VISITORS & RECIPES

There is a doe who lives in the woods near my house. She always has twins. Here they are feasting on my once beautiful lavender Phlox as mother watches for intruders.

Having their fill of Phlox, they exit my yard in search of more delicacies elsewhere. Notice the little Laburnum trees I planted a few weeks ago. I had to stake them up because it had been so wet they kept falling over. A site on the internet said these trees love a wet soil and it also said that deer won't bother them as every part of this tree is deadly poison. Well as you can see, someone didn't tell the deer about that because they have eaten nearly all the leaves.

Fare thee well till next time, you greedy critters. Now that you have eaten many of my lovely flowers and shrubs. And your Bucks have used my Rhododenderon's, Lilac's and other lovely plants to remove the velvet from their antlers, leaving my yard looking like a war zone!

I will be buying another ten pound bag of blood meal soon. This is the only thing I have ever found to discourage the deer from eating everything in sight. Please don't think they are starving. There are hundreds of acres of food for them as we live at the foot of Chuckanut Mountain. they have just learned that it's easy picking in our yards.

We also have a serious problem with over population of the deer. I've lived in the same area most of my life and we never used to see this many.

In years gone by when they were in the gardens, dad used to shoot them and he and mom would butcher them. Mom canned a lot of the meat and some was frozen. We aren't supposed to do that now. Why even the lovely Rose Gardens at the park near my home were dug up and turned into lawn because the deer wouldn't leave them alone. They absolutely love roses. That Rose Garden had been there before I was born. What a pity!

Ok, so now that that is said, here's a few recipes for you.

VENISON POT ROAST

Coat a nice sized venison roast with about half cup flour which has been salted and peppered. Brown on all sides in hot bacon fat or what have you. Then make three slits in the meat with a sharp knife and poke garlic cloves down in. Quarter the onion and lay on top of roast. Cover and put in the oven at about 350 degrees or so, and cook for about an hour. Then add some potatoes and carrots and what ever else you might like. Cover and cook till your belly is growling so loud you can't hear the roast sizzling anymore. Or until it's done. I suppose you could use a meat thermometer and cook according to the directions for beef. My mom taught me how to cook wild meat.

Venison chops are good too. Just coat with flour like the roast and brown both sides. Mom made gravy with the pan drippings to put on the potatoes. She always had a huge garden and canned everything in sight so we had a good variety of vegetables with our meals.

With the canned venison she put it into a pan and added a little water, got it hot and made a gravy. It had these big chunks of meat and was delicious over mashed potatoes.

Whern my husband hunted he used to have sausage made from the venison, elk or moose meat. It was like summer sausage.

Well now that I have taken care of the deer situation, I will bid you all a lovely Tuesday.

Please pray for our country and our country's leaders and as always, hold up our troops.

Blessings

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