Today we spotted almost unspotted fawns

This morning, returning from picking up this week's Community Supported Agriculture [CSA] share, we noticed a whitetail doe and two fawns picking their way through a soy bean field. The fawns are the first I've seen this year and neither fawn, that I could see, still had its spots. Were they born early? Most of the fawns I've seen about this time of year still displayed noticeable spots like the ones in the picture below. Since fawns are said to lose their spots as early as three months after birth, the ones we say would have been born in late April or very early May.

whitetail doe with spotted fawns

Photo by J. Harrington

So, this month we have seen both turkey poults and whitetail fawns, but neither so far in the immediate neighborhood. On the other hand, for reasons that I can't begin to guess at, this Summer we've seen more bucks in velvet than ever before. We've also seen more foxes, raccoons and, possibly, sandhill cranes than in past years. (Many years we've seen larger flocks of cranes. This year we've seen singles, pairs and families in many more locations than in past years.) From that perspective it's been a good Summer so far.

With luck, today might be our last 90℉ high temperature of the year. I must admit I'm looking forward to getting back to flannel and chamois shirt weather and ripe, local apples to eat. So far I've been surviving eating our half of the CSA veggies, thanks to the creative cooking of the Better Half. I'm more a "meat and potatoes" type and tolerate, but rarely enjoy, vegetables. I'm also the one who keeps pushing to support local food systems which means not only buying but eating produce. To compensate, I've also started to source some of our meat directly from a producer. We've enjoyed the pork we bought in bulk and are now looking for a supplier for beef and, maybe, lamb. It's the core of my personal effort to eliminate a market for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations [CAFOs].

farm field wild with Monarda fistulosa

Photo by J. Harrington

That's about it for today, except to mention that I've very jealous of the dense fields of Monarda growing around the pick-up barn for our CSA. I hope I can figure out how to create something comparable in the fields behind our house.

The Place I Want to Get Back To

The place I want to get back to
is where
in the pinewoods
in the moments between
the darkness
and first light
two deer
came walking down the hill
and when they saw me
they said to each other, okay,
this one is okay,
let’s see who she is
and why she is sitting
on the ground like that,
so quiet, as if
asleep, or in a dream,
but, anyway, harmless;
and so they came
on their slender legs
and gazed upon me
not unlike the way
I go out to the dunes and look
and look and look
into the faces of the flowers;
and then one of them leaned forward
and nuzzled my hand, and what can my life
bring to me that could exceed
that brief moment?
For twenty years
I have gone every day to the same woods,
not waiting, exactly, just lingering.
Such gifts, bestowed,
can’t be repeated.
If you want to talk about this
come to visit. I live in the house
near the corner, which I have named
Gratitude.

Mary Oliver

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