We just got back from a quick trip down to South Carolina to visit Daddy and explore all of his gadgets!

Here he is showing off his solar-powered deer repellent light.  (He built the stand himself.)  Despite my gift-resistance, I thanked him profusely when he offered to give me a set for Christmas to try in my own garden.  According to Daddy, as long as you move the lights every few days, the blinking lights scare away deer, who think the lights are predator eyes.  I'm willing to try anything to keep our deer away!

Then there's the automatic chicken feeder he built for his Golden Comets and Rhode Island Reds.  This one I'm less likely to emulate (though I'm including it since I thought others might be interested.)  The automatic feeder is obviously best in a stationary coop and I figure it would be too heavy for our tractors.  Daddy told me that his pullets got in the habit of picking all of the corn out of their mash and leaving the rest of it behind!  Darn teenagers and their junkfood.

Finally, I'll leave you with an eight second video of Daddy and his dog --- low budget entertainment at its best.  More soon on a couple of other highlights of the trip.

We finally solved the deer in the garden problem, and the solution was so elegant we gave it a new website.  Check out our deer deterrent website for free plans!

Want more in-depth information? Browse through our books.

Or explore more posts by date or by subject.

About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.