Road trip, 9

Have you ever seen a herd of 66 elk?

In your back yard?

I did a herd of elk, at my sisters house, in Washington, where we stayed after driving across the United States from New York.

My sister has a garden, which the elk are pros are getting into. The nine foot fence is a joke to the elk. So, I installed a solar-panel energized rope, wrapped twice around the fence.

I had to wait a few nights to see the results. At nightfall, the herd moseyed around the house and, sure enough, just the feel of moving electricity made the elk shy back away from the fence. A few elk were so interested in the garden on the other side of the fence, that their noses actually touched the rope, bringing about a startled response.

I thought, good.

To my chagrin, the next morning, I noticed that while I watched elk on the south side of the house, the herd had eaten the rose bush in the west side of the house. Well, I’m not going to wrap a rope around the house. And neither is my sister.

When she arrived, and I was back in New York, she snickered and said, the deer realized that the electric fence I put up around the garden, wasn’t very terrifying, so they broke a panel and ate the tops of the orchard trees. She is used to sharing her garden with the wildlife.

From Psalms, in The Message:

“What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations. Oh, look—the deep, wide sea, brimming with fish past counting, sardines and sharks and salmon. Ships plow those waters, and Leviathan, your pet dragon, romps in them. All the creatures look expectantly to you to give them their meals on time.”