Agriculture

The farm looks like a storm hit recently, but it’s really just my husband’s new deer deterrent technique. It seems to be working. In the past we have forgone the Irish Spring soap, human hair and coyote urine for more reliable barriers. Tomato cages, tobacco stakes, wire, spiral plastic trunk wrap, and, yes, an occasional arrangement of lawn chairs, have created distance between rutting and browsing deer.

If there was anything that I came to understand more profoundly this year, it would have to be the power of instinct: mine, our animals’ and the forces of ideologies of which I agree and disagree.

I reread my year-end column from 2011 – which reminded me of where I had been 12 months ago – and it helps me better appreciate where I am today. It seems we didn’t do too badly, after all, and it’s all because both Andy and I recognize the power of instinct.

Last Sunday I felt like I was under siege. There were starlings everywhere; so much so that I feared being splattered with poop at every turn.

The surprising thing about starlings is that they are everywhere yet not from here. It’s another story of one good intention going bad. Apparently back in 1890, in honor of a Shakespeare Festival in New York City’s Central Park, 60 European starlings were released. The following year another 40 were released, and today the bird is one of the most numerous species in North America.

Picking out the perfect Christmas tree was something that I used to take very serious: All the cleaning and moving of furniture and packing of boxes and light-stringing and unstringing required a tree worth the effort. I have scaled back in recent years but still see the fun in finding a tree that fits your space and holds precious ornaments with style.

So which type of tree reflects your holiday? Do you get a fresh-cut, artificial, balled-and-burlapped? Or do you just go out-of-town and let someone else do the decorating?