Today was one of those rare days where I woke up on my own, felt well-rested, and ready to take on the day.
2026 is here and with a myriad of new projects underway my mind is feeling amped up to make moves. As per usual however, my lips are sealed until said projects are finalized and ready for release. Such is the way of things.
My car is in the garage, so we are down to one vehicle and it’s Tim’s Ford Bronco – so that isn’t saying much. My car is a little Chevy Cruz, and he’s been a reliable car. It seems that there might be a small oil leak of sorts which is creating an odor inside the vehicle. Additionally the check engine light came on – so it was off to the garage with him to be looked over. My car has been paid off for several years now, and at some point something was bound to need fixed. No big deal.
Our Bronco on the other hand, as pretty as she is, has had to go back to the dealership 10 times since we purchased her BRAND NEW a just a few years ago. The repairs, without a warranty, would’ve been costly and included a barrage of issues ranging from electrical, to weird smells, to the catalytic converter needing replaced. We will never buy a Ford product ever again. This vehicle was purchased so we had a reliable four wheel drive for delivery jobs and such. Instead it has been one huge headache. Sure looks nice though. If only looks were everything.
ANYWAY – this isn’t a blog about vehicles. It’s a blog about nature. But there’s a point to this: instead of driving around looking for birds or traveling to hike through the woods this weekend, I was grounded at home. I took yesterday evening as an opportunity to study what the deer were doing in our local neighborhood.
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| A deer bed in the snow. |
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| One of about half a dozen buck rubs indicating buck activity over the last couple months. |
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| Fresh tracks on a well-used deer trail not far from our house. |
I enjoy checking the trails and bedding areas after a fresh snow to see the local “hang outs” because in another month they’ll be primed for antler hunting. (Shed antlers, that is.) Of course some bucks have undoubtedly already shed their antlers, but a good portion are still retaining them. It’s the same story every year. Getting familiar with the deer’s most heavily used trails, their bedding areas, and their feeding areas is key to finding sheds – and so thats what I did yesterday evening.
We’ve had deer coming to the yard recently, which in 14 years of living here seemed surprising. However, given the versatility and determination of whitetails to survive and proliferate, it really isn’t surprising at all.
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| A Whitetail Buck visits our driveway in November. |