short story long scenario:
in the second week of february, 2009, an ice storm went through this part of the state and although we had no idea the damage it did other than the area we live...we found that the area where our cabin is suffered much more so than the insulated little area we live now.
we've been spending quite a bit of time there in the past few weeks dragging limbs and brush, burning, raking and just making ourselves tired from saturday through sunday. amazingly enough not one single limb or tree came down and crushed the cabin - we had ONE bend in our rain gutter that nancpop forced back into place. the ONLY devastating instance of destruction was that a not-so-mighty (14" base) oak snapped and took our phone and power out, but alas, not before the power went out to the area for the week - so we had no hot wires flopping about on the ground.
the cabin has been running off extension cords from the power pole, which is a pain in the arse, mostly because of the refrigerator - you cannot run a microwave, the ceiling fan, a heater in the bathhouse, or a television without tripping a breaker and stumbling around in the dark with a flashlight to turn everything back on!
there is a routine to every trip to the mountain. first, get there! unload the vehicle, start a fire in the woodstove or turn on the a/c (whichever the weather calls for - we used BOTH this weekend past), put all the groceries away, take all the bedding out, put towels and toiletries in the bathhouse, pump water from tanks to holding barrels in bathhouse, begin the water heating process which usually takes the better part of a day as we heat it in a five gallon stock pot, fill the bird feeders - and for the most part these past several weeks, cut limbs, drag brush, rake until you think your arms will fall off, and if by good fortune it is or has been raining - start some bigarse fires!
sunday morning on my way to the bathhouse i noticed that one of my feeders on a pole stuck in a stump was bent completely over to the ground - perplexed i asked pop, "how on earth do you think THAT happened?" he had no good answer so we went about our day well into the evening until we were just dog-tired enough to sit down, eat and watch a movie - no yahtzee this time.
monday morning found us packing up, making sure all the propane was turned off, things unplugged, make sure all leaf and debris fires were out - and of course, pop had to go check his deer feeding areas and as i'm going toward the front door to carry something to the deck, here he comes with a big turd in his hands and asks, "do you know what this is?" "i'm sure it's a rocky road candy bar with sunflower seeds instead of nuts in it.", thinking to myself, but thought better and allowed my demure side to kick in, "why no - what is it?" "it's a bear turd, pretty fresh too i might add - probably laid just since we've been here. when i broke it open, it was still oozy on the inside which means probably less than 48 hours old." "oh." "do you know how i know?" "no." "well, a bear and a cow are the only animals that poop like this and you don't see any cows out there, now do you?" "no."
"that bear is more than likely the animal that pulled your feeder over to the ground the first night we were here." "really?" "here, smell it (handing it out to me)." "not even with YOUR nose!"
the first night we were there found me out in the bathhouse with no weapon save my cellphone - i had to walk right past that feeder on my way back into the cabin. i'm thinkin' that bear must've heard of me - that or there was a renegade cow on the loose with opposable thumbs and the ability to stand up to a six foot height and pull that feeder and pole clean over to the ground...
...oh boo...
note to self: take gun to bathhouse.
|