The last fews days have been pretty rough on the farm, as the temperatures are rarely above freezing. The main issue has been getting water to all the critters, since it tends to be a solid and they prefer it as a liquid.
Toward the end of the afternoon Andrea comes in and tells me that a large deer is swimming around the lake. She fell in somehow and was having trouble getting out, since there is a lot of ice around the edges.
I was working and didn’t think much about it (nature, tooth and claw and all that) but the next thing I know she’s hopped in a kayak and is out on the water trying to get the deer to shore.
She had to break the ice with her paddle, and then nudge the still swimming deer forward, rinse and repeat. You can see how much ice she had to break to get to where she was.
I caught the end of the drama from the deck, hence the poor quality picture. When I took the picture the doe had just done a final leap onto the shore and was resting. About a minute later she got up and wandered off into the south forest.
Since it got down to 11F last night I am not certain the deer survived the night, but she most certainly wouldn’t have made it out of the lake without help.
I’m not a total cad, I did go and help an exhausted spouse out of the kayak, and I did a bunch of the chores that evening. It’s a small price to pay when you live with an angel.