Oh Deer

 My wife and I will be packing for a three month stay in NY, but we already have a lot of stuff up there.  My wife was talking about spending a night in the Catskills or somewhere up there.  I told her too we aren’t far from either New Hampshire or Vermont.  I doubt I will take my pipes and stuff with me for an over night stay.  

But I’ll be smoking my pipes mostly on the deck or garage, if it raining.  The deer are always curious about us and each season they come around and seem to be checking in on me.  It takes them a couple of weeks to get used to seeing me out, but once they decide I’m of no danger to them they just go about their business.  

One spring we counted about 21 deer in our front yard grazing in our grass.  I can often hear them tramping in the woods behind the deck.  I’ll look for them and then turn my head and there they are.  Often there is a doe with her fawn.  The fawns are more brace as they haven’t learned to fear humans.  But the deer only need to fear humans during hunting season.  

A lot of people up there hunt deer in their back yards.  And they seem to know when a car is approaching but once in a while you’ll hear of a car hitting a deer.  It’s not as common up there as it was in Wisconsin.  Every fall in Wisconsin you’ll hear of someone hitting a deer.  They seem to be smarter about the roads in NY.  

But the fact is deer are plentiful in NY and up where our house is in NY a lot of property owners don’t allow for trespassing in the woods.  The deer in NY seem to be more like local pets and yes. Pests too.  We spent several hundred dollars on landscaping the deer ate.  We had to learn about the  deer up the there the hard way.  

And yes, there are bears too.  But bears like to raid the garbage.  We had to learn to protect our garbage from the bears.  I’ve had to pick up garbage from the result of bears.  The locals up there know how to live with both bears and deer.  

We’ll be gone from here for about three months.  Then we’ll return to Florida where we just have to learn to live with gators and hurricanes.  We’ll return at the peak of hurricane season.  There is a stream near our house and we have to put up with wild turkeys, raccoons, and the occasional beaver.  

I just love sitting on the deck especially in the early mornings.  We have to get used to a five AM morning sunrise.  I’m always up earlier in NY.  It’s when the deer are most active.  But they come around most any time during the day.  They are plentiful up there, and that is my point.  I have lots of photos of dee and will have plenty more to come.

We leave for NY tomorrow and will be packing most of the day today.  I have to decide which pipes are going with me on this trip.  I’m smoking my Dunhill this morning and this pipe is one I’ll take with me.  My tobacco this morning is Cornell and Diehl’s Winchester.  My coffee this morning is Wicked Joe’s Bella Maria.  Thank you for your time and Peace and Love to each one of you.

Dave