• Animal Tracks •

The cows are in winter pasture and are beginning to settle in. Of course if the hay ring is empty for more than just a few hours Venus has found the one spot she can escape the fence. Fortunately, the other cows stand at the wire and yell at her with obviously vexed moos. I'm not sure if they are hoping that she will return or if they simply want her to show them how to get out. You have to laugh though; a few days ago, around mid-day, I came walking around the market side of the office and saw Venus half way to the lane in a lower field and definitely NOT where she should have been. I stood up by the market and yelled at her for misbehaving. She turned around and with my chastising her all the way headed back to the proper pasture, slipped under the wire and went back in where she is supposed to be. OF course, it wouldn't have been nearly so humorous if she had been in a field with vegetables but you can't say she didn't know exactly what she was doing.

My neighbors now have a few animals of their own having gotten a short-horn X holstein cross calf, two horses, four goats, a dozen or so chickens in the last two months. This in addition to their three dogs and exotic South American bird makes for quite a menagerie. We'll see how this all works out in the long run and I am especially glad now that I supplied the material for my neighbor to build his fence. Truly, in this case, the old adage of 'strong fences make good neighbors' will apply as they are surrounded by my vegetable ground.

In the wild animal arena, we haven't seen any unusual activity although all the usual actors are here and moving. Shotgun deer season has begun and people are filling their freezers with this great meat. In NJ the ability to legally shoot and kill bears has been abrogated once again. Being a farmer who has lost livestock to bear predation I find this a troubling situation. People who's lives are not directly impacted by the day to day realities of living in a way where bears can cause damage and death really are not willing or able to extend themselves to understand how the most efficient control method is hunting. The state owns and regulates the bears, just like the deer and we know this because the same regulatory agents have control over how these animals are managed legally. Unfortunately, the damage that is caused by these animals is not compensated for by the state or the people of the state. At least with deer we have legal remedies available to try and control their impact. With the bears, our hands are tied.

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