I'm exhausted this morning. We went to bed shortly after 10 last night. I got up again because Courtney kitty wanted in shortly before midnight. Shortly before 2 AM this morning one of our outdoor dogs started barking...incessantly, until JB got up to see what he was barking at. He came back to bed and said he didn't see anything. But Bandit kept barking so JB got up again, went out on the deck to the north of the house with a flood light and came trotting back to the bedroom to get dressed. There was a BIG bear sitting on the split rock near the tractor, acting like he was going to go up the tree there. I got up, got dressed, grabbed my truck keys and JB grabbed the rifle, a flashlight and the flood light. The flood light is BRIGHT but it overheats and quits without warning...not a good thing if you're out there in pitch black with a bear! So, we went out to the truck together and JB headed off for the girl's pasture with rifle and lights in hand and I started up the truck and headed out behind the house and up north to shine the headlights up the hill to the north into the male's pastures. We never did see the bear again so after JB went through every pasture and counted heads we headed back in and went back to bed. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to fall back to sleep when the adrenaline is pumping like crazy through your body?!
This morning when I went out to feed the horses, I discovered the 30 gallon trash bin where I keep all the rabbit food dumped over, ripped open and the food containers were spread all over the ground. I always use a bungee cord to hold down the lids on all the feed bins if I leave them outside so the bears and deer cannot get into them - at least as easily. JB came out and found the carton of oats sitting on the split rock torn open and half eaten. I cleaned up the mess and dragged the bin to the drive so I could figure out where to put it (somewhere inside) so the bear doesn't come back. While I was cleaning this up, Handel kept giving the alarm call and looking up the hill towards the Barn Shed. Puff, the 29 year old POA mare kept rounding up the female llamas and putting them in the interior corner of the pasture. She refused to come down the hill to eat her breakfast in the corner where she normally eats. I had to take her breakfast to her. I was as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rockers! I had Annie, our mini Aussie out with me to do chores and she was sniffing around like crazy but wasn't growling or acting like there was anything close by so that helped calm me a bit. I kept stepping back and looking up into the pine trees before I walked under them, just in case Yogi Bear had shimmied up a tree for the night.
After feeding the horses and llamas I started filling water tanks and as I was going through the pastures checking everyone out I discovered a pile of bear scat right in front of the Barn Shed. Nice...that's always a fun discovery. Thank goodness I didn't step in it...ewwwww! I dragged the rabbit feed bin into the Barn Shed and I hope the bear doesn't decide to attempt to break in to get to it.
I hope Yogi doesn't come back again tonight because I need my beauty rest. When I don't get my full 8 hours of sleep I get up feeling really ugly in the morning. He will not want to mess with me if he wakes me up again tonight!
Just wanted to let everyone know that Argentum is feeling much better now. He has been up most of the day for the past two days and is moving around more and eating more. Apparently he was just badly bruised from his traumatic experience with the fence. Perhaps next time he won't jump the fence. Of course, if there IS a bear around, I don't care what he jumps or where as long as he gets away from the bear! A huge thank you to everyone for your well wishes for our Argent!
Thank you everyone for your nice comments on my last post. We have had major bear problems for several years now. BUT then we got a BIG BEAR GUN and he has steered clear most of the time. The DOW offered to give us some bean bag things to put in the shotgun...and I told them his 3 strikes were up and if we shot at him we were shooting to kill, not to just piss him off! They agreed that after sending several of our llamas over the fences (sometimes causing injuries, sometimes just sending our poor llamas a long ways away to get away from him), after breaking and entering my truck (busted my topper all up), after tearing down portions of our fence, and after busting down the door to our next door neighbor's garage, we were done messing with the bear. Guess he got the message that we meant business because his nighttime visits got scarce for quite awhile. It gets really old standing out in pitch black darkness with flashlights and a shotgun, shivering from the cold and fear, trying to calm the llamas and the horses and trying to figure out where the bear is at in the middle of the night, trying to be sure we aren't standing in his path to freedom, etc..
Poor Argentum is still very sore and has spent a lot of time in the kush position (laying down with all four legs gathered underneath) and he has been laying in an awkward position which tells me he is very sore in the tummy area. This morning I managed to get a good look at his belly (poor guy will stand but doesn't want to move around much) and I don't see any cuts but I imagine he's pretty bruised up. We're going to keep a very close eye on him and perhaps put him into a small pen (I'll put him in with the weanlings who are in a larger pen with high sides and visable from the house and away from where the bear likes to hang out) so we can monitor his food and water intake and his output and keep the other boys from bugging him while he recovers. Hopefully he's just bruised and it is nothing more serious than that. This little guy is from our top two llamas - his momma is our top producer (she has produced incredible crias so far - one is a Regional Grand Champion) and his poppa is our ALSA Halter Champion so we have high hopes for this guy in the show ring and as a stud prospect.
A heartfelt thank you goes out to everyone for their happy birthday wishes and their words of encouragement yesterday. The Celebration Sale in my etsy store was great, too! I sold as much yesterday as I did in about two full weeks of May. Now, May was a really low sales month so that isn't huge, but it was very encouraging because it exceeded the goal I set for myself in daily sales when I "retired" a year ago. So thank you to those who popped into my store and bought some fibery goodness. I hope you enjoy your fibers as much as I enjoyed creating them.
We must have had a bear come through last night because this morning when I went out to feed, one of our llamas that we have in a smaller pen to keep him away from the other adult males (they fight and he just cannot behave himself) was GONE! Now, normally I wouldn't be quite so paniked but this llama is sold and we are supposed to deliver him to his new home this Saturday. I found him in the pasture with the little boys and since they weren't talking smack at the time I left him there. However, a little while later I let Annie, my mini Aussie, out and heard screaming in that pasture and that male had our oldest male on the ground so I threw some shoes on and ran out to separate them. I got Problem Child put back where he belongs and ten minutes later I went out to check on things and all the other llamas were kushed and quietly enjoying their day.
Also, this morning I discovered one of our two year old males, Argentum, (photo above) had jumped a section of fence and was caught up in the fencing. He had made it over but his back legs came down too soon and the top wire of the fence was underneath his belly and right in front of his back legs. Thank goodness we used smooth wire and not barbed wire for that top line! Barbed wire would have cut him up terribly - I don't even want to think about how awful that could have been! Because we've had rain daily for the past two weeks the ground is very soft and I was able to push over the fence posts and pull down the wire enough to be able to then pull one of his back legs up over that wire and then the other one. Poor guy immediately squatted to pee...I have no idea how long he stood there unable to lay down or move! Fortunately llamas are extremely intelligent and most of the time they won't panic and struggle, which usually ends up getting them more tangled and in deeper trouble. He was just standing there patiently waiting for someone to help him out of his predicament. But can you imagine his terror if he was trapped there and a bear was on the prowl?! I think the little guy deserves a Purple Heart for his bravery.
