the Walnut Diary

I was driving the Kioti back to the house with an empty trailer attached this evening.  I drove down through the shade of the walnut field behind the barn and to my surprise, a large buck ran across in front of me.  Then he stopped, curious.  I slowed and sat idling.  He inched closer, vaguely threatening, maybe ninety feet away.  I sat and stared. Finally he broke eye contact and started to graze. I headed out.  Once I had “fled” the confrontation without questioning his dominance, he happily ran back to the woods.  His coat is gray and white at this time of year, and he appears surprisingly heavy for young animal.  But I could only see two prongs, though their arc is broad and they almost meet at the top.  There may be other points, but these two are beauties.  My eyesight wasn’t up to the task of examining this critter, even with the new lenses, in failing light.

Neighbours laugh about my UTV sounding like a tractor, and the Kioti Mechron is quite noisy with its 22 hp diesel engine. No doubt this deer is accustomed to tractors and sees no threat in them.

I was glad to get a look at this magnificent animal, but he has been causing me a good deal of grief in the garden this summer. That may not be fair. A doe has appeared on my game camera on a couple of occasions right around time my little apple trees received yet another pruning. And the poor little cherry tree couldn’t keep a leaf until I bought a roll of snow fence and built a half-dozen rounds anchored by steel posts to protect my young trees. I know he wouldn’t have antlers in May, but this guy is a lot heavier than that ballerina which waited eight minutes by the camera’s clock after I had finished watering the garden before she made her appearance.

I won’t get revenge through a doe tag in this county, though a buck tag is easy to obtain. In my few attempts at deer hunting over the last fifty-five years I have discovered that they don’t exactly volunteer for freezer duty. Maybe it’s time to try again, if only to defend the apple crops of the next decade.

My wife is definitely not keen on this.