Good Friday morning friends,

Marguerite

Active Member
G'day, everybody.

Winter is still definitely in control here. The down doona is definitely on the bed tonight.

The news tonight - our government has announced plans to shoot 700 deer, starting way to the south of us I think they said. They are talking about eventually eradicating the deer entirely, as they are feral and doing a great deal of harm. The ironic thing - although we've been complaining about the problems for years (and not been believed for a long time) it will be our area that will get help last of all. And a big part of the problem is neighbours who entice the beasts into the village by feeding them! Only a couple, in the whole village, but it's enough. You can always tell who they are - you see large herds congregate there every night, and most nights you can see the food that's been deliberately dropped there - bread, fruit and vegetable scraps - the sort of thing you wouldn't normally find on someone's nature strip.

After the fires in 1994, the deer numbers were down far enough for them to be able to be wiped out. I believe numbers were below 50. Everything had been burned off to ground level and without supplementary feeding, the herd would have died out. They could have been either rounded up and removed, or shot, so easily, with no forest to hide in. But a few people protested and got their way. Now there are many thousands, so many they are migrating into the suburbs and upsetting many more people.

A TV gardening show was advertising tonight, "Plant now, for the prettiest spring flowers in your street!"

Not our street, mate. And the lovely smell of spring flowers - we have so many herds going through that in some places, all you can smell is manure. The grass won't grow.

I used to love the sight of the deer in the evening, wandering through the streets. I know better, now.

Enjoy your Friday.

Marg
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
A beautiful morning ensues. My bird sanctuary is filled with the babies of the hopefully last nesting of the season. They are eating me out of house & home.

I'm about to wake the bug up for last day of ESY. kt has in home counselor this afternoon.

Enjoy your day.
 

EB67

New Member
Good morning all--

I've been in the background, so to speak, enjoying a wave of normalcy in our world. Things remain calm and even in our world and Seb has been thriving this summer. Today is his last day of farm / nature camp and we'll enjoy a less structured August, including some time away at the shore.

Spefically Seb's peer relations have improved dramatically and he's been very self aware where it concerns self control and restraint. This has afforded us te luxury of actually enjoying life and not living in manage-the-crisis mode. And Milo toilet trained to boot. Life has been good.

Marg, you have my sympathy concerning the deer. Here the deer population has been wrecking havooc, not only on our gardens (they ate all of my black eyed susans last night), but they have been causing major health problems. Lymes disease is epidemic here and it is something I worry about constantly. Though I do love to see them walking around in my woods, it's a mix of beauty, fear and loathing.

E
 
K

Kjs

Guest
Good Morning

Marg - don't they hunt the deer? I do know here if there are to many they extend the hunting season. Many of the deer have Wasting Disease. Have to have them tested before you eat them.


Have few errands to take care of today. difficult child is having friend over. That is rare. Hope all goes well in that area of difficult child will not be so happy. Warm weather again today. Wish difficult child would go out of the house.

For all it is end of your work week. I still have two more nights. Have a great Friday everyone.
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Good Morning,

Marguerite-It's sad to hear of the deer problem. We don't have that problem here and it is neat to see them in nature. I hope you get a warm up soon.

E-What a great update on Seb!! Glad to hear he is doing so well!

Linda (from reading the other thread)-Sounds like such a relaxing morning at your house with the birds-enjoy!

Kjs-You snuck in on me! I hope difficult child's time with his friend is fun!

Another hot day here /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/hot.gif We are going to take easy child and difficult child to see Hairspray this afternoon! I'm looking forward to it as I've heard nothing but good reviews!

Later, it will be a trip to the health club and also a nap must be fit in somewhere!

I hope everyone enjoys a day with unexpected (good) surprises!
 

Marguerite

Active Member
The deer were originally released into Royal National Park soon after it was set up - it's second-oldest in the world, only Yellowstone is older. Back then, they wanted Royal as a recreation area outside Sydney, and thinking like British aristocracy, they wanted to "ride to hounds" so they released deer AND foxes. Great. We also have rabbits, feral goats and feral pigs. Just what you want to meet on a pleasant afternoon bushwalk.

We now have laws - everything inside a national park is protected. The park rangers and the government environmental agencies are given the task of cleaning out feral plants and animals, but this costs and a big job like this - the government needs to support it.
Plus, Australian laws on carrying weapons - we don't have hunting seasons in Australia, except for some bird species. Feral animals are left to professional shooters hired by government agencies.
Of course, illegal shooters go into these areas (including national parks) and hunt. It was these illegal deer hunters, posing as greenies, who blocked the full eradication back in 1994 (I recognised their faces on TV - small town, we know who hunts, word gets out who has some venison available).

Other animals hunted legally - kangaroos. They can build up to plague proportions and so hunters are given a quota and tags. Every carcass brought in MUST have a registered tag. Skins are sold, meat is used for pet food. The roo meat available for human consumption has been farmed, it's not wild.

I think in Tasmania they legally hunt some mammals.

As for diseases - our deer carry loads of ticks, they graze in the school grounds every night. When he was 8 difficult child 3 came home from school with 200 hatchlings one day. A week later, he had another 150. The jury is still out on Lyme Disease in Australia, but it's likely there are similar diseases. We also have scrub typhus carried by ticks.

We get illegal hunters shooting within the village too, because we sometimes find beheaded carcasses in the street. That's scary - the risk of a stray bullet close to houses.

If we want to kill a deer, the only legal way to do it is to hit one with the car - not recommended.

I'll try and find you a link on the problem, it's quite involved.

Marg
 
Good morning, all. Not a good week in the Running household. difficult child has had trouble at the City's summer camp all week and was asked not to come back today (his last day). husband and I had already agreed that if he gave them one scrap of trouble yesterday, he was not returning, so that was that, anyway.

We did learn that the boy he got into it with on Wednesday had a concussion but was not required to stay in the hospital overnight, so that was a relief. I feel terrible for that child. difficult child had been doing so well but clearly couldn't handle this particular program. We hadn't been asked to go to an office and pick him up in close to a year, so this was really heart-breaking.

Hope everyone here has a good day.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Have a good day, Linda. Enjoy your feathered friends. Give yourself the gift of time.

Sorry I doubled up posts on you - we must have been writing at the same time, almost!

Marg
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
Good morning! :coffee:
Sorry I'm so late and been a bit MIA. I think I got a little sick from the heat and have been struggling for most of the week. :ill: Today is Duckie's last day of art camp. husband & I go at 3pm to see the children's' art exhibit & play. Should be fun. :bravo:
I'm going to go ahead and merge both GM posts. Have a great day! :salute:
 
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