I am not exactly new, but haven’t been in for at least 5 years

[Teri]

Spoula

Oh nice on the deer! The are magnificent creatures. They do like azaleas though. They do a lot of destruction in the vegetable gardens. Here, in Central New York, where the deer are VERY abundant, many put pie pans on strings around their gardens. But my 14 year old grandson who is very proud of his vegetable gardens, read that putting long white tube socks on fence height poles (around 4 feet high) keep the deer away. It seems that they think it is other deer running away from something. Now I don't know if you want pole of tube socks around your azaleas but it worked for him LOL

[spoula]

Hi Teri,
I don't think I want tube socks around my flowers Ha. Guess what last week there was a red fox on my back deck. I told my husband to come look. He or she was beautiful but kind of big. It got scared and ran to our back fence and jumped the 6 foot fence it was amazing that he could do that. We also had a raccoon up a huge tree in our front yard. I didn't know they could climb a tree. We seem to have a lot of critters this year. Geese, turtles, wild animals and many birds. Must be the change in climate.

Spoula

[Teri]

So nice for you to see them...don't be afraid, they will run when they see or smell you. We have a porcupine who lives in the cornfield across the road. There is also a creek that runs through there, so I am assuming his home is around the creek edge. He is huge and moves so slowly. But I love seeing him. As soon as he hears my door he runs for shelter among the corn stalks. We had a watermelon last week that went a little soft so my daughter and I cut it up and put it in the midst of the corn stalks for him to eat. Sure enough it is totally gone. The deer love water melon too. So I am assuming they enjoyed some of it too.

[spoula]

Hi Teri,
Ha, I am not afraid of the animals but it is strange for them to come into the neighborhood where I live. There is a lot of activity around here with lots of kids and noise so it is surprising to see so many wildlife in my yard. We have been told to be on the look out for coyotes too as one neighbor lost his little dog to one.

[Teri]

Yes coyotes can be disturbing. While living in NJ and having lots of chickens we always had coyotes on our farm. Several times we actually witnessed one carrying off a chicken. Horrible site especially for the kids to see. Here in Central NY the coyotes are much bigger than NJ. We have seen them and thought they were wolves, when we first moved here. But were told that wolves no longer reside in the mountains here only coyotes that are close to the size of wolves. They are a problem with lambs and baby goats here in spring. I have been told that farmers have lost calves to them. We no longer have goats or chickens as we did in NJ. Too much work LOL. so we are in the clear.