I Take A Cue From the Soviets

We farm in a heterogeneous landscape context. That much must be obvious. Thus our diversity of wildlife is enchanting.
Last night, the deer ate the hollyhocks. This follows the squash, beans, okra and watermelon. We’ve been trying to build fences as fast as they graze, but lately they’ve been ahead by a nose.
I started on the ridge to the South. That was in January. I was certain I’d be finished with the whole thing by the time I started planting. I was barely out of the woods. As the summer progressed, the fence did too, around the West end of the fields and around along base of Cemetery Hill. We’re about to close the circle, but it still may be a while. My goal is to have it closed by the one year anniversary. And the deer will weep.
They will be excluded by a linear sculpture of junk that circumnavigates the farm. It starts, as so many things often do, with old well pipe. Stuck in the ground every here and there and supported by salvaged fence posts. I was able to, and this was the real money saver, find several spools of wire at a local salvage yard. Not exactly fencing wire, but it serves the purpose. A few locust posts here and there. Some gas pipes from an old greenhouse. Some chicken wire…. And we will be safely enclosed. I can’t add up the amount the deer have eaten over the years. I can’t add up the amount of time I have spent with temporary measures. Or the amount of time I’ve spent building this fence. This should be the end of it. Maybe I’ll have time to farm.