Deer are Beautiful Jerks

I love deer.  They are beautiful and gentle and majestic.  They keep to themselves for the most part.  We always enjoy seeing a group of them grazing in the neighbors’ fields.

But only in the neighbors’ fields.

Dave came home late last night after working at the restaurant down in Brooklyn.  He pulled in a little before 2:00 a.m. and, in so doing, scared away a deer that was grazing in our yard.  In the garden part of our yard, to be specific.

This morning, I came out to find that our previously thriving and plentiful crop of swiss chard had been munched down almost to the soil.  You can see the red stems pretty clearly because there are no leaves left to hide them from view.

Luckily, Dave came home before it had time to work its way through the kale and lettuces.

So now, sadly, we are forced to take our portable electric fence and put it around the front garden in an effort to save everything else that’s in there.  I say “sadly,” because there is something really beautiful about a garden that isn’t surrounded by bright white electrified fencing.  There is, however, something even more beautiful about a garden that isn’t decimated by deer munching.

And so we will put up the fence.  In so doing we expect to put to rest the old adage that “good fences make good neighbors” because, if all goes well, our good fence will send those deer right back down the road.