Still dealing with the deer fence...

 

This is actually an easier fix than all the fencing I've been doing over the last 2 months, where I'm just adding more wire above existing, and when they jump in, are apparently clearing existing 6 foot wire with no trouble...

Not being able to tell where they come in is a difficult fix... so much wire to add more to...

No problem...

 Hog wire added above existing welded wire... Let's see them try to get through that!

Dwarf Pawpaw & Gopher Tortoise

 

Mature dwarf paw paw 'tree'... Height waist high to chest high.

Loaded with fruit this year... But tiny!

 They're starting to drop... I pick them up and eat... plant seeds in pots. I tried planting seeds in flower garden a number of years ago when I got a few fruit... Unfortunately none came up...

I may need to try scarification.

Fruit on regular tree is still hard...

So bizarre watching gopher tortoise eating cnidoscolus... Aka "7 minute itch". I wouldn't want to try it...

Just brushing against cnidoscolus stimulosus feels like getting attacked by fire ants... and if unlucky enough to scratch irritated skin, may continue to scratch for the rest of the day!

Imagine getting a mouthful of that! But I see the tortoises browsing the plant every summer!

Actually, I may have some idea of how a mouthful of  cnidoscolus might feel...

I had a mouthful of fire ants yesterday... Pretty funny, grabbed a handful of potato chips from the bottom of bag, popped in mouth without examining... Had to pick fire ants off my tongue using mirror!

Hot and dry

 The rains stopped... the weather turned hot... 

Not a surprise, the rains this spring were the unusual weather...

With the end of the rain, and the near constant heat, came the fun of portaging water from the rain barrels and attempting to keep a few plants going...

And... the deer fence started getting tested as the desperate critters wanted something to eat that wasn't crunchy...

Pear tree...

Pepper plant...

Maxixe vine

A few of the plants being consumed by mother deer...

Incidentally.... I saw the spotted fawn she stashed in the woodland, inside the deer fence...

Feels kind of bad needing to fence them out... But, I have the fence to protect a little bit of my efforts...

Mulberry stump

Mulberry posts...

The birds planted a lot of mulberry trees everywhere I put in gardens... So plenty of post materials...

Cut down a mulberry tree, and it grows right back, so I get multiple posts from the same tree.

There were a number of areas where the weight of the vines (muscadine, Carolina jessamine, smilax) made the fence vulnerable... 

so... cut the vines off the fence... add new taller posts, additional fencing above the original... Tie the two fences together with some twine...and cross fingers.

Here's some pics from before everything turned crunchy...

Broken colour 4 o'clock

Yellow echinacea (paradoxa)

American lady and echinacea purpurea

Daisies and Kniphofia

Rudbeckia hirta

I didn't have the heart to take pictures of the brown strawberry plants or the dying carrot bed...  

More spring colour

 Kitchen lizard... Anole on cooking pot... So cute!

Monarch on a kale leaf... That's not where the milkweeds are!

(Like these matelea... milk weed vine)

American lady sunning on bucket... Again, that's not where the host plants are!

Knockout roses, grown from cuttings...

Clematis florida... Also grown from a cutting...

Passiflora

Blue Bunting... Bird kept moving every time I tried to get pic.

Amaryllis and iris

Mulberries! Absolutely loaded this year...

Spring

Unusual year so far... Rain in due season, gorgeous spring temps! I can't remember a spring this nice in the entire time I've been here in Georgia...

Cherokee rose in March. Late freeze last year meant no flowers... This plant is some aggressive...
 

Florida Anise also March bloom... Started cuttings in pots a couple years ago, went through an unusual winter cold spell in pots without probs, set out last spring.

Robinia (black locust) in flower also in March... Planted root suckers from town...

Eventually will be useful as fence posts... in the meanwhile, new root suckers are replanted outside of garden... hopefully to improve the sand.

Another March bloom.... Grancy Greybeard(Chionanthus virginicus) finally blooming... After several years of nothing.

Spiderwort (now)

Poppies (last week)

Box turtle in town, (couple weeks ago) seemed to be laying eggs!

Paw paws

 Back when I first came to Gardens in the Sand... I purchased some paw paw seed... 

The seed came up readily when I planted them in nursery pots.... Eventually I spread them around... Everybody that wanted paw paw trees got one.

Unfortunately... it takes more than a single seedling to bear fruit. Since then, the root suckers of the different plantings have been getting moved around.

So... I finally have fruit this year!

Low hanging fruit

Fruit in bowl

Sliced paw paw fruit

So finally seeing fruit from seed planted in '07, isn't really the headline here... More interesting, is the fact that I'm able to grow Asimina triloba in the sandhills without supplemental watering.


Our existing locally native dwarf paw paw (Asimina parviflora) gets by on the rain that God provides...

But I seldom see fruit. One year I beat the possums and raccoons to the fruit on my locally native bush... and planted the seed... Sadly none grew.

I originally ordered seed over the internet because I wanted to see more zebra swallowtail butterflies...

Zebra swallowtail butterflies

They're awfully pretty... But I can't really say that I'm actually seeing more of them than before... Can't hardly hurt though.

Processing a (road kill) Deer

 Apparently people are having difficulty finding someone to process their kill.

https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/pennsylvania-hunters-struggling-find-deer-processors/

That seems wrong.

In PA... Those animals should stay cold in the winter... Although... Doesn't look like freezing cold up there right now...

Maybe a pictorial post on how to process would be of some help?

 

I found this doe along the road side last week... Poor thing had a busted pelvis...

 

I salvage as much as I can... The cats help:

 

Observe the buckets and cooler... They contain rainwater.... The animal gets parted out into these... and what water remains is used to clean off the tailgate.

 

Here the animal lies on top of hide before I start removing parts...
 

2 legs removed...

 

2 Legs in cooler with rainwater.

Removed the other 2 legs...

Cut through ribs with a cross-cut saw... No special tools are required...

And the two pieces of the spine (where the tenderloin lives) plus the neck.

I prefer to freeze the largest pieces I can... Further processing can be done as necessary, later.

And hang the hide to dry.

 

4 legs...

And rib cages in one bag, neck and 2 pieces of spine in their own bags.

I used to put the entire carcass in the freezer unwrapped... I like eating deer meat, it won't get freezer burned even when left completely unwrapped... Unfortunately, it will freeze together...

 If you want to pry the frozen pieces apart with a pry bar.... wrapping is unnecessary... Personally, I got tired of doing that.... the pieces will freeze to the freezer shelf as well.

Now... A lot of hunters remove the tenderloin first... and sadly... they may even discard the entire deer afterwards...

I think that cutting the spine crosswise (tenderloin intact) for chops is a superiour cut of meat... And those people discarding the deer? Should be arrested. Lot of hungry people out there...

I hope this helps.