Oh no. Snow. Look what we woke to:

About 2" overnight. 

We just got back from a ten day trip in the RV down to the Gunnison area. (More on the trip to come.) One of the first things we did was retrieve the game camera cards from various cameras we have set up in different spots on our land. It's always fun to see what animals have been around.

The game camera down by the beaver pond which has captured such things as the strange Ewok owl and coyotes never fails us. This time we got a big black bear and momma moose of momma moose and baby fame. We know this because the baby showed up in consecutive shots. We also caught what we think was probably the same bear at night on the meadow camera on a different day. Lots of bear activity.

Momma was getting a nice big drink of pond water and if you look closely you cansee the water dripping from her mouth. Such a cool shot!

But the consecutive shots that are below are what blew us away! They are not in focus due to running animals, but they tell a story. This camera is just down the hill from the cabin in the bottom of our forest where Bart Creek flows in the spring.

First comes this shot: a mountain lion! Note the date stamps on each photo.

Then came this shot, just a few seconds later. A big moose!

And a few minutes after the moose went in one direction, it was headed back the opposite direction!

Interesting, yes? We think the moose was chasing the lion. So, we can't really identify the moose except that we know it's a female, or cow. No antlers; white anal patch visible in the last photo. Was it momma moose protecting her baby? Quite the story! We never know what the game cameras will catch.

(I am still trying to play catch-up on  my older blog posts!)

We have bears up here but we rarely see them. Other people have reported sightings, and we've caught them on our game cameras that are down by the pond but seeing one around the cabin? No, only once that I can remember and that was years and years ago.

A couple of weeks ago we were driving into town when I spotted a black animal on a hillside. It moved and I said to Rick, that's a bear! It was just a small black bear and when he saw our vehicle he started to run. And let me tell you, that bear could run! 

He ended up running straight down the middle of the road in front of us before he veered off in sage and kept right on running. It was an unusual sight for sure.

The very next morning I got up and opened the curtains, checking out the meadow before I let the dogs out. To my great surprise I saw a bear with two cubs in our yard. I think I casually said to Rick, oh there's a bear in our yard! I guess I was kind of casual about it because it was a very common sight in New Jersey where we lived to see bears in the yard. She looke pretty comfy with the bird feeder pulled to the ground and was munching happily away on bird seed.

One cub was sticking pretty close to mamma, while the other little cub was a bit more brave. I don't think this is the first time this crew has visited since one other time when we were gone for a few days we came home to having the bird feeding station askew (instead of on the ground like this time) and the bird waterer base was unscrewed from the top and on the other side of the fence. As you can see in the pics below, junior is having a great time batting that very same waterer around! Maybe it's really a bear toy?

He was just having a great time using our fence as a balance beam.

I think I'll just walk along here for a little ways ....

Maybe I"ll just kind of sit here for awhile ...

We watched all the silly antics for awhile, just because watching cubs play is so darned cute. They are such little kids! And so smart as well. But, enough was enough and we don't want them feeling comfortable hanging out in our fenced yard, so Rick got the rifle out and went outside to fire it off over their heads to scare them away. I laughed myself silly at the little cub's reaction to Rick coming out of the house.

Whoa, mom ... what the heck is that big white thing?

Time to leave!

And over the fence they went. Well, almost all of them anyway. The littlest cub could not figure out how to get over the fence and was pitifully mewling for mamma, who was by then all the way to the edge of the Ewok Forest, running back and forth next to the fence line. Mamma looked as if she was thinking about coming back for it and I was also just about to go out and open the gate for the poor little thing when it finally figured it out and climbed over and went lickety-split to mamma.

You were adorable bear family but we'd rather you didn't come back for a repeat visit anytime soon!

I can't quite believe it, but while we were gone for the day yesterday, September 3rd, our neighbor caught someone cutting wood from our property. He did not challenge them because he said they kind of acted like they belonged and thought maybe we had given someone permission to cut. Uhm, NO. When he came back a little later they had gone. He said the wood was piled four feet high in the back of their pickup. I think they owe us for a cord of wood.

This is very upsetting to say the least. We don't know who they were but we have a pretty good description of them and their truck (full description follows). Late last year we closed off the road to the public (with permission) that travels back through our land and on back to only three other property owners where the road dead ends. We put up a sturdy rope with a clip (no lock) and Private Property/No Trespassing signs on either side. These people undid the rope, passed through and put the rope back up again. Maybe they are illiterate? Maybe they just don't know that you just don't do those kinds of things?

So, the man was 6' about 250 lbs, 50+ years of age with a long white beard. The woman with him was roughly the same age, blonde hair. They were driving a Dodge dooley pickup, silver/gray/blue: no license plate number since the tailgate was down and he couldn't see one. He said he's seen the man around at HOA meetings cutting wood on BLM land that borders our properties. He has also been known to wear a black sailor's cap.

If this description matches anyone you know in Sand Creek Park please let us know. We did make file a crime report with the Larmier County Sheriff's office.

Who knows, they might be doing illegal things on your land in the near future!

Ah, pack rat season has begun. Last week there was a little "gift" left for us by the door on the back deck. It always starts this way. A little leaf, a chewed-off flower or maybe a pine cone or some other treasured little piece of pack rat paraphernalia. Sometimes the gifts change daily, almost always artfully arranged. Also artfully arranged is the beginning of a nest under the hood of our vehicles. 

Although extremely cute, they are nasty little beggars and stink to high heaven. They also chew through wires under the hood and once we even had one get tangled up in the serpentine belt of our Surburban, kiling the rat and throwing the belt right off. And trust me, the truck doesn't go anywhere without it. In short, they are a nuisance. And, every year at this time of the year it's the same old routine as the rats prepare to bed down for the coming winter.

So, we've been setting the no-kill trap evey night, baiting it with pupperoni dog treats because they smell so much. Each night the bait is taken, but the trap is not tripped. Last night while laying in bed I thought I heard the clang! of the trap springing shut. This morning, sure enough, there was the pack rat in the trap. (The bait this time was an apple slice.) He was not very happy. For some reason I just couldn't feel sorry for him.

We loaded him up in the Ranger and drove off to find a spot in which to release him. We stopped, pulled over to the side of the road, opened the trap and released him. Instead of running for the wide open meadow the stupid creature tried to run over my feet and promptly ran right under the Ranger. It did not come out the other side. sigh. There aren't too many places underneath the Ranger where he could hide, but we didn't see him. We knew he was there and we sure didn't want to drive him right back home with us, so we went for a ride hoping to lose him along the way.

I told Rick he should step on the brakes really hard and maybe that would jar him loose. He did so and we immediatley smelled the stench of pack rat. Rick said, well I guess we at least mananged to make him pee himself ... but we didn't see him anywhere behind us. We drove around for a little while, jamming on the brakes here and there but to no avail as far as we could tell. We took the bumpiest way home we could think of. Still nothing.

When we got home I got out of the Ranger and could smell pack rat stench. I looked down at the right front tire and saw bits and pieces of what used to be the pack rat lodged in the wheel. So that was where the critter was hiding! When Rick washed the wheel out he found the remains of the rat almost intact. Sorry, rat, we tried our best to save you but you had to be a smarty-pants.

So much for our no-kill trap.