The Joy of Living in the Woods

This is what greeted me outside my kitchen window this morning. It always bring me a little joy to see these awesome creatures in my backyard. This is part of the reason Dom and I always wanted to live in the country, to be able to enjoy nature and its wildlife. Of course, we didn't think about the deer devouring my rose bushes or tromping through the garden and nibbling on everything in sight. There were a total of five deer outside this morning. A couple of young bucks were part of the group, which is unusual. We normally only see does together and maybe a lone buck once in awhile. At first I saw two deer, one was grooming the other's ear. It was sweet. Then the groom-ee raised up on her hind legs to nibble on my crab apple tree. Once I hollered for the kids to come look, they discovered three more hidden in the woods. Then there is the pursuit of finding them as if we are looking at a Hightlights hidden picture book. And me hushing the kids and telling them that the deer can hear us inside the house.

We've also been seeing a lot of turkeys lately. They, on the other hand, don't bother my rose bushes or garden. Quinn has taken up the desire to catch a baby turkey. I don't hamper his desire, thinking he will never actually accomplish this task. But I also said the same thing when he wanted to catch a hummingbird. I said, "sure, if you can catch one, you can have it." Be careful what you say! We have since had three humming birds find themselves trapped on our front porch.Quinn has caught them and I had to eat my words. Hummingbirds don't make good pets, because they don't live long. They need to eat constantly and don't do that well inside a make-shift cage. But be happy to know, that I did not let him keep the first two birds, we released them. The last one, I finally gave in and let him keep it with the intention of letting it go, but it didn't make it even 24 hours. Poor thing. So, we'll see if he actually catches a turkey.