Dinner 4 us, Buddly!

[Bill, KD0HG]

These Mulies think the grass is always tastier over the leach field this afternoon.
Fresh spring asparagus and some hollandaise, too.

The irony is that they're no more than 20 yards from the grill under the porch.

[k4kyv]

I wish I had some rat traps big enough to zap those pests. I can hardly even have a vegetable garden any more.  I have pondered poison or an electric fence powered by a pole pig, but too much danger of getting the wrong creature, 2 or 4 legged.

This year I'm going to try some "liquid fence", that awful, foul smelling stuff that is supposed to keep them away. 

A real PITA.  I would love to wring the neck of the genius at the wildlife agency who made the decision about 50 years ago to re-introduce those damn things to this part of the country.

Besides being suicidal (they love to stand by the side of the road and wait until a car comes by, then jump out in front of it to get splattered all over the pavement,  destroying the vehicle in the  process), they have brought with them a strain of ticks that attacks people.  Before we had deer here, the ticks we had would attach only to dogs and livestock.  Old timers in the area called them "dog ticks".  Now, certain times of the year, you can hardly step outside the door without picking up ticks.

They are overrunning the countryside.  When there was a natural deer population here in the 1800's, their numbers were kept in check with natural predators, like wolves and bobcats.  Now, those natural enemies are virtually extinct here, so the deer population has quickly grown out of control. 

I can't for the life of me understand why they insist on still having a restricted deer hunting season.  It should be open 24/7/365, using any weapon of choice.

[WD8BIL]

Oh man.... Bill.... lotsa backstrap there.

I think one would get a sudden fatal dose of lead poisoning standing THERE !!

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Must be nice, Bill - having them come to you. Adds a whole new meaning to the term 'fast food'.

My recollection of Mulie from Wyoming hunts is that they taste a bit gamier than venison back this way. Prong horns, moreso. Big bro tells me this is due to the sage in their diet. Not a bad taste at all, just...different, even interesting.

More amusing is how BIG the average Mulie is compared to the Whitetails back this way. Even the trout are bigger out there.

How about an AMers game hunt, coordinated with BC-611s on 3885?

[W4EWH]

Must be nice, Bill - having them come to you. Adds a whole new meaning to the term 'fast food'.

When one state passed a law allowing the consumption of road kill, Jay Leno said that they could now have both "Fast Food" and "Not Fast Enough" food...

How about an AMers game hunt, coordinated with BC-611s on 3885?

Will we be shooting them, electrocuting them, or simply crushing them? 

73, Bill W1AC

[W4EWH]

I wish I had some rat traps big enough to zap those pests. I can hardly even have a vegetable garden any more. [snip]

A real PITA.  I would love to wring the neck of the genius at the wildlife agency who made the decision about 50 years ago to re-introduce those damn things to this part of the country.

Gypsy moths were introduced to the U.S. by a researcher who wanted to establish a silk industry here.

Killer bees were introduced to the Americas by a researcher who wanted to breed a species of bee which would make more honey.

The list goes on, but the point is that we get in trouble every time we start thinking that Nature needs help making environmental and wildlife decisions.

73, Bill W1AC

[Bill, KD0HG]

Must be nice, Bill - having them come to you. Adds a whole new meaning to the term 'fast food'.

When one state passed a law allowing the consumption of road kill, Jay Leno said that they could now have both "Fast Food" and "Not Fast Enough" food...

How about an AMers game hunt, coordinated with BC-611s on 3885?

Will we be shooting them, electrocuting them, or simply crushing them? 

73, Bill W1AC

Colorado does allow the use of road kill by food banks, homeless shelters and jails. One of our radio stations did a live broadcast from a Denver homeless shelter and I had some of their roadkill elk sausage, biscuits and gravy while there working on the broadcast.  Not bad at all...With enough black pepper.

I got a big laugh out of the BC-611 idea- Roger that!

The game here does have a different flavor than in the east and it's definitely diet. We're at the extreme end of their range, there's also a few whitetails around here, and you can't tell any difference between them and mulies. We just don't have the cornfields like out east for game to pig out on so they're eating sage, shrubs and other coarse stuff that they seem to prefer. Same for open range beef and buffalo. You will remember the rich flavor of your first Texas Longhorn pot roast. It tastes, well, like beef.

But the older I get the more I seem to prefer veggies to meat as a main dish. Never used to be that way. Nothing to do with health or anything else. I absolutely love veggie and bean chili, Mexican Posole, and Mediterranean dinners like eggplant Mousaka or baked vegetable platters, potatoes, zukes, tomatoes ,onion, dill, cheese and olive oil.

[W4EWH]

The game here does have a different flavor than in the east and it's definitely diet. We're at the extreme end of their range, there's also a few whitetails around here, and you can't tell any difference between them and mulies. We just don't have the cornfields like out east for game to pig out on so they're eating sage, shrubs and other coarse stuff that they seem to prefer. Same for open range beef and buffalo. You will remember the rich flavor of your first Texas Longhorn pot roast. It tastes, well, like beef.

I'll keep this short: my wife is cooking Steak Tips for lunch

We have "Jack" deer here, in a suburb of Boston that's very well wooded. On the one hand, it's nice to be close to nature and away from the noise of the city. On the other, it's no fun having to fence your backyard so your kids don't make the mistake of trying to feed the deer and wind up losing a finger, especially since I have a pool and had to pay for a fence around that as well.

It's especially no fun when the deer flatten the fence you were going to fix RSN, and eat every #$*#$& vegetable in the garden you worked your (*&# off to do right-for-a-change. 

Forget electric fences: they generate a lot of RF and the kids forget the lectures and touch them anyway.
Forget using an oh-my-ghod-you-beast real firearm to solve the problem: their use is illegal in the town. I wouldn't kill a deer I'm not trained to butcher, but the  !$#@%^(*&)@#  groundhog has a bullet with his name on it, just as soon as I can find my FFL and get over to WallMart.


C'est la Vie!

73, Bill W1AC

[Bill, KD0HG]

At the risk of this turning into a "Heloise Hints" thread, we've found two effective ways of deterring deer. Laugh if you want, I'm not proud.
1. Dog fur. Hang brushings from a long-haired dog on branches and in the garden. They hate that.
2. Stinky socks. Hang your most disgusting, sweaty, BOed, dirty, worn-three-days socks on posts near the area that you want to repel deer from. Deer won't go near them. 100% effective. I've got some young Aspens planted that the deer used to gnaw up every winter, tried the socks and they worked. Not even a nibble. Seem good for a few weeks to a month, then replace them with fresh el-disgusto jobs.
(This is where my teen-age son provides the most utility)

Look. Not a nibble taken out of the trees since last fall...

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

2. Stinky socks. Hang your most disgusting, sweaty, BOed, dirty, worn-three-days socks on posts near the area that you want to repel deer from. Deer won't go near them. 100% effective. I've got some young Aspens planted that the deer used to gnaw up every winter, tried the socks and they worked. Not even a nibble. Seem good for a few weeks to a month, then replace them with fresh el-disgusto jobs.
(This is where my teen-age son provides the most utility)

Look. Not a nibble taken out of the trees since last fall...

I dunno, Bill. From that picture, the deer might think it's a meeting of the dwarf KKK and steer clear.

Folks in the northeast use human hair and blood meal with good success. I've also seen those tin pie plates flopping and banging in the breeze. Strikes me that this approach could be more annoying to the property owner than the deer, though.

When you think about it, anything that smells like a predator - people, dog, etc - should get their attention. So dog fur, stinky socks, anything along those lines should work.

[Bill, KD0HG]

2. Stinky socks. Hang your most disgusting, sweaty, BOed, dirty, worn-three-days socks on posts near the area that you want to repel deer from. Deer won't go near them. 100% effective. I've got some young Aspens planted that the deer used to gnaw up every winter, tried the socks and they worked. Not even a nibble. Seem good for a few weeks to a month, then replace them with fresh el-disgusto jobs.
(This is where my teen-age son provides the most utility)

Look. Not a nibble taken out of the trees since last fall...

I dunno, Bill. From that picture, the deer might think it's a meeting of the dwarf KKK and steer clear.

Folks in the northeast use human hair and blood meal with good success. I've also seen those tin pie plates flopping and banging in the breeze. Strikes me that this approach could be more annoying to the property owner than the deer, though.

When you think about it, anything that smells like a predator - people, dog, etc - should get their attention. So dog fur, stinky socks, anything along those lines should work.

Q:  Where do Klansmen buy their pillowcases and sheets?
A: KKK Mart.

(rimshot)

(thank you Jan Leno)

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Good 'un! 

If you take that annoying little lawn troll seen in the Travelocity TV ads and put a pillowcase over him, betcha there's a strong resemblance to the socks in your backyard.