HOw To WE HAVE DEER

Been saving up some of the trail cam pics / videos for a post.  We have been inundated with deer.  OK, maybe not inundated, but there are quite a few around now.  The first part of this post are the photos and then there are a few videos at the end.  

Here is one casually strolling around at noon...

And at night...

And early morning when it's foggy...

And late at night when everyone is asleep...

And every time in between, ha.  

They are just running around the front yard...

And over in the wooded area we cleared this year...

Look!  It's a deer parade!  

And here is one enjoying the midnight buffet of a hackberry tree.

2nd Family said there are two herds of deer that live on the large acreage behind us.  They hop the fence to go to the pond next door for drink and then hop another fence to graze in our yard. "R" said if we put a pond in our front yard, they'd probably stay there all the time.  For some reason they love our grass (maybe because I mow it constantly, it's different than the cattle grazing land behind us).  

And check out this (albeit fogged up) morning video:

One...two...three...four!

We're torn on having deer on the property. They are beautiful creatures and we love to see them.  We aren't hunters at all so they are safe on our land and in a way, we'd love for them to have a home at the front of our property where it's denser and we don't have the homestead and all the surrounding infrastructure.  Of course we worry about the fruit trees and the garden. The fence around the garden is no match for deer and the fruit trees have zero protection.  

So far, knock on wood, they have not done anything and they've been coming around for a long time, it's only now we have the actual video to know it.  We read that some people put out deer feed to purposely bring them and it keeps them from eating their more valuable plants.  We can easily do that.  But then if we attract them, do we put more in the area and increase that chance anyway?  Or is it that they are there anyway even without us adding food for them, so what does it matter?

Decisions decisions...