These fellows seem to be having a good time in the park. Looks like David Antikainen, caught them after they had just finished making snow angels! Folks wanting to sit and watch the deer, can always find some around the roadside park in Eagle River, MI. You could almost call them Charlie and Edie's neighbors... wonder if they hang out with Edie when she's shoveling the path?!

Mary,

How did you know Edie's the one who does our shovelling?? By the way, the statewide deer-feeding ban was lifted last week for many U.P. counties, as we saw reported in the Gazette.

Great Picture! We have had as many as 12 deer at our feeder at one time. We are in a "no hunting" area. In the Spring, the doe bring in their fawn to show to us.

Just viewed all of David's pictures. How wonderful ! He has a great way of capturing all the beauty of the Keweenaw winter. Perhaps the most beautiful season of all. Thank you, David !

Those are weather deer giving us a report. Light snow, no wind! I have a weather dog who gives me a fine report upon coming in from the outdoors! He is always accurate!

To Marlin W.

I am not breaking any law by feeding the deer. It under the category of recreational feeding.

Good shot David. They look very healthy. Glad the feeding ban was lifted.See you later brother.

Charlie,

I'll never tell how I know things such as that...could be I'm psychic...could be a little bird told me...or maybe I'm just a good investigative reporter!! C'mon Charlie, be a sport and get her a snowblower!! I love mine!

What a nice picture of the deer. While I truly appreciate winter's devasting hardship on deer and likewise the necessity of feeding them to save the herd, I have conflicted feelings because last summer, right in downtown Lake Linden city limits, a deer ran across the road directly in front of my car causing front end damage around $3,500. It's a bit like my feeding the birds and squirrels here in Royal Oak. And when I do, the chipmunks also enjoy the feed and fill up my outdoor gas grill with sunflower seeds and store sunflower seeds in the air filter of my car which is parked in the garage at all times. How they find their way into my grill and car's air filter is beyond me. May the Lord bless us all so that those of us who feed the critters out of compassion can also accept any accompanying consequences as well.

DAVE A.--I am still using the minolta 35 camera I bought from your brother BOB when he came home after his first hitch in the navy that he had bought in japan when he worked in the copper mine an decided to go back into the navy--1958 I think--miss him--You sure got A lot of nice pics--TONY

Hi Tony?, I remember that time when he worked in the mines, sure am glad he went back into the Navy. Bob recruited me out of high school when I was working in Osceola 13. You are right, he is greatly missed by all who know him...Thanks

We use to feed the deer when we lived in Eagle River. When we use to come home from work we could see their eyes reflect from our headlights in the woods. After putting the car away I would put out the alfalfa hay and after a short while the deer would walk out of the woods to our driveway for their evening meal. When we got up in the morning there would sometimes be young ones curled up in the left overs sleeping. I have some photos that I have been wanting to post in my guest gallery but have not gotten to it yet. I hope to do it soon.

The deer at Eagle River are imprinted forever in the mind of THIS yooper-at-heart...I used to rent the house just west of the wayside from Tom Stiglich back in 1988-1989....these were some of the best times of my life...

Awesome picture... I remember feeding the deer up there. :)

Ahh, the wonderful whitetail-a most delightful natural resource indeed, one to capture the fancy of mid-winter photog and autumn hunter alike.

What a beautiful tour of the Keweenaw in Davids photo album. I wish I could take the same tour right this minute. Thanks for the views!

Speaking of Bob, brings back memories of when you folks lived on Union St in Mohawk.We would take Millers old collie (don't remember its name)and go hunting squirrels with our slingshots in the bush between Aldergrove and Seneca Lake. Have way to many more fond memories to mention.

ABE... I was way to young to have memories of Union Street when we lived there, but it is nice to know I am a Keweenaw lad at heart. I have many old pics of my family on the street though. One of my favorite's is that of my brother's with my Dad and I think it was a buck my brother Bob got that year.....early 50's. Thanks...

3 doors down from us the folks had 24 deer in their yard last week..This is community 27 miles south of Detroit on I-75!!!

This picture is so cute! I love all the pictures you show on this website. It makes me feel like im close to Keweenaw even though im not.

This is such a cute picture! I love all the pictures you show. Whenever I feel the urge to go to Keweenaw when i can't i always check out the pictures from the pasty cam!

You have a great website. So folksy and positive.
I look forward to reading it every day.

Now that the deer feeding ban is off in the Keweenaw, and seven other UP counties, how's about some donations for the Sheriff's feeding fund in Eagle River on behalf of all of us that enjoy these scenes so much.

Love your website, I check it everyday for great photos. This photo reminds me of our local golf course in Towson, Maryland called Pine Ridge. The deer stand this close to us in the tee box, challenging us to hit them. I guess they know that us "duffers" have no chance to even come close. Our main problem with the deer in this area, are the deer ticks. They have caused an outbreak of Lyme Disease. After each round we have to check for ticks. Is that a problem in your neck of the woods?, if it is I recommend you keep the ball in the fairway.

Mr. Bill: How about no donations. All the DNR Biologists think feeding is a stupid idea. This includes Biologists that were born and raised in the UP, and went on to get a college degree. Some of them spend most of their professional life in the woods. It constantly amazes me that people who spend two weeks in the wooods all year, are ready to tell the DNR about feeding. Deer feeding is all politics supported mainly by hunters. I am a avid hunter, but will take whatever nature sends my way.

To Fred, Mich.........tell that to a starving deer.

Fred, ...well it is too bad that they didn't issue the DNR biologist's some common sense along with their college degree. I do not completely support deer feeding myself, but I at least have common sense enough to realize how unfair it is too impose restrictions on all counties in the state when natures elements are not the same for all counties in that state. Our winter's up here for the most part are too severe (especially in Keweenaw) for a herd to survive. The Keweenaw herd is not that large to begin with. Now, so that there will be adequate herds in the future for all of you 'avid' hunters and sportsmen, I don't mind giving them a little extra feed in the winter to help them survive. That is one major problem with the DNR, lack of common sense the way they apply regulations statewide rather than looking at each county on a case by case basis....

Union street in Mohawk? I used to own the house at #3 Union street....bought it from Joe Enrietti

Plus, feeding the deer helps keep them from eating residential shrubs.

Re: Deer feeding and "common sense"

One of the reasons why the DNR has
objected to deer feeding is that the practice
promotes the spread of disease within the
deer population. Feeding deer leads to
congregation of the animals and thus
facilitates the spread of infectious diseases.
This is probably not just a theoretical concern
either. There is evidence to suggest that the
spread of chronic wasting disease may be
spread via prions in saliva.

Deer yard up regardless of weather you are feeding them are not. they naturaly go to the area with the least snow(which can still be alot)or to the nearest logging operation so they can eat the fresh cuttings go on any logging site and you are going to see multiple deer thete daily

ric...I lived at 24 Union st. Belonged to Pinch Rowe we rented it for a couple of years...Hung around with Jim Enrietti He was a good accordion player

Many thanks to our friends and neighbors in

the sportsmans organizations who worked so

hard in getting the feeding ban lifted.

Prions are proteins, and they are normally present in brain cells of all humans (and cows, deer, sheep, mice, etc). Prion diseases don't fit the typical pattern of spread characteristic of viral and bacterial diseases. Prion diseases arise when the normal prions adopt an abnormal shape, which causes holes to form in the brain. Scientists don't know for sure what the transmissible factor is--what the thing we eat from a diseased cow is that causes us to get sick--but they think the transmissible factor may be the abnormal prions. Once in the brain, these abnormal prions cause the normal prions to also become abnormal, and the disease develops.

Prion diseases include bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, mad cow disease), chronic wasting disease (CWD, deer), scrapie (sheep), sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD, naturally occurring in humans), and variant-CJD (in humans, from eating mad cows). I believe these diseases may arise in three ways: (1) genetic inheritance from a parent; (2) spontaneously through a genetic mutation (as in sporadic CJD); and (3) direct ingestion of or contact with infected nerve tissue (as in humans getting variant-CJD from eating mad cows).

I also believe that disease routes (1) and (2) are fairly common, whereas route (3) is extremely rare. The number of cases of variant-CJD in the UK is surprisingly low (only 143 cases to date) considering the large number of diseased cows found (183,000 confirmed; possibly over 1 million in total before they started testing the British cows). Only 10 cases of variant-CJD have been found outside of the UK, and only one of these was in the United States (in 2002, a 22-year-old who was born and raised in the UK). In contrast, sporadic CJD causes the death of approximately 200 American per year. This means that your chance of developing sporadic CJD is much greater than your chance of developing variant-CJD, even if you eat meet from mad cows and deer every single day of your life.

These diseases tend to have a long latency period, and this supports my theory that the disease may be transmitted genetically. One infected cow/deer can produce a lot of infected offspring, and they in turn can produce a lot of infected offspring before any of them are discovered to be diseased. In such a case, the disease wouldn't have "spread" from animal to animal, it would have been genetically inherited in all the offspring. Or, it would have arisen spontaneously through genetic mutations.

I don't believe these diseases pass casually from animal to animal in a herd, so CWD is almost certainly not transmitted from deer to deer in saliva. Since deer don't eat each other, and we don't feed them diseased animals, the only logical ways for deer to get the disease are through genetic inheritance or spontaneous genetic mutations.

I wonder if the DNR folks in Michigan, Wisconsin, and elsewhere have considered doing DNA tests on all infected deer they find. I'd be willing to bet they'll find that most infected deer in a certain area are related to one another. I think they need to start a DNA database of all deer found with chronic wasting disease.

For more information, take a look at: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/cjd/bse_cjd_qa.htm

When I was a kid I used to work in the cedar swamp at Bete Gris with my step-dad, Joe Chopp. He was from Ahmeek. The snow was so deep back there and the deer so hungry that while we were limbing the trees, they would come and eat from the top. When we'd come back in the morning all the branches were cleaned up. Nice pic, Dave.

i am very glad that we can now feed deer in Eagle River. we would have lost all the deer and deer season would have no deer.

Fred wrote:
"All the DNR Biologists think feeding is a stupid idea."

I wonder - did Fred ask "all" of the DNR biologists? I know a few who support supplemental feeding in the UP during harsh winters. It's idiotic think that the same rules should apply to the northern UP (where there is about 4 feet of snow on the ground) and the southern LP (where we have maybe a foot at most and still have a number of corn fields with available food).

Nice photo. Sorry for the diatribe.

We've been dancing on Saturday nights to the music of Jimmy Enrietti and his band in Silver Springs, Florida, lotsa polkas and having a great time!

Hi everyone ... We are playing for the Laurium Village/Firefighters dance on July 4, 2004 ..
Also playing for the Yoopers Picnic in Sarasota Florida in 2005 ... see everyone in Laurium and Florida ... Jim and Teri Enrietti (and.. Ozzie and Judy can sure do the polka!)