A
Anonymous
Guest
One nice thing about living in the boonies is that a walk consists of picking any direction on your property and just going. There is no traffic noise, no pressure and the out doors to enjoy. Alice and I go for a walk pretty much every night, both for the enjoyment and to check the property itself.
We have an older property in that it has been settled for a long time. One nice thing is that there a lot of fruit trees on it.; around 30 or so. When the apples are ripe, around October, we harvest them and dehydrate them, juice them, freeze them;; pretty much anything to preserve them. We keep some and give some away.
On a september evening, we went out for our walk through one of the fields. We approached one of the trees and saw that two of the horses were under it, eating apple. "Well, rats" If the horses get too many apples it can lead to colic so we decided that we would have to close the field off so they are unable to bump the tree and knock the apples down.
Just when we were deciding this, a couple more apples fell off the tree. HUH?? Shone the flashlight up into the tree and there, in the branches, not 6 feet away, was a bear happily munching away. Not good.
So I went to the house and got the rifle [only to be certain---not to use it unless necessary], and came back. I picked up a couple of fallen apples and tossed them at the bear. He lumbered out of the tree and was immediately set upon by the land sharks [Jacks].
Well the bear was totally dismayed with all of the darting and yapping and tore off across the fields, the three yappers in hot pursuit. One [Jester] grabbed the hind leg, held on for dear life and was thumping up and down as the bear continued its flight.
She was shook off after 20-25 feet and then joined the other 2 in the chase. Eventually, the bear made it to a cottonwood tree, bolted up to about the 80 foot level, and watched while the dogs circled that tree for at least 30 minutes. We went in for the night. Miss bear must have left during the evening and all was well until the next morning when she tried to come back.
Dogs saw her again and bolted. Last I saw of her was her running, the dogs chasing and that was it.
And She has not been back. A perfect arrangement. She must have told the other bears that this was not the place to go since we have had only one baby since then and no adults.
Now the cougar that meandered across two days ago, well that is a whole other tale.
All the best
M
We have an older property in that it has been settled for a long time. One nice thing is that there a lot of fruit trees on it.; around 30 or so. When the apples are ripe, around October, we harvest them and dehydrate them, juice them, freeze them;; pretty much anything to preserve them. We keep some and give some away.
On a september evening, we went out for our walk through one of the fields. We approached one of the trees and saw that two of the horses were under it, eating apple. "Well, rats" If the horses get too many apples it can lead to colic so we decided that we would have to close the field off so they are unable to bump the tree and knock the apples down.
Just when we were deciding this, a couple more apples fell off the tree. HUH?? Shone the flashlight up into the tree and there, in the branches, not 6 feet away, was a bear happily munching away. Not good.
So I went to the house and got the rifle [only to be certain---not to use it unless necessary], and came back. I picked up a couple of fallen apples and tossed them at the bear. He lumbered out of the tree and was immediately set upon by the land sharks [Jacks].
Well the bear was totally dismayed with all of the darting and yapping and tore off across the fields, the three yappers in hot pursuit. One [Jester] grabbed the hind leg, held on for dear life and was thumping up and down as the bear continued its flight.
She was shook off after 20-25 feet and then joined the other 2 in the chase. Eventually, the bear made it to a cottonwood tree, bolted up to about the 80 foot level, and watched while the dogs circled that tree for at least 30 minutes. We went in for the night. Miss bear must have left during the evening and all was well until the next morning when she tried to come back.
Dogs saw her again and bolted. Last I saw of her was her running, the dogs chasing and that was it.
And She has not been back. A perfect arrangement. She must have told the other bears that this was not the place to go since we have had only one baby since then and no adults.
Now the cougar that meandered across two days ago, well that is a whole other tale.
All the best
M
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