Larsen Poultry Ranch - homesteading journey

[fuzzi]

Saturday the deer got ONTO the porch and chomped the sweet potato starts. All of them except 2. They left maybe 3-4 inches of the stems, and one had several feet of stem left but no leaves.

Finally got the raised bed they were supposed to go filled and I'm putting the starts in and watering the heck out of them. Hopefully they come back..

Checked the volunteer zucchini, there's maybe 6 growing now, might be able to harvest in a day or so. Figs are ripening. Need to take notes and pictures when we harvest so we can figure out which varieties are best/worst.

I got all the irises that were previously posted moved to one zone in the garden and on the auto waterer. Need to increase pot size for the newer irises and add them to the zone so I don't have to hand water so many things.

I saw where a gardener got tired of losing his crops to deer. He made cages from pallet wood and chicken wire, attached them over his raised bed gardens. No more deer damage.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Got the second container filled, then moved 4 of the sweet potato plants from the first bed because I was worried they were too crowded with 7 in there. Now I just need one more bed filled for the last 4 plants and then we can move on. 11 plants should give me something, and we don't eat a ton of sweet potatoes normally.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Can you not get damage kill permits for the deer???

My other suggestion will not set well with some people... set up, gut shoot them so they run away and die elsewhere in the case of animal rights activists causing problems...

Or put a 10 ft high perimeter fence around the whole property... They require 10 or 12 ft high fences for "exotic" species of deer and such in most places that raise them... game farms etc...

I don't think we can legally do anything about the deer because we are a residence and not growing anything commercially. We don't have the funds for a super tall fence. I think if we get the front yard fence up that will help, plus we were thinking about getting a big indoor outdoor dog to help deter deer and other critters but I'm not ready to get more living things to take care of right now.

I spread some anti deer powder stuff around the perimeter of the garden, I think it's powdered predator urine, I'll grab a picture of the container. I'm hoping this will help. I have more sight blocking panels to attach to the fence that needs to go up too, that should help a little but hubby needs to make the gates taller.

 

[fuzzi]

I don't think we can legally do anything about the deer because we are a residence and not growing anything commercially. We don't have the funds for a super tall fence. I think if we get the front yard fence up that will help, plus we were thinking about getting a big indoor outdoor dog to help deter deer and other critters but I'm not ready to get more living things to take care of right now.

I spread some anti deer powder stuff around the perimeter of the garden, I think it's powdered predator urine, I'll grab a picture of the container. I'm hoping this will help. I have more sight blocking panels to attach to the fence that needs to go up too, that should help a little but hubby needs to make the gates taller.

Deer don't like small dogs that bark, either.

 

[SageHill]

Nice set up for the sweet potatoes.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Deer don't like small dogs that bark, either.

We already have a small dog. I call her a coyote snack. She is an AKC Havanese, who will be helping us afford various projects around the house and property if we can get her puppies sold.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

I found 2 more snap traps, and a bucket trap. I filled the bucket half full of water, it'll be interesting if it gets anything, I think it is only rated to work for mouse size as bigger rodents are able to avoid falling in. I baited it with peanut butter and some broken chips.

There were several large mouse/small rat sized rodents running around when I went out there. Bold little buggers. I hope they get overconfident.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

One large mouse caught by the back leg this morning. Dropped him into the other snap trap to finish him off and then tossed the body into the field. Reset everything.

Started filling the next container, didn't get very far because it was so hot. I figured out the best time to look for zucchini is at the hottest part of the day when the plants let the leaves look wilty; you can see the base of the plants better and see if they have fruit growing.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

One more rodent gone this morning. So far the water trap has done nothing.

 

[SageHill]

I tried the water trap.
Snaps