Homemade, Natural Deer Repellent

   One of our big dreams of country life is to have an orchard with a bountiful harvest.
   So far, we have failed at this endeavor.
   This was the year that we were going to get our orchard going.  Again.  We replaced all the dead trees and were diligently checking on them.  It was during one of these routine checks that GD and I discovered that all the leaves below a certain point on the trees had been stripped and a couple of the smaller trees were just barely hanging on to life.

  We were frustrated.  I think GD was ready to leave for Rural King right then and there for replacement trees.  Or maybe he just likes going to Rural King.
   A few days later we were out in the backyard and the boys noticed our neighbor, Dave, was out on the mower and they had to go watch.  Neighbor Dave fits any and every description of a redneck you've ever heard.  He can usually be found with a rifle picking off all the neighborhood vermin, and will gladly tell you of his most recent kills.  I've never seen a skunk around our house, but evidently there are some mutant skunks in our area because Neighbor Dave has shot some that are the size of small bears.  But Neighbor Dave is a friendly guy, and even GD trusts him enough to talk to him, which really says a lot. GD won't talk to just anybody.
   So Neighbor Dave stopped his mower to chat.  It started with him recounting his skunk, groundhog, and coon tally, and he asked permission to "take care" of a coon he had seen back by our woods late one night.  He asked GD about his livestock and they talked about broody chickens.  And then we mentioned that we suspected we had deer eating the leaves off our fruit trees.  Neighbor Dave had a solution.
   "Well," he kind of chuckled, "You know how to take care of that don't you?  They say that if you take a T-shirt, a really old T-shirt, and put it up on a stake and..." he paused still chuckling like a third grader, "Pee on it, that will keep the deer away."
   He looked at GD as if he expected him to start giggling along with him, but GD just had a blank look on his face.  I guess I've done a pretty good job of sheltering him from what might be considered crude terminology and bathroom humor because GD doesn't know what "pee" is.  So, once I explained it to him, a little light bulb went on above his head.
   "Well," he said, "We have a lot of stinky diapers!"
   "That might work!" Neighbor Dave told him enthusiastically.
    With that, GD was convinced that we needed to try our stinky diaper deer repellent.
    And that is why we took a few minutes this past Sunday afternoon to dig through the trash to retrieve "the REALLY stinky" diapers and place them strategically around the orchard.  Because, my husband said, it just might work.  And if not, at least we got to spend some quality family time trash-digging together.
   So far, we don't think the deer have been back.  We'll keep you posted.