Watch and learn

This is a story daughter-type Angie told us on Saturday night. 

She had been building fence all day, stringing up a single wire electric fence down the road on “the back side” of the fields. She needed to get it set up for her mares to pasture the fields on the north side of the place and yet she didn’t want the gates closed. I appreciate that because that way I don’t have to open and shut gates when I go down to help with chores when she is on shift. She got the fence finished Saturday afternoon and turned the girls, Holly and Sweet Pea, out on the fields, then ran to town, got water, and came up the county road to our house. After picking up some tomatoes, of which I have tons, and some eggs for her house, she headed down the road on the backside. 

It was dark by then but she has one of those pickups with the killer lights and in those lights she saw three young deer. They were in the field moving towards the lower elevations, presumably towards the river bottom. 

Deer one walks up to the new fence, probably thinking to itself that something strange was happening because the fence wasn’t there before. It stuck its nose up and sniffed the wire, jumped back after touching it and getting shocked. Then it dropped its head and just shot under the fence. Deer two also walks up and sniffs the fence, also jumps back and then drops its head and shoots under the fence. They both go down over the hill. Deer three has learned from watch them, it just shoots under the fence without doing the sniff test, but then he runs into a problem. 

He was a few yards west of where the others were and so instead of just going through a gate and down over the hill, he found the old fence, over grown with brush that looks totally impregnable. It turns to go back, isn’t sure of the other fence, knows its buddies have already gone down the hill. So it whips around again and leaps over the fence. Angie is laughing as she is telling us the story, because as she said, he would have only had to go east about two jumps and the gate was right there and open. 

We haven’t been seeing many deer around so I was glad to know there are some youngsters here. We don’t allow hunting because of the livestock and horses on our place, but maybe the walking area west of us will yield some for the hunters this year. 

Savory Baked Tomatoes

4 ripe tomatoes cut in halves

Garlic salt

Finely crushed dried basil

¼ cup butter

½ cup coarse cracker crumbs

2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes. 

Place tomato halves, cut side up, in greased baking pan, sprinkle tops with garlic salt and lightly with basil. Melt butter in a small skillet, add cracker crumbs and parsley. Sauté until crumbs are golden, stirring constantly. Spoon crumbs onto tomato halves. Bake in moderate oven (350º) 20 minutes or until hot. Makes 8 servings.