It's nap time!

Tummy's are full. Dishes are done. The turkey bones are simmering on the stove in a bath of herbs, vegetables, citrus, and a nice dash of white wine. The lingering smell of turkey still makes my mouth water. The leftovers are beckoning to be made into a sandwich. The chickens were just put to bed a little bit ago. They too had a treat today, a little bird seed and apples. Bootsy & Cloe enjoyed morsels of turkey & ham. The boys (Shannon & Bootsy) are sleeping on the couch. It was a wonderful day cooking and cleaning with Shannon in the kitchen while the parade was on the television. Now it is time to make the whipped cream for the pumpkin pie (yes, we grew the pumpkin & rendered it down, mmmm pie!) to awaken the sleepy heads. 

Quiet Weekend

It has been a nice weekend.  Not much to write about which given last weekend is a treat.  Ross and I went grocery shopping for our Thanksgiving meal.  We have everything but the bird which he will pick up Tuesday (we order a fresh, organic, free range turkey every year from a specialty grocery store in Northville).

Saturday was sunny and mild so I used the break from the cold to start hanging up Christmas lights.  Having never owned a house before this one, I really enjoy having Christmas lights; it feels like a right of passage.  After I lit them to test them someone drove by, rolled down their window, and mentioned how nice they looked.  Immediate positive feedback is nice.  I also love living somewhere where other people acknowledge that you exist.

We spent today outdoors also.  Ross worked some more on the chicken coop; he has been fortifying where the chicken wire sections meet so that nothing can break through.  He also came up with an idea to modify the nesting box which will make it even harder for a large predator to attack the chickens if it should break off the new door.  My man is always thinking!

I pulled out the chain saw and cut up a tree that we felled earlier this year.  When we originally cut it down it was in an area full of brambles.  This is the same area that Ross has been clearing over the last few weeks.  He has been waiting on me to get the tree out of his way so I obliged.  We both worked on splitting it and getting it into the firewood pile.  Looks like we are going to have a lot of firewood next year!

Speaking of fires, we lit the fireplace Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  It was nice and cozy resting in front of a roaring fire.  I was going to light one tonight but got sidetracked sweeping and dusting.  There's no rest for the obsessive compulsive!

It's been a quiet weekend, and given last week's antics a quiet weekend was just what we needed.

Indomitable Spirit

I tried attaching this video to yesterday's update but kept having technical difficulty.  If you don't succeed try, try again.

Ross and I spent the day sourcing electric fences.  The guys from the Department of Environmental Protection told us we should install a electric barbed wire fence.  This would be the greatest deterrent to a bear.  I read online that this could be dangerous to both livestock and humans; if you get caught in it and have trouble getting out your in trouble.  The user manual from one of the manufacturers we looked at also warned against it.  Finally the clerk at the Tractor Supply store said that it would be possible to hook barbed wire up to the fence controller, but it could burn out the system since barbed wire is a different gauge than the recommended wire (gauge has to do with size of wire and the power it can draw).  Lots to think about, but it looks like we will be going with a regular electric fence and maybe add some non-electrified barb wire.

Prices weren't as bad as I had thought (who really has a reference point for how much and electric fence costs except seasoned farmers and prison wardens).  The item with the biggest cost to use ratio will be a $60 crimping tool.  Anyone have one we can borrow?   I think that by Spring we will have the fence up and running.  Our biggest hurdle to installation will be cutting down the trees next to the fence.  I had a revelation today as I walked the path; if bears can easily climb trees then what is to stop them from using trees next to the fence as a ladder?  Worse, how do they get back out?  It looks like we now know where we will be getting next year's firewood.

Our last stop today was to pick up the supplies to fix the chicken coop.  The last door was a solid piece of plywood with trim on all four sides.  The hinges were attached to the trim, and the bear easily pulled the trim from the plywood which is what gave him such easy access.  I modified the new door so that it was two solid pieces of plywood with no trim making it harder to bust straight through.  It seems much sturdier.  We lowered the latches so that the door's pivot point would not allow it to swing open from the top like the last one did.  I replaced the hinges and used longer screws to make it harder to pull out.  I also used bolts with washers instead of screws for the hinges and latch hardware that attached to the door.  On the last door, the handle was bolted through the door to keep it from pulling out as we used it. On the new door the handle is screwed in with shallow screws so that it can pull out if someone would try to use it as leverage when forcing the door open.  It is amazing how much thought can go into a simple rectangle!  Finally, Ross threw a quick coat of paint over all the damaged areas  and the new door so they could withstand the weather.  All in all it feels good to reclaim the coop.  It really helps the psyche heal from our ordeal.

I Sit With My Head In My Hands

It has been a trying few days.  I mentioned to someone that if this was a TV show and not my real life it would be quite entertaining...

I set my alarm to wake me up today.  I rarely wake up early on a Saturday but this one was different.  I knew that we would be entertaining people today; some coming to see the spectacle, the culmination of the past several days of our lives, and others to remedy it.  It can best be summed up by a quote from Kevin, my employer and our friend, when he said, "Shannon, you have a bear." (KC I think that this is a much better shout out than the farm tour!)  It was a moment when conceptual idea met reality.

Let me take you back to Wednesday night.  I decided to hop in the tub and try to relax.  Shortly thereafter Ross came running in and was barely able to speak.  The only comprehensible things I heard were "bear" and "bees."  I went from naked and soaking wet to shirt/pants/boots with no socks/bee suit in approximately five minutes; this was unfortunate because I did not put the bee suit on so well.  

The bear had come stealthily and knocked over the bee hive.  I instructed Ross to go inside and get me a flashlight.  Once I was outside alone I heard the bear over by the side of the house in the woods moving. I stumbled into one of those moments where you just don't know what to do-I could leave the bees strewn across the orchard and they could freeze or be eaten by predators, or I could go out, put the hive back together, and risk running into a black bear.  I decided to put the hive back together.  Ross wanted to help.  I told him he would be a better help if he watched out for the bear.  

Now when a bee keeper services a hive he or she will smoke the bees first.  A cool smoke makes the bees more docile and keeps them from swarming on the keeper in protection of the hive.  There is no cool smoke ready and waiting in an emergency situation, and this is where not having the bee suit on so well comes into play.  I received a number of stings as I picked up frame after frame and put them back carefully in the hive body.   With each frame came another assault from the bees.  I tried telling them that I was there to help, but they weren't interested in listening.  I ended up with stings on the back of my neck, around my wrists (my leather bee gloves have a small mesh section around the wrist to keep the wearer cool in the summer), on my hands (the bees were stinging the palm of my gloves and then as I would pick up the next frame I would push these stings through the glove and into my hands), and around my ankles.  It was not a fun time, and I was happy when I had the hive back together.  

Damaged Main Door

Happiness lasted about a minute because Ross asked me to go check on the chickens.  Now I never really thought about the chickens during all this.  TV has left me with the impression that bears gorge themselves on honey, and the small amount that I have read and heard indicated that black bears eat berries, fruit, nuts, and insects.  I must have selectively removed the, and small fowl and livestock part from my mind.  The coop looked fine from the front, but as I walked up to it I noticed all was not fine.  The bear had tried getting in the main door to no avail but was able to break open the nesting door that we used to collect eggs.  He had ripped it from its bottom hinges, but it remained in its latches and was able to swing open upwards.  I pushed up the door and counted mentally to myself one chicken, two chickens, three chickens, where's the fourth chicken.  Please God let her be under the nesting box.  Calmly but firmly I asked Ross to get me the keys to the main door.  He asked what was wrong and I repeated for him to get me the key.  I knew that we were about to hit a moment when Ross could lose it, and I needed him not to because I had chickens in an unprotected coop that needed to be moved to somewhere safe.  This was no time for emotions, just actions.

Nesting Door Removed

Ross brought me the key and my chicken was not in the coop.  I looked under the coop to see if she was there.  No.  Then I looked around and found a small amount of feathers.  This is not a good sign.  Ross wanted to continue to look for her, but I made him stay with the other chickens as I prepared the garage as a temporary home for our girls.  Once I was done we moved each girl one by one to the garage.  They were freaked, and I can't blame them.  I wish we had heard them when the bear was mauling their home; maybe we cold have saved our dear Flopsie.  Damn bear.

We ended the day feeling violated.  I had in the back of my mind accepted that one day we might have an issue with the bees, but I was unprepared for another chicken loss.  We were proud of the coop and it had kept the foxes, raccoons, and weasels at bay, but it was no match for the bear.  How much I have learned, and no end in sight.  I mentioned at one point after this episode that we were on a learning curve on how to protect our animals from predators.  The sad part is that little lives are being lost as we ride this curve.  It is my logical personality that helps me through these trying times.  Unfortunately for Ross he is more emotional.

One of the things I love about Ross is his sensitive soul.  Unfortunately, this is not a desirable trait when you are dealing with trauma.  The bear's attack on the bees and chickens really upset him.  He, having seen the bear during the day in the past, was scared to go outside.  During a conversation Ross told me that before the attack he thought the idea of a bear in the area was novel or whimsical, but after seeing its destructive force the idea became frightening.  He was so distraught, and I was worried for him.

My Precious!

These feelings only intensified when the bear came back the next evening.  Ross had been feeling down in the dumps.  I called him about 5:00 PM from work to check on how he was doing.  He said he was cold and tired.  I told him that he should take a shower to help him relax.  He was in the shower for ten minutes.  When he went in the bee hive was fine.  When he got out it was knocked over.  He called me very distraught to tell me.  I told him to just let them be, and we will get to them when I got home form work.  I didn't want him out there with no one watching for the bear.  When I got home we moved the bees to the back porch hoping that the bear wouldn't venture so close.  We ate dinner and then I washed dishes checking the hive every ten minutes or so.  After I finished the dishes I knew I couldn't sit and watch TV because I was just going to keep getting up so I decided to process some of the honey we removed last weekend.  Given the fact that the bear had now stolen more honey from the hive I decided to freeze most of the frames to give back to the bees once it got cold outside.  I processed two frames with a mixing bowl and some cheesecloth.  A crude setup but was quite effective.  I was able to get thirteen 4-oz jars out of it.  I was really hoping to have more to share, but the bear had a different idea.  I cleaned up my mess, Ross and I wound down for the night, and went to bed with the hive untouched.

Nature called early in the morning, and when I got up to answer the call I noticed that the hive was down again.  I'm cold, I'm tired, and I'm ticked.  I left Ross to sleep; he needed it.  At first I went out to see the damage.  I was in a night shirt.  I was not sure how long the bees had been exposed to the cold, night air. I subsequently got stung on both my calves.  More stings, how nice.  I went in and dressed, got in the bee suit, and put the hive back together.  I noticed that many of the bees were dead.  The porch was strewn with little bee carcasses.  I moved from annoyed to beaten.  At this point reality kicked in.  I knew that even if the queen had survived all three assaults on the hive there were probably not enough bees left for all to survive the winter.  They rely on clustering to maintain warmth.  Fewer bees mean a smaller cluster.  Couple that with depleted honey and we have a disaster waiting to happen.  I crawled back into bed demoralized.  Ross awoke and asked me if the bees were OK.  It took a second for me to answer because I thought maybe I should tell him a lie.  I didn't which is good because he noticed that the bear tried to get in the chicken coop again (the chickens were still in the garage).  This time he wrenched the nesting door completely off the coop.  I feel a spiral pulling me down.  I happily go to work; I need the distraction and the feeling that life continues forward.

Bear In a Can

Now I should mention at this time that bears are monitored by Connecticut's Department of Environmental Protection.  Bear sightings can be submitted online, and the state maintains a 24-hour emergency hotline in case someone is in danger.  The state has biologists and rangers and by Friday they were well aware of us and our struggle.  On Thursday morning, a ranger came out to survey the damage caused on Wednesday night.  Thursday night, before I got home, a ranger had actually seen the bear in the woods behind our porch after it hit the hive the second time.  The ranger didn't shoot the bear because he was not a threat at that moment.  That same ranger came over Friday morning, after the third hit, and was looking for the bear because at this point he was a nuisance to us and our agriculture (our agriculture-I can't tell you how tickled I was to hear this from Ross).  Later that morning, state biologists delivered a bear trap to the side of my house.  I have armed rangers, and biologists, and bear traps (oh my!).  By 5:30 PM I also have a bear in a trap.

What a sight to come home to.  Ross had seen the bear sneak into the back yard.  He scared the bear enough that he bypassed the bee hive but couldn't resist the banana peels and doughnuts in the trap.  Our neighbor Mike came over shortly after, and Ross sat down in a chair and started laughing uncontrollably;  three days of pent up frustration can do that to a man.  We all stood outside with our flashlights looking at the bear.  The biologist called and said that they would be out in the morning to take care of him.  Our neighbors from across the street stopped on their way out to tell us they had seen a bear on their property (we routinely call them when we see a bear heading their way).  We pointed to the trap and said you mean that bear.  They got their boys out of the car to see the bear in the tube.  Later the ranger from that morning stopped with his daughter and a friend so see if the bear sprung the trap.  They all took a moment to look at the poor thing.  I say poor thing because I really felt for it.  He was scared and wanted out and I could relate.  I hadn't forgiven him for killing my bees and chicken, but I did feel for him.  After all, he is just a bear and was just doing bear things.

Rangers and Biologists

So that brings me to an alarm waking me up on a Saturday morning,  people coming over to see the bear (like this doesn't happen everyday), and the biologists and rangers coming to take care of our prisoner.  I wasn't lying when I called it a spectacle.  The state's team came and gave us our options.  We could have the bear hazed on the property and released or hazed off site and released.  Either way it is hazed.  Hazing involves irritating, scaring, and causing moderate pain to the bear.  The benefit of doing it on site is that the bear remembers and associates the negative stimuli with the area and it almost always causes the bear to never return.  If they do it off site the bear is likely to return.  We had the bear hazed on site.  They banged on the metal tube of the trap, shot it with paint balls,  poked it with a stick, and yelled at it.  The bear was not too pleased.  When they finally opened the gate on the trap he didn't come out.  They had to bang on the tube again to get him to run and boy did he run.  As he left the rangers shot him with these bean bag shells that police officers use in crowd control situations.  You'd never think something that weighed 250 pounds could move so quick!  I felt for the poor guy, but it is in his and our best interest.  His other option was to get caught too close to the house and shot to death.  I didn't want him harmed, but I didn't want him back either.

Ross Bunyon

We breathed a sigh of relief and moved on with our lives.  We still had to get out the chain saw and take care of the tree that fell in the driveway Monday morning.  We took turns chopping up the larger pieces with the ax and put everything on the woodpile (the ax work was a little therapeutic).  That frees us up tomorrow to go source an electric fence for the orchard area (the chickens and the bees are both housed in the orchard).  As the biologist told me, this bear will probably never return, but there is always another waiting to take its place.  It is not a matter of if another predator will visit us but when. I want us to be prepared for the next one, and can you really call yourself a working farm if you don't have a four wire, barbed, electric fence (boo-yah)!

What a Day!

As I sit here to write I can hear the wind in the background.  It sounds like a low, constant roar.  It started last night and brought us quite a day.

We woke up to a weather trifecta.  There was just a trace of snow on the ground that was quickly being replaced by sleet.  The snow plows were out salting the roads.  It seems just a premonition of things to come.

The wind was roaring and gusting and overnight snapped one of our maple trees in two.  Of course the broken section landed right across the driveway making it impossible to pass until Ross and I moved it to the side; thank God it was light enough for the two of us to move without getting out the chainsaw!

Finally as I was getting ready for work we lost power.  The wind must have knocked a branch down on one of the power lines somewhere close by.  I rolled out the generator and got some juice flowing so that Ross didn't freeze his tuckus off waiting for the power to come back on (which was shortly before 1 PM).  Having a generator switch added to the electrical panel was a great investment.

Ross was concerned about the chickens too.  He let them out so they could move about their run but was worried that a tree or limb would fall on them.  He kept checking them throughout the day, and each time they were just going about their business as if all was normal.  At one point he looked out, and they were all at the fence really agitated.  Ross got worried that something was out to get them.  It turned out to be a rafter of turkeys (a rafter is a flock of turkeys).   The chickens were none-to-pleased to have invaders on their land.  I asked Ross if he was able to get us a Thanksgiving bird! He said that he opened up a window and told them to shoo.  They went to the side of the house and came back when they thought the coast was clear.  He may be able to chase off a bear, but I guess he is no match for a turkey!  What a day.

Fall Back

It's 5:10 PM as I start to write this, and it's pitch black outside.  Daylight Savings Time came to an official close earlier this morning.  Now we have one less hour of daylight each evening which means less project time (unless we got up earlier on the weekends, and I can't see that happening).  Of course that means more time in the house, and Ross is kicking off Regular Time with homemade pizza (this is another instance where Ross has ruined being able to go to a restaurant because his food always ends up being better).

Going back to projects, Ross surprised me earlier this past week by starting one that I did not think we'd get to until Spring.  There was this moderately-sized, triangular swatch of bramble that I wanted to reclaim as either yard or as a squash garden.  The area is bordered by large boulders that I assume were placed there when the basement of the house was dug; their layout is too methodical to suggest Mother Nature's hand.  Ross has cleared 90% of the area which just astounds me.  He is a busy little beaver.  He said that the chickens stay right with him while he is out there, and as he would rake an area they would come right behind and scratch up all the bugs.  I guess they can't pass up a good opportunity!  I was going to use a wonderful picture of Ross rolling a small boulder instead of the one I posted, but it had his butt in the air and that could get me divorced.

Another project that we have talked about and started this weekend is building a trail through our woods.  Those in the know know that our land was once upon a time farm pasture land (hence Looking Glass Hill Farm) but is now a wooded lot.  This year I have taken a great interest in the trees on our lot.  I spent part of the summer walking around with a pair of binoculars looking at the leaves on the trees.  Ross would laugh when he would come upon me laying on my back looking up in the tree canopies.  I was looking at the leaves and the branches and the fruit and whatever else I could make out.  We have a wonderful mix mostly made up of oaks, black cherry, young sugar maple (grow my babies so that Ross and I can tap you for maple syrup), and eastern white pine. In smaller numbers we have birch, ash, eastern cottonwood, and American beech.  We also have a few eastern hemlock which is one of my favorite trees; our neighbor's lot has a tremendous amount more, and ours is probably a result of theirs.  Of course a trail would make it a lot easier to get to all my lovely trees, so hence the project.  Ross and I walked on Saturday what we thought would make the best trail showcasing some of the more outstanding landscape features.  Today I went through about one-half of the trail marking trees and clearing logs, sticks, and shrubbery from the path.  We are hoping to get the path completed before the snow falls so that we may cross country ski and snowshoe it this winter.  Between me and the trail and Ross and the land reclamation we sound like old men complaining about our sore muscles and tired backs!

Our last project was the bees.  Over the last month Ross and I have discussed exactly what we were going to do with the bees and their honey.  Last year was our first year with them, and they did not fare so well.  We ended up having to feed them sugar candy starting on January 1st of this year until there was enough supply in Spring for them to fend for themselves.  They produced more supplies this year than last, but with it being such a dry Summer we found ourselves second guessing if they had enough honey to make it through the winter.  Saturday it was warm enough for us to get into the hive one last time this year.  It looked like there was an abundant supply in the hive so we decided to remove the honey super (we only got one super with honey of which we placed two frames back in the hive because the honey was still too wet to be processed).  We are excited to get honey as this is the first time our bees have produced enough for us to have some too.  We're talking about starting another hive next Spring with the hopes of getting twice the supply.

It's been a full weekend, and now, just like the clocks, Ross and I are looking to fall back-to fall back into the couch to relax and eat some homemade pizza (yum, yum).