My daughter and I was walking down to clean out an old block spring pump house yesterday when we jumped a huge heard of deer.
As I have said, the land down there is either 50 plus some or 60 plus some acres! I know Thomas Lee said 57 one time but he said 68 the next time and when I questioned how many there actually were, the only time I ever saw him get a little heated was then! He snapped, "you can see how large it is, what the H??? does it matter?" so I just dropped to never be asked again, LOL.
Anyway when we startled them they went in all directions and two came nearly straight at us, one just to the right and three close but to the left of us.
Now that bottom backs up to the 265 bypass that runs around Danville and either the city or the state puts a 6' fence all along 265 on both side of the bypass to keep deer out of the traffic and very seldom do you here of a deer getting on the highway.
Well, that fence was about a quarter mile or maybe a bit more from where we were at and from where we were we could see the 6 or 7 deer that went that way and I had always figured that a deer could just leap over that fence if it really wanted to, but not true as I saw yesterday!
Everyone of the deer that went in that direction leaped but came straight back down to the ground and then leaped off going to the left!
When we looked around, ever the ones that had taken off straight past us and to the right had turned and the whole herd was headed to the left and collecting each other as they went out of sight!
Later yesterday evening my wife and daughter went up to check on a good friend who had a heart attack a good while back but is finally getting around a lot better, but while they were there, Stacey said that he was telling them about setting on the front porch when a large herd of deer came romping past him and he counted 17 but still wasn't sure if he counted them all they went past so fast!
OK, that brings me to a question here! I know the laws will change from state to state and even from county to county in some instances, but I know it is illegal to sell wild venison in any form here, but you can sell domesticated venison!
OK, my question is how does any one domesticate a deer? I did some serious thinking last night about this. And I seriously thinking about trying this!
If this land is indeed 68 acres, considering that is pretty well squared off except for a dog leg on the back right portion of the property, plus remembering that the back side including the dog leg shape, is already fenced in!
OK 68 acres x the 43,560 square feet per acre is just shy of 3M sq ft which when you square that comes out to be something over 1,700' per side!
Now I watched with amazement yesterday when the deer all tried to jump the 6' fence and failed to clear it and they were running for their lives and they couldn't jump it at all. Not the first one cleared it and there were at least six that tried to and failed to do so, and that fence is dead on the ground, so to keep shorter animals off the beltway also, I assume!
I already know the route that they take coming and going from the acreage and it seems that that are down there about every third or forth day and night!
Their path coming into the area isn't more that 20' wide, where they come out of the woods on the other side of the road, cross it and are back in the woods in minutes, if that long!
Where they leave the area is a bit wider area. Maybe 40' give or take a bit!
I could feasibly fence the whole area in leaving only the two opening they already use as the safe passage into and exiting the area open until the entire heard is in there and quickly close them all in!
What I would do, if I even attempt it, would be to have it all fenced in until they left the area the last time and then go ahead and close their exit before they come back and be waiting for them to get down in there again and then close the trap up tighter that a banjo wire!
How else could one begin the domesticating process?
Let me see here. It was Wednesday when we jumped them, we know they move every day anyway, and it takes about 3 to 4 days for them to make their normal route, so they should be back Saturday or Sunday night.
Time for the night scope.
I have got to check the laws here about this! I know it is against the law to bait deer, but still yet Tractor Supply sells the feeders and the feed for them, and I know several people that use them and nothing is said.
The reason I am even thinking about this, is because I can see the areas that they brose in and they keep it cut pretty good but that isn't even a forth of the acreage down there. And it all has the same type of vegetation on it. They just pretty much stay on the same track every time they come around! I just didn't know there were so many in the herd until yesterday.
Let's assume they are on a four day cycle so that means that they would need four times the vegetation if they were pinned in, so they are only eating on less than a quarter of the acreage here now, one day out of four and it somehow grows back by the time they come through, that is unless they don't stay in the bottom for a full 24 hour period, but I have seen them out the back window many times, early in the morning, and I mean before or just as the sun is coming up, and spotted them crossing the road where they normally come out and cross back into yet a third wooded area from coming in to leaving the afternoon I seen them, and sometimes early the next morning.
It does seem that they stay down there pretty much a full day and night when left alone.
They have fresh water down there and it just seems to me that with a couple of corn feeders they would be pretty happy down there. And especially with the free corn.
Now that brings me back to what this whole thread was about to start with. The delicious deer jerky that someone I know makes, which she has sold for 12 bucks a lb. and has been offered $15 a lb. when her orders were full.
Now we all know of the companies that make specialty sausages etc., and charge a huge price for them, so what do you think of the idea?
If I build a smoker that will do 25 lb. per run, that is $375 per load @$15 a lb., and from what I have seen on the market, that shouldn't be hard to do!
But still yet, with a herd of even 20 or 25 deer, I still couldn't harvest but so many a year!
Maybe I should just stick with getting a couple a year for our own use!
But then again, Thomas Lee owns more tracks of woods than you can shake a stick at and they all have large herds of deer on them!
He has a hunting permit that allows him to hunt from a vehicle, and he has a small boom winch on his truck and he get me!
When I am working for him during the hunting season he come see how things are going at about 7 AM and the say, Well, I'm gona go get a deer, and it won't be much more than an hour and some times not that long before he'll come back up the road with a deer in the truck!
Or he'll say well, I'm going squirrel hunting and he'll be gone until lunch then, but he always comes back with a bag full.
Anyway, if I could fence this one area in and create a domestic herd here, hold on a minute.
I haven't a clue why I said to hold on but I had to run to the kitchen window because I got a glimpse of the tail end of what looked to be a deer and sure enough, five more der just rambling down into the woods on the same path that I cut to get down there!
Now they have me confused here! That isn't the path they have been using!
I wonder if this is a different herd all together? I have go to get some game camera's and find out just when and how many deer are going through their!
The path they just took leads to the same path the others have been using maybe 100' down the hill, and I had noticed that it seemed like that path had widened up a bit but I haven't seen any dropping or tracks, but I haven't really been looking that close to the house either! I knew they come
so close on the back side of the house that I could drop one easily with a head shot with my .22 rifle, but I didn't know that they were using that path too.
That is on my shop side of the house and whoever built the carport built the roof line so high that it is above the windows on that side of the house!
I just close in the rear two windows but left the one in this room so it can be opened, when ever I get the heat and air going down there!
I don't know. I don't what to think about anything right now.
I just got a call about Thomas Lee. He went to the Duke University Hospital, in Durham, N. C., to have a simple hip transplant!
Things went wrong and he has had really bad time with it!
I had lost count, but they are now saying that they are going to have to operate for the seventh frigging time to stop a leakage!
How can a major hospital like that keep screwing things up this bad?
Well, I am leaving for now. More later.
Godspeed to all
Ranger
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