A Walk With Rose and Lily

The weather has warmed since Rose, Lily and I took this walk. It was, at the time, a world of browns. We are on the cusp spring and the walk we would take now is much greener.

We planted a few hundred trees about 4 years ago. Many survived and this is one of the small oaks. When you go down the hill to this pasture I worked hard on trimming grass around the trees on the left and did little for the ones on the right. Nature taught me a lesson. The ones I left alone are doing better and had a better survival rate.

This is a close up view of another small tree I planted. If you look closely you can see areas that are lighter brown. It is where a male deer has rubbed to mark his territory. There are sprays you can use to prevent or minimize this damage. I decided that trees have survived for millions of years and deer have been rubbing on them for millennia. So no spray.

We got down to the creek and Lily is standing in a deer path. It seems given the opportunity deer will take the same path walked by others. I'm not saying they don't stray from the beaten path but for the most part they seem to join the herd and take the easy way. Are we so different from other animals?

So, why do the deer cross here? The bank is steep and it would seem an unlikely place to cross. The answer is the rocky creek bed shown here. Much of the rest of the creek bottom is muddy and soft. The crossing here is firm, shallow and unlikely to wash out into a deep hole.

This is the view looking upstream to the west.

This is the view to the west of the last picture looking north up the hill. I remember as a younger man helping Dad till this and other times bailing hay. While it has the potential to be crop land it is my opinion and practice to let it go back to being grassland. Eventually the woods will reclaim it. I will be long departed from this life when that happens.

The picture above is from the same spot looking south. A narrow entrance to another small field we had farmed in the past.

At the bottom of the hill headed back toward the house.

A welcome sight after a nice walk. Thanks for going along.