Sigh. Stupid Bear. He was here Friday – Tim had to chase him away after he took out a sheperds hook with a decorative, empty feeder on it. Then this morning, just after Bob left for work I hear the big garbage go over and hit the driveway – and I know enough what the sound means, enough that I grab my camera because I’m going to at least try to get another shot of this, which turns out to be one fast Bear. Another blurry photo. I’m thinking I need to keep the big camera ready…..
He’s really starting to get on my nerves.
Don’t misunderstand – we love where we live. We love how rural and unspoiled it is. We love that we are pretty much protected from any big developments being able to go up around us. We love that we live on a Mountain. We even love the fact that there are Bear, Deer, Fox, Coyote, Bobcat, Bear, Birds, and Bears. Racoons and Oppossums and Bear. We love all that. I just wish this Bear wasn’t so close to our “dwelling” We have eliminated feeding the birds. The garbage was also empty. I think we’ll have to move that into the garage – oh, yay, smelly garage. We have talked about calling Fish and Game – but we know what they’ll do. We just want to deter the Bear, keep him and us safe. I don’t especially like the idea of having a huge bear trap around us and our neighbors – too many little kids around. I’m hoping when more natural food becomes available for the pretty young Bear, he’ll be more drawn to the good stuff, than to us people stuff. We’ve really enjoyed creating a Backyard Habitat for the birds we have nesting around here and it just sucks that we can’t keep feeding them, and their chicks through the nicer weather. For the first time ever, we have a Baltimore Oriole’s nesting in one of the trees in our pasture – it’s awesome to see the Orioles quietly go in and out. We have another nest of Blue Birds this year – very, very close to the house and we can watch them come and go with food for what is a new clutch of baby Blue Birds that we can hear already! We have nesting Cardinals, that would usually bring their chicks to the front feeder and feed them on the rail. I’m sure they’ll find plenty of food on their own, but Mr. Bossy Bear is really bullying the rest of the wildlife around – which I guess is the way it’s supposed to be.
On the knitting front, I’ve made progress on Nantucket Red…..
I was able to work on it quite a bit at Knitting Group Saturday – it was such a beautiful day, we all sat outside and enjoyed the weather, sat, talked and knit. It was great to see everyone and I’m looking forward to the yarn crawl we have coming up!
Today is a big day – our youngest is taking his Drivers License Road Test – and I’m going with him – nervous is an understatement – me, not him. He’s fine. We had to borrow a car because none of our vehicles have an emergency brake that the tester can get to – ain’t that a kick? We’re fortunate to have good friends that are generous enough to loan us theirs. So, by noon today, we will know if we have another licensed driver in the house – I can’t believe it – I am more nervous about this one that when our oldest took the test. We may just have to go play golf this afternoon to settle my nerves….
We’ve managed to play once a week and I think I’m getting better at it – I know I’m having fun and I’m not “swinging and missing” as much – and yesterday was probably the first time I didn’t hurt my hand by pummeling the earth with the golf club! I have one last lesson to arrange and then it’s play and go to the driving range till fall – then I might enroll in the Golf Clinic at our County College. We’ll see – we took some friends yesterday that were pretty new to it and they ended up joining, too. What a great way to get exercise, get outside and just relax and have fun!
Well……wish us luck………..I’ll update later with results of the test.
Update: Poor Schmoo……hit the cone in parallel parking – he now refers to himself as “the cone killer” and will be re-taking his test in a few weeks – he has a good attitude about it. It was a little heart wrenching to watch him do it, but he’s a trouper. Afterwards, we brought the car back to our friend who lives two houses up from us. As we headed down her driveway, there was a Really Big BEAR in front of us. (I knew it wasn’t our regular visitor because it was just too BIG) We stopped in our tracks to see if the bear would turn and leave – but instead, she turned and faced us. Then I saw a little black thing jump out of the tree the bear was next to – which at first was so small I thought for a split second – wow – what is that CAT doing chasing after that bear??????? Good thing it was a split second because as soon as I realized it was her CUB, I yelled for our neighbor, and told Dan to run back to the house – we high tailed it back inside – at which point she was trying to get her double screen doors shut because Mama was still right there, on the other side of the drive, waiting.
Waiting for what you ask? Well, she had three more cubs to go with that tee-tiny one that jumped out of the tree – we didn’t see those three and our neighbor drove us home – waited for us to get into the house – and then called me when she got home to tell me the three little bears were headed our way. They didn’t come up to our house, but were across the street as my neighbor was banging pots and beeping car horns a few minutes after that call.
I definitely know enough to get away from a Mama and her cubs and I’m just so glad my neighbor was home so we could run back to the house!
We’re all Beared out today.
