For the Birds, I Said!

So much for bear best practices! The bird feeders were left out again and around 4:15a on Tuesday morning this happened.

I love that the term for this color of black bear is "cinnamon"!

Apparently switching on the porch lights doesn't make a bit of difference to a scavenging black bear, but I think it could hear the click of the camera because it would pause after I took a photo. It would also eat a bit, look around, eat a bit, look around, eat a bit, then go back down the stairs, return a minute later, and repeat. I waited a few rotations so I could get pictures and get a good look - I mean, I hope this is the only time I am ever a yard-and-a-half from a live, loose bear - then I banged on the window with my palm, followed by banging on a metal dog dish with a spoon from the doorway. After it appeared to be gone, Eric and I gingerly sneaked out to retrieve the feeders, both reachable from the deck. Of course, Betty and Delia stayed upstairs and away from any opportunity to give chase.

LATER THAT MORNING: According to the snoots on these dogs, the bear seemed to have come and gone over the fence near the driveway rather than on the National Forest side and also spent some time under the deck.

Bird Feeders are for The Birds!

Just in the last few months the squirrels have discovered the bird feeders. I'm referring to the "regular" squirrels who are trying to be our mortal enemies*, not the flying squirrels who we think are great and are welcome to visit the bird feeders. So, as if that weren't bad enough, Monday night a post-hibernation bear decided to visit the bird feeder, too!  And bend the hook it's hung from to boot!

Please also notice that the before photo has LED string lights, but the after photo does not. *Remember this?

It must have had to get up on the deck to do this, so that's something to think about! It also got into our garbage can and spread some of the contents around, but not too much. Eric was able to pick it up while mostly nekkid in the dark and without his glasses while trying to get Betty back in the house. He'd let her out for mid-night tinkles, but she stayed for the trash frenzy and snuffling around the yard. I did find the wrapper from the pork ribs that Eric barbecued on Saturday out by the vacant chicken coop, though there is no telling if it was the bear or the Betty who drug it out there.

This is our first springtime bear event on the property and has made us decide to try to re-institute bear country best practices, i.e. putting the trash can in the shop instead of by the back door and bringing in the bird feeders at night. I wonder if it's the same bear that "processed" our apples last autumn?

No. No one actually saw the it. In fact, it wasn't until I saw the state of the bird feeder that we became certain there was an interloper at all, let alone a bear.

Magic Bottle Cap Catcher!

While there are still parts of the kitchen remodeling project to complete (and start), we are at the point where I am able to start reinstalling and adding some of the fun stuff. Talk about a morale booster!

Eric pointed out how the bear looks like a boar from the side and now I can't un-see it. And you can't either.

I've wanted to have something like this for ages and finally figured out that I actually could! Awhile back I gave Eric this bear head, wall mount bottle opener and we installed it in the kitchen on the cabinet that encloses the refrigerator. I took it down to refinish the cabinets and while I was going about the project, I realized how I could make this work for us.

So yeah, I haven't primed and painted the whole cavity where the fridge goes. Trust me, that's not what I want. But as I was workign in there, I realized I was getting low on materials so I decided wait until I had finished the rest to do this. I mean, it's not like anyone is going to see inside the fridge cavity, right? Unless I post pictures on the internet, that is.

I used a 1-1/2" Forstner bit in the drill to remove a spot to house a neodymium magnet (1-1/2" diameter x 1/2" thick) on the backside of the cabinet - the side the fridge sits in. The hole is about 5/8" deep and I used the plastic ring that came with the magnet and some plastic plumbing strap to hold the magnet in and to add a little bit of something between the super strong magnet and refrigerator. I don't know how much difference this makes to the attraction to the refrigerator, but it made me feel more comfortable. The magnet is centered about 6" below the bottom screw on the bottle opener.

You can't even tell there's anything special going on from the outside!

 

Since bottle caps have sharp edges and I just spent a whole lot of time refinishing these cabinets, I added this thin wooden plaque under the bear to protect the paint job. It's a cheapie from the craft store that I stained and varnished.

Check out the action!

I looked up a few different tutorials online and from those put together what I thought would work for us. They boil down to the following:

A big, strong magnet (mine has about 80 pounds of force) mounted behind a minimum of wood (in my case about 5/16") not too far below the opener (mine is ~ 6"). Read all the warnings associated with these magnets and follow them to avoid injuring yourself, others, and your stuff - including the magnets.

PS I just noticed that in my excitement to get this done and test it out, I didn't even match up the screw heads! That is not like me at all. For decorative stuff, I always have them all going the same direction, usually a particular direction. Rest assured, friends, that I am getting up to fix that right now.

Whose Poop Is This, Anyway?

So brightly colored!

So apple-y!

Same pile, my hand included for scale.

I do believe this belongs to that small bear I saw running away from the fence into the forest this morning! But that was just on our side of the fence, between said fence and the apple trees. Hmmmm.

Smaller pile as the hand-for-scale indicates. Also, you can see the red peels and apple seeds.
PRO TIP: Don't edit photos of apple-laden bear scat while eating a bowl of Grape Nuts.

And then when I realized that I should go back out there to shovel that over the fence to keep the dogs from rolling in and/or eating it, I found another pile right under the McIntosh tree.  The other tree, the little one with the red apples... it's now apple free!

I do believe the deer have been hopping the fence to get at the apples lately, too so we can't blame the bear entirely.

While it's fun and wondrous to live among wildlife, we also know we must be both smart and careful. Several neighbors have also spotted a bigger bear around lately, so we're all being more cautious with our trash cans, pets, and wanderings. Also, I guess we need to get out there and pick the rest of the apples as soon as possible.

Whose Poop Is This, Anyway?

Scat Scout Eric found this astonishing sample while tromping around the woods with Betty last weekend.  Wowzers!

To illustrate just how impressive this pile was he took a shot* with his ear buds cord in it for scale.  Also his hand.

We figure it was left by either bear or Bigfoot.  One of the other.



* Teehee! I accidentally typed "shat" instead of "shot" at first.  Oopsie!

The Little Things: One Bear Bottle Opener

I gave Eric this guy for Christmas and finally installed him the third (3rd) week of March. He's mounted on the side of the kitchen cabinet that houses the refrigerator where he happily opens beer bottles.

I went to our small local hardware store looking for, but not expecting to find, brown wood screws. Well, what to you know? "Window screws" in four (4) or five (5) colors, including brown. POW!

I think he needs some kind of bottle cap catcher underneath, we'll see what we come up with. And when/if we come up with it.  And then install it.

Also, helll-llloooo April!

Yes, that indicated varying changes of rain/snow from Wednesday through Sunday of this week. Which reminds me of this.

A Wedge of Lime

When we had the house inspected as part of the sale transaction, we also had the well inspected and its water tested.  The report came back that our water was a little bit hard; we have some lime, but not very much and there was even a disconnected water softener under the house that we were told we could re-install if we wanted to.  We decided to give it a go without the water softener, partly because we'd heard that softened water feels weird and since the lime is not a health hazard why add stuff to what we drink and bathe in?  This does mean that we do our cleaning differently and that sometimes water shoots out of faucets at odd angles without warning.

We don't even use the sink sprayer all that often, at least I don't.  It completely clogged once without us realizing what had caused the malfunction. Luckily, I figured it out quickly and without calling a plumber.

About a month ago we finally got a steamer for the wood stove. The air can be quite dry here and this seems to help mitigate the side effects of that, such as dry eyes and sinuses.  This is what the inside looks like after about 6 refills of tap water.  It's kind of cool, like a kitchen sink science experiment.

It washes out very easily at least.  I wonder if it can be made into a Halloween prop.

We'll even find little bits of lime in a drinking glass if we let ice cubes melt in there!  Even though I didn't like doing it, this is why we decided to go back to store-bought dishwasher detergent and using the heated dry feature on the dishwasher.  All those years of hearing about water spots in commercials and now I know what that's all about!

I like vinegar just fine and at first the smell of cleaning with it just reminded me of dying Easter eggs as a kid.  It's less nostalgic now and the scent doesn't thrill me, but it's better than fake pine or whatever else most store-bought cleaners are supposed to smell like. I'm pretty sure no one involved with naming those scents has ever been to a mountain stream or a tropical beach.

All our water fixtures are cleaned with vinegar or some kind of vinegar mix.  I'm going to try to use some of the old empty bottles of my next batch of homemade clothes soap.  At least we can still use that. Guess what we use in the fabric softener dispenser... that's right, vinegar!  It keeps the static down quite a bit (another issue with the dry air) and doesn't leave a coating of super-scented mystery chemicals on our clothes, towels, and blankets.  Nothing comes out of there smelling of vinegar, either.

One part Dawn original dish washing soap and one part hot vinegar in a spray bottle makes an excellent cleaner for the showers and sinks.  The vinegar gets the lime scale and the dish soap gets the oils and soap scum. It's viscous enough to cling to the vertical surfaces, too, so I let it sit on there for 30-45 minutes.

I'm not going to put pictures of toilets here, but for those we use one part baking soda and one part vinegar, let sit for 20-40 minutes.  In all cases, if the lime has managed to get thick, a cloth soaked in vinegar and set on the surface for a time will loosen that lime right up.  Dog water dishes get cleaned with straight vinegar, too.

I should mention that the slightly hard water isn't all that big of a deal.  It still feels new and strange to buy white vinegar by the gallon and remove the residue of what I think should be "only" water from our fixtures and belongings.  At least one guest commented on how the hard water made her hair more manageable, but I gave up managing my hair so haven't noticed.  I know there are plenty of lime-busting products on the market, but I like that we are putting fewer unknown chemicals into our septic and on our things.  I also like that we get just as much cleaning power for a fraction of the price; why wash money down the drain?  We haven't done any research, but I do wonder if there is a reasonably cost-effective method of filtering the lime out rather than adding something to the water.  Anyone know about that or have a good layperson's resource?

Here's what our new steamer looks like on the outside. So CUTE, that bear smilin' like a bear with a toasty warm rump!  These things can be quite expensive, especially if they're decorative at all. I had my eye on a different form, but when this one went on sale I struck.

Ever Feel Like You're Being Watched?

For Christmas I received serious LED headlamp. Like, 220 lumens and several strange and fantastical settings level serious.  Mostly I wanted this for after dark dog walking, but I'm sure I'll use it for other after dark yard tasks as well as when I go under the house.  POW!

This was a close as I could come to what I saw: just the eyes and some tree trunks, of course noe green misty stuff for me.  Photo: Ralph Martin visual-nature.de

Both Eric and I been using it since Christmas night and last week I saw what I'd wanted the light for seeing and what I was pretty sure I did not want to see.  EYES! A pair of green glowing eyes looking in Betty's and my direction from downwind in the trees on the other side of the fence-that-is-not-an-actual-barrier.  They didn't seem high enough off of the ground to be deer so I assumed it was a fox since they're plentiful and short.  My internet searching hasn't been as productive as I'd hoped, especially for images, but it has been a bit of a roller coaster ride making me feel more like I saw something like this.

There are raccoon, but you get what I mean: post incident minor freak out.

Here are some things I found for various critters that are known to be around here.

(From Predator Masters Forums)
Coyote--eyeshine is greenish gold.
Gray Wolf--eyeshine is greenish orange.
Red Wolf--eyeshine is gold to bluish green.
Mt lion--eyeshine is greenish gold.
Bobcat--eyeshine is greenish gold.
Nothing on foxes.

(From Sunstar-Solutions)
BEARS:
CATS WITH GREEN/YELLOW EYES: GREEN
CATS WITH ORANGE- BROWN/BLUE EYES: RED
COUGAR:
COYOTE:
DEER: WHITE/YELLOW/RED
DOGS: GREEN/BLUE
FOXES: BLUE/RED
RACOON: GREEN/WHITE
WHITE-TAILED DEER: SILVER-WHITE
BIGFOOT: RED
MOTHMAN: RED

(From a public Q & A forum called Blurtit)
Fox's [sic]eyes are green at night.

(From Backpacker.com's Ask-a-bear page)
In photos, the glow ranges from yellow to yellowish orange, though some people report seeing red or green. (Variations in color between species often come from the presence of nutrients like riboflavin, distortions in the lens, and iris color.) Black bears also appear yellow to orange, though people sometimes report seeing red.
Bottom line: You're unlikely to identify my species at night solely by shining a light into my eyes.

(From Survivalist Boards)
It [helps] to have a known reference for height of eyes from the ground. Or good enough light to sense the ground. Deer are clearly taller than Bear, Coyote, Puma, Bobcats, etc.

and

I still have not found anything about the color being a definitive point of identification. The type of light being used without question can play a role in that.


Sooooo, based on the height, what we know from our experience of who's hanging around here a lot*, and what I really want (and don't want) it to have been, I'm going with fox.  Yup, definitely fox; the trendy little predator that generally won't even mess with a full-grown house cat.

I couldn't find a way to credit this great photo, if you know better ways for me to find out, I'd love to credit this.

*We've both seen fox scat and tracks on multiple occasions in the last several weeks.

ADDENDUM: Not 5 minutes after finishing this post, which I admit got me feeling kind of edgy, I took Betty out for last-call potties and saw another pair of eyes! This time they were on the opposite side of the house, but still on the other side of the fence-that-is-not-an-actual-barrier.  Betty did her business and we came in. I told Eric that I just saw more and this time he wanted to come have a look. Once he spotted them he wanted a closer look, but I was not going out there, so I handed over the head lamp and watched him venture ever nearer... nearer to the deer.  D'oh!  But I didn't want to waste all my efforts and research and overcoming of irrational fears up there ^ and I didn't want to waste that adorable fox photo, so I decided to update at the bottom, to bring you along on my journey, you lucky so-and-so's.

Photo: 123rf.com Royalty-free stock photos.

When I went back out a few minutes later with Delia there were two pairs of eyes and they were moving through the forest parallel-ish to the fence line, by the time she had completed her task and we were going back inside they were running which was kind of freaky to see. I felt a little bad that maybe we'd scared them even though it's good for them to be scared of people and dogs.  I now assume that they were further away than I thought which is why they looked closer to the ground, they were possibly a little uphill from me, too, which I know I wasn't taking into account.

Whose Poop Is This, Anyway?

My guess is that this is more bear scat.  We've looked it up and bear scat varies quite a bit in appearance based on what they're eating.

Betty found (and sampled) this in the lower "pasture" the first week of October.

When are we going to find fox poop?

One Year is Cookies, Right?

Anniversaries seem like a good time for looking back and for lists and since we've now been here on the side of this mountain for a year, I thought I'd share with you some of the lists we've been keeping both in our heads and written down.

When a dear friend sent me a surprise giftie in the mail of a woodland creature cookie cutter set that had a a fox AND a porcupine* I decided to make cookies of as many of our locally spotted critters as I had the cutters for. Luckily, I have a lot of cutters and I'd already started this post as a handy-dandy list. Neither Eric nor I are huge fans of cookie icing, so I applied only outlines. The cookies are Martha Stewart's shortbread recipe.

Critters we've seen at home or within a few miles of home:
Furry
White-tailed Deer
Mule Deer
Foxes (we've each seen them one or more times in the daylight since this post)
Flying Squirrels
Red Squirrels (I think)
Least Chipmunks (I think)
Skunks (one visual down the mountain a bit, one purely olfactory at the house)
Rabbits (probably Mountain Cottontail)
Marmot, probably the Hoary kind usually along the road, sometimes "sleeping"
Porcupine ("sleeping" by the highway)
Black Bear (cub)

I tried to include a turkey and a duck  cookie, but the turkey dropped when I tried to move it to the cooking rack and the duck wouldn't come out of the cutter with both its feet or its bill.

Feathery
Mallard Ducks
Wild Turkeys
Bald Eagles
Blue Heron
And these:

Plus two different as-yet-unidentified larger, grouse-yish types.

Creepy-crawly/fly-y
Phyciodes orseis herlani butterflies
Some kind of swallowtail butterflies (9 species in Montana)
Other Butterflies
Yellow Jackets
Wasps
Horse Flies
Flies
Mosquitoes (just a few)
Ten-lined June beetle
Western Conifer Seed Bug
Etcetera and so forth

I spotted the Ten-lined June Beetle one night on the deck when Eric was setting up his small telescope for us to peep some stars.  He's REALLY big and freaky looking in the dark, let me tell you. (the beetle, not Eric)  We all played it fairly cool though; the beetle went about his beetle business and we peeped stars. (photo from wikipedia)

Scaley
Mystery Jumping River Fish or Fishes
Mystery Swimming Creek Fish or Fishes

It has been interesting for me, whose only memories are of living in Northwestern Oregon, to get used to this type of forest and it was fun (and a bit of a relief) to watch it get so green and relatively lush in the spring. From late-May to mid-June or so our part of the National Forest was carpeted with wildflowers. I bet we saw more than 2 dozen kinds over that time in the area within 10 minutes walk from the house.

We've lived through all four seasons (five if you include fire season) and can already tell this autumn is cooler, wetter, and less smokey than last.  We've already had a few fires in the wood stove, something we didn't do for a few-to-several weeks after we arrived.  We've had a few weeks of overcast and rainy weather, not real rain-rain, but probably what passes for real rain-rain in these parts.  If your head is covered (with lots of hair or a hat) you don't even really get wet and what wet you do get drys really quickly.

Eric with our Realtor, Sherry Kolenda, on our one viewing of the property back in August 2012.

We've done some cosmetic work in eight rooms. When I itemized it here and looked back at so many posts to make the links it seems like a lot has been accomplished.

Laundry Room (not yet photographed or posted even though it was the first room I painted, etc.)
Kitchen (appliance)
Living/Dining Room
Upstairs Hall Bathroom
Master Bedroom
Guest Bedroom
Master Dressing Room
Master Half-Bathroom
Plus replaced ALL the door knobs

When I think about the things we still have on our list to chance it seem like there's a long way to go.  I think that the stairwell and upstairs hallway, the master water closet. and the downstairs bathroom are at the fore of my mind.  The first three can probably be accomplished with just a little money, but quite a bit of work. The last one will be quite a bit of work, too, but will probably require more supplies be purchased to get to the image I have in my mind.

And tomorrow is October 1, one year from the day I took this photo.

Damn.


* I'm sure it's supposed to be a hedgehog, but as long as it lives under our roof it's a porcupine!

Voodoo I Never Knew I Could Use

** Not exactly a sponsored post, but it is all about some of my wares for sale although TOTALLY in the context of our new life in the mountains of Montana **

Years ago I made my first Varmint Voodoo "doll" for Eric for Christmas; he had The Squirrel Problem at the time.  He'd tried everything but a wrangler and voodoo.

Of course we have squirrels here, but they are so much smaller and so many fewer and above all NOT living in or eating the house.

Then people started adding it to their Wist (like MySpace was to Facebook, Wist was to Pinterest) and I decided to open an etsy shop.  I started with some local-type varmints such as a raccoon for a friend with that problem.

Then, I expanded to a few others and one of the first few I sold was shipped to Poland!  Then I got a request for some for a little gallery in Maine, including Varmint Voodoo: Bear Edition.  And now we and our neighbors could sometimes use the Bear Edition.  Which has got me to thinking on all the various Varmint Voodoo that could apply to me now, that I originally made for people who were elsewhere.

In the spirit of my Oregon Duck and OSU Beaver Editions, I've added University of Montana Grizzly to this listing and am working on making their cross-state rival, the Montana State Bobcat.

If you've been following along, you know we're working on The Mouse Problem now. After a week of no catches, I was about to put away the traps... and caught another, our third, in the mudroom.  BLECH.  Maybe I should raid Bubble Off Plumb's stock.

Varmint Voodoo: Mouse/Rat Edition.

Of course we had wasps/hornets in Portland, but not like we have them here.  We've bought the spray, but haven't yet gone after the 6-10 nests in various spots around the property.  They actually don't bug us that much (see what I did there?), but we should and want to get rid of them.  They have the whole forest to nest in.

Varmint Voodoo: Wasp/Hornet Edition

Now deer really are something we deal with.  We didn't actively garden or even do much yard work this year, but the deer have and will graze our yard so we'll need to figure out some ways of discouraging them next year. Not to mention their cavalier attitude about looking both ways before crossing the street... and then not crossing if there are autos in the road or driveway.

We have both Mule and White-tail Deer around the property.

.

The night before I left to do some work in Portland, we were lying in bed and Eric asks, "Do you smell coffee?"  [sniff, sniff] "I smell burning..."  I stood up to make sure the portable air conditioner wasn't overheating and then realized it's not coffee and it's not burning, it's skunk and it's strong which means it's near.  We'd been told it was too dry up here for skunks, even though Eric saw one down at the bottom of the hill last autumn.  Eric & I thought we (and by "we" I mean "the Beastie Grrrlz") were safe from that stench.

Not at all like Pepe.

Speaking of the BGs, they were each due for some boosters shortly after we moved and we got to meet our (AWESOME) vets in town.  We asked if fleas were an issue here (they're not really) and about ticks (they can be).  The ticks are one thing I really dread having to deal with; I've never seen one in person, but I have seen photos and video.  So far, so good, though.

I'd use this to protect the dogs and us; I've known a couple of people who've had Lyme Disease and I want no part of that.

I don't know if we'll have problems requiring extreme measures such as voodoo with the grasshoppers, but the crickets can be REALLY LOUD at night. At least once before going to bed, I've looked for the open door or window that was letting all the cricket racket in and there wasn't one.

Also good for locust invasions.

Other critters that I don't think we'll have trouble with, but that we see frequently are ravens.  They are so big that we've mistaken their flying silhouette for some kind of raptor more than once.

Helpful with crows, too.

Eventually, I added some "human varmints" to the collection, because let's face it we all have people in our lives at times who we must tolerate, but who we'd really rather jab with a pin.

Varmint Voodoo: Loud-mouth Jerk & Shrieking Harpy Editions; we all know at least one of each

And since Bubble Off Plumb has moved its production facility to Florence, Montana we've added a few new, not-necessarily-locally-useful editions:

Varmint Voodoo: Aphid Edition (AKA Greenfly, Whitefly, Blackfly, or Plant Lice) for gardeners all over.

Varmint Voodoo: Cicada Edition for everyone who's been deafened by their song and waded thought their shells on the sidewalk.

A custom order that's now in the collection; Varmint Voodoo: Coot Edition for golf course personnel and park departments maintaining water traps and features.

Another custom order that's now in the collection: Varmint Voodoo: Sharktopus Edition. This customer swears that since his friends have kept this on their boat there has been not one single Sharktopus attack!

Whose Poop is This Anyway?

You've all been so patient waiting for more pictures of Mystery Poop and I want to thank you for that.  And to show you how much I appreciate you, here are three (3) pictures of Mystery Poop!  You lucky dogs, you.

Taken (deposited?) in the lower pasture in late April.

Found in the front yard in early May.

Found in the front yard near the road, mid-late June.

We think they were dropped by bear.  Any one know better?