“It is not what you did yesterday, it’s what you do today and tomorrow.”
JWH
Month: July 2016
Bear in the House #5
I walked out early in the morning, coffee in hand, to check on the almost 200 lb. bear in the trap. I noticed that my solar lights that were in the ground were uprooted around the trap. I then looked up to the woods and saw a small cub poking his head around a tree staring at me. I then called Ethan to let him know the bear had cubs.
He said, “I’ll get more traps.”
He set up three traps.
About an hour later, I was working in my house and looked out to see 4 cubs climbing down out of the woods to be by their mom. Two walked into the traps. A 3rd climbed on top of the traps an tripped the trap without climbing in.
I called Ethan and said, “We have 4 cubs.”
Ethan brought 3 more traps.
The two remaining cubs climbed a tree and watched.
After I went in the house and Ethan left, the two came out of the tree and eventually were lured by the cookies, etc. into the traps.
Ethan came back, loaded them up, and drove them to be relocated.
(See video clips below)
Video #1
The cubs obviously missed their mom.
Video #2
Video #3
Video #4
This cub was definitely the most aggressive of the group. Not a happy camper.
Video #5
See the video of all the cubs in their traps before they are relocated 40 miles away.
https://vimeo.com/173057886
Bear in the House #4
Ethan, from the Department of Agriculture came out with a barrel bear trap, put cookies and liquid licorice, BBQ sauce, etc in the trap. It was 5 PM. I was to call him at 8 AM each morning to let him know if there was a trapped bear. At 9 PM that night, a few hours later, I was watching a movie and heard a loud racket outside. Bear trapped. I called Ethan in the morning to come and get the bear so it could be relocated. But then….
Bear in the House #3
The next day we duct taped some of the screens together enough to put back on a few windows. I, being a city boy obviously, left a few windows opened a crack to get fresh air during the night.That night we had another visit from the bear at 4:00 AM.  I did not believe a bear could open an almost shut window, but they can, and did. We woke up with the noise and the bear left.
The next day we built an elaborate and sophisticated sound system to scare away the bear and also called the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) to ask for advice. They said they would send someone to trap the bear.
Bear in the House #2
We then realized that our house was not normal inside. Things were in a bit of disarray with every scrape of food from containers and fridge (including freezer) were gone with remains found everywhere, including woods surrounding house. She was very serious about food and cou
After seeing the footprints on the floor made by chocolate mild (container punctured from fridge), we realized a sizable bear was the visitor. She also sat on our chair.
(see next post for more)
Bear in the House #1
As we drove up to our house in rural Iron River, Wisconsin this week, we notices a slight problem with our window screens.
Monkey from High School
During the summer of 1973, I took on monkey sitting for the summer from our Eden Prairie High School biology department. A lot of things happened that summer. The monkey seems pretty friendly with my mom in this picture. This was not always the case.
Life is an Adventure 