Actually, I suspect only one bear—the middle-sized one. The same one that carried off the cat litter bucket full of peanuts last week, which I found today (the bucket, not the bear) down in the middle of the neighbors' driveway, empty but relatively intact. Anyway, said bear demolished a feeder I'd had in the big fig tree and forgotten to take in last night, re-bent the shepherd's crook it was hanging on (this is about the fourth time; I won't be able to bend it back up many more times), bent another feeder that I'd forgotten was even there,
rooted around in three pots of borage I was growing off on the porch (though, to be fair, that might have been the game hens; I'd already run them out once),
tore up a ziploc bag and cottage cheese container scoop that had once held sunflower seeds and probably had six left in it, and then rambled around to the front porch and made off with a brand-new bag of birdseed . . . leaving a trail all across the yard, which the birds gleefully ate up this morning.
I swear . . .
John and Roger and Jeremy are outside now, putting up fence. I just hope this bear is too lazy to want to get over it. I'm still bringing everything in at night, though. Just in case.
The reason the birdseed was on the front porch (I've been very careful to bring all bags/cat litter buckets/etc. containing peanuts or seeds or corn inside every night) is that it was wet when we came home from the grocery store. We had three and a quarter inches of rain yesterday; over two and a half of it was during the hour I was at the grocery store . . . we had to wait to leave, because you couldn't see to drive for half an hour. Today there are state maintenance crews out all along Old Farm School and Riceville roads, clearing debris that washed into the road and unblocking drains; and the sound of the woodchipper is heard in the land . . . not here, fortunately; maybe everything that was going to fall has already fallen, for a while.
(And half the cats are mad at me, too, because I let them stay out while we were gone . . . Let us just say that they were not amused when we came home. Especially LeeLee, who must have been down in the back woodlot when it began raining, and came in looking like the proverbial drowned rat. I wish I'd thought to get the camera! She's dogging my tracks today, possibly to be sure I don't leave her out in the rain again.)
"Excessive rain" for forecast for TUESDAY, but never materialized. We had three-quarters of an inch overnight, but then things cleared off and there was blue sky, so I thought we were safe to go get things . . . PetSmart first (8 flats of canned cat food—the month's supply plus enough to rotate out my emergency supply— a bag of Cat Chow and a bag of "treat" food that lives in a big jar on the counter, and a bag of birdseed to eke out what I have until the fence is up and I can get a big bag), then groceries. I was nearly through shopping when I noticed things had gotten very dark outside, so I hurried to finish . . . but not fast enough. It could have been worse, though; we could have been on the way home when the bottom fell out!
As it was, I lost the bag of "treat" food and the bear-stolen birdseed, which wasn't bad. The chicken feed John had gotten in the morning was under a tarp, so it's OK; we left the small bag and the Cat Chow on the porch to dry out. Also the cans, which were soaked, of course. (This is the disadvantage to shopping in a truck with no cover. I do have a big plastic box to put things in, but it won't hold an entire shopping cart's worth of groceries. So I rode home with bags of stuff on my lap . . . ) The Cat Chow was OK; the bear bit a small hole in it and apparently decided it wasn't worth fooling with any longer; I brought it in this morning and stowed it in its plastic tub. The small bag was too wet to use, in spite of there being an inner plastic bag, so I fed it to the chickens. The cans of food are out of their plastic and drying on the washer; I'll put them away when the labels are dry so they don't fall off and everyone is forced to take potluck for the next month.
And there will be no weeding for a couple of days at least, until everything that was beaten down by the rain has either risen back up or given up and remained on the ground. (And until I see whether or not the tiny plants I have/had started are permanently smooshed or are going to rebound. A little of both, I think.)
The keets (baby guineas) came today! They were shipped on Monday, so I'm surprised they were still alive. I guess guineas are tougher than chickens. They were thirsty, but very vocal, as guineas are . . . We'll check on them later and see whether they're still fine. I hope so; I really want some more guineas wandering around. And I'm sure the neighbors do, too.
I finally retrieved the pictures from my camera, so here is one:
These were knitted over the winter, and I just sent them to afghans for Afghans for their current campaign. They're actually asking for hats this time! Which is good, because I like to make hats. I'm attempting to use some of my odds and ends, and possibly the occasional full ball of something, because in all the moving things about, I got all the yarn in one place, and . . . well, it's sort of embarassing, really. I had no idea there was so much here . . and there . . . and there . . . and there, too.
::sigh:: How am I going to justify buying lovely new yarn when I already have all these tubs full? (No, I'm not mentioning a number.)
I have three more hats finished, and I think I shall attempt a pair of mittens. I don't feel quite up to socks yet, but I think I can do mittens. Besides, I HATE working with dpns; maybe mittens will get me a little more comfortable with them.
And here is a gratuitous squirrel picture, because I am ever-amused by them:
And now I am going to make myself a cup of tea and sit down for a while—not only do I have the new Progressive, there is also the current Rolling Stone with Peter Dinklage on the cover . . .
