I've walked among bears...

For my first 48 hours here, I was not allowed to walk outside of the buildings by myself. I was trained on bear safety and the various requirements of different jobs we do during the day. I was kept mostly indoors, and by the end of my 48 hours I was chomping at the bit, eager to get out amongst them.... and then.... I was given clearance to walk where ever I wanted, whenever I wanted. That night... I stayed inside.

Stepping into those woods surrounded by bears, by myself, for the first time was a rush...but definitely something I wanted to wait for the morning light to do.

It didn't take long for me to feel comfortable around the bears....

***There are cubbies or springies born this past Jan/Feb weighing only 6-10 ounces, the size of a grapefruit.



Most cubbies aren't given a name as they change so much in their appearance from one year to the next, however, this little guy is named, "Cubby". He is an orphan. He showed up alone at the sanctuary a couple weeks ago. We have no idea what happened to his mom. He is feisty! And cute beyond words. A few days ago there seemed as if there was an adoption battle going on between two females that currently have springies, but Cubby remains alone. If he can't find someone to take care of him over the winter, he probably won't survive.

***Then there are the "yearlings". Cubs stay with their mom until they are about 1 1/2 years old, then they are dispersed (force to leave and live on their own) These newly dispersed yearlings have the look of little lost puppies on their faces. They stay back in the woods, usually stand to eat so that they can run or scamper up a tree at a moments notice and in general, just look lost.



There are a group of 8 or 9 of them that are hanging out together... I call them my "Rat Pack" When I first started to go into the woods they would scamper up the trees or run off at the slightest noise. So... every morning as I was putting out food I would sing the Teddy Bear's Picnic song to them softly and talk to them. Within a few days they no longer feared me and actually started to follow me like puppies. Unfortunately, I had to put a stop to that... but the little guy pictured above has captured my heart and I am pleased and smile each day when he is the first to come out and greet me. I've named him "Mini V" He has a small v shaped chest blaze. There is another bear named Vince who has a large v shaped chest blaze and I like to think that perhaps Mini V is one of Vince's off spring.

***Next in line are the adults... there are young adults (3-5 years of age) adult females (150-250 lbs) and adult males (250 - 650 lbs).

Those that visit the sanctuary repeatedly are named (providing they have distinguishable blazes or features)and data is collected on them. They all have such unique personalities.

Some of the feeding sites are raised beds. One morning the woods was totally quiet... no bears in site. As I leaned over the bed to place a scoop of food on the platform, from the back side, up jumped a young male. His nose was literally one inch from mine!!! We both just froze surprised to see each other. Eventually I got the courage to speak and said, "Didn't anyone tell you about the 10 foot rule?"


My favorite female is Jenny. Jenny currently has 3 cubs and is very mellow. She often brings her cubs out to eat and walk around the sanctuary. She doesn't mind if we get close. Her third cub is a curious and feisty little thing!!! He reminds me so much of my youngest "cub." He is always wandering off from mom... always lagging behind checking something out... and brave... until... mom walks away and leaves him up a tree.. then he is calling out to her.




This Mom is new to the sanctuary and very nervous. She's got three adorable little cinnamon colored cubbies. I got a bit too close when feeding and trying to identify her and she bluff charged me from the tree!!! I'm grateful that she wasn't on the ground.



And then there are the males... big and proud and quite the powerful presence....
Yet, I've seen them play "King of the Mulch Pile", wrestle and tease each other.





The other morning as I was the first to exit the food shed with a bucket of food I had ten males suddenly surround me. It was all I could do to get a scoop of feed out on a site and tell them to "sit and stay"!!! They were hungry! No one told them about the ten foot rule either... not that they would care. Guess that's why the first thing I did upon my arrival was to sign a liability waiver!!! :) No worries... Wolfy will save me ( A story for another day... time to get back to work.)

Teddy Bear's Picnic

If you go out in the woods today
You're sure of a big surprise.
If you go out in the woods today
You'd better go in disguise.

For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.





(**chorus)
**Picnic time for teddy bears
The little teddy bears are having a lovely time today.
Watch them, catch them unawares,
And see them picnic on their holiday.
See them gaily dance about.
They love to play and shout,
And never have any cares.
At six o'clock their mommies and daddies
Will take them home to bed,
Because they're tired little teddy bears**








If you go out in the wood today,
You'd better not go alone.
It's lovely out in the woods today,
But safer to stay at home.

For every bear that ever there was,
Will gather there for certain, because,
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

(chorus)







Every teddy bear, that's been good
Is sure of a treat today.
There's lots of wonderful things to eat
And wonderful games to play.

Beneath the trees, where nobody sees,
They'll hide and seek as long as they please.
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

Giving a little bit more....

And so the journey continues....

The follow morning we were greeted with what we thought was rain and needed to roll up a wet tent! Turns out that it was merely intense fog coming in off the lake. The further we got from the lake shore the brighter and bluer the skies became.

I'm fairly certain my son is tired of me stopping to take photos along the way... but how can I possible help but not stop? Some of the scenes were just breath taking...

Wild Lupines....






Old tattered barns.....




Fields so covered in daisies that it looked like Summer Snow....








And an Old rail trellis...




We did also manage to locate a wonderful "vineyard" so to speak. We are much too far north to grow grapes... but stumbled upon a quaint establishment that makes all their products from honey... wonderful, wonderful mead!!!!

Having parted with a significant sum of cash on mead we got back into the car for the last time prior to reaching our true destination.... the Black Bear Sanctuary in MN.



Speaking of which... time to go feed....

Give a little bit....

"Give a little bit... Give a little bit of your life to me....."

This song is repeating in my head right now. And so, with the morning shift done and brief access to the internet, I'll attempt to do just that and "Give a little bit..."

I'll spare you the details of the first day of travel through intense rain, thunder storms, a brief visit with an old friend on the other side of the state, downed power lines that caused late night detours and almost running out of gas because I forgot to look down....

The real fun came the second day. The real trip began once we crossed the bride into the Upper Peninsula (which is quickly becoming one of my favorite places on earth)



Our destination for the night was Munising, where we camped on the beach of Lake Superior for what would end up being two nights. After pitching our tent I lit a fire, cooked dinner, sipped some wine and enjoyed a beautiful sunset with my son.





The following morning I woke with a smile as the song of the loons was my alarm clock. Wanting to make the most of our day (after a proper breakfast of course) we started with a 5 mile paddle in the kayaks on a river that leads into Lake Superior. It was wonderfully windy and upon each and every turn a different form of wildlife greeted us... hooded mergansers, dragonflies, bullfrogs, belted kingfishers, great blue herons and muskrats... to name a few...



From there we decided to explore the coast by foot and hiked a few miles into one of the many waterfalls...



The trees were impressively tall and I wished there were a way to properly photograph the forest floor lined with ferns, greens and forget-me-nots as it was truly stunning... As I strolled through them I couldn't help but wonder if they were a sign to calm my fears, that by my being away for so long certain people would forget about me...



We ventured a bit further up from the trail location to view the coast from above...



So impressed were we, that we hustled to the docks to take the next "three hour tour" (I called Marian and Benjamin claimed the Professor) of Lake Superior and "The Pictured Rocks"...

Lake Superior has a large variety of minerals pressed amongst the sand stone... and as the waves beat against the coast line they release the minerals hidden within and make the rocks look as though they've been painted... the waves also carve the stone into impressive formations.













And so our day ended, with yet another spectacular sunset and the reassuring songs of the loons calling their loved ones close....

Into the wild...

Last time, I just went to visit... this time I am going to stay. I'll be completing a month long internship at a black bear sanctuary in MN.

My son Benjamin and I are embarking on this adventure together. We will be loading up the kayaks, camping gear and camera to explore the southern border of Lake Superior on the way out.. and the northern border of the lake in Canada on the way back.

It promises to be quite the journey... of mind, body and spirit...

Cedar waxwings and Service berries...

The Cedar Waxwing happens to be one of my all time favorite birds! The first time I saw one I was just in awe of its sleek colors and unique appearance. It also made me smile as it flitted about, cheerfully chirping with its flock, consuming berries in large quantities. Having learned that they like service berries the best I set out to attract them to my yard.

I started out by planting one lone service berry bush in my bird garden. The following year I picked up another one, figuring two were better than one. But just two bushes... still young... would they be enough to get the tiny birds' attention?

The following year I purchased more... 10 beautiful, four foot high service berry bushes!!! Within a week of planting, my very little, very hungry, soon to be known as "Big White Beastie" chewed them down to six inches!!! Not knowing if they would survive, feeling a bit defeated, I left it in the hands of Mother Nature.

Over the next couple of years the first two bushes grew, blossomed and produced fruit. Curious as to why the birds liked them so much, I decided to taste the berries. Oh My God!!!! They are the sweetest most amazing berries I've ever tasted!!!

I no longer watched as intently for the birds... I was, after all, enjoying the awesome berries... Until...

The wretched little beasts with wings located my berries and stripped the bushes clean within a matter of hours!!!

Finally I get the birds to come to my yard and they eat all my berries!!! Every last one!!!

The 10, munched on, mutilated bushes survived and in the past few years have produced enough berries for me and the Cedar Waxwings..... and the Catbirds and the Mocking birds and the Eastern Blue Birds and the Robins and sometimes the Wrens.... it would seem as though we ALL enjoy the berries!!!

I was afraid I was going to miss them this year as I'll be leaving in two days for a month's time... but Mother Nature has been kind and in the past two days the berries have ripened. I've been eating every dark ripe berry I can pick!!! Breakfast, lunch and dinner... and snacks in between... and every time I walk by the bushes... They are small, so you have to fill the palm of your hand and then pop them all into your mouth at the same time!!!! :)



The branches are heavy with fruit and sweeter than ever.



I'm glad I was able to enjoy some before leaving. Hope to also see my little feathered friends before I go. Even though we now fight to see who will get to the berries first... they are still my all time favorite bird!!!

My Dog is Disgusting!!!

Okay... so she is also very cute, having just gotten back from the groomer, prancing about the back yard with her two little pink bows catching the last few rays of sunshine as it slowly sets behind the trees.... but don't be fooled...

I had spent a few weeks preparing for the first big fire of the spring. Plants had been cut back, dead, fallen branches from the winter picked up and stacked, scraps of wood and old rags hard with dried stain from the winter's work in my shop added to the pile... and then there was the first half of the deck removed and ready to be burned.

I had wanted to burn it sooner, but the weather was not cooperating and I was having fun gathering more fuel to make it a respectable event.

In the days prior to the lighting I caught the scent of dead animal coming from the fire pit.... I thought, "Good God, what crawled in there and died?" Figuring it was nothing more than a small rodent I torched the pyre, enjoyed its glow and thought nothing more of it.

Two weeks later I decided to cut up and burn the second half of the deck. Rather impressed with the height of the flames and intensity of the heat the fire generated, I enjoyed watching the flames reduce my pyre to mere ashes as I sipped wine and admired the full moon.

A few days later as I was cutting more boards for the deck I noticed Abbey picking something out of the fire pit and carrying it off to the grass. I wondered what she might have found left in the ashes. She dropped whatever the thing was into the grass and began to roll on it, rub her face on it, making me smile as she wiggled and squirmed playing with her new found toy... and then the stench hit!!!! Oh My God what a stench!!!! It was so foul you had to cover your nose to keep yourself from gagging!

I walked over to the grass to see just what she had... it was the jaw bone from a groundhog. Apparently, my cute little puppy had gotten herself yet another ground hog and buried it in the side of the fire pit... and apparently I cooked it for her!!!

I grabbed a stick to poke around the dirt where she had obviously been digging to see if there were more bones. What I found was oozing, foul, gooey, groundhog guts.... and some bones and hair from the incomplete cremation!!!!

All I had time for at that moment was to bury what was left with dirt and run for the hose and dishwasher soap. No way was she coming into the house for the night with that stench on her!!!!

The gross gooey groundhog guts have since been dug up, bagged, boxed and deposited in the nearest dumpster... and Abbey... my disgusting dog? Well... she managed to get a day at the spa out of the whole thing!!!

If you give a mouse a hammer... continued....

More planking needed to be cut, notched, spaced and screwed into place... while mouse cut, notched, spaced and screwed into place... She realized that the remaining planks from the old deck needed to be cut in half and prepared to be burned.



While cutting the old planks in half and preparing them to be burned... She realized that the winds were settling and that this would be a good night to set them a blaze....



While setting them a blaze... She realized... the full moon was out.... While admiring the full moon she realized that... Dang!!! This fire is even higher than the last one... it looks as though it could warm the man in the moon! To be continued....