deer in the yard

I have lived most of my life in rural north Idaho, but I have to say, there is still something wonderful about seeing deer on a routine basis. Or perhaps it is more wonderful to see them now because I see them through the eyes of our fascinated children.

watching deer out the window

The mama deer and her two fawns who have been living on the other side of our fence for much of the summer have decided that we are not particularly dangerous but that our grass is particularly tasty, so they are hanging out around our house a lot. They sometimes bed down behind our house at night, I’ve spotted them in the side yard while we are outside playing or getting eggs, and now we have been seeing them in the front yard in the middle of the day.

The best part is hearing the responses of the children when they spot our visitors. "Deh! Deah! Deah!" says Abraham, gesturing wildly, then standing at the window with wide, amazed eyes.

"Hi, deer! Hi, deer!" says Rilla, proceeding to shout loudly to them (so they can hear her through the window, of course) and then trying to carry on a conversation with them. I forget exactly what she was saying to them on the day that I took these pictures, but it was pretty funny. The next time we saw them again, she had her shoes on and was on her way outside to see if she could ride one before I even realized what she was doing. (We had to have a little talk about why we can't ride wild animals or go outside without talking to Mommy about it first.)

It's a simple thing, but it's another reason that I love living where we do. We have neighbors on every side who have dogs, many of them aggressive, so we're not particularly concerned about these few deer drawing in the cougars and wolves known to roam the area. We don't have a garden this year for the deer to munch on (although they did chomp on our berry bushes before we added some fencing around them), so that's not really a concern either. The only time that I don't appreciate the deer is when I go outside in the dark to close the chicken coop and hear or see them rustling in the grass all around me... that part is a little bit unnerving. I know they're running away from me, but I am keenly aware that one of them could knock me over if she ran the wrong way! Overall, though, seeing these lovely creatures is just one more reason that I love living here.

one more picture of this cute boy