Post by Debbie on Sept 18, 2014 14:55:32 GMT -1
The other afternoon, Eldon and I managed a drive up to Astoria and spotted one of our black tailed deer quietly munching the grass near the entrance to a state park. It's the first one I've seen since Spring and my goodness are they dinky! After the elk all last year and most of the Spring, these look so dainty, and tiny and ...well, they certainly wouldn't be capable of damaging any of my fencing.
And those diddy antlers
I know they're just as menacing, but I didn't realize how used to seeing the elk I've become. I reckoned the males weighed roughly 1250lbs, females probably 1,000lbs. And practically every time I first see them in the field, I think they're a new horse and they should be saddled up for horse rides. Small wonder, I looked on Wikipedia, and they say the Roosevelts (our subspecies of Wapitii) are indeed up to 5 foot at the shoulder ~ so that's riding size 
At least now I know when we go to bolster the fences for winter this year, we'll be sure it can hold a dump truck plowing into it, because in essence, that's what these lazy lumps will do. They actually can jump very well, they just chose to be lazy unless I'm there growling at them to leave my fences intact.
Oh, and I've discovered much as you call hawks 'buzzards' ...we call vultures 'buzzards'. Seems the early settlers to America thought the elk looked like moose. So our elk are actually closer to the red deer, not moose at all. Confusing?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_elk
At the moment (knock on wood), they haven't come out of the mountains yet. We get a few strays through at night, but I haven't seen them this month. Of course hunting season should be starting for them soon, so they might be staying tucked up out of sight for now.
And those diddy antlers
I know they're just as menacing, but I didn't realize how used to seeing the elk I've become. I reckoned the males weighed roughly 1250lbs, females probably 1,000lbs. And practically every time I first see them in the field, I think they're a new horse and they should be saddled up for horse rides. Small wonder, I looked on Wikipedia, and they say the Roosevelts (our subspecies of Wapitii) are indeed up to 5 foot at the shoulder ~ so that's riding size 
At least now I know when we go to bolster the fences for winter this year, we'll be sure it can hold a dump truck plowing into it, because in essence, that's what these lazy lumps will do. They actually can jump very well, they just chose to be lazy unless I'm there growling at them to leave my fences intact.
Oh, and I've discovered much as you call hawks 'buzzards' ...we call vultures 'buzzards'. Seems the early settlers to America thought the elk looked like moose. So our elk are actually closer to the red deer, not moose at all. Confusing?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_elk
At the moment (knock on wood), they haven't come out of the mountains yet. We get a few strays through at night, but I haven't seen them this month. Of course hunting season should be starting for them soon, so they might be staying tucked up out of sight for now.
earlier this year, we placed our leftover compost in the summer field and then used our oyster mushrooms to finish the composting process. The oysters sprang up beautifully, and the bulls came through and ate the whole crop overnight! 
mushroom munchers !
good one Val!