Crying "Wolf" and the real deal

Dave and Mike are here for the Thanksgiving weekend -- Dave is enjoying the break from Georgian College, and Mike has been working for us on weekends, after working here for the summer. They are currently busy building a fence along the portion of the road that backs onto Red Pine and Longside cottages. We used to have a thick screen of cedar and pine trees along here, that provided an excellent buffer -- both visually and soundwise -- from the road. Over the years, with the increase in the number of deer here, that cedar buffer has thinned... and thinned... and thinned.

The trees are all still there, all doing very well. Unfortunately, there are no branches for the bottom five feet or so of the tree, so all the 'buffer' is now up high. This looks lovely, but does little to fulfill the original purpose! And of course, as the buffer got thinner, the amount of traffic on the road got busier. Our solution is to put up this fence, at the far edge of the trees, where it won't be obvious and will blend in, which will cut any noise from the road and provide us with the privacy we were starting to lose along this portion of the property. It should be a win-win, as they say.

You can see the trimmed line on the trees all the way around the lake. Our guests frequently ask what causes this, and one dear soul asked Brian how long it took him to trim the bay, did he need a special boat to stand on for that, and was it necessary to use a cordless trimmer? The answer to all of the above is: No. It is simplicity itself. The line is the height of a deer standing on snow. The deer have eaten out much of the understory in our forests, due to the great number of deer currently hanging out around here. This is not the best thing for the forest, but it is certainly a bonanza for the local wolf pack.

This pack has been in close all summer, providing us with some wonderful "howls" in the evenings. Lately, we've been seeing two young wolves who are not with the pack, for whatever reason. One of them appears to have mange -- and since Nancy is particulary unimpressed with having that on the property, she has been putting out medicated bait in the back field to clear it up. (The problem with that being that it is notoriously hard to get wolves to check their calendars and show up on time for medical appointments) These two young'uns have been seen frequently, and in close. One of them keeps showing up early in the morning, looking yearningly into the chicken coop (where the Bobs are all safely behind wolf-proof barricades).

So today, when Mike ran into Nancy's office to tell her there was a young wolf up at the barn, watching the chickens, she didn't stop to inquire further -- off she shot, out of the house, past the garage, to the Bob Rescue!

Only to have David lob a water balloon at her, because it was all a practical joke the boys had dreamed up. (The balloon was not tossed so it would hit her, but it still got her airborne like a startled wild turkey!) The chickens thought it quite entertaining, as did Holly, and Napster the Cat...

Nancy is still calming her pulse. The young wolf, out there somewhere, stuffed full of bacon ends and mange medication, is silent on the whole business...