May 11, 2007

ll of the hog pens at Mary's were finished today.  The stout wire and poles were recycled or given to us, so it was low cost and it is hog tough. It is the Parthenon of hog housing. Mary was thinking she may even toss the straw down and sleep out there tonight. I think she was half kidding.

We have been seeing and hearing reports of alot of bear activity in the last few days. My guy left to get something from down the road and he came roaring back into the driveway, told me to grab my camera and look in So-And-So's clearcut.



MY  guy told me that the huge male black bear we call "VW" and have seen for a couple years now, had treed a sow and her three cubs up a poplar tree. In the picture above, if you look carefully, on the far left,  you can see whom we think is "VW" and in a tree to the right, you can see the four other black bears up the same tree. They are about all the size of small black dots in the first bear picture. The poor mother bear was sitting on a small tiny branch and the three cubs were squirreling about and making the tree sway back and forth.  I could just imagine her scolding them and telling them to hold still. "VW" seemed to be laying down in the field.

I kept hoping Amy would show up, but she didn't so I went and got Mary to show her. But when we returned "VW" was no where to be seen. We grabbed the binoculars from my house so we could see them better. The sow was so rich in her fur and she had a brown muzzle. She is beautiful. The kids above her were looking here, there and everywhere and trying to have a grand ole time. Mary and I decided that the topmost cub had to be a boy as he just would not hold still and the whole tree was moving. Momma bear turned this way and that for awhile.

I took Mary back to her house and went and sat and watched the bears again with the binoculars and then the momma bear came down the tree and started grazing. The cubs stayed up the tree for quiet some time and they may be up there yet, but it is too dark to see now.