Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 1144)

Hello Everyone!

Some predawn ruckus, So long small deer herd, A Scatter brained supply run & Domestic tranquility is invaluable!

Alright, it is slightly later in the evening than when I like to begin writing... but all in all... I am right on track with my usual routines. My brain is admittedly all over the place so bear with me as I spell things out here.

On the first day of the year (a mere few days ago) I had written about how I was super thankful for having good neighbors and all that jazz. Also, a while back (it must have been over a month ago) I also wrote about how someone had fired a single gunshot in the wee hours of the morning... which was quite outside the norm for around these parts.

Now granted this area is very rural and downright peaceful (as I have stated numerous times before) so please keep that in mind as I remark upon the events of the day. Hopefully, that 'peaceful' is not changing but something has changed... because this morning I was awoken by a bunch of gunshots occurring well before dawn. Which yeah once again came from the general direction as that single gunshot that I noted upon in the previous paragraph.

To be clear here, I seriously do not mind if folks want to shoot their guns 'until the cows come home' (as the saying goes) but shooting at night or long before the sun has crested the eastern horizon... tends to get my hackles up. It is not just that it is rude but it is also frigging dangerous... and depending on what folks are shooting at... it may well be illegal to boot.

Given that there is now a 'bevy' of new neighbors in the area... and all the deer have disappeared... a fella can only draw so many conclusions as to what the heck is going on. Sure it is hunting season still... and I do occasionally hear folks target practicing and shooting in the day... so it is worth noting that everything might be 'on the up and up'... but an entire herd of deer disappearing (that had been roaming folks yards for years unmolested) makes me wonder what the heck is happening.

I am by no means 'laying any blame' or anything but seriously everyone has had plenty of opportunities to hunt the few deer around here for years now... and chosen not to... because well... folks realize that there are only a few deer! Personally, I like helping maintain a 'wildlife sanctuary' environment in part because I know how over-hunted the critters can be... and the importance of them having a safe place. Especially so if their population is ever going to increase.

If you have never lived in what we affectionately call 'the country' for a long period of time (and I do not mean some suburbs in the sticks) I doubt that you will understand what 'maintaining a herd' of wild animals is all about. In short though, there are times that the herd needs culling from... and times when it needs bolstering... and it is not some free for all of 'kill everything because there is always more' like most folks tend to erroneously think.

There is an incredibly tricky balance to it all and especially so in places where 'urban sprawl' has had some kind of effect upon the available habitat of whatever animals are inhabiting an area. For the folks that do know what I am talking about... they know that all a person has to do is hike around enough, look at the animal tracks on the ground... and more or less 'read the signs' to determine how well the various kinds of wildlife are doing in an area.

In other words if all the signs say... there is only one buck deer for miles around... ya just leave it alone... so that it can help sire more deer... and hopefully at least another buck or two. Or if you have all too many bucks around then you pick the one (or more) that you want to cull, hunt it during the right time of year and call it a day. What you do not do under any circumstances is either kill the lone buck... or kill every deer that you happen to see!

This is the big problem that occurs again and again in rural areas (at least in the places that I have lived) because folks who have no clue what they are doing... show up... and wipe out all the deer thinking there is some infinite supply because it is the 'woods' or what they think is the woods. When in all reality it is some rural area (that even under the perfect conditions) has already put tremendous pressure on the wildlife populations... simply by what is called habitat loss.

Now by no means am I a 'conservationist' or anything like that... but yeah I pay attention to the wildlife, love having it around and know that if the population is strong then all the neighbors can get a deer (come hunting season) if they choose to do so. As I have said before I look at it as 'storing food on the hoof' instead of 'in the freezer' because once it is in the freezer... it cannot help increase the population.

Again I do not know exactly what the heck is going on (or who is doing what) but three things are true in the scenario and they are: A bunch of new folks have moved to the area, there are now gunshots happening at hours they never occurred at in the previous years... and all the deer have vanished. I guess there is a fourth thing that is true which is... I do not appreciate being woken up by a bunch of gunfire at five in the frigging morning... long before daybreak!

There is the chance of course that folks are coming here from other areas (because many properties are recreational properties) but heck that has always been the case and never been a problem before. Also no one in their right mind (at least of the folks that live in this general area) would come out to this particular area for poaching purposes... because the risk versus reward is all too disproportionate.

In short it is a tiny little 'neighborhood' and everyone keeps to themselves and leaves each other alone... which is the way things should be. It also is peppered with gated driveways, big dogs and all the signs (that even to the most dense person) screams 'leave folks alone and do not disturb the peace' which yeah is also how things should be.

Anyways, I apparently really needed to get that out of my system because the 'rudeness' of it all (and the general loss of domestic tranquility) has been bugging me all frigging day. It even side tracked me a good bit when I went on a small supply run... and was needing to focus on discussing setting up a Hive node (or nodes) out here with the fella giving me a ride. Talk about being scatter brained... whoa that I was, for sure.

At one point early on in the day I considered squeezing a nap in... but given that I was doing my morning 'Hive engagement' routine... then needing to shortly thereafter go on that supply run... I just did not want to oversleep. At least I had the presence of mind to get some extra fruit... and also get a few of those fruit smoothie drinks that I mentioned the other day... that yeah turned out to be way too expensive so I only got two of them.

The way the whole day worked out I barely had time to get all the critters fed before sunset and begin writing... so here I am... tired... haggard and although I am not feeling 'cranky' (or even upset) I just feel worn out... and as if I did not accomplish anything with my time today. I mean talking to that fella was good and all but I had planned on having a much more focused discussion... instead of the willy-nilly one that it turned out to be.

Some days are just like that I guess... but honestly I know that I have not had any days like that since my arrival here. Sure there was that single gunshot incident I remarked upon a while back... but I was already awake when that occurred. This time though, I had been waking and falling back asleep all night long... dreaming one super intense dream after another... and had just started to finally drift towards a deeper sleep... when all the ruckus started and jolted me wide awake.

Ha! Well, that topic keeps popping up no matter how much I try to stop writing about it so I guess that I cannot 'write it all off' that easily after all! The maybe not-so-funny thing is that if it is all bothering me that bad (who tends to be a rather laid back person in many ways) it must be driving my neighbors crazy. I mean really unless you have lived in a truly peaceful area... you may not appreciate its true value... but let me tell you its invaluable... and a heck of a lot harder to find than one would at first think.

Okay, on that note I am going to wrap this entry up because my mind is still all over the place... and I think it would be more beneficial for me to just zone out for the rest of the evening and get to bed early. We will see what tomorrow brings and although it is going to be super chilly outside... I will need to play catch up on the chores that I missed out on today... which yup I am going to need some stamina for!

I hope that folks are doing well, treating themselves kindly... and making good on whatever recent commitments that they have made in life either to themselves or each other. Ta ta for now and have a nice time.