WAstinkbug Loc: Silverdale, WA, U.S.A.

Deer have been a regular part of our experience living here on 5 acres. Since I like to garden, I have a love-hate relationship with them but since we don't have a dog, they seek refuge in our space and will often bed down in a protected spot to chew their cud or graze in the fields in the evenings (or the yard if I'm not vigilant enough!). :-/

Years ago when there were horses and cows in the pasture, they didn't have as high a profile on the property. Now it's just us and open space (kids all grown). Ron mows the fields to keep the briars and trees down and we mostly have deer. This summer, I've seen two does come in regularly with their offspring. One has a singleton and the other twins. One year we saw triplets. Another time, we had two does with twins and then we saw baby twins by themselves. They were old enough (mobile but still spotted) that it worried me. Not too long after that, I saw a doe with four fawns ... two of them bigger. She'd adopted the two orphaned babies ... bless her heart. In the autumn, we have apple drops in the orchard that they regularly come to visit and check the status of the apples. You can see in these photos, they don't always wait.

Here are a few unfancy pictures of the aforementioned locals from this season. They were all taken from our porch with the Panasonic Lumix G7 and a 100-300mm zoom lens (the older one). The photos of the deer in the field were taken right after I'd gotten home from oral surgery. I was still a little wobbly from the anesthesia but happy to catch them walking up the hill ... even if it was mostly their cute backsides.

I also tossed in a picture taken in the upper field, with the decaying barn in the background (taken with the Lumix G85 ... probably the 12-60mm lens). My husband is in the process of taking it down after we've lived with it for 44 years (it was already old when we moved here). It's in terrible shape, but I'll sure miss it. I'll have to post more photos of the barn at some point. It was erected by two Serbian fellows who lived here in the 40's and 50's. I suspect they were political refugees. There was a small Serbian community here back in those days. It's interesting to look at the old 1940 census for our street.

Our old barn ... on its way out

(Download)

Mama and singleton

(Download)

I'm a stone's throw away ... bold critters

(Download)


(Download)

Mother and twins... heading up into the field from the orchard

(Download)


(Download)


(Download)

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

Good, and interesting, set.

blacks2 Loc: SF. Bay area

Wonderful history and some great pictures. thank you for posting.

WAstinkbug Loc: Silverdale, WA, U.S.A.

Thank you!

WAstinkbug Loc: Silverdale, WA, U.S.A.

Thank you ... and you're welcome! It's been fun to look at people's photos and offer up a few along the way.

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Engaging set.

WAstinkbug Loc: Silverdale, WA, U.S.A.

Thank you! :-) I'm not happy with the color/white balance on some of those... but have trouble tweaking them. Partly it's because the orchard area really is a ton of green ... seems to taint everything. ;-)

whlsdn Loc: Colorado

I enjoyed the "story" and the photos. The deer shots are fun, as good shots of them always are, but I think my favorite is picture number 1. Maybe it's because I'm feeling sorrowful about the demolition of the barn. I love barns and shooting them. I understand it may need to come down. It would probably be impractical, but I'd do my best to shore it up for as long as possible just because I like them so well. Silly, I know.

WAstinkbug Loc: Silverdale, WA, U.S.A.

My husband doesn't share your view... wish he did. He thinks like an engineer. :-) We unwittingly replanted a tree near that building and the replacement was supposed to grow quickly (we were young and impatient). It turned into a monster and cost us quite a bit of money to have taken down professionally a couple of years ago. The fact he decided not to invest in replacing the roof and the shade and leaf drop caused by that HUGE tree really shortened the life of the roof and building. It was already old though. The front section is all that is left standing right now and he's putting up a new building behind ... on part of the old cement slab. I'd love it if he repaired the front a bit and left it up but he doesn't have any appreciation for it as a thing of beauty. Sad. :-(

I don't think you're silly at all. I totally get it.

Carolina Wings Loc: Flew from North Carolina to Pennsylvania

What a nice set Kathy!

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

A really nice set.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I understand the "love-hate" thing. While I love watching deer in the forest, I really hate when they come mow down my corn fields! They can make short work of rows of corn. Nice images.

EdR Loc: Gig Harbor, WA

Nice shots of the deer. We have a few near us that like to eat the apples. But with the dogs and our last llama, they don’t get too pushy.
Sorry that the barn, or part of it is going down. I really like to get shots of the older buildings.

WAstinkbug Loc: Silverdale, WA, U.S.A.

Thank you!

WAstinkbug Loc: Silverdale, WA, U.S.A.

Thanks!