Coffee Break #72

Yes, I think I need to move further North......but then again the deer up there are dangerous. (grin) Which brings me to this little story that made me laugh so hard my side hurt. ^_^



WHY WE SHOOT DEER

Why we shoot deer in the wild.(A letter from someone who wants to remain anonymous, who farms, writes well and actually tried this)

I had this idea that I could rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.

I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up - 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope.

The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it, it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope, and then received an education.

The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope.

That deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope and with some dignity. A deer-- no Chance. That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled.

There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined. The only upside is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals.

A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope! .

I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual.

Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in. I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set before hand... Kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back.

Did you know that deer bite?

They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when ...... I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and slide off to then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head--almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts.

The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probabl y to freeze and draw back slowly.. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective.

It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now), tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the tendons out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose.

That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day.

Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp ... I learned a long time ago that, when an animal - like a horse - strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape.

This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head.
Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down..

Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head.

I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away.

So now I know why when people go deer hunting they b ring a rifle with a scope......to sort of even the odds!!

All these events are true so help me God... An Educated Farmer.

I do have to say that anytime I've been stuck on the side of the road I've gotten help within minutes, that is scary.

That is funny Celeste

Yes Deb, usually it's the norm to help someone, this person really peed-off the State of Maine. I hope they catch him, they have his DNA so lets cross our fingers.
I had to post something for a laugh, that whole story has me upset...can you tell? LOL

says i am 5b - just got colder here?

Must be all those rocks reflecting the sun's heat away...

I'm at 6a, but believe me, nothing under a 5 grows here! That story was horrible, Pixie....hope they catch him soon....the deer story was a riot....didn't know that deer bite, they seem so timid.....

That was a funny story Celeste!

Sometimes the city criminals like to have a winter home in the country.

I liked the story about the deer. Poor farmer. Hope he recovered well.

Ronnie, looks like 7a to me, not b

I was also changed to 7a

I changed to 7a, too.

Was hoping for 36D. ^_^

Keep hoping!

Weren't we talking about school lunches last week? Here are the new guidelines from the USDA. http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10234671-students-to-see-healthier-school-lunches-under-new-usda-rules?ocid=ansmsnbc11

Thanks Jen I went back and looked again with my glasses on this time...the color was much clearer!

I'm 6b now. I think 5 is still a safer bet here.

not a fan of the fact they want to do JUST 0% or low fat milk, cause there are always additives in there

Jen what do you mean? Are they changing milk now?

well the milk they serve now is flavored, even the "white" milk isn't real milk it's VANILLA which adds sugar that is equal to 2 candy bars!!!!! no surprise there is a childhood obesity problem and increase in childhood diabetes

Didn't know that...I use organic milk and there aren't any additives other than vitamin d.

We drink Almond milk. I actually want to try raw

Is vanilla on the ingredients if used?

If anyone drinks loose tea I have some vanilla/chai you can have, just got it today and I don't care for the vanilla flavor. I hate to see it go to waste, be more than happy to mail it.

yes it's listed on the ingredients

Then mine does not have it.

never tried it Ronnie

Allison are you a tea drinker? Can't beat loose tea over bagged, I love it!

Victor, talking about the milk they serve at school, typically milk bought for home isn't flavored

Fil called my hubby 2 of his cousins just died within hours of each other(brother and sister) lung cancer and breast cancer and their old neighbor died
There's the 3

Oh, okay.

Wow! Sorry to hear that!!

Sorry to hear, Jen.

my condolences

So sorry Jen.

oh my so sorry to hear that Jen

yes Ronnie.. but mostly an iced tea drinker.. I just put ice in the unsweetened tea I make in the kurieg.. again.. lazy

:)

amazing the brother lasted so long, Vietnam Vet had the whole agent orange, ptsd thing and smoked like a chimney

Back to milk.Jen if you meant "organic" when you said you wanted to try "raw" ?
Organic milk is pasturized ,raw milk isnt pasturized.

There are approx. 72 farms in Maine that produce organic milk, I've had raw, organic and goats milk.

I had raw milk when I was a kid spending summers on GF dairy farm.That was back duering WW2.I thought all milk on market shelves had to be pasturized?

Here's a hardiness zone map with a zip code search feature. I went up to zone 6a. Thought you might be interested.

http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/