This weekend we enjoyed a rare event in South Central Texas – snow. It wasn’t much – just enough to make everything a temporary winter wonderland before it all melted away today.
The irony is that our friends Bob and Julia were visiting from Illinois – trying to get away from that cold white stuff. We actually had to dig the snow scraper out of our trunk so they could clear off their rental car before driving to the Austin airport. Oops! Sorry guys!
Our friend Matthew, affectionately nicknamed “Moose”, commented to John that the only post I had up about animals only showed John. True, it was a post about us (ok, mostly John) installing the 17 owl boxes on the property to qualify us for a wildlife tax rate.
But we have had other critters about including an Eastern Coachwhip Snake last spring, various owls, and when we first moved in, a pair of mice (yuck!).
Our neighbors to the North did a lot of work fixing up the fence between our properties because they began running cattle so they could receive the agricultural tax rate (a pre-requisite to receiving the wildlife tax rate we have). Every so often the girls will hang by our side of the property, grazing and laying under the post oak trees.
And then there is Randy, the bull. We named him that because, umm, well, he really wanted to get to our OTHER neighbor’s property and see the girls over there. Apparently his harem is not enough for him… So he started pushing through the fence. Yikes
But we’ve also had some “deer friends” stopping by regularly. There is a momma deer with twins – we’re pretty sure we saw them the day they were born because they were so tiny, they looked like stuffed animals for a child’s bed. Sometimes they are down by the “tank” or pond, but quite often they come up close to the house and eat at the scrub brushes in the yard (I’m not even going to think about landscaping until the pool and other hardscaping is done). Thankfully they have not found my garden yet so my peppers, zucchini, lettuce, rainbow chard, and more are all still untouched by them.
Unfortunately, that is not the extent of our deer encounters. Like many of you, we’ve been staying at home, cooking much more at home with occasional take out. But we decided to go out to one of our favorite places in Smithville, The Blazer Bar, and hang in their speakeasy on a Thursday night. Why a Thursday? Because it’s much less busy than on Friday or Saturday nights (in fact, we were the only patrons in the speakeasy) and it’s only open Thursday-Saturday. We enjoyed a lovely time, had a fantastic lobster bisque, scallops, and drinks. I was the DD, so after dinner I drank 3-4 glasses of water before we headed home at 9:30 at night.
And then this happened…
Yep, at the top of a hill on a Texas state highway (where the speed limit is 75 miles per hour) was a big 10-point buck in the right hand lane. Since no one was around I slowed down and got into the left lane. If the deer had kept moving the direction he was going or even just stayed still, we would have been fine… But at the last minute, he turned and slammed into the passenger front side of the car. Thankfully we were fine and the airbags did not deploy. I pulled over and walked back to where he was on the side of the road and sadly, he tried to get up but then just laid down. I’m not sure if he died then or was able to get up later and move on. 🙁
For those who ask, why didn’t you pick it up and take it with you? OK, a couple of things. A) that’s illegal in Texas (and just because your family wouldn’t care about receiving a misdemeanor (or whatever) doesn’t mean I don’t care). Texas Parks and Wildlife has a zero tolerance policy on this, according to their website. B) Let’s think about the logistics of this. We’re out for date night and I’m wearing a dress and heels. And now John and I are going to pick up a half alive 250+ pound buck and just through it into the back seat of our sedan? Umm, yuck. C) Have you seen the movie Tommy Boy?
Thankfully we were able to limp home with the car that night and the local collision repair company said it was not totaled. It did take about a month for them to get the parts to fix our Toyota Avalon – but we aren’t ready for a car payment with the pool construction about to begin. And besides, the car only has about 195,000 miles on it – I feel like I’m just starting to break it in…
In the meantime, we have set up the gravity deer feeder down by the lake and even have a game camera attached to it so we can see the wildlife up close and personal. It took about a week for the deer to discover it, but now we have an almost nightly wildlife show right in front of our home.
As we see more and more wild animals, I’ll be sure to take photos. A pair of Crested Caracara, aka, “Mexican Eagle”, have been hanging in one of our oak trees in front of the house. I’ll see if I can get a decent pic of them as they are only located in a few US states and, although they look like big hawks with white heads, they are technically falcons (according to the Cornell website I looked up).
In the meantime, stay safe and warm. And thanks for stopping by!
Hugs, Libby
