Night Visitors

Want a peek at what goes through our yard at night?

The white and black kitty cat.  It must be feral...Far Guy has seen it and tried to call to it...no dice...it probably eats mice and chippys!!

The Raccoons...double trouble...they drink all the water out of the bird baths and they like the seed that was dropped on the ground by the bear

BEAR!

We may have two bears...they frequent the yard between three and four in the morning and at ten o'clock at night.  They were caught on the game cam two days in a row at those times.

This is no teeny tiny cuddly bear.

It is however a bear that appreciates my flowers and didn't mess them up.
We figured we were pretty safe leaving the feeders out...it had been 16 days since their last visit.
All the feeders are safely tucked away at night now.

My lawn mower needs some kind of holder for a very sharp stick or a rifle....or I need a super charged lawn mower instead of one that putts along...bears can run faster than my lawn mower.

Far Side

I saw a bear ..or not

Far Guy and I always joking  during our afternoon drives..will today be the day we see a bear..or a moose and will I get the photo?

Often when we are driving one of us will see something and ask the other if they saw it too? 

One day..I said “Did you see that bear?”  He replied.. “NO, I missed it..let’s go back!” 

Someone with a sick sense of humor..must have been laughing at all the traffic that turned around for a second look.  He even mowed and removed some brush..

Things are not always as we see them..I did see a bear..or not.

Not a real bear… I have only seen bear twice in Minnesota..they are impressive creatures.  A few years ago one came in and emptied all our bird feeders and stole one of the feeders in the middle of the night.  We had to take our bird feeders in a night for awhile..he/she did not return..at least not that we know of:)

Tracks

Last night we had a visitor.

He (or she) dumped bird feeders all over and the bum took one with them.

The bum stomped all over my daylilies under the bird feeders.

 

He could not reach this feeder..the other feeders ended up empty on the ground.  Far Guy will fix the damaged ones..he did not touch the thistle seed that was in the mesh feeder.

These are the tracks that we found.

We have never had a bear at the bird feeders before.  We will have to take the feeders in at night..we will leave one feeder out tonight and set out the trail camera..and see what we capture.

Chance gave the bird feeders a wide berth this morning.  He finally smelled the ground all over..we walked the yard looking for the missing feeder and found these tracks out back where my greenhouse used to be.

We have not heard of any bear activity on this side of the lake..perhaps he was just passing through:) 

Observations in June

Just a few observations today. The Yellow Lady's Slippers that are along our back drive are in full bloom, they were 28 days behind the Yellow Lady's Slippers that are in our wildflower gardens. This year there were four blooms, that is the same as last year. The clumps seem to be staying the same size.


We saw a skunk on our outing last night..it has a den near an Oak along the fence line a mile and a fourth down the road. It waddled very fast into the tall prairie grasses, sadly I missed the shot of the skunk. Far Guy said I should get out and follow it. He would have waited in the car, as back up support. My brother and his wife and their grands often bike that way. I remember one time when one ran right along side Maddie when she was riding her bike, she was so scared..but she kept on pedaling her bike.    She ran into the house, and hollered "Grandma, I saw a skunk." and then she burst into tears.


We also saw the remnants of a deer leg in the road...HA!  one Lady Slipper eater bit the dust..was it a coyote? A wolf?

I usually spend some time visually drinking in the neighbors horses.. enough so I can imagine their smell. Most of the time Chance is quiet, last night he barked when the horses came to visit. There are an even dozen there now, Joe must have sold two. There are only two more days until the summer solstice. The days have not seemed very long because we have been cloudy and rainy.

 Now here is one thing to ponder.  Who is their right mind would mount a deer stand on top of an old manure spreader?  It isn't something you see every day of the week.  I hope it wasn't one of my relatives or a neighbor that reads this blog...if so what we you thinking?

On the bears,  I have seen only two in my entire life in Minnesota, one at an Auction Sale in the early spring..he awoke to the smell of hamburgers frying, and was relocated by the DNR.  The other one Far Guy and I saw running across our driveway at the resort.  A few weeks ago I missed seeing one because I was looking for Trillium.  Well, I can add one more to the list, one day I was coming back from Menahga on the back roads and saw one lumbering across the road..they truly are magnificent creatures.  I missed that photo op too, by the time I got close enough to take a photo he or she was in the woods. :)

Bear Stories

We had a celebrity visit our area yesterday.  He had big feet and scared the local children..because he was just too big!  Jordon said he would high five him if he was smaller..Gavin stayed way back..he wasn't even getting close.

Eventually the little girls were brave..especially Olivia and Hailey..

Northwoods children are often told..Bears live in the woods. This becomes ingrained into our children.  I once told our Grand girls that there were no bears, the girls were following me very closely on our walk..hanging onto my pants legs, whimpering about bears. I so brilliantly stood in the middle of our drive and shouted " Bears, you pack your bags and move to Hawaii."   This worked for a couple of years then when their parents talked of going to Hawaii..the littlest(Paige) broke into tears..because that is where the bears were..being a Grandma is sometimes difficult.

Smokey The Bear was here for the Grand Opening of the new Fire Hall (Carsonville Station Number 2) and the Osage Community Center.  There was cake and coffee and a time for visiting...the acoustics in the Community Center are horrible..as was noted to me by everyone that I spoke to that had a hearing aid.  There is no carpeting on the floor and no drapes to absorb any of the noise..so it just bounces around the room..until it is impossible to carry on a conversation.  It all becomes a hollering contest to see who can be the loudest.  We had coffee and left.  It won't be on my list of places to rent for gatherings. 

The Fire Hall part is very nice..a great addition to the community.  Now if the township could just afford a few decent firetrucks for their brand new hall..for now they are dependent on Station Number Ones extra equipment.  It will meet the requirement for the Insurance companies less than five miles from a fire hall discount rule, so that homeowners on that side of the lake are able to get their discount. I imagine that some of the people over on that side of the lake will complain..and pretty soon the parking lot will be paved so they don't get their feet all muddy when it rains.  They got a mile or two of blacktop a few years ago because some old ladies in Cadillacs complained about their cars getting dusty on the dirt roads...so a little bit of blacktop in the parking lot should be a piece of cake.

Oh, I should be quiet now..I sound like a grumpy old bear myself.

We don't often see Bears in Minnesota..I have only seen two in my lifetime..one ran across our driveway in front of Far Guy and I years ago.  The other one woke up during an Auction sale I was at when the mobile food wagon was frying up hamburgers.  Our neighbors Al and Erna woke up one morning to muddy paw prints on their windows and their bird feeders empty... my cousin Geraldine had one on her deck looking in the kitchen window..she is a really good cook!  As soon as she called for help..the bear high tailed it into the woods..I told her she should have taken a photo..she just giggled at me:)