"That which does not kill you makes you stronger" Freidrich Nietzsche

When Alan got home from work last night, Carlo was here visiting.  We sat by the spring, staying cool and enjoying the company.  I'd say we enjoyed the view, but yesterday was really hazy due to all the small fires started by Sunday evening's massive thunderstorm.  On the local news, there was even a picture of a very impressive funnel cloud. 

Yet another indication of our weird weather this year. I am looking forward to the cooler temps predicted after today's high of 90.

Yesterday, knowing that it was the last day we could legally burn, I cut up and marinated a bunch of pork roast for dinner.  Our last Meat On A Stick Night for the summer.  Alan was thrilled at the suggestion.  He and I loaded our little camp table, some plastic chairs, wine, chips and salsa and such into the trailer behind the mower, I called C&D and invited them for Happy Hour by the fire, and we headed up into the pasture.

It was a very nice evening. 

After C&D left, and the fire had died down, Alan and I headed down to the house.  We put away the stuff, got our jammies on, and decided to zone out to a movie before going to bed.

A little after 10:00, Olive came running in the living room.  She ran to the window right next to my chair, pulled herself up to peek out the window.  I thought that was odd, cuz she can certainly jump up there.. it's a low window.  Then she ran into the War Room and disappeared.  Uh oh.

Yep, Mr. Bear was back.  He was right in front of that window when she looked out.  Alan was in the bathroom when Olive ran in, so he heard the bear going through the flowerbeds.

He went out with a flashlight, and I grabbed mine.  I was shining it into the yard through the window when Alan came into the yard from the front.  He saw the bear before I did. (It's really hard to shine a flashlight through a screen at night and see anything)

He yelled at the bear, who started up one of the massive fir trees on the east side of the yard.  I ran for the camera, and headed out the door, but Alan had scared the bear back down.  He went into the road, heading for the woods on the other side.

Alan came back in the house for a rifle (just in case)  I was still out in the yard in my bear stalking gear, which consists of a filmy gauze night gown, and garden clogs, when I heard a noise on the road.  It was the unmistakable noise of the horse trailer ramp.

Now, I knew the ramp was up.  I figured Mr. Bear was on the other side of the trailer, maybe pulling himself up on the fender to peek at us.  As I got closer, I caught eyes with the flash light.

He was IN the trailer!  He had climbed over the ramp.  I managed to get a couple pictures while Alan and I both shone our flashlights on him, but neither one turned out.  Sorry guys.

Mr Bear climbed back out of the trailer, and crashed around in the woods for a bit.  Then we didn't hear or see him again.

I went out a while ago, looking for tracks.  It's pretty dry in much of the yard, but I can see where his feet scuffed the dirt, and there are chunks of bark missing from the tree he climbed.  I think he was behind the house looking for the bird feeder he destroyed.

Dale is going to be ever so disgusted.  He wants to see that bear so bad.  He moved his wildlife camera yesterday, and got a bigger memory card for it so he can set it to take 15 second videos.  I am going to have fun with that!!!!  So far, the only thing he's gotten pictures of is Alan and I on horseback, Christina and I waving and smiling like idiots, and a picture of Nat's ass as she and I went trotting by.

Well, I better get busy.  I've got rubbing in to do! *grin*

I don't normally bitch much about hot weather.  We don't get it often enough to warrant bitching, but you know, this year (and last) have been so damned WEIRD weather-wise.

It's 85 outside and the humidity stands at 47%. Ugh.  I've been outside working, and boy does the sweat roll!  I take breaks to drink water and cool off in the shade, so it's slow going around here.

And I'll tell you something else.  This weather is highly conducive to weight loss.  I don't feel like eating, especially when I'm full of fluids.  And I HATE sweating in the creases I didn't used to have. Yuck.  Make them creases go away. *wry grin*

Another thing..... several people in this area have died due to the weather.  Active, fit people who didn't take the humidity and heat into consideration. Ooops.  That's a mistake you can't make.

And two guys got hit by lightning last night during our big storm. I think they are both alive, but in critical condition.  When lightning starts hitting the ground close by, it's time to go inside!

It looks like it's going to storm again this evening.  I really want to have our last fire in the pasture tonight, but I'll have to wait and see what the weather does.  I don't want to be a headline.

And about headlines... I saw that some kid in Yellowstone was tossed by a bison bull while his parents took a picture of him STANDING NEXT TO IT.  What the fuck!!!!????  Where on God's green earth have these people been that they have not heard that you are not supposed to approach wild animals?  People are such incredible fucktards, it's simply amazing.  No, not amazing.  Disgusting.  Dis-heartening. Head-shakingly stupid.

Okay, I'm done.  I don't usually rant about things.  Must be the heat.

I'm going to mow the lawn.  When I'm done, I'll turn on the sprinkler and cool off in here while I fold the laundry. 

Work in the garden continues slowly due to a sudden heat wave.  Friday was hot and humid.  Saturday was worse... we hit 101. Ugh.  I don't mind the heat much if it's had time to dry out, but man the humidity is wicked!

Sunday was much the same, except a bit cooler.  We had the added benefit of a massive thunderstorm in the evening.  That was freakin' awesome!

Saturday also included fixing fence, field mowing, and a huge Birthday Party for Alan's twin brothers.  That was fun.  The sunset on the way home was one of the best I've seen in years as well.

The goats are settling.  They discovered a coulpe holes in the fence yesterday, so I got to chase them around and fix fences too.  I enjoyed moving sprinklers though... such a good excuse to get soaked!

I rode yesterday too... just a short ride, and all at a walk.  Poor Nat was sweating like a pig going up the hills.  Awesome ride for the view though... I stopped at the top of a hill to watch two separate thunderstorms before heading back here when the strikes started getting closer.

A couple hours later it was rocking and rolling!  When Alan came home from golfing with his brothers, he found me (as he expected) on the front porch in my nightgown, watching the lightning crash and fork all over the sky.

Dale came over to watch for a while too.. bringing his scanner so we could listen to reports of brush fires popping up all over the area from the lightning.

Alan went to bed after Dale left, while I finished watching a movie I had started before the storm.  Then I crashed.  When Alan woke me at 5:45 this morning, with coffee, I declined.  I slept until 8:00.

Yesterday morning I picked up the goats I mentioned previously.  They are a cute bunch.  It's really fun to watch them all milling around, checking out their new residence.

I ended up with ten, four bucks, and six does.  I put collars on all of them and wormed them before unloading them from the horse trailer.  It's always fun to wrestle with goats in a trailer parked in the sun... Man! was I sweaty!  But it didn't take me very long to get them all dialed in and out to pasture.

This morning I gave them grain, and let my other goats in with them.  Now they are all milling around in two separate groups, eye-balling each other.  In the next couple days, I will castrate three of the bucks, then separate all the boys.  I am keeping one buck to breed Gracie this fall, then I'll castate him.

I worked in the yard yesterday, got the lawn mowed and some weeds pulled.  Nearly all of the seeds planted in the garden are popping up now, and with the heat expected in the next couple days, I expect everything to really get going.  Lot's of sun, heat and water do the trick.

I have slightly sore muscles everywhere!  Last night I ached all over.  I fell asleep in my recliner with the heat pad on.  And I sure didn't want to get up this morning, but I did (obviously)

Well, I better get busy.......

Friday Marky showed up at noon, and we had lunch together.  He only worked half a day for the neighbor, so he hung out here and helped me around the place.

We hooked up my monster sprinkler in the garden, and took out the enormous branch that had fallen out of a tree onto my truck.  I wanted to take a picture of it to send to Christina, so I could show her we had a fancy "arbor" for she and Steven to get married under *grin*  But I never got around to it.

We stacked firewood in the shed, cleaned up some stuff, and generally got quite a few smallish things done, but it was so damned muggy, we kept taking breaks.

And Mark is a genius!  I mentioned to him about my idea for building a combination greenhouse/rabbittry, and he did me one better!  He suggested converting the turkey house.  I can use it for starting plants, raising meat birds, and rabbits!  Great idea, and I hope to have it all set up by the end of the summer.

I went down to the newest neighbor's place, and filled them in on the local bear.  They were setting up for a flea market, and hadn't heard about the bear yet, so I was glad I told them.

Little did I know that I'd be seeing a post (on another site) about how the bear DID visit!  It tore up a bunch of stuff, and generally made a mess for them to clean up before they opened Saturday morning.  What a bummer.

Saturday Darbi and I worked in the garden.  It was muggy again, but cooler.  We got all the winter squash planted, as well as cauliflower, cabbage, several types of greens, broccoli, melons, zucchini, pumpkins,  yellow summer squash, and several rows of corn

We also ran into town and got serrano and jalapeno peppers, and more black plastic to plant all the pickling cukes on.  Our garden area totals 7500 sq. ft., and it's looking impressive!  The artichokes are popping up, as is the potatoes, beets, radishes and asparagus.  There are even a few reddish strawberries on my plants.

And the bell peppers I started from seed are looking good.  All 50 of them.  They are snug under the shade cloth, along with 29 Roma tomato plants, one eggplant, and the ten hot pepper plants we bought.  Oh, and there are 6 yellow pear tomato and 6 heritage tomato plants that I started from seed too.

Darbi and I worked pretty hard, and we were both pooped when we stopped at 4PM.  And Darbi learned a valuable lesson about the joys of "going commando" under long skirts. *grin*

Sunday morning we did chores and caught the horses for the shoer.  Scot was on time as usual, and we all had a great visit.  Darbi had a ball watching the horses get their feet trimmed, and Scot gave me some great pointers on how to better deal with Belanna and her respect issues.  He did a bit of tuning up on her, keeping up a running commentary on what he was doing and how she should be responding.  It gave me a lot of good ideas as to how to proceed with her.

Christina and Steven arrived about half way through Scot being here.  He got a kick out of Tristan, who was having a ball toddling around with everyone trying to keep him out from under the horses (who ignored him)

Later, my girlfriend Heidi showed up, on her way home after a ride.  We had a wonderful visit, and she made Stina's day by telling her how Sam (her husband) had said quite a while ago that Christina was a "born mother" and how she would make an awesome mom.  Heidi went one better later, telling me how glad she was to see Stina take a wooden spoon away from Tristan when he had hit her with it.  SO many people these days give themselves no opportunity to teach their kids "NO".  Christina isn't like that.  And Tristan is well on his way to being a well-mannered boy.

We had C&D over Sunday evening for Beef-on-a-Stick-Night.  Mark and Darbi were here, Stina and Steven with Tristan, me and Alan too... damn we had fun!  All of us out in the pasture, roasting meat and eating veggies with ranch dip.  Tristan wore himself completely out and didn't wake up until 7:30 this morning.  That was good because Christina and I ended up being the last ones at the fire, staying up until about 3AM.  We didn't mean to... we had just wanted to watch the moon come up over the mountain, and next thing we knew it was half way up the sky!!!

Today was slowish... we did get some things done, but we were slow.  Steven, Alan, Mark and Darbi all went to work.  But Marky left after he and I ran to town to get seeds, gardening supplies, and pine shavings for the chicks.

Stina and I fixed the turkey house door and moved the chicks in there.  They have a lot more room now and seem happy enough.  Man do those Cornish cross birds grow fast!  But I left the baby turkeys in their cage for awhile longer... one of them was looking a bit stressed.

Oh!  A friend of Heidi's called me today and told me about a freind of hers with a bunch of goats she needed to get rid of ASAP.  So guess what?  Wednesday I am picking up 15 goats!

Yeah, I traded 6 Barred Rock pullets for them.  Damn, I'm good.

Okay, I've GOT to get into bed now.  I'm beat!

Wednesday was a slow day after riding....  I just putzd around in the yard, and did some surfing of the web. I needed some downtime.

Craigslist in dangerous.

I found an ad for a free arabian mare.  She looked nice, and I talked to the owner.  I got a hold of Alan and asked him what he thought about getting another horse. He wanted to go look at her, so after he got home, devoured a ginormous steak with fried mushrooms and onions, we threw his saddle in the car and headed out.

It was a gorgeous evening, and a nice drive.

When we got to the man's house, a woman pulled in behind us.  She asked if we were there to see the horse, then pulled into the garage.  She looked pissed.  Seriously grumpy. 

Soon the man, Bill, came out.  We went out and looked at the mare, and she was a nice horse, in spite of being very much in heat.  We put her in the round pen for a bit to see her move, which did us absolutely no good at all since they had been dumping used bedding in there and it so was deep and soft that mare could have been four-legged lame and you wouldn't be able to tell.

So we took her in the barn. I brushed her while Alan got his tack.  I talked to Bill, trying to get a feel for why he was giving her away.

Then I discovered a big sticky spot at the top of her tail.  Adhesive.  I know what that means.... she'd been through an auction (that's where they put the number sticker)

He noticed me looking at the sticky spot, and told me he'd run her through the auction to "see what she'd bring" and that he'd pulled her at $350 and brought her home. 

But now he's giving her away? Hmmmm.....

I asked him about the large, hard, bony lump above her left front hoof.  It was obviously an old injury, and had a large scar too.  He completely side-stepped the question by saying something along the lines of "she musta bumped it on something when she was in with the gelding"

Bullshit.

 It was an old scar... probably been there most of her life.  I wasn't worried about it... it was in a good spot for a bony lump.  It wasn't interfering with any of her joints, so it was no big deal.  But the way he acted suddenly set off some red flags.  It meant either he was stupid, or that he thought I was. 

Anyway, Alan saddled her up, took her out and got on her.

She stood by the gate, not moving other than to turn her head and look at his feet.  He kicked her, he tried turning her head, and finally I walked over to lead her a bit.

She walked along-side me, but when I stepped away, she stopped.

Hmmm......

I went back over to where Bill was standing, and talked to him while keeping an eye on Alan and the mare.  I really  wanted to find out what the hell was going on, cuz what I  was seeing sure as hell wasn't matching up with what I was hearing.

Bill had several mares with foals (except this mare) and he talked about showing, but he knew NOTHING about bloodlines.  She said this mare was broke, but she was acting exactly like a horse getting it's first under-saddle experience.  I ought to know... I've done it about 100 times.

Alan did get her moving.  He got her trotting a bit too, and even in a canter for a few strides.  She crow-hopped, bucked and threw her head the whole time.  Not bad, granted, but she was definitely acting VERY green.

The more I listened, the less I learned.  Things didn't add up at all.

Once we were all finished with the mare, we told Bill we'd think it over and I'd give him a buzz to let him know if we wanted her, pending his approval, of course.  He said he wanted to see our place if we wanted her, and I assured him that was fine and that I was home all day.

I emailed him later to let him know we'd like to have her.

Yesterday morning I called him to confirm, and he said he'd try to get out here to see the place.  He never showed.  Didn't call or email either.  I emailed him again last night, asking if we were still being considered, because we'd like to know.

This morning I got an email saying she was already gone.

So much for being picky about who took her.  He had one other person besides us as far as I know.

In the meantime, I did some digging around, trying to find info about him.  And I found zip.  And that's pretty weird.  I can find out all kinds of things about people.  I'm good at it.

So, I shot off an email to the horse list I belong to, asking someone to look him up on the Arabian Horse Association's database.  You can look up horses and owners since the beginning of time... no kidding.. since the 1720's I believe.

And gee! Guess what!?

Not one single horse has ever been registered in his or his wife's name (I included her name too, since their house was in her name... see what I mean about what I can find out? *grin*)

So, I think we may have avoided getting a free mare with a long, sordid history.  Not that I would have minded... she was a nice mare.  But it pisses me off when people set out to decieve, and think they are getting away with it.  I didn't just fall off the hay truck.  I worked for a horse trader for years, and there is VERY little that gets by me when it comes to piecing together a horse's history out of the bullshit some people will tell you.

Let the buyer beware.

Okay, enough about that.

Alan and I went riding last night.  That was wonderful.  Then we had a nice quiet evening.

Today will be a bit warmer than it has been.  In the low 80's as opposed to the mid 70's.  And there is no rain in site! Yay!  So, after I've worked Belanna a bit (I'm bound and determined to finish that mare this summer.... and in August I'll have medical insurance! *wicked grin*) I'm going to plant more stuff in the garden.

Back on my head!

I got up early this morning.  Alan brought me some coffee, and it tasted so good (and did it's job so well) that I didn't hang out in bed long.  Alan left for work at 6, and called shortly after to say there was a horrible wreck on the corner.  He said Dale was down there, that the ambulance hadn't shown up yet, and not to be surprised if LifeFlight showed up.

About an hour later, it did.  That kinda surprised me.  Ususally they are here pretty quickly after a wreck, so I don't know if that's good or bad.  Even stranger is the fact that the helicopter sat there for over an hour before it took off (about one minute ago)

I am all dressed to go riding, but have been waiting for them to get out of here before I go catch a horse.  Not that the horses have a problem with the helicopter, but because it just seems rude to me to be out there gawking and playing around with horses when someone is in serious condition.  I just keep an eye on the horses during landing and take-off (just in case someone decides to run through the fence) and stay out of sight the rest of the time.

But since I've got this post started, I'll finish it before I go ride.

Yesterday Christina came over.  We spent nearly eight hours in the garden.  I couldn't believe the time when I came in!  We got a lot done, and I slept like a rock last night.

Dale rototilled again too.  The lower garden looks MUCH better.

Alan brough home pizza for dinner.  We all ate, I took Christina home, and when I got home again, Alan was asleep in the recliner.  I went to bed.  I have no idea if our ghosty young man slept with me or not, and I don't care.  It was wonderful to work all day and get a good night's sleep!

Today will be a riding day. A putzing day.  A quitting early day.  After 5 days of bust-ass, it's time for that.  Time to catch a horse!

Where did the day go???  Just a few minutes ago, it was lunchtime, now it's 4:30?  What the hell???  *sigh*

And once again, I apologize for the weird chronologicalness (Boy, the spell check would have a hey-day with that one, wouldn't it?) *grin* of this post.  I just bang out these posts sometimes... so you get it as I remember it.

I've been working in the garden.  I finished preparing a big bed for beans, watered, prepared and planted cilantro, parsley and indian corn.  I mended some hoses, and got my sprinkler set up in the perennial garden.

This morning I cleaned house.  It's amazing (and scary) how much dirt gets tracked in during a weekend of gardening.  I swear I could have planted a garden in the kitchen this morning.

And I've still got laundry to fold and dinner to cook.  Then it will be back outside to work until dark.

Yesterday, Alan took a notion to dig rocks out of the area where us girls, in our infinite wisdom, decided NOT to try and plant this year.  It rained so much after all the digging for rocks out there that the soil is like concrete, and still has so much rock, I despair of EVER getting it cleaned up and usable.  (But yeah, I'm stubborn, and I'll keep working on it until it's not only plantable, but glorious)

Alan dug for two hours.  He cleared a spot 4x6 and two feet deep.  He pulled out 9 huge (as in bigger than my ass) sized rocks, and about three wheel barrow loads of smaller rocks.  I sincerely hope it was a bad spot.  

No one asked him to do it.. he just took a notion.  I can thoroughly understand that.  I take notions too.

Christina, Steven, Tristan, Mark and Darbi were all here again.  We worked, be BBQ'd, we played with Tristan.  We drank beer and enjoyed the sunshine.  We went up on the hill and enjoyed the view.  Damn it was wonderful!

Friday and Saturday were much the same.  It's just been fantastic around here.  We have gotten seeds in the ground for artichokes, beets, carrots, dill, leeks, bunching onions, parsnips, and radishes.  We got the rest of the plastic down.  The chicken pen is completely finished, and looks awesome.

Friday evening, Darbi and I were sitting by the spring talking when my hanging chair broke.  No warning of course, just suddenly I was on the ground laughing.   Today I fixed it, and it's back in the alder where it belongs.

The bear was back on Friday night... I found fresh tracks Saturday Am.  But since there was nothing for him to eat (he was looking for the bird feeder) he left and hasn't been back again.  

The baby chicks are all doing fine.  We have only lost one so far.  Not bad for 56 chicks gotten mail order.  And my setting hen has 13 under her again.  She is nothing if not persistent.



On a weird note, we seem to have a new ghost visiting.  Saturday morning, Darbi told us she had woke up in the night to see a young man lying next to her, watching her sleep.  How disconcerting to wake to a strange face so close to yours!  Mark wasn't here that night.. he was at his Dad's.  Darbi took it pretty well.  She just turned on the light and went back to sleep.

Sunday morning Alan had a revelation for us. When we were drinking coffee, he asked me if Darbi had slept with me for awhile.  (He was thinking perhaps the ghost had come back and she had come to sleep with me.  But Marky was here that night, so he really didn't think that through, but hey, he was half asleep) He had fallen asleep in his recliner Saturday evening, so as usual, I went to bed without him.  When he came in later, he felt around to see if I was in his way before climbing in, and discovered another set of legs and feet.  Someone smaller than Marky.  He assumed it was Darbi and went back into the living room and slept in the recliner. 

When his alarm went off at 5AM (and I didn't shut it off) he came in, turned it off, and crawled into bed with me as I was now alone.  So, we've decided this young man, whom Darbi described as having a very old fashioned hair style, is new.  No one has seen a young man before.. just old Mr. Thagon, a young girl, an old woman in a brown dress (who I think is the old school teacher) and a young blond woman (who Marky started to talk to, thinking it was Christina in the kitchen, when she vanished.  Needless to say, that freaked him out a bit)

I told Darbi not to worry.  None of our ghosts have ever done anything alarming.  And this place has way too good of a vibe to harbor bad ghosts.  She agrees.  We decided our young man must be lonely to only sleep with us when we are alone.  But I do find it odd that he has never done this before.... I have spent many, many nights alone here.

I need to do more research on previous owners of this place.  Perhaps I'll find some clues as to our new visitor.  I do love a mystery! 

The past two days I have been working on re-building the chicken pen.  Mr. Bear didn't exactly create this project... I was planning to do it anyway (and already had the wire) He just bumped it up on the list of things to do.

I am used to working by myself on such projects.  Twenty years of being married to a man with whom I could not work (we always disagreed on how to proceed) and who did not see why on earth he should help with MY "hobbies" meant that if it had anything to do with animals, he wouldn't help.  So, I am pretty good at doing things by myself.

But ever since I have been with Alan, I find I miss working with someone.  That's kinda weird for me (in a good way)  I have always enjoyed my time alone, and my solitary projects.  But Alan has spoiled me *grin*

And I must say, wrestling with layers of wire in a smallish space is a bitch! 

The pen is looking damn good though.  And Darby told me last night that she'll help me this evening when she comes home from work.

I had a visit from the local Fish and Woldlife officer yesterday.  He had stopped by the school to let them know about the bear in the nieghborhood, and said that they were keeping the kids in at recess for the remaining three days of school.  I think that's a bit extreme, but whatever.  The Officer did say that the principal is cool... spent five years in Alaska, so he isn't freaking out about a half-grown black bear.

The Officer also commended me on the work I've done on the pen, and expressed his appreciation for the fact that I wasn't in a panic over the bear.  He said many people call up and demand the bear be removed immediately. *sigh*  I told him I really don't mind having him around at all, and if we lived further out (and not next door to a school) I wouldn't have called at all.  I am far more concerned for the bear's saftey than anyone else's.

And so far, Mr. Bear hasn't been back.  Hopefully he's moved on. But damn! I wish I'd gotten a picture of him!

It's absolutely gorgeous outside today.  I plan on enjoying it.  We've got an intensely busy weekend planned with planting the garden, and I need to get everything ready for that.  I'm hoping to go riding today as well.

See you Monday!

Yesterday Christina was here to help out with garden work, and other related chores.... but the weather didn't cooperate.  It was cold, windy and rainy all day, complete with a roaring, pouring storm in the afternoon.

We cleaned up the house, then went out and did chores.  Then we picked up all the fruit tree prunings in the orchard and made a pile for chipping.  That was hard work.  Most of the branches were long, and we had to pull them out of the overgrown grass. Ugh.  But we got it done.

We took a break and ate, then went back out side.  We located and drug all the hoses out of the pasture for use in the yard and garden.  This also involved pulling stuff out of the tall grass.  About 300 feet of hose is now hung up in the woodshed, waiting to be tested for leaks, repaired and put to use.

We couldn't weed (too wet) so we took all the pepper and tomoto starts in the house and transplanted them into larger pots.  Six yellow pear tomatoes, six heirloom tomatoes of various kinds, and 50 bell pepper plants are now living in the service porch.

It was raining so hard by then we decided not to venture back outside.  And Christina got a call from Steven that the babysitter was sick, so he was coming to pick her up before he had to leave for class.

I only got to see Tristan for a couple minutes.  His two front teeth are coming in, and he's got a big bruise on one cheek from falling down, and damn that kid is cute!  He was smiling like crazy when he spotted me coming out to the car.  I tickled his toes and had a nice visit. *grin*

After they left, I did a few repairs on the chicken house/pen.  A possum had gotten in the night before and eaten all the eggs under my setting hen!!!!  He had made a hole in the chicken wire.  So I fixed the hole, modified the door to the pen to stop anything from climbing over, and put heavy mesh over the window that I busted this winter.

Alan drove in at that point, so we had dinner and talked about his work, and mine.We discussed building a small green house and other projects.  Then  we plugged in Gladiator and settled in to watch.

Just about dark, I noticed Olive acting strange.  She was in the kitchen, on point, staring intently though the kitchen door into the porch.  I walked over to her and looked, but didn't see a thing (I thought on of the outside cats had gotten in... she has a hissy fit when they do) Then she GROWLED and ran into the War Room, and hid!  I thought that was strange, cuz Olive isn't scared of anything. 

Seeing it was nearly dark, I decided to pause the movie and go out to shut the  chicken house door.  It was pouring again, so I had a raincoat on over my nightgown, and was wearing my mud boots. (Oh yeah, quite a picture, I assure you)  As I walked down to the pen, I was looking at the water streaming down the driveway and so I was only about 25 feet away when I saw the bear.

He was a young black bear, about 200 pounds.  Three feet tall, five feet long, soaking wet and very pretty. He was eating french fries.  I couldn't believe my eyes! I never expected to see a BEAR in my chicken pen!

I yelled for Alan (he was in the kitchen) but he didn't hear me.  I came rushing back to the house yelling "Get the camera, there's a bear in the chicken pen!" And he was just flabbergasted.  We ran back outside and toward the pen, then stood there wondering "what the hell do we do now?" since it appeared Mr. Bear couldn't get back out of the pen.  I was just thinking I would go around and open the door for him, when he pushed his nose under the wire and scooted out from under.

He walked toward the driveway, and Alan ran at him, yelling "Get!!! Get out of here!" and waving his arms.  I joined him, and we chased Mr. Bear down the driveway, across the road, and into the woods.  He didn't seem particularly upset.. he trotted (and I  KNOW bears can run faster than that) and we didn't hear a thing as he apparently went away.

We got out the camera, and flash lights (I wanted to get pictures of the tracks) and called Dale.  He has seen tracks in his yard three times in the last week, and I wanted to tell him we'd seen his friend.

Dale came over.  He got some pictures too.  None of them turned out very well... it was still pouring.  But I found tracks near the garbage cans (which were over-turned) in the flower bed next to the pen, and near one corner where he apparently stood on his hind legs to see if he could get over the pen. (It's covered)

Dale got a great laugh out of my "bear tracking" outfit.  I was soaking wet in my nightgown and rain coat.  He took pictures.  No, you can't see them. *grin*  Honestly, I would post one (cuz it's actually not bad) but the file is apparently corrupted.

Dale ended up hanging out until 11:30.  We went to bed as soon as he left.

This morning the Post Office called to say my chicks were here, so I went and got them.  They are now happily peeping in the nice warm cage in the School Marm's House.  There are 25 laying breed pullets of various kinds, 25 cornish cross for meat, two broad-breasted white tukeys for meat, and four Bourbon Red heritage turkeys for laying (or meat if they are toms)as well as the two week old mixed breed chicks my hen hatched.

I am going to completely re-build the chicken pen today using stiffer stronger fencing, not chicken wire.  I'm going to move the garbage cans into the lean-to, and get the gate up on the garden too.... if we are going to have a bear visiting, I'd just as soon do some work now than have to repair things after.

He did came back last night, and got into the garbage cans again... but he didn't eat anymore french fries in the chicken pen.  He must have thought it wasn't worth the effort.

At least the weather is better today.  It's still cold and wet, but it's supposed to clear off.  Bout time!  Sheesh! The weathermen around here have taken to calling this June-uary.

Time to get busy!