Winter Ride

My oldest daughter came up to see us and celebrate and early Christmas with her sisters.  We baked cookies, cinnamon rolls, chex mix.  But the highlight for me was our little ride around the property.  The fresh blanket of snow was just what we needed.  My mare was moving as if she was not hurting a bit.  And gentle Gemini was just as smooth and gentle as ever.

 

 

 

 Both horses wanted to go a little faster but we kept it slow.  My daughter hasn't been on a horse for about 15 years and was a bit apprehensive.  Plus the snow makes things a bit on the slippery side.

Hope that you are able to enjoy this time of year however you choose.

I enjoy the outdoors any time we can.

Gentle Gemini

 

A little TLC and Mr. Gentle Gemini looks much better.  Probably a lot less painful too with all the burrs out of his mane and tail.  My little Ms Lokey next to the new love of her life. :)

Love both of them.  Both are lovers, always wanting attention too.  They will be just as spoiled as everything else on this property.  Not sure yet who's the boss.  Gemini loves his food to say the least.  Almost done with both stalls so they can be inside on the super cold nights.  Poor D Bear says I'm working him like a borrowed mule.  We've both been so busy working on the barn that I haven't thought about Christmas.  My birthday, anniversary and Christmas are out in the paddock. :)  Off to go love on the horses. :)

OUR OWN BLACK BEAUTY

Well we were a one horse family until yesterday.  D Bear and I went to buy saddles and LOOK at a Saddle/Quarter horse gelding.  He rode him first and then I did.  Oh what an animal!  Very well trained and he will train me as well.  He is kid safe.  He and my little red headed mare will be doing their pecking order for a couple days and I'm sure he will test it often.  As for now she's the boss.  Aren't all red heads like that?  He is a little rough looking as he has been rolling in the mud and running through the cockle burrows but he's still a beautiful animal.  He will look different when we get him cleaned up.
Let me know what you think of the new addition.

 

My First Horse

They say a picture speaks One Thousand words.

So I will let them do just that.  Meet Lokey Sue, my first horse and early birthday gift from my husband.

Fall Activities

We have been busy as usual here in Heaven.
School and after school activities,  weekends filled with friends, games, and corn maze.
Question for you.  Who do  you think is the football player or cheerleader in the family?

Post your answers. I will post the answers in a few days.
Til' next time.

Beautiful Morning

Fall

Fall has arrived in all it's splendor.  This is my favorite time of year to live in Michigan.  All the vibrant colors and crisp breeze make me love where we live.  In the winter when we are fighting snow and bitter temps I will be questioning why we live in Northern Michigan.  For now I will enjoy the sun on my face when the temp is low, and the beauty all around me.  The animals are starting to come back in looking for some corn to warm up.  More deer, rabbits, raccoons, and blue jays.  Oh my do we have a flock of blue jays!  Must be about two dozen of those squawking, brilliantly colored birds.  One of the things I love about where we live is, I can go out on our deck (in my pj's if I so desire) enjoy a cup of hot coffee and listen to the animals. Some mornings I want to go right back into the house, why, because of those noisy stinkin' jays that's why!  Yelling at them to shut up, I think only makes them more likely to screech!  Yes, I yell at the birds and other back yard critters.  Except for my bears, they could eat me!  Speaking of the bears, they haven't returned as of yet.  I think the big Daddy knows I have a bear permit and a gun!  Hoping they will come back, we love to watch them.  It is bear season up here and we have heard a lot of shots going off around us.  I'm not sure what caliber they are I just know it's coming from a gun.  Darn neighbors better not be shooting my bears, that's up to me!

The geese have begun their journey south for the winter.  There have been many flocks flying overhead.  I know they have a built in homing device that tells them where their winter home is but, I have wondered how they really know.  Once the geese leave that means the tiny hummingbirds are gone too.  We have enjoyed watching them come to the feeders and flowers, beating their wings at speeds so fast we can't seem them flap!  Once you start feeding them, make sure their is always food.  I learned that quickly as they will buzz right up to your face!  Almost like, " Hey lady, where's my food?"!  When they do fly up, it's not  leisurely, it's at top speed!  There was a female that flew up about 10 inches from my face, stopped in mid flight and just looked at me and went back up to her feeding.  Amazing little creatures.

The girls and I have been busy decorating the fence for fall.  My hubby still thinks it an ugly sight!  Not sure why, so many people have complimented us on it.  I love it!!  It fits in with where we live.  We don't live in town where a white picket fence would be appropriate, we live 18 miles from a large town, out in the woods.  Our road is paved and a cut across for many trucks so it's not a two track out in the middle of the forest.  It's rural Michigan for Pete sake!  Anyhow, we went to one of our local corn mazes again this year.  As always, it's beautiful and a fun time!  Girls had a great time jumping hay bails. (makes me want our farm to get going sooner rather than later)  I go for the great photo opps and the girls go for the fun.  They have added a few things this year, like a huge slide!  I think that the girls would go there just for the slide and I for the hay ride. 
I hope to take a trip up the northern shore before the colors are all but gone.  If we get the opportunity, I will post pictures.  I haven't been up there since I was a young girl.  Around the same age that I would have been to Copper Harbor as well.  Seems like ions ago.    For now I will take in the beauty created around home and keep it in my memory and the hard drive on the computer, and patiently wait for next years vibrant colors to emerge.
Enjoy your day, and please take a moment to look around you.
Til' next time...

Random

It's been almost a week and I am getting use to the hair.  I have been spoiled by Ellie doing my hair for so long and loving it everytime I left her shop.  Now that some friends have let me know what they think and I have washed my hair and styled it, as Becky would say "I be a smoken' girl!". Ha ha ha.  But really it looks better and the colors are pretty but it was a shock to have super blond highlights again.  At one point in my life I had blond so blond that it was almost platinum!  I have a picture somewhere that shows it, if I get brave one day I will post it.  I loved that blond hair but it was a lot to keep up on.

Anyhow!  It's fall and I am loving the temps and colors that are starting to form on our trees.  We are lucky to live in an area with seasons and an ever changing climate that give us such beauty.  I started my fall decorating, wahoo!  Can't wait til next week when the corn maze is open.  We get our pumpkins and corn stalks from them as well as entertainment.  They have the maze of course, tractor ride with beautiful scenery, decorations, farm animals, and much more.  We went 3 times last year and had a blast!  I hope to be inspired by a friends yard soon.   She is one that decorates her yard for fall, and Christmas every year, we just love it!  Miss being able to look over there to see what all she has going on.  

Stop and take a look around, take in all the beauty that God and Mother Nature have provided you with.
 

Hair

My Ellie Hair!

Ok so I went in to a new hair stylist.  My prior stylist is 250 miles away!!  Oh how I miss my Ellie.  Reality is I can't afford to drive down every time I need my hair done so I have to find someone around this area to do my hair.  I have asked around to where other women go.  I saw a ladies hair and I loved the colors so I went to the same person.  I think next time I will try the other lady that someone else recommended?  UGH!  I think it may have been a mistake or it's just such a huge difference it may take some time to get use to?  This girl is very nice and tried to do a good job!  I asked for highlights, not platinum and a copper red, that's what I got with the red but the blond is a little more than I expected.  She also used some awful smelling hair spray!  Not sure what kind but oh my did it stink, even after I showered and put my hair products in!!! Yuck!  I have thin hair and can't use a lot of things but found what works thanks to Ellie.  Anyhow I thought I'd post pictures and ask for your honest opinion.  My best friend and hubby say it looks good but I say it looks streaked and like an orange and yellow skunk threw up on my head!!!!  What do you think??  Please give me your honest opinion. 

Skunk Hair?

Striped? and dull?

After I came home and washed it, curled it too. Looks a little better?

Other side after I redid it.

Ok what do you think?  Remember to be honest?  I have an appt. with her later to fix it?  Or should I just leave it and enjoy a change? Please leave your comments.

One Week Down...

I can't believe it's already September 10th!  Where did our summer go?  Where did the warm temperatures go?  Seems like all of a sudden it's a crisp autumn morning and the kids are off to school.  I enjoy my quiet days where the house stays clean, and all my work is finished quickly.  However I do miss hearing "Mom, can you help me?".  For me it's back to watching my critters and taking pictures, running here and there and cooking and cleaning.  For the girls, it's back to learning, seeing friends and having fun too!  Our first week of school and we made it through the early bedtimes and early mornings of our school routine.  No more up till 11 and sleep till 9 days, no more leisure days other than the weekends.  Who am I kidding?  Our weekends won't be lazy either, they will be filled with football games to watch and cheer at, friends over, and trips here and there too!

 Enjoy your day! And smile things could be worse.

MIA

Hi there!  I can't believe it's been so long since I last wrote!  Feeling as though I need to explain my "MIA" status. I'm still alive and kicking!  It's been a long hot summer!  Kids have been home, as well as the hubby.  We've been busy being a family and hoping for work or in my hubbies case hoping he can be off for just a little bit longer.  ha ha.
He's ready to retire or go into a different line of work that would allow him to be home.  He misses us and his home while he's away.  I thought it would be easier for him since we moved and we were more safe here in heaven well I think it's made it harder for him to be away.  He finally has his family and his home and dislikes leaving us when work calls him to duty.  He loves to be here, always has even when there was just a shack and nothing else here but the critters and the property.  Now that we have added our home here, it's almost unbearable for our bear to be away.  Some day he will be here all the time but for now he must work to support this crazy house.  Bear is back to work now and the girls will be in school soon.  Back to my days all alone.  Then I might be able to blog more, after I get my primp day and lunch day with the other Mom's celebrating the start of school!  :)  I know, awful aren't we?  Not really just look forward to quiet days where the house stays clean and we get to do whatever else we want to! 
Until then I am off again. Before I leave though I must share these pictures of my babies hair :-(

This is before the sadness set in.

This is after the sadness set in!!! I just wanted to cry!! Reminded me of the first day of kindergarten!!
I think I'll go cry now ;(

Ti'l next time.

Working Hubby While I Have Him...

Things in Heaven are looking up.  We've been busy with visits from our oldest baby(she'll always be my baby no matter how old she is), fishing,

working on things around the yard and watching one of the cubs bring a friend in to eat.  

Bear brought home these pieces of plastic culvert so we thought we'd make good use of them.  We don't have a lawn let alone a space made for a garden so we made up our own Yooper Garden!  Don't laugh it may just work and we might be on our way to becoming millionaires. (ha ha ha ha would be nice though wouldn't it?)We have 2 tomato plants, cukes, zuccini, red and green peppers, one leaf cabbage, and 20 strawberry plants!  If nothing else I can make salsa, jam and zuccini bread!!  Girls and Denny worked their butts off so we could have a little garden and be able to keep the critters out!

Bear climbed up the birch in front of our house.  As you can see from the first photo the top of the tree is dead.  So he topped the tree off and trimmed the tree to make it look better.  He works high up all the time for his job so being 30 foot up a tree is nothing to him.  To the girls and I, umm that would be a big I'm NOT going up there!  Slowly we are adding flower beds and making our house a home.  I am a flowers everywhere is not enough girl!  I can grow things outside like mad but when it comes to inside stuff, forget it.  I used to be able to grow indoor plants but I guess that left somewhere along the time I had kids!  As for the cub and her friend, I think she's too young to be bringing boyfriends home!!  She's only 2 for pete's sake!  He's too old for her, he's around 3 - 4 years old!  The Pixie and I were out on the deck taking video and still shots while they just laid their and ate.  They got up and came a little closer to smell the food in the bird feeders.  They can no longer get to them unless they tightrope across the cable.  

The fishing trip Bear took alone brought us a large mess of fish.  We have been longing for an all you can eat fish dinner and boy did we get one!  The one picture of Bear he's holding the largest of his catch of the day.  A 28" 8# walleye, and a 26" 5# northern pike.  They were yummy in our tummy's!  I feel the need to explain the next fish picture.  You see 2 hands going towards the fish.  Well we dared Pixie to touch the fish so Mare Bear thought she would too!  Pixie is scared silly to touch a fish and even worse when it comes to toads or frogs.  Odd thing to be afraid of but none the less she is.   

Til' next time.

I thought I'd show some of the beauty before writing about it.  My oldest baby came to see us this past week with much coaxing involved and of course money! She lives 250 miles away from us and we miss her everyday!  We took her to one of our favorite photo spots on the river.  Bear and Pixie tried their hand at fishing, and Pixie got lucky by catching a Pike!  Yummy!!  The weather was not wanting to cooperate with us but we made it through with only a few sprinkles.  Somehow she sprained her ankle and we ended up in the er for x-rays, an air cast, and crutches!  She is a tough girl!  We went shopping and out to lunch.  She had fun trying to run Mom over with one of the go go carts at Wally World, making her sister laugh!  Sisters don't miss a beat even when they aren't together everyday.   Pixie decided she needed some Daddy/Daughter time and went fishing on the bay!  Lucky girl, I would have rather been fishing then shopping. They each caught one but they weren't keepers.  I'm so glad my oldest came up for a much needed visit while Bear was home.  She needed to see everyone and get some Mema cooking.  (That's what she calls me is Mema)  This week one of my last Iris' to bloom blossomed!  I have not had this one yet in all my years of having Iris'!  My Grandma had them all over her yard but I never had them bloom.  I look forward to what comes up next year!

Til' next time...

Bears, Bears They're Everywhere

I haven't check our trail camera for a few days. I did today and much to my delight I saw this sight.

He or she is the cutest.  Just look at it's fluffy body of fur and cute little face.   He even has a round little bottom.   How could you not fall for the cuteness factor?!

This little one decided to come in the day I happened to be having lunch with the girls at school.  So of course I didn't get any pictures with my camera.  Darn it anyway!  He or she is one of the 2 year old cubs we had here last fall.  They are such amazing creatures we are lucky to see.  I prefer not to have them on my deck or tearing down my feeders though.

The first photo is of the rascal is climbing up the side of our feeder we use to feed the deer and turkeys to view them.  I am not sure how he got up there but I sure wish I would have been home to watch him.  Next photo's he is climbing up the ladder we use to fill the barrel.  I think he was trying to figure out how he could get more food!

We have saw 4 of the 5 bears here at Sweet Pea's Heaven.  The littlest member of the bear family has not made it's appearance as of yet.  We know it's here as we have witnessed the claw marks in the birch bark.  We probably won't see it til the fall since the Momma Bear keeps it up in trees and teaches it everything it needs to know.  She doesn't want us pesky humans seeing her baby just yet.

We get to watch the cubs from a couple years ago, Momma, and the Big Daddy.   As long as they leave my family and my stuff alone we won't have any issues.  If we do, I have a gun and I am not afraid to use it, just to scare them off not kill them.  I will leave that up to my more experienced hunter, my bear.

Til next time.

Sites I love to see...

One of the sites I'm thankful to view.  Bear fishing!  One week before this was taken, he laid in a hospital bed hoping he'd make it out of there alive.  Such a strong and loving man, the love of my life, my Bear.

Dad and his little girls.  They were having fun catching fish until they quit biting.  Fun in the sun with gee imagine this Mom and Dad.  Another site that made me teary eyed and I wasn't even PMSing..

Sometimes I say, remember to take a look around and notice the beauty that surrounds you.  Two days ago I looked up to see this beautiful moth.  It's not a butterfly but close.  I looked it up on the internet to find out what it's called, it's commonly called a  Robin's Moth.
When we moved here last year I brought as many flowers, bushes and vines that I could.  Normally Iris' get kind of shocked when they are transplanted, well not these hardy buggers some of which spent the winter in the original dirt still in the burlap sacks!  I didn't have what I needed to plant most of them last fall before snow fell so I hoped and prayed they'd make it through til spring.  As of right now I have 4 Iris' that will be blooming this year.  Most of them have the greenery but no signs of flowering.  They are all flowers from my grandmother that passed away 5 years ago.  She could tell you what type they were and where she got them from and when and even who.  I wish I had that information to pass down to my children but it was one of those things that was in Grandma's mind not written down.  The Peonies are doing wonderful.  Four out of the many I brought will be blooming too!  Much to my surprise we have some miniature roses that I thought for sure were dead to this world.  Not sure if they will flower this year.Many more flowers I am looking forward to seeing pop up this year.  Oriental Poppies in bright orange may flower if I can keep the rabbits and deer from chewing them down to nubs.  Tomorrow I will be looking for a home in the yard for my grapevines we brought with us from the L.P. .  You guessed it they are still in their dirt in burlap sacks.. I hope they have survived as well as everything else did in those sacks.  We shall see.  The house we lived in down in the L.P. was extremely close to the rode.  As in when you stepped off the bottom step you were on the gravel on the side of the road.  As a dust repellent my grandma planted the grave vines.  They took years to take over the entire front porch, they provided a dust barrier, sound barrier and privacy.  We could sit on the porch and no one knew you were there.  I miss that place and the porch is bare without all the vines all over it.  I hope to have them grow into the vines they used to be but they will not cover my porch and block my view of the woods and critters I love to watch everyday.  When the flowers bloom I will post pictures.
til' next time.

Thankful

SweetPea's Heaven has been a little shaken these past few weeks.
First with my son.
Then my husband.
Son is still in jail. Most think, how awful, I think it's a safe place for him to be. He will have a chance to sober up and think a little. It's tough love, it hurts like hell but must be done to help him realize there are consequences in life. Do I love him? Yes with all my heart! Someday things will be different, not necessarily perfect but hopefully better.
Now for our scare. Bear somehow came in contact with someone that had or carried the viral spinal meningitis virus!! He was extremely sick, felt like he could possibly die, maybe even wanted to a few times. He was in the hospital for 5 days and then came home for a week to recover. Thank goodness it was the viral not bacterial. Both can be fatal but the latter of the two is more so than the other. Bear received great care during his stay. He had all sorts of doctors and nurses to care for him, but that didn't stop me from wanting to be by his side. He insisted that I stay home and make my trip to see my Mom for Mother's Day. I was torn in two inside, tried to put a smile on my face to hide the worried eyes. Bear is still weaker than he likes but he has to realize there was a major viral infection in his body and it takes time to bounce back. I am just thankful he's here with us! Thankful to hear his voice, see his face, to be able to reach out and touch him. He's a wonderful, strong man and I don't know what I'd do without him. Our Bear is back to work in the big city.
While Bear was home we had our bear visitors. They have been wreaking havoc on my bird feeders. They are all so beautiful, and we love to watch them but the bears have got to go! Have you ever been woken up out of a dead sleep by the sounds of " Get out of here bear!! BOOM BOOM!!" (gun shots)? Well til last week I hadn't! Another morning shots fired again to try to deter yet another bear! Then last night around 9:15 while on the phone saying good night to Bear, we had another one come in! Aye!! I told him the bears in, went to get the shotgun. Opened the door and fired twice with the girls yelling in the background for the bear to leave! I am all about living in the woods and watching the animals but those bears,they scare me! They are huge and can easily hurt one of us. If we can't deter it from coming in we may just have a bear rug on the wall! I would love it!! As for the bird feeders they are now 10 foot in the air on a cable system my hubby made up for us! What a great idea! The first time we put it up, it wasn't high enough, darn bear can sure stretch! Now I think we got it. We think the bear count on our property is 5! Yikes!! There is the boar, sow, 2- 2year old cubs, and then a baby cub possibly born this winter! We applied for our permit the other day, hoping for a chance to shoot one.
Bear and I took the girls fishing on the last and only nice day he was home. They all skunked me! But I just kept watching them interact with tears thanking God for being able to see those sights! We finished our day with a little fire, roasted some dogs, and of course S'mores! It was a perfect day! Pixie said so and that she didn't want it to end!
Hope you have been able to take time to look around and enjoy the people and beauty that surround you.
Til' next time

P.S. I had pictures to add to this but they wouldn't upload :(

Sadness and Hurt

Not sure who wants to read things that are down. Not sure that anyone is reading anyway. But I have to get these thoughts out of my head and put out somewhere.
In the past few years I have done a total 360 in how we live and do things. My kids were always with me and still are other than the older 2. When I lived with their biological father, I had to protect them and put everything into them. I still do but in a different way. I lived day to day life for them, making sure we (the kids and I) were getting the food we needed, making sure the drunk would not wake them or bother them to the point of tears. The kids and I were family, he wasn't included 99% of the time. Kind of hard to include someone that you don't want there! Nor are they coherent enough to function in family life. Living with an alcoholic is well to say the least difficult. The emotional ups and downs, the broken/empty promises, the blackouts, the I didn't do that's, the I don't remembers, the cigarette burns that could have burned the house down, the arguing, etc. The "Oh Great, no heat today, oh and check this out no water pipes are froze!!". The list goes on and on.

Life these days, I don't know where to begin. I don't worry about that stuff anymore. Three of my four kids are doing very well as am I. I know that we are ok, I know that we have everything we need, I know that I have the most loving and understanding man I am married to. We are a complete family even though he has to work out of town, we are still family. We have dinner times, we have bed times, no worries about cigarette burns he doesn't smoke! The bills get paid one way or another. Did I mention we are a family? Something I never had before. Hubby didn't have that either. Both of us have been married before and didn't have family life. He came into this relationship without having his own children and has taken on the responsibility of raising a family with me. He must have lost his mind some where along the line. Our relationship is awesome and all I can say is "Where the heck were we 20 years ago?" We probably wouldn't have gotten along very well. But you never know. We are together now and that's what matters. He is my rock, he is my best friend, he is my wonderful husband.

Now comes the sadness. My son is 18 years old. He lives with his father. Not sure why he chose his crazy lifestyle over a normal life. I know it's all he's ever known but all I wanted was for him to come with us and have a normal life. He is so full of hate and anger for me. I can't fix it. I have tried. He's been in and out of trouble, lock up, and now jail. His 2nd P.O. was the worst! He tried to be his friend instead of someone that's suppose to be there to keep you in line and out of trouble! Kids like my son need a hardass p.o., not one that wants to make him happy by letting him do whatever he wants to do. He made it easy for him to walk away from a better situation~ family, clean clothes, shower, food, an education~to a bad situation. He thought that it was too dangerous to leave him there because he had made threats against us. I feel that if he would have just left him there he would have been ok, he and Bear would have went for a ride to hash out whatever his problem was and then we would have dealt with things as a family! It might not have been perfect and may have turned out the same way but at least we would have tried to help him. Instead he was allowed by his p.o. to just walk away, leave our family, to go back to a lonely and dark life. I've tried to have him live with us on several different occasions, but he always went back. WHY?? I wish I knew. I have rules? He is not allowed to smoke, drink and absolutely no drugs, had to let me know where he is. Oh and do homework, graduate too! I guess he couldn't handle it. He never did good in school as it is. His wonderful father wouldn't let him be tested for ADD or ADHD when he was younger. Why, his reason, " I don't want my kid being doped up!", coming from a dope smoker? Doesn't make sense to me either. Had he been tested he might have been able to focus and stay out of trouble a little easier by being able to stop think and make a good decision. I love my son with all my heart and wish for nothing more than to have a good relationship with him. At this point I don't know if that's possible. Before yesterday we had spoke once in a years time. He didn't want me in his life. He had said some pretty hateful things towards me, and I had to stop letting him do that to me. I told him that I was finished trying to have a relationship with him, I would not contact him anymore that if he wanted to talk he could call me. Done playing the chase me game. The other day he called and asked me if I could bail him out, the Mom he doesn't talk to! Oh sure I'll just go spend a grand to get you out and send you on your merry way, NOT! It's one of the hardest choices I have made in a year. Last one I made was to leave the ball in his court and basically walk away. I keep him in my mind as the boy he was before he turned into his father's replica. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of him, wonder if he's ok, wonder if he thinks of me. Everyone I have talked to including his old counselor have told me to leave him sit, that jail is the safest place for Ed right now. He is unable to get the drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes that he's used to being supplied with, he gets a shower, clean clothes, food and a roof over his head. I know that must sound awful to think of jail as a better place for your child to be but unfortunately for him it is. I am truly struggling with leaving him there. The Mom in me says go get your baby and help him out but I have to fight that urge. He has done wrong and needs to see that when you do something wrong there are consequences. There are so many emotions I am going through as I'm sure he is. He is saying things I might want to hear. Of course I want to hear that he misses me and loves me and will pay me back. I want so much to believe his words but then he twists in a lie and the heart strings stop tugging and the anger starts to build. Why couldn't he just tell me the truth instead he had to lie as if he thought that would help his cause. Oh my poor boy trapped, and I have to keep strong that he's safer there then at the home he shares with his father. Sadness has set in as I must put on a happy face for the girls because if they see tears they know who has caused them without me saying a word. How do I do this, the same way as I have in the past, make face and act like everything is just fine. Living with an alcoholic has taught me that. One of the many lessons I wish I never had to learn. My children are all children of an alcoholic yet all 3 girls have chosen to think of alcohol and drugs as the worst thing possible, yeah Mom taught them well. Why is it that my son couldn't learn the same as his sisters? I hope to find the answer some day. I will always be his Mom and want him in our lives but he has to want it too. Until then I will keep him in my head and heart and prayers. I will shed tears as I mourn for him.
I will keep on, keepin' on...
Til next time.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!!!

Last night I rose to a clatter, I got out of bed to see what's the matter.
To see such a sight!! There was a bear on my deck!! I said "What the heck?" (Not really, I said Holy Shit there's a bear right there!!!). Only thing between she and I was a glass door, glad she didn't see me looking at her in amazement. She moved with the greatest of ease. What a beautiful creature but a little too up close and personal for the likes of this country girl.
She left the deck with nectar upon her face from the hummingbird feeder she tried to erase.
Moving on to bigger messes to make. Crazy lady went to the trash cans lined up in a row looking for more rubbish to sow. But little did she know I had emptied them that day. In hopes of keeping her away. She found nothing there and moved on to the bird feeders, standing on hind legs to smell what she could smell. Thought she'd sit a spell under one feeder. She left one alone and went to lay her lazy butt down under the large spin cast feeder we use to feed deer and turkeys. I watched her lay there eating corn and scooching her fat bum around to get more corn in her belly. This bear is the same bear from last fall with no cubs this year. She came out of her den to find no natural food around, darn bear remembered to pay a call to Sweet Pea's Heaven. This all started last week when I woke to find some of my feeders were gone! Yes GONE! Apparently she was hungry and wanted to eat the whole thing? Then Tuesday night came and went, I looked out my patio door as I do every morning to find things in disarray. The replacement finch feeder I had put out was GONE, the pole to hang feeders from GONE, the suet and other feeder GONE, Oriole Feeder GONE! Oh and she got into one of the 55 gallon garbage barrels, decided the lady that lives here needs some bags of trash to pick up!! Ugh, what do I do with an unruly bear?
Bear says to shoot her along with everyone else before she causes more problems. I enjoyed watching her last night but I must say it's time for the bear to go. One bear family on this property is more than enough. My dilemma starts now, how do I go about getting rid of the big sow? Do we shoot her, call the DNR to have her removed? I will miss seeing her black fuzzy face but I know it's too dangerous to have her around. If we remove her one way or the other, another will come in her place. What to do, what to do I haven't a clue! I guess all I can do is to watch her dance with the feeder like she likes to do!

Til next time.