Greenstorm's Journal

Might as well update about the animal situation.

Solly and Thea are working great as a team all night. I put them in the front at night (the grain is all there) and Avallu in the back with the geese, Thea I put in the back during the day with Avallu so she can go in and eat and I can keep Solly mostly on her puppy food.

Avallu is getting more ok with Solly, but after two incidents where he was pretty sure she belonged only on the porch we need a little more than current levels of ok. In the evenings we often do cheese o clock, where they all see each other through the fence and get lots of cheese. I think they may have got too much cheese, so I may need a lower-fat alternative for some of these evenings. Avallu is doing well listening to commands even when Solly is in close proximity, but he's also very respectful of the fence. Solly is very wary of Avallu after the last couple incidents but has a seemingly limitless well of optimism and is coming around with enough cheese again.

I've definitely made some mistakes during this intro but I suspect everyone can be convinced to forgive me.

The geese are sleeping right up close to Avallu many nights and spending more time than usual up by the house. I can tell when there are no bears around because they go into the orchard. They've taken care of this spring's goslings well and those are now fully feathered. The orchard is pretty well mown at this point and the geese are starting to gorge on grain to fatten up for fall, they've gone from roughly a quarter bucket of grain per day for the 31 of them to closer to a whole bucket.

I have an ancona drake swap lined up for later this year, so he can cover this last two year's ducklings.

Incubator full of chicks should hatch while I'm gone. Things will be set up for mom to just plunk them into the quail shed under lights. These are mostly chanteclers but with a half dozen silkies. If I'm going to do silkies I might as well do seramas, which are the sweetest chickens on earth, but there are none to be had up here. Also Clyde the new rooster (his previous family got him as Bonnie and when he started to crow had to part with him) is doing well. He's a brahma, so he should get very big, but right now he's young and pigeon-sized with ENORMOUS FLUFFY feet. He's also smart, social, and I like him a great deal. I have not yet evicted the previous rooster from the bottom coop and put him in yet, I'm planning to do that when the chicks are a bit older, so right now he's sleeping under the truck canopy at night and hanging with the muscovies during the day. His crow is growing in adorably; I guess I have a thing for adolescent rooster crows.

The three boars have been shedding, I can scratch them with a rake and all the curly wool comes off and leaves growing-in guard hairs. I think they should move to the back to guard that entrance, though really Baby and Hooligan are the better defenders against bears. Did I mention Hooligan kinda bit me when I was stealing her babies? She didn't break skin or even bruise me, but she put her teeth on me in warning after I'd ignored her barking and other warnings. She is 100% a perfect temperament in this regard: she lets me play with her newborn babies if I'm not harassing them, catching them, and making them scream and she loves being scratched behind the ears but she can gauge situations in which it's appropriate to defend and does so with careful escalation. I'm just very impressed with Ossabaws in general, but also her in particular.

We do have at least two bears back there, one big and one small, that appear unrelated. The big one doesn't mind bear bangers, air horns, dogs, or yelling so I'm worried about what will happen come fall. Two bears in that territory is already a lot and it's only August. When bears go into their super calorie-seeking mode before winter they're less cautious and maybe it's not safe to have the pigs back there then? On the other hand the whole herd of pigs may actually be better defenders than the dogs, at least until the whole pack gels and maybe even after that.

The poor cats are withering away from lack of love and attention since I've been into the office several days the last few weeks. Also Demon is not a fan of a New Person in the house to farmsit and complains loudly when she's not around. I expect he'll come around. They continue to break down all doors into my bedroom to sleep on the bed, to my detriment.

Ducks are ducks. The anconas are in the covered area, and I want to make more covered areas for bear/lynx/raven/fox/coyote protection for the littles in future years. One broody ancona made a nest just inside the chicken house so I can barely squeak the door open and squeeze in and she will not be shifted. Everyone likes lamb's quarters weedings from the garden.

It's good? At least until the bears finish eating my neighbour's chickens and turn more attention on me.

The neighbour let me know she saw a sow with three (!) cubs in her yard at our fenceline this morning.

I wonder if this is the same bear from last year?

Three cubs is a lot to support. It's been a great berry year so hopefully they'll go light on my place.

I need to get all the apples in and hide even empty garbage cans tonight.

Ok, here's the bear saga.

I went to camp for work for three days. A bear got into my yard, broke into my greenhouse, and ate my chicken feed for three days. She got real used to being on my property. For some reason my dogs didn't chase it off.

I got back, saw the damage, did what I could to the back electric fence, spiked the front wood fence where it was climbing over, and... came back to find this year's bear cub in my apple tree the first night back. I bear sprayed it about the time Tucker was saying "there's another bear behind you".

That was mama bear, and I was nearly out of bear spray.

THAT'S why the dogs had been hiding inside. They were outnumbered.

With a bunch of yelling and rake-beating we chased them off. They came back a couple times that night and were chased off again - generally while trying to get into the carport where I'd moved the remaining feed.

The next night they were trying to get into the carport and we treed them. They got real high up an aspen tree and stayed there a good long time while I made it as unpleasant for them as possible. Sometimes I wish my deepl fertile clay soil had more rocks to throw. I honked the horn, shone lights, but couldn't bear spray because they were too high up the tree.

They came back again that night once or twice.

The following couple nights they've stayed outside the fence for the most part: the dogs are getting their mojo back and barking, and I'm careful to go outside when they bark and yell and shine lights so they feel they have backup.

Animal control may be coming to euthanize them/mama, since breaking into structures is not a good trait in a country bear.

I have not had a full full night's sleep in awhile.

Last night someone got into the back yard - the pigs were all staring at it - but Thea chased it off. I think it is the other, better behaved bear that lives in the neighbourhood.

I have a much bigger electric fencer and a bunch of perimeter work to do; I need to look up local rules on electric on the outside of a fence. Does it need signage?

It's definitely my first live use of bear spray on a bear. My apple trees are demolished, essentially just stumps, and I never got ripe fruit off them. Hopefully some talking with the conservation officer can help me figure out how to prevent this in the future; I'd assumed a glass greenhouse with perimeter fencing and dogs was secure.

Do I need a third dog?

Anyhow, exciting times.