The deer have no idea....

where they're going. Seriously.

Have you ever followed deer tracks? In the snow? Today i packed on my snow shoes to take advantage of our latest foot of white goodness and head out to check out the acres that will soon be ours. i pick up some deer tracks just below the house and start on.

Ok, so they usually pick the path of least resistance, which isn't *so * hard in winter when all the non-woody vegetation that usually chokes up the woods has died back. But other than that... um, where are they going? I found none sleeping under what i thought looked like quite cozy little shelters under the arms of snow-weighted pines. I flushed not-a -one from any of the few remaining bushes offering winter berries. Didn't even catch any spacing out on the snowflakes that fell methodically from skinny naked twigs that just couldn't hold it any longer.

I found a few tracks that seemed to pause by one of the *many* (and by many, i mean, hundred or so?) seeps and mini-creeks that run all over the bottom acres. Good drinking there, i suppose. And as i followed their meanders back up toward the top of the ridge I did detect a certain direction. A certain, orchard-ly direction, - if you know what i mean.

Sure enough, the path of least resistance seems to take some deer right to (soon to be) our orchard where it suddenly becomes quite clear that yes, they know exactly where they are going, and it's to the top row of apple trees. With all the tramped down snow circling the trunk out to just beyond the canopy, you can practically imagine those fur-covered, hunger-rumbly bellies lifting up on hind-hooves to stretch just... that...much... further and snag a withered, but still edible and damn tasty in January (!!!) apple for dinner. They methodically spent some serious time pawing at the ground for fallen fruit as well as picked clean every one they could reach. There are a good dozen or so apples encircling the top like a crown. If i go knock them down, would they come back? Something tells me our visitors are repeaters...

And so I passed a pleasant (and physically challenging, if you are a soft mommy like me) hour tramping about the land below us, making note of the big trees, the grown in spots, the especially wet spots, where the sound of Rt. 131 started to get louder so that it felt unpleasant to continue going downhill... But mostly it was a pleasant hour of just me... and winter. A rare combination, (me alone, and a snowy winter like this!) but one i will gladly take as much as i can get.

Tomorrow: snow tunnels!!