Bad Day

What a day! One of the hens is gone, the door knob on the back door broke, and when I went out to the field to pick what I figured would be about a bushel of various heirloom tomatoes for market on Saturday, I found the tomato section in ruins from what looked like the tracks of every wild varmint in the County, and every last tomato on every single chewed down plant was completely gone. I'm telling you I wanted to sit down on the ground and weep. Looks like the only tomatoes I will get will be from those plants I have in the high tunnel. The squash section was decimated as well, but fortunately I was able to harvest most of the Sugar Loaf Delicata. I was almost afraid to check on the pumpkins, but so far the deer have left them alone preferring to dine on my other veggies -- like my heirloom and Provider beans which are chewed down to the ground. Luckily, my pumpkins are coming in early because I started them are transplants and quite a few of them are mature, so I harvested quite a few of them. Hopefully over the next few days the rest will mature enough to pick and I will be able to get them into the garage to cure. The varmints are leaving the mustard greens and turnips alone, and so far the St. Valery carrots, Forellenschuss lettuce, Bull's Blood beets, cilantro and dill that I have under row cover are all right. My perennial section is devastated. I didn't know deer ate elderberry bushes, but all the elderberries, currants, and gooseberries are chewed down to nubs. The rhubarb for the most part is gone down to the crowns. The only thing that looks like it's thriving is the horseradish. I was so depressed by what I saw that I was afraid to look at the fruit trees. It looks like the animals were the only ones to benefit from the .8" of rain we got over the last two days. I am going to be making serious changes in this field!