It's a Jungle Out There!

Yesterday morning I was sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast. Husband pointed to the edge of the wood. There was a flock of wild turkeys. I counted eight hens and a tom, all very sedately moseying along, pecking and searching for their own breakfast, I suppose.

I really enjoyed watching them. It was a peaceful, calming scene.

A few hours later, I was working (ha) on the computer and Husband says, "That bear is back!"

I jumped up and he ran in the room. We almost collided. I was reaching for  my camera, he was reaching for the air horn.

I glimpsed out the kitchen window, and hollered, "No! Don't blow the horn! it's a mama with babies, I want pictures!"

Daughter was vacuuming in the foyer, and when Husband told her there was a bear, she yelled, "Where?" brandishing the vacuum cleaner hose around as though she might suck the bear up and pop it into the canister.

Anyway, pictures were taken from the foyer window, but when my stupid flash kept coming on, I ventured outside on the porch.

I was very quiet, and watched mama and her triplets amble along in the  yard, working their way up to the front. The wind was blowing straight down on all of us, which is why I guess she didn't smell me.

The smallest  cub kept falling behind, he seemed to have his head in the clouds. He even sat down on the little rock wall and ate a few wild flowers while his two siblings and  mama came on up the hill.

It wasn't until she came out of the rose garden toward me on the porch that I decided she was waaay too close and I needed to step back in the house.

Did ya'll know bears are really big when seen up close? (I was asked today how much she weighed. I'm not a good judge of weight, but she had to be at least four hundred pounds. The cubs were, from the smallest one, twenty-five to the largest, forty pounds.)

Even though she was "looking" straight at me, she never saw me until I moved. That startled her. She took her chrirren and run.

At the edge of the wood, she turned back, stood up on her back legs, leaned against a tree and raised her head, looking for me, I think.

Then she turned, following her cubs.

Not two hours later, sitting at the table for supper, two does came out of the woods and feasted on wild flowers, exactly where the bears had been.

I'm gonna start charging admission.

If I have to pay to see them, they are gonna have to start paying to see me.

Turn about is fair play.