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| Yule Love It creamed asparagus mushroom soup & Cold Frame Farm rosemary baguette |
Perhaps my praise for Minnesota Mike’s deer proof fence is hasty. But I’m compelled to shout the good news. There’s a pot of creamed asparagus mushroom soup on my stovetop, one delicious victory for mankind!
What on earth am I talking about? Just who is Minnesota Mike? And what does he have to do with deer?
Your questions are entirely justifiable. I could direct you to my friend Jack who would offer his first-hand version of Minnesota Mike’s invention. And I may do that. Depends upon how my Muse moves.
See, Jack is my mountain dulcimer teacher. I’ve spoken of him before, his directive out of the blue, “Iris Lee, you need a mountain dulcimer.” In retrospect, I could suspect he may have had an ulterior motive. But Jack isn’t like that. Turns out he was right about the dulcimer.
From the Thursday morning long ago when he walked into my memoir class, I’ve learned to listen when Jack looks me in the eye.
For instance, that day last summer after my dulcimer lesson overlooking vibrant colors of his wife’s beautiful gardens. I simply had to see what Maggie was growing up on the hill where she enjoys most every second of summer daylight.
“Let’s go!” Jack said.
We walked between two huge raised flowerbeds before we reached the summit of their property, a fitting elevation bearing fruit of Maggie’s love and labor. In one corner of the fenced garden stood a swing Jack built for her—enough to provoke envy.
Preoccupied with the features within Maggie’s landscapes, I almost overlooked the slanted green rods in the ground to my right and left. “What are these?”
Jack grinned. “That’s Minnesota Mike’s deer proofing perimeter.”
“A fence around a fence? I don’t see it.”
“The deer don’t either,” Jack replied.
He pulled on the fishing line tied to an eyehook drilled into a green rod. “The line runs through eyehooks on the rods surrounding the garden,” he explained. “It works like a spider’s web. When the deer feel the wire, they back off.”
“I doubt the line would deter the forty-some deer that feast on my gardens."
“Well, all I can say is it works for us,” Jack said.
As asparagus does, it shot up overnight barely a week ago. The first time in four years growing it, deer chomped off the tips. I called Jack and made an appointment for a deer proof fence lesson.
A chivalrous man, Jack donated six rods with drilled holes for eyehooks to hold the four lines to save my crop. My husband painted the poles green and twisted the eyehooks into place.
Last Wednesday, the most gorgeous garden day yet this spring, I hammered six slanted poles into the soft earth surrounding our asparagus patch. The sun sank as I pulled the fishing line through each eyehook, illuminating the lines like a spider’s web.
Dear Reader, Minnesota Mike is the mythical man who designed Jack’s deer proofing perimeter—a maker of blissful moments in the garden and at the table.
