Bear Encounter (almost)

Tuesday afternoon, while I was at the dentist, Kristen was working on a number of projects (gardening, getting the trash out, bringing in the bird feeders, etc.). When we checked the wildlife cameras a couple of days later, in the midst of the clips of her moving in and out of the house was a clip of a bear moving towards the bird feeder. The next clip showed the bear's butt heading back the other way. Without ever realizing it, Kristen must have chased the bear off.

-JC-

Trip to Scotland and Iceland

We've been planning this trip for quite a while. During our planning we learned that we had one activity that we wanted to include that was just about impossible to book. There was only one date where we could book two roundtrip tickets (Fort William to Mallaig and back) on the Jacobite (Hogwarts Express) Therefore, our reservations on the Jacobite came first and all else fell into place around them.

With our ground travel all by train and bus, we decided to travel light. Iceland air subscribes to the very small Ryan Air carryon requirements so we bought a couple of backpacks that met those requirements. We were allowed 22 lbs. My starting weight was 14 lbs and Kristen came in at 10.6. We had to send our clothes out a couple of times for some rather expensive laundering but that was OK.

Our Itinerary was as follows:

• Stop1: Glasgow (1 night)
• Stop2: Fort William (2 nights)
• Stop3: Inverness (2 nights)
• Stop4: Pitlochry (2 nights)
• Stop5: Glasgow (2 nights)
• Stop6: Reykjavik (4 nights)
• The Trip Home: Views of Greenland

Our route through Scotland.

 -JC-

A Plethora of Wildlife Cam Clips

The newer of the two wildlife cameras hasn't been capturing anything lately so I did some work on it. I swapped its SD card with the older camera and reformatted both cards. Got about 60 clips of lawn mowing and vegetable gardening on the old camera but found these among the 155 clips on the new.

-JC-

Got Moose?

We just spent a week in the White Mountains (Northeast corner of New Hampshire near North Conway) with Briar, Gus and the Kids.

Our normal route there and back takes us East from Lincoln over the Kancamagus Pass. On our way in, we encountered a moose just east of the pass. This is only our second moose siting since moving back here but we at least got some pictures this time.

Our 1st full day there, Sunday, we took a hike up to Ripley Falls in the morning. In the afternoon, Briar, Gus and the kids went to Santa's Village while we stayed behind (admission at most of the parks in the area include a couple of hours before closing on one day and then another full day).

On the trail up to the falls.

Monday, we all went on a 3 hour, 3 mile tubing trip that took us right up to the Maine state line. The route included several rapids that left us with some bruised tailbones.

Tuesday, we all went for a couple of hikes in the morning. Then, while Briar and Gus went to lunch and shopping, Kristen and I took the kids to Lunch and Miniature Golf. It was unbelievably hot and humid and we all got home before the rain started.

Wednesday, everyone went back to Santa's Village so Kristen and I had lunch in North Conway and checked out the shops and outlet stores.

Thursday morning, we all hiked to the top of Blackcap Mountain (something that we always do once or twice). In the afternoon, we hiked into Diana's Baths (a long series of falls and pools) and went wading.

Friday morning, we all went up to Wildcat Mountain Ski Resort where Kristen, Briar and I rode the zip lines. After lunch, we headed over to the Attitash Mountain Ski Resort where Niko and I rode the Mountain Coaster and Briar and Maya rode the Alpine Slide. In the evening, we celebrated our last night there and all went out to dinner.

I didn't get pictures of many of these events so I'm including a link to Briar's montage that, I'm sure, includes everything (but no moose!).

-JC-

Bobcat Encounter

Went to take the recycling out and found this critter walking between me and the bin. Any other animal would run but bobcats freeze and then start stalking you. Needless to say, I headed back inside and waited for it to clear out.

Recycling out, it was time to bring in the bird feeders. The bears will mangle them if I don't so I leave them on the bulkhead steps each night. I no sooner opened and popped out the bulkhead doors and there was my friend again. It was apparently focused on a rabbit so I ran for the camera.

Had to distract it to get the face.

Then back to stalking the rabbit

We watched it out the window for a while and, when it lunged, it kept leaping from the weeds from one end of the side yard to the other. Don't know if it was successful or not.

As long as I'm at it, here are a couple of groundhog/woodchuck/marmot/ pictures from the other day.

Through the window scrren.

Caught it off the end of the house. Wildlife camera on the tree at the right didn't catch it.

-JC-

Finally, a bear siting

I suppose that it's a good thing but we haven't seen any bears this summer. The neighbors have reported seeing several so we know that they've been out there.


One of our wildlife cams finally picked one up. The camera was aimed across the back of the lawn toward the windmill. The bear was crossing from the driveway toward the creek at the edge of the lawn. The Japanese Maple in the clip is about 4' tall so that will give you a sense of the bear's size.

Taken on 6/22/18 @ 8:33pm

-JC-

New View from the Farmers Porch

After about 30,000 miles and 10 months living in our trailer, we decided that the time had come to sell it. We loved our trips in the trailer but decided that we'd rather take more frequent car or plane trips and stay in hotels (away from the railroad tracks).

With the trailer out of the way, we can move forward with our plans to repave the driveway.

This was taken maybe 10 days ago when we we're preparing to list the trailer on Craigslist. Look at the difference in those trees!

-JC-