spring

First things first:

the bloodroot is blooming.

For me, this marks the turning point into Spring.

We may still have freezes and snow and ice,

but there is no turning back.

It is now Spring.

In point of fact, we have had more than one day in the past week

when the temperature has suddenly rocketed into the 80s.

In the shade.

It has not been pleasant for any of us.

Today is wet, drizzly, gloomy, and cool.

Lovely April day in New England.

After chores this morning,

we all just snugged in for a cozy, lazy day.

But first, knowing that Moxie and Della would be mostly indoors,

I brought out the Good Stuff.

I well remember harvesting this with Moxie.

In other news, we've been having visits from a bear.

This is not as much fun as it may sound.

A friend gave me a heads-up on the 7th that a bear had killed two goats and destroyed three chicken coops not far north of my place. Thinking the bear was likely to be moving south through the woods and wetlands behind my property, I stayed up all night watching the barncams. My clothes and tools were lined up at the back door so I could be dressed and out in moments.

A little after 3 AM, the bear was here. Inside the perimeter fence and also inside the paddock fence just behind the barn. A little paddock with two does in it. I dashed out and opened the gates in the little barn paddocks so goats would not be trapped, then banged my mop against anything that would make a loud noise. I didn't see which way the bear went, so I walked the paddocks for two hours until nearly daybreak. When I came inside, it started to snow.

The next night, I stayed up again, watching the cameras. The bear waited til nearly 4 AM. I didn't see it, but thanks to the goatcams, I saw the goats see it. Out. More banging and walking. If the morning's snow had lasted more than a few hours, I probably could have tracked it.

Dara pointing out what the bear did to one of several stock panels.
Rude, isn't it, Dara?
A bear coming along and bending steel panels like they're made of straw.

The next night, the 9th, I was feeling a bit light-headed and wondering if I could risk getting a little early sleep and then watching the cameras from midnight to morning. I had just gotten into bed about 9PM, and was adjusting all the camera settings when one of the four camera screens, the one nearest the house, was suddenly filled with Bear.

Shoes, a walking stick, and a flashlight, and out the back door in time to send the bear, which was right there at the portico, back over the perimeter fence and into the woods behind my property. I was roaring and banging my stick and it was quite a relief in a way to be able to yell at the actual source of anxiety and sleeplessness and worry. I walked the paddocks again, and because it was so early, knew I'd be watching and probably doing more walking and banging during the wee hours. Which was the case. As it turned out, I learned the next day that the bear had gone a few houses down the road and destroyed another flock of chickens.

This is a bad situation.

Every night since I've been out at least once, walking and banging and talking to the goats. 

There have been so many sleepless nights now that we are all trying to nap a bit during the day.

Some of us are better at it than others.

Yesterday I added a new component to my goat defense:

a set of "driveway alert" sensors. This is something a friend has done at her barn, where she had a lot of trouble with a bear last year. The battery-powered motion sensors relay a signal to a plug-in receiver with speaker, which is typically kept in a house to alert the homeowner to visitors, wanted or otherwise.

(Just search for "owl driveway sensors" if interested in these.)

 In my case, the sensors are being tested in areas between my perimeter fence and the barnyard, and receiver is in the open doorway of the barn. Instead of the speaker announcing "Driveway" or "Garage" or playing a jolly tune or siren, it provides the sound of a barking dog. My hope is that the sensors will catch the movement of a bear before it gets to the paddocks and the barking from the barn will scare it off or at least slow it down long enough for me to get out there.

And maybe I could sleep between alarms instead of staring at cameras literally all night.

Here's hoping.

Unrelated: an update on the moving target jaw pain. The morning of the 10th (yes, hours after running off the bear and after the third night of no sleep at all) I hired a kind helper to drive me back to the oral surgery where the surgeon, possibly realizing I was never going to stop calling and describing more/different pain and begging for help, agreed to fit me in and extract a tooth before starting his day's scheduled appointments. I was honestly not sure how much of the overall problem was related to this tooth, but I did feel it was a contributing factor and the pain was so severe I was quite desperate to take action. Upshot: molar extracted. Several new bottles of prescriptions on the nightstand and a complex medication schedule to be followed.

Beginning the very next day, I had the closest thing to a pain-free day since early February. As far as the long-term situation goes, I'm assuming nothing, and I'll still need to see a regular dentist. But right now I'm healing up and taking each pain-free hour as the gift it truly is.

It truly, truly is.

And I'm eating.

Carefully.

And on we go.

Spring!

(and I just looked up from the screen to see that it's snowing)

~~~~~