Author Archives: Pamela Rentz

Oh Dear, Deer

Posted on June 13, 2023 by Pamela Rentz

Look! The deer are fighting over the fly through feeder.

I lost some of my enjoyment with the fly through feeder because the squirrels have been parking in there face first and not leaving until every corner is licked clean. I tried mixing the bird food with pepper flakes and then they licked every corner clean except for one where they left all the pepper flakes.

The feeder is presently taken down and in the garage. I’ll probably put it back closer to winter.

Here’s a nice hoof print in the middle of the garden. They have enjoyed the full buffet of my backyard.

Bad picture but you can see where some rose bush leaves have been stripped.

And here under the bird feeder where they trampled and made lots of turds. I wish there was a way to let the deer know that in my tradition we find them very yummy.

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Majestic and Fuzzy

Posted on June 9, 2023 by Pamela Rentz

I had noticed that part of the garden where I’d just tossed some seeds looked stirred up. And there was one tomato plant that looked like the top was snipped off.

But I didn’t think much of it until I saw these clips.

I went back out there and looked more closely.

Those deer have been enjoying quite the buffet, snacking on many of my garden offerings.

They’re so pretty, though.

The camera is set low to the ground so they look gigantic.

I have the camera strapped to a 5 gallon plastic bucket that is easy to move around. I did not expect deer when I put it in this location. I thought I’d get a better view of the raccoons or opossums.

I am still amazed by how much is going on out there in my not at all rural location.

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Another Raccoon Story

Posted on June 4, 2023 by Pamela Rentz

I was at Mom’s a couple of weeks ago and she is having a raccoon problem.

She moved all the cat food and secured anything else a raccoon might get into.

Except these milks. We found this in the yard.

On the complete other side of the yard we found the straw.

I guess that’s why the raccoon had to chew it up.

By the way, the garage smelled like funky wild animal. Raccoons may be cute but they smell.

I had this brilliant idea that maybe we could scare it away with some bells or something on the door.

All I could find was some aluminum cans and I made a pyramid by the cat door.

Cans were knocked over when we got up!

But I set them up the next night and they were knocked over again plus one of the cans was carried outside. I guess the raccoon wasn’t scared.

Mom is reluctant to block the cat door because : what about the cat?

We are exploring some modern cat doors for a solution.

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The Mouse Situation

Posted on June 1, 2023 by Pamela Rentz

Here’s what the Klamath looked like on May 21st. It was pretty muddy and moving fast.

I wrote earlier about finding signs of a mouse in the shop. I had a video, too, but I guess I posted that to Instagram.

I cleaned up everything that a mouse might like and packed it away and didn’t worry about it again.

For a long time there was no sign of a mouse.

Here’s a picture from October 2021 for comparison.

Until there was.

There was a dead one at the bottom of the stairs in the basement. I went down to tell Bob something and said: HEY! There’s a dead mouse here.

Oh, he said. I didn’t see it.

But then I kept finding mouse poop in the middle of my work table in the shop. At first I thought they were seeds or something. Why would a mouse keep pooping in the middle of the table?

I broke down and bought some traps. I hate to kill things but I don’t want mice frolicking around pooping wherever they want.

I set up the trap in the middle of the table thinking: what mouse would get caught in the middle of a table?

Next day …. And it had a surprised look on its face.

We caught 4 mice in 3 weeks. That seems like a lot. I think the bird feeders created a fun environment for them. Hopefully the word is out and they have moved back outside.

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