A bear in our neighborhood!

(photo courtesy of WA State Dept of Fish and Wildlife)

We had reported some unusual things happening around our house and also that
a telephone pole that had been used like a cat scratching post (but the
scratches removed about a 1/4 of the pole and were from 2 - 4 feet above the
ground) just a couple of weeks ago.

A game warden came out and basically said it wasn't a cougar or a bear (LOL now , but possibly a
bob cat. That was a relief as a bob cat doesn't attack humans unless they
are rabid.

So we basically forgot about it....until our neighbor told us about this:

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/256/story/467339.html

So our visitor wasn't a bobcat but a 200 pound black bear! It was put down just miles from our house!

Here's a great place to learn about wildlife here in Washington State - I spent an entire afternoon perusing this site back when I was trying to figure out what we had prowling the neighborhood and I had even thought it might be a black bear after reading this little tidbit "It has been debated whether bears mark trees to convey social information akin to territorial marking in other carnivores. Such marks are most easily seen on smooth-barked species of trees—alder, aspen, birch, and white pine—on which tooth and claw marks will contrast most visibly, but any live or dead standing trees may be heavily chewed. Human structures such as utility poles, footbridges, and even outbuildings may also be chewed"

Sure sounded like this telephone pole we saw just around the corner from our house:



....shows how much game wardens know!

http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/living/bears.htm

I'm a little in shock! We live in the woods, but are not in back country - we are just 7 miles from the nearest town, less than 2 miles from I5, and miles and miles from anything I'd
consider wilderness or bear habitat!

Thanking God that our children and pets were kept safe from that guy and that is wasn't MY house that he decided to go visit,

Ruth

Things are finally settling down around here...

into a more normal level of chaos! LOL!

(I just found this in my draft file - I thought for sure I'd posted this, so this was actually supposed to appear about a month ago!)

The move into the new house combined with painting the new house and launching our new line of Eco Pocket Diapers and Trainers made for a very insane year so far.

But today it seems like I am finally finding a new normal including getting caught up of things I had let slide, like paying bills (I hate snail mail anything!), clearing off my desk (this was a much needed project as I had a pile about 2 feet high on it of "things to do" and mail to go through), organizing the garage (haven't had a garage in over 13 years and it was a disaster from the move), cleaning up the back and front yards (I'm using the term loosely are our back "yard" is just a clearing with natural grasses and plants growing in random areas and definitely NOT mowable as it's not even close to level), and finding the baby stuff and starting to get it out!

This also includes finally getting somewhere on the last "to do" things on the list for the new house - final trim painting (this was my job), tile in the kitchen, and carpet in the hallway and stairs (I don't do flooring!). We are hoping to have the ouside of the house painted in the next month or so (by someone else as I am NOT going up on a ladder 2 1/2 stories while over 6 months pregnant, and I don't exactly like the idea of my DH doing this either).

Here's some updates on our family -

We found out a few weeks ago that we are having another girls this time around. This will be so nice as our youngest DD is following 3 boys in a row, so she'll have a close sister to grow up with. I actually got a box of her clothes back that I loaned out and they were all her preemie clothes - she was SOOOO tiny! I can't believe how tiny those clothes were! She only weighed 6 1/2 pounds at birth, and then dropped to 5 1/2 pounds in the first week - she wore preemie clothes for 4 weeks and just made it to a normal birth weight for our family at about 6 weeks!

Our oldest son who's in the Marines has been transfered to California and will deploy to Iraq in January or February. He will get about a months leave before he goes so he'll get to see the new little sister and our new house! Big changes around here since he had leave last!

Our second oldest son is still working full time where my DH works and loves being a machinist. He's also working on fixing up a 74 camaro - is working out the kinks on a tuned port injection. That is one serious boy toy there - it screams "I am owed by a young man who loves noise and power". He also just finished his last year in Bible Quizzing by going to Nationals in Minnesota last April (I think I blogged about this??) and had a great time. He's already planning on coaching a team next year - we've got 3 more kids that will start quizzing next year! He also is taking up the sport of golf, loves to play church league softball on Monday nights, volleyball with friends every other Saturday, table tennis on Tuesdays and now he's been adding extreme frisbee on Thursday nights -he's one busy boy!

Our oldest DD is currently in Germany! She left Monday for Berlin for 11 days on a short term missions trip. They are working with the Green Family in Berlin to give out thousands of pamphlets to people in Berlin telling them of Christ and inviting them to their fellowship. Spritually, Berlin is a very hard place and the Greens have been there for years working hard to spread the gospel, but the harvest is slow, but the need is great! She is a part of a 9 member team that will be hitting the pavement each day. I'm so excited for her to experience this team work and the blessings of working to bring people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!

Before she left, she was busy with Karate two nights a week, taking care of her 4 miniature schnauzers, working for me, and getting ready for her trip! Both her cat, Misty, and her dog, Rhianna, are having surprise pregnancies that will probably be due before she returns, so she might have puppies and kittens to deal with once she gets home again! I am sorely missing her help around here, and if we are correct on the puppies and kittens, I will be that much more anxious for her to get home!

Our third DS is busy riding bike every day - he saved enough to by a really nice bike and loves to do long bike rides - like 30 mile round trip rides! He's also been going to the driving range with his big brother, playing table tennis on Tuesday nights, and is participating in Karate as well! He is our all around handy man around here - especially if it involves anything motorized - moving the truck (my DH has an old farm truck and he loves to move it around our property.

Well - that's all that I found saved, I had more updates on the younger children, but that will have to wait for another time!