtful.

 

I was also considering pruning some of the peppers and tomatoes this weekend.  The deer decided they could also help in that department.  The problem is that I typically prune some of the low stems on both the peppers and the tomatoes, while these varmints like to start at the top of the plant and work their way down.

Now, it would be one thing if these plants were out in the field because this sort of thing happens sometimes.  But, the melons and peppers that were "pruned" were inside Valhalla, one of our high tunnels.  That's why the door is closed on Valhalla in the picture below.  The deer tracks told the story of these varmints just walking in through the door.  

 

Typically, we like to have that door open to allow for more air circulation, but if deer are just going to walk in, we can close it.  Unfortunately, they have now shown that they can navigate their way into Valhalla via the side walls - as new damage (and footprints) can attest.

Deer are not the only varmints that have been much more aggressive towards us this year.  The raccoons have been causing problems with the hen flock this year too.

One of our coping strategies is to not let the hens out for a while to break the pattern (and protect the birds while we try to address access issues).   That's why you see a picture of the hen yard with no hens in it during the daytime.  

Some of the measures we have taken for the raccoons have worked recently, but we know we need to keep addressing the problems because they will be back.  Once they figure out they like chicken and where they can get it, they'll keep after it until we can make the cost too high for them to pay.  

The same holds true for other varmints.  Who knew that varmints could respond to economic pressure?

It seems to us that the drought put pressure on the wildlife and they found our farm to be a location where they might find water and food.  Once they figure that out, we have a problem because these varmints don't know anything about budgeting and saving things for later, even if they do seem to understand opportunity cost.

Here's hoping we can figure out strategies that work with our current group of annoying varmints.  It's not like we don't have some options in mind, but every year is different and the irritation is always real.  We always prefer to find ways to get along with the wildlife, but sometimes it's hard to want to.