Officially Hillbilly

Not that it makes much difference in my life or the way I live it, but on my dad's side, I'm half Dutch and half German, on my mom's side, I'm pretty much hillbilly. Her folks are from the hills of West Virginia. Irish or Scottish... there's a McClure in there somewhere, or something like that.

And now, this is my old LeSabre, the car I adore and treasure:

She's a 2002 with over 180,000 miles on her, and I am still planning to drive her until she can drive no more... drive her into the dirt. But I sure wish that dang deer hadn't dove head-first into me the other morning. He was a big-bodied deer, huge really. Mike and Joyce came and picked him up, and Kev butchered him... could only use less than half the meat, but it was still a good amount of venison.

So now I drive a crappy looking car and eat road-kill. I'm a hillbilly. It's official.

And of course, the impact, which drove me off the road and nearly into the ditch... that buck was moving when he plowed into me!... anyway, now my neck is one huge PAIN. Nice. One step forward, 2 steps back... we hillbillies know how to do the 2-step...

You would not believe your eyes

I was looking at some photos that were taken with Kev's game camera... look at the eyelashes on this doe...


Seriously... look...


and... EARS!



EARS!!



Privacy patch required...



Deer porn *sigh*... and deer kisses on a cold morning...



Bye-bye...

Twins

Kev and I went for 4wheeler ride this evening, and it was a gorgeous evening. Still is... got all the windows open and a nice, cool breeze coming in.

Kev's big field out back is coming up mostly with tall grasses, but it's beautiful.



We saw a doe with her twin fawns in the woods. We've seen them up around the pond, and we were able to turn off the 4wheeler and watch them for a bit before they bounded off.

i like big bucks

Seeing the photos of the eagle from Kev's game camera reminded us of these photos from the end of October and beginning of November, this past hunting season. Kev had set up his game camera over on Mom & Dad's West 20 for a few days.

There was a nice scrape which happened to be right on one of the trails. But the deer over there are so used to the golf cart and 4-wheelers, so that activity doesn't seem to bother them at all. Kev set up the game camera at the scrape on the trail. Say hi to the camera, Mom, Dad & Toby!



Say hi to the camera, Kathy & Bob!



That photo is kinda cool... like a negative. During dusk, the camera can't make up its mind to take a color photo or a black and white night shot, so we get these eerie ghostly shots.

When we went through these photos the first time, Kev got, quite understandably, very excited. For our area, these are some very big antlers...





Kev was also excited about the number of different bucks whose photos were captured, from little ones to the big guy.









All of them very interested in the branch above, which had clearly been rubbed often.



We also had a lot of photos of doe, who were also interested in that branch. But the bucks were interested in them! And showing it...



Because, it's really, well and truly, all about the doe...



And can you blame them...



All together now... awww!!!...

Stop and smell the daisies

Kev knows daisies are my favorite flowers, and he leaves this bunch for me when he mows the lawn. When I sit at my computer, I can see them.

When Kev and I were married, way back on April 2, 1983, we had 2 huge vases of daisies at the church... one on each side up in the back at the alter...



I still have those vases. And the man...

Fertilizing our lawn for us

Kev cares...

Thursday morning, I saw the doe and her twin fawns on our front lawn. Kevin and I have seen them before... one morning we watched the fawns race around the edge of the pond, going along the long south side around to the west, stopping, turning around and racing back to their momma, who was eating at the corn feeder Kev has out on the east side of the pond. It was really cool... we watched them for quite a while, and those 2 little fawns were really moving fast. Back and forth, back and forth. I wanted to get some photos, but I couldn't find my camera... turns out Sammy had it up in his bedroom. Grrr...

I took this shot of one of the fawns and the doe eating away at our too-well-pruned forsythia bush (Kev and I chopped away at that thing earlier this Spring, and we got a little heavy-handed and did an awful job of it).



Look at the ribs on the doe. Feeding twins must not be easy on her. I let them fill up as much as they wanted on the forsythia. Poor momma.

Then yesterday morning, there was a doe out by the pond...



At first I thought it was the doe with twins, but then I realized she's a little too well fed. Then I noticed a second doe...



And then a third deer...



and then I was all "What?!!!"....



Yep, a buck in velvet. Awesome. I didn't tell Kev about it, just showed him a slideshow of the photos I've been taking... and you should have seen him sit up and take notice when the photo of this little buck showed up on the slideshow... Kev was pretty happy about that.



Another thing that made Kev happy yesterday was that I was able to report that Baltimore Orioles have finally found our Oriole feeder. They're very shy, though, and this is the best photo I got, after the pair, male & female, flew up into a nearby maple tree.



Beautiful birds. Kev and I were both happy to see a pair, because that might mean a nest and babies. Yay!

Rudolph's furry little cousin

Kev set up his game camera over on the West 20 at my folks' property. We got photos of this cute, furry little one...

Doe, a deer, a female deer...

Kev has set his Moultrie game camera to take photos more often, and he set it up near a spot where he’s been feeding the deer. We have tons of photos of the same 10 or 12 or so doe... at least no recognizable bucks. It’s been interesting seeing the group of females interact.

One thing we’ve noticed is that when some or all of the group are standing at attention with their ears perked up like this...



This usually means the next photos will show more deer have arrived on the scene.



Most of the photos are night shots, but we did get some daytime photos...







The camera caught the first good snowfall...



And some other unusual shots, as well, like this pair, perfectly paired up...



Many photos of squirrels...



Isn't that pretty with the sun rays...

I think this is the only photo we possess of a doe taking a dump...



She somehow stills manages to look quite graceful. We have many photos of the does doing strange stances, with their legs every which way, necks stretched, heads turned along their backs. Gracefully cattywampus.

We have just a few photos of one or two bedding down at the dinner table, so to speak...



And then there are photos that have no explanation...



And the photo Kev did for me for a surprise...



Now there’s a buck! heh heh...

Something that has become very evident in all the many photos is the bickering. It seems to start with the ears...









Then it’s a brawl...









Unfortunately, the doe are usually moving so fast that the camera can’t keep up. But it’s pretty cool anyway.