Animals

Bear Tails

For the past couple of weeks, this has been sitting in our front lawn.

Yes, it's a bear trap....designed to capture and relocate our pesky neighborhood black bear.

This bear has been plaguing us for months, now...

on our decks, destroying our bird feeders, in our garage.

He is obviously one hungry bear.

And if it weren't for our dogs, I wouldn't worry about having his trapped.

After all, this land was his long before it was ours.

Black bears' habitat is shrinking all the time, so I feel quite sorry

for these amazing creatures.

But I love my dogs and farm critters, and would hate to lose one to an angry bear.

Saturday night Hubbs and I were in the family room watching a movie.

Over the sound of the TV, I heard a snorting coming from outside.

"Hrumpf, hrumpf, hrumpf" I heard as he exhaled.

We figure he was checking out the trap....but wary enough to not go into it.

This morning, very early, Hubbs noticed that the trap's door was closed.

Could it be?

Did that pesky bear finally enter the trap?

Here is what we found

when

looked

inside......

This poor fellow was scared to death,

and probably sick in the stomach from all of the rotten doughnuts that he had eaten.

After freeing the raccoon, I cleaned out the old hay and the old doughnuts,

in an attempt to "gussy up" the place a bit....new hay, leftover birthday cake...

hopefully we will catch dear Yogi next time.

Thank you for the suggestions you left me with your comments yesterday.

Occasionally I have a quiet day on the farm without excitement,

and it is nice to be able to tell you a little more about things you might enjoy.

I do so enjoy your comments and suggestions...and questions,

so don't hesitate to "ask"!

So, I promise you....Monday will be a house tour.

I will work on it over the weekend.

There was a question about our dear "One Eyed Myrtle" yesterday.

Myrtle is one of our original breeding stock Fainting Goats.

She came to us from Nevada.

Myrtle came to us with two eyes, but was plagued with eye problems...

infections, allergies, constant irritations.

Part of her problem was the fact that both eyes lie within

patches of white. No pigmentation around the eyes can be a problem for goats.

Eventually Myrtle's right eye became so sore that Dr. Becky removed it.

Amazingly, Myrtle has no problems related to the loss of that eye.

She navigates quite well and does not seem to miss it at all.

She is a great Mama, giving birth to a set of triplets this past Spring.

You also commented how you enjoy our chickens.

We enjoy them too!

These are my two largest henhouses.

They share a common yard,

and house about 50 chickens.

Here they are just moments before the gate opens for daily free ranging....

lined up like school kids on the last day of school...

full of excitement and anticipation.

Here they are as soon as the gate opens....

Woo Hooooooo! How we love to be outside!

And of course the turkeys and guineas are never far away.

Our fancy chickens live in a coop by the barn

and free range around the horses all day.

The Roos make their home in a coop close to the farmhouse,

as well as the Cuckoo Marans and Henri.

Soon the Cuckoo Marans will move into the upper henhouses

and a new batch of chicks will arrive the second week of July.

(Gotta keep up with the demand for good fresh farm eggs!)

Have a great weekend....

hope to see you back here on Monday for our video house tour.

PS....
check out last night's garden bounty....

We had a yummy dinner, chock full of garden goodness!

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