A deer in the tree? How can that be?

 

I have been meaning and meaning to get back to blogging.  Once a break in the routine had happened I was just having a hard time finding a topic.  The only one that sprung to mind was the mind numbing job of pulling weeds all over my yard only to have the omnipresent rain resurrect them all in short order so I could pull them again.  It has driven me half mad! But rain should be and is a happy thing. Just we are getting too much of a good thing at the moment.

But then, an intriguing topic did present itself.  My friend who lives just two houses down casually mentioned she had a deer hanging in her tree.

Well yes, it has been windy enough to blow down 2 of our cedar trees, but blow a deer into a tree?!  Not quite.  So we are jumping into our CSI naturalist role and wondering what could have possibly done that.  

 Mountain lions are present here in the Hill country, but that’s such an exciting explanation that it probably isn’t true.  Leopards cache food in trees but as I have not heard of any escapees from the zoo we can scratch them from the likely suspect list. 

I tried to research whether mountain lions cached things in trees and most articles point to them caching on the ground, in caves and what not.   

Gray fox are standouts in the canine world for they are the only ones that CAN climb trees.  They have retractable claws and can head up a tree for safety for snoozing, and perhaps for stashing a midnight snack outside their hollow tree den.  Looking at the picture you can see a large opening in the tree.   It looks like a good resting place for fox or raccoons. 

Are raccoons ever cooperative enough to haul this portion size of a deer up into their tree? Clearly they are clever and the large males may be strong enough but I have never heard of such a thing.  Still,  that doesn’t rule them out entirely.

Then of course, we have the human element.  Would my friend’s son be willing to drag up a decomposing deer hind quarter and secure it to branches in a tree?  I think not, this boy is more “snappy dresser musician” than “carcass prankster”.  I think it shall just forever remain a  a mystery .  But the notion is fun enough to speculate about and weird enough to break the spell on writing again.  

The other over riding mystery is how weeds, well plants that I wish grew elsewhere, could so take over our couple of little acres in such little time.  Perhaps that will spark a follow up blog.  And if I could get on a roll I could stop weeding 24/7 and get back on the computer.  We shall just have to wait and see. 

 

don't let this fool you- It is NOT Queen Anne's Lace

Now, the rain has stopped and I can hear the hedge parsley setting its stick tights as we speak.  Grab a bucket, slather on insect spray and get out there Pat. Storm has passed-no excuses. Do it for Tucker.