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Hey, thanks for being a part
of the conversation. This is Forest Stories.

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I am the Poet in the Forest, a children's series that I pinned

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out in the nineteen nineties. Now, none of it would be possible if

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it wasn't for this forest right here
in South Charlotte, North Carolina. I

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talk about it so much that I
thought maybe it's time that you get to

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know what has inspired me for thirty
years. Thanks for being a part of

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the conversation. Welcome back to the
forest out here on this path, and

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I've come across three dough who are
feasting morning breakfast. Yeah. I remember

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when I first came to this forest
in nineteen ninety two. There were always

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road signs, you know, warning
people of the deer. And I remember

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my daughter looking at me while we
were driving to school. Do you think

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there's deer in this forest? And
I kind of laughed it off. I

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said, I think it's just a
salesman's tool. I think those signs are

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just saying, oh wow, all
of these trees. We can sell some

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property if we make it look like
the deer here. And I got to

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be honest with you, several years
went by before the deer started to appear

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or we started seeing them, mainly
because of all of the construction that was

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outside this forest. They drove them
to this forest, and because we chose

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to protect this land. But to
see these dough this morning, three of

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them, just very calmly enjoying breakfast. I'm probably maybe seven feet from them.

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Their big gigantic eyes, huge ears, a white tail, and nothing's

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bothering them. It's just the sound
of spring and the deer eating their leaves,

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their grass. So many people they
didn't want them, and boy did

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I ever get chastised. A few
years back, I gave them corn.

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I was feeding them during the winter
months when there was cold snow on the

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ground. The winds were whipping and
I thought they need to eat, so

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I went out and got deer corn. And so many neighbors were so upset

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with me because I did that.
And today, which is really interesting,

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there are three or four different neighbors
that are doing it. Those were neighbors

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that came after me because I was
feeding the deer. But I'm glad that

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they're not looking for the feeders right
now, and that in this forest on

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this particular day, they are enjoying
all that green. Hey. Thanks for

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being a part of the conversation,