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Friday, May 26, 2006

Gutters and Moles and... Bears?? Oh my...

Well, the bucket-truck has been called off. Our contractor has a new roofer who thinks the job of removing the old gutters and replacing the facia on the house crown can be done with scaffolding, so next week they're going to put that up. It'll be less dramatic, but also better for the lawn- we weren't all that thrilled about a big truck driving all around the house, though with the front lawn currently a Mole Paradise I'm not sure it would have looked all that different. If you used to have problems with moles under your lawn and you don't have any this year, they're all at Foggygates, chawing down.

Speaking of wildlife- I walked down to the local barbershop yesterday (about a quarter mile away), and on my way back, in the middle of a sunny afternoon, I saw a big black bear come across the church rectory's lawn (right next door to us), wait for a passing car, and then lope across the street and wander off into the woods on the other side. That caused a little excitement in town for a while. I'd never seen a bear in the wild before; Amy saw some years ago while camping at Yellowstone, but I think the operative words there are "camping" and "Yellowstone", which seem more appropriate venues for bear watching than "the neighbor's lawn".

And our cats wonder why we don't let them out...

3 comments:

Phoebe Fay said...

Oooohhhh! That's cool!

I've only ever seen one in the wild, and that was while camping (here in the Rockies). There was one hanging out by my place in Evergreen last year, but I never saw him, just his scat. My landlady saw him, but just briefly. Did you know bears can be superfast when they want to be? Like O to 40 mph in two seconds flat.

Which is why you should always hike with a partner. Because you can't outrun the bear, but you don't have to as long as you can outrun your friend!

Catalyst said...

Moles in your lawn?

A bear at the neighbor's?

Next thing you know there will be snakes on the plane.

Forrest Proper said...

phoebe- thank you for the information on bear acceleration, i will keep it in mind on my next walk down the street to the post office, or our next walk to the local pizza place/bar, which we always do after dark. like tonight, for instance.

mike- you got me thinking- maybe it wasn't a bear after all, maybe it was some sort of freaky Super-Mole... i swear he'd have fit in some of the tunnel-trails in our yard.

catalyst- no, no planes. we had a hot-air balloon almost land in the backyard a month ago, though. it had no moles, bears or snakes in it.