When we first purchased the sanctuary, our realtor told us that the area used to have deer but not anymore. Shortly after, Paul and I saw a deer and her fawn heading to the Shire for a likely a drink in the Shire's year-round creek.
This fall, the deer returned to the plateau. If you haven't already picked up on it, I like to document things and experiences. This is why you see, so often, things like the plateau, my greenhouse, and growing seedlings in my videos. I'm fascinated by it all. The plateau, which I drive two times a day, five days a week, changes so much with each season. I never anticipated we would see a herd of deer, but we did. I've seen them twice. Now, when I drive the plateau, I record the drive, hoping to catch the deer.
Our anxiety around here is at an all time high as we face winter realties. We have lived off-grid through a hot summer, windy fall, and now, what looks to be a wet winter. Our concerns are two: our road and Freya.
We've had to repair our road, several times, after rain. There is a large (and very old!) concrete city water pipe that runs down the entirety of our road. Any kind of rain washes away the dirt over the pipe and leaves a large trench. It wipes out a good portion of the road, making it tight to drive by. The trench can be up to two feet deep, so if you accidentally drive over it, you can get stuck and require a tow truck. That towing fee is exactly $300. We know it well.
We cannot laydown road base because of the pending construction. During construction, a large trench will be dug up the road for electricity. It does help knowing the situation is only temporary and will be resolved during the construction process, but in the interim, I worry about my driving skills and the winter rain-induced trench that will get larger with each downpour.
We adopted Freya when she was just weeks old. She was adopted at such a young age because her mother could not feed all of her pups; she was living in abusive conditions and was emaciated. Freya's early experiences, and trauma, combined with her Great Pyrenees (and likely Anatolian) DNA make a strange dichotomy. On one hand, she is timid and fearful. We have to reassure her often. However, when she is protecting, she is fearless and goes into a momma-bear mode, capable of scaring away any predator, including the mountain lion we've recently spotted on our land cameras.
Freya is afraid to be near, or under, anything that moves or rattles in the slightest of ways. She also lacks body confidence so things like jumping into a car, or walking up a couple of stairs, or even a ramp, terrifies her and she will not cooperate (which means, she will not come into our home). Our days of being able to lift her up into things are over - she's simply too large (which means, we can lift her up to bring her inside our home). We've tried to de-sensitize her. Having trained horses, I attempted to do all of things I would do with a horse, but no luck. If you don't know, the Great Pyrenees breed can be one of the most difficult breeds to train. So, we've radically accepted Freya, and all that she is.
During a storm, Freya will not take shelter. When there is wind and rain, just about everything moves and makes noise. We've tried multiple shelters, our latest being straw igloos with a plywood roof, thinking plywood would be the least likely to move or make loud noises as the rain hits.
It's quite the sight to see Paul, outside in a storm, trying to negotiate with Freya. She is always more stubborn than him. Even after he crawls into the straw igloo to show her how, and he's armed with a treat in his hand for extra incentive, she won't have anything to do with it.
The winter rains have started and we've no solutions for our road or Freya. I lose sleep over both, but mostly worry about our Freya-girl.
If you have any ideas, we'd love to hear them.
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