Mark has already done his homework on it, but I'll pass this along to him. That may have been a site he has been to already.

It is going to be so pretty up at your new place.

Thanks Rita. It's already pretty, so even if I never planted anything, it would be perfect!

"Like"

Natalie, it does look so stunning and a garden near the house will just make it more so.

The seller said that she planted 400 tulips around the house in the flower beds, so I hope I get to see them this year. I was laughing to myself late last night that I didn't see anyone with flowers up there. Well duh! It was January! Nothing would be blooming! I really didn't see many flower beds though, so maybe it's because of the deer. Very few houses had fences other than barbed wire around their property, except for the veggie gardens. Almost every house had a veggie garden, and all of them had a very tall fence around it.

Well, there you go. If the veggie gardens have tall fences it proves that the deer will come eat your tomatoes. And beans, cucumbers, eggplant and everything else.

The bulbs sound like they will be really nice in the spring. Have you talked to the sellers about the deer? If anyone would know how much of a problem deer might be in your new garden, they certainly would. And now that the house has closed, they have no reason not to tell you the absolute truth.

I saw the deer for myself. They were everywhere, with a large herd on the property when we were there both times. The sellers were really honest about things. Everything that they told us that was wrong with the house were the exact same things that the inspector found, and nothing more. So, I trust them. He said that the deer were always there. Really, it's just a wide open area where we're moving, and you can't drive a mile without seeing deer.

It sure does sound like paradise. Except for needing a fence for the garden but you can have so much wildlife to watch. Besides Deer are there Moose up there? Sorry, but I just don't know these things. How about Elk? Or maybe Elk are only way up north in Canada.

We have elk in Michigan so they could be in Idaho.

No moose that I know of, but there are lots of elk. We didn't see any though. There are also mountain lions and bears in the area, but with so few trees on our property, I don't expect to see too many bears. Besides seeing a lot of deer, we also saw turkeys, pheasants, quail & chukars everywhere. Supposedly there are Hungarian partridge & grouse too, but we didn't see any. I think we'll end up getting one of those trail cameras that take a picture when there is movement. It would be fun to see what's roaming around while we are sleeping! It will also be a good way to find out if I need to carry a shotgun with me if I have to go outside in the middle of the night. The last thing I want to do is bump into a bear in the dark! A bear is welcome to eat all the tomatoes it wants, as long as it doesn't eat us or the dogs in return!

Natalie, are there grizzlies in your new area? Or are they just black bears?

I really would be scared of bears, I don't like the idea of them being around. All the game birds being around sounds good though. Maybe you will get to see Moose and Elk after you move there.

ElizabeteRutens said:Natalie, are there grizzlies in your new area? Or are they just black bears?

I believe that it's in the Grizzly home area, but I didn't hear of any being there. Mostly just brown bears, from what I could tell. I'm not as worried about them as I was previously, because we moved to an area that has less trees. We forgot to ask the seller of the house about the bears and elk, but we know that we'll be in "their" area. One thing he did mention was that there were rattlesnakes, so Bailey has had her 1st of 2 shots for that.

Really? There are shots for dogs against snake bites? I didn't know that. I would be truely afraid if I was in a posonious snake area as I mulch the garden heavily. I can just imagine those snakes hidden in the mulch.

I'm not really afraid of the snakes as much as I am of the bears! Rattlesnakes pretty much mind their own business. The owner said he hadn't seen any in about 3 years, but he that is because there are Blow snakes there that eat them. I hadn't heard of them eating them, but I guess it's possible. Blow snakes are good snakes though, so they will be welcome to stay. They eat mice!

The shot doesn't actually prevent the dog from dying, but it helps. It kind of just gives you more time to get them to the vet to get them treated too. Also, if a dog has had the shots and gets bitten, the cost for treatment is usually about $200, compared to $1,000, easily, without the shots. At $15 each for two shots, it was well worth it, and they just get a booster shot every year after that. We'll get them for Maggie after we get up there. The day we took Bailey in, Maggie could barely walk from her bad hips. We decided she can wait, since she isn't one to mess with things anyway, especially if we tell her "leave it".

There is an old Vermont saying...'if you live in the mountains, you have earned it'.

Okay. I live 2000 ft up in the mountains of Vermont (Appalachians). You name the wild life, and we have it here with the exception of snakes. Few snakes here. Deer do not eat tomato plants. I have a veggie garden with 15 tomato plants, not fenced in. They have never touched it. Deer love Hosta plants. It's like 'butter' to them. And they wait till the Hosta has fine young foliage on it...tender morsels for the deer. They wait until its dark, and then sneak into my garden. I have tried everything to no avail. As for bears, the black bear is all around me. Bear habitats are protected in Vermont. Personally, I don't want to run into one. I am told you smell them before you see them. I have seen their footprints on my dirt road after a rainstorm. Usually they are very timid, and stay away from people. If they have a cub with them, watch out. They run faster than we do. Stand your ground. In 40 yrs here in VT, I have never seen a bear, and quite honestly don't want to.

Last year we had a female Moose on our road. These are HUGE beasts, and they bey constantly. Terrible eye site, but will charge you without provocation. Best to stay out of there way.

My biggest contender for my daylily buds are chipmunks. They may look cute, but they will chow down on daylily buds. Many people shoot them with pellet guns here to keep them out of there gardens. They are really pests. Voles are another problem. They tunnel under and through your gardens. They have there own subway system underground. The 'A' train. A pain to get rid of. They especially like tuberous plants. Not daylilies.

Then there are the usual suspects, raccoons, hedge hogs, and ground hogs. Rabbits may exist but not around my part of the Universe.

Pretty much we all co-exist together. My birds are beautiful and come when I call them after I fill the bird feeder. Last summer I saw my first pair of blue birds at the feeder. There color is spectacular. They are very, very shy.

Natalie, technically 'brown bear' is a synonym for a grizzly bear. Even though they come in all shades of black and brown (including cinnamon and 'dirty blonde' hues : ) ), the non-grizzlies are called black bears. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...)

I've had absolutely no experience with grizzlies (and I count my blessings because they're unpredictable), but I worked as a ranger in Yosemite after college full-time for three years (which is grizzly-free) and have lots of black bear stories. : ) Overall, just as Alex mentioned, as long as you don't get between a mother and her cubs they're not dangerous to people. Not keeping food in a car or in a refrigerator on an unenclosed back porch should be enough to prevent property damage.

I hope you don't have any encounters, but they are rather interesting to watch! : )

All the best - Elizabete

So much for thinking "black" bear, and writing "brown" bear! I had brown on my mind yesterday, thanks to the tile and counters that we're putting in the kitchen! I can't get brown out of my head, but it's my favorite color!

Most people that live in the area that we are moving to are hunters. When we were looking at houses on the internet, many of them had bear skin rugs on the walls, which made us laugh. One house came to be known as the bear house, because there were bear rugs everywhere! We decided not to look at it in person, thinking the guy probably just sat on his patio and was defending his house when he shot them!

I really would be shocked if we ever see a bear at our house. More likely, they'll be on the other side of the river, which is heavily wooded. Our house is on an Indian reservation, and the other side of the river is their timber land, which hasn't been logged. From what we've been told, they don't intend on logging it, and no one lives there, so it's a good area for bears to live.

I keep forgetting that our Realtor told us that there are raspberry and blueberry bushes on the property, but I don't remember seeing them. I wasn't looking though. If the deer don't eat them, it may be a good place to plant my daylilies!

The Bear will likely love those berry bushes. Ya may not wanna put your daylilies too close since the berries will likely be berry-ing around the same time as your daylilies are daylily-ing.