Deer Park

I live in a 100 acre wood, 20 of which belong to me and 16 acres being a municipal reserve set off for public use. The surrounding fields are mostly used for hay cropping by local farmers.

Having retired from 30 years of raising German Shepherds, and only retaining three dogs as pets, my place in the bush has become decidedly more quiet of late, a fact not lost on the local deer hanging around.

In the summer of 2021 I created about 1.5 kilometres of track through my bush, wide enough for my truck, in order to access standing dead trees for winter firewood, another fact not lost on the local deer.

This year the farmer’s field to the east also happened to have hay bales left sitting on the ground until the end of November, which the local deer really appreciated.

Result: 20 acres of deer trampled snow and surrounding roads impregnated with hunters’ truck tire marks, and a shot into my yard to top it all off.

Anyway, the deer using my property are pretty happy, judging from them still hanging around on an ideal “can’t catch me!” piece of land.