An New [Unwelcome] Visitor

“Some days you go bear hunting and you get eaten. Some days you come home with a nice rug to roll around on, and bear steaks. What they don't tell you as a kid is that sometimes you get the rug and steaks, but you also get some nice scars to go with them. As a child you don't understand that you can win, but that's it's not always worth the price. Once you understand and accept that possibility you become a real grown up, and the world becomes a much more serious place. Not less fun, but once you realize what can go wrong, it's a lot scarier to go hunting "bears".” ― Laurell K. Hamilton

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for your continued interest in our adventure(s).  Every great idea starts as a tiny spark, and I'm excited by the prospect of sharing what [I hope!] will be a luminous journey to remember.

Secondly, before I get started, I'd like to share some warm and fuzzies with you because, y'know, I 💓cats.  Willow doesn't normally like the camera, but she was in all her beautiful glory at camp.

Catnip Carrot is one of her favorite toys.  While we were away, a mouse ate the green feathers off the top.

If you listen closely at the beginning of the short video, you can hear Willow make a super cute noise when I startle her awake from her cat nap.

LOVE HER.  CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF HER.

Okay.  Now on to everything else.  Thank you for your patience.

R estimated that we'll have to collect wood for at least an hour or two every day so we have an adequate supply for the winter.  Even though we don't currently have access during the harshest winter months, we still want to start stockpiling firewood for when we do move up here permanently in a couple of years.  To assist with collecting firewood, my wonderful father and his better-other-half  *wink* gave us a wonderful little wagon for Christmas.  This thing is bad ass.  The following pictures only show the test run, but after that, we loaded the wagon up to capacity and bogged it through the woods.  It was quite capable; R was even pleasantly surprised!

While collecting firewood, I came across a section of tree with very pronounced tree growth rings.  Tree-ring dating, or Dendrochronology, is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings).  As well as dating them this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atmospheric conditions during different periods in history from wood.

Tree growth rings

After we collected some firewood nearby the cabin from a tree that had been taken down by Mother Nature, we went out in search of property line markers.  At another point in time, we found and re-marked half of the northeastern border.  The northern border is the river.  Our goal this time was to find and mark the southeastern, southern, and southwestern border.

Plot map to show shape of 22 acres and compass

Typically the markers are either pink or orange tagging tape, or red paint.  The video clip below shows a couple of trees with red paint indicating the property line, and then pans out to show you just what I have to look through to find a marker.  Sometimes I'll stand there for minutes on end, just swaying back and forth, hoping to catch a glimpse of color between trees.

R, Tyson and I spent a couple of hours in the woods on this quest (Willow was in the cabin taking her afternoon nap, likely enjoying the solitude).  It was a surprisingly beautiful day during a normally rainy New England spring.  We started off near the driveway on the trail that bisects our land almost in half from east to west; where we left off last time when we tagged the NE line.  Traveling south until we located the southern most corner property marker - a metal pole in the ground - we then moved west across the short southern border, but come halfway, we couldn't find any more markers.  Seeking out our last placed marker - being cautious to always keep our last placed marker in sight so we didn't wander off through the woods and get lost - we backtracked to where we started, deciding to go in another way.

In looking at the plot map picture, you can visualize the missing portion that would complete a rough rectangle.  That missing portion of the rectangle used to be part of our 22 acre plot, but it was separated and sold off years ago.  We found the corner post on the trail which indicated the corner of the two lots, so we went into the forest from that marker to find the boundary connecting in the middle where we lost the trail going in the other direction.  It paid off, too, because we were able to connect the dots and map the whole southeast corner of our land.  The only boundary line we don't have our finger on is the northern western line.

As we maneuvered through the woods, we came across a total of about 10 trees, sporadic through the forest, all with similarly curious damage.

Notice the shavings on the ground underneath the tree?

See this pile of shavings at the base of the tree?

I think it might have been a black bear looking for bugs within the trees?  I don't think a bobcat would scratch a tree to that extent?  A black bear would be hungry having recently awoken from hibernation.  The damage on this video below is not near the ground, which might indicate porcupine.  Maybe a small black bear standing on it's back feet scratching with it's front paws?

Most surprising to us was the video our trail camera captured on the trail at the end of our driveway!  Needless to say, we had our shotgun with us and our heads were on swivels as we traversed the woods looking for property line markers.

In addition to the black bear, the same trail camera also captured video of a fox, a coyote, and if you look closely enough, you'll see a deer's head popping in on the left side of the frame in the third video.  Please accept my apologies for the poor quality.  It wasn't a straight download.  I took a video of the SIM card viewer with my phone for faster access.  I didn't have a computer with me last time to transfer the videos properly.

Fox

Coyote

Deer (peeking in on the left)

We departed camp to head home Sunday afternoon.  Our adventures for the weekend were not over yet, though.  As we crawled the truck down the trail, we made it about 1/2 mile from camp to discover a tree that had come down across the trail overnight.  There was no way around it.

Fallen tree blocking the only way out.

There is a ditch to R's left that we would sink in to if we tried to go around the fallen tree.

The big tree took the little tree down with it.

Despite the bump in the road, we had to stop to admire the beautiful view.

So what are we going to do?  We had the chainsaw with us, but we wanted to make quick work of this.  It's already after 1:30 p.m. and we still have at least 5 1/2 hours to drive.  So, we pull it out of the way!  R has a couple heavy duty straps that can hold a thousand pounds, so we hooked one end up to the truck and one end to the tree.  Viola!  Smooth like butter!  Here's to another successful adventure!

Bobcats and snakes and foxes! Oh my!

"Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well." Theodore Roosevelt

Happy Spring! 💙💦🌱 Finally we made it in to camp for the first time this year. We made it in last year around the same time (end of April). There was still a little snow on the ground in the shade; six inches here or there. The mud was abundant, though. If it were not for our lifted truck with 35" tires, we would not have made it past the first half mile of trail. A normal car or truck would be sucked up into the depths of muddy mess. There was a station wagon and a truck parked on the side of the trail at the beginning because they could not go any further without the risk of getting stuck. There were a few surprising times where our truck was sucked into some mud and after we scrambled out, R and I momentarily locked wide-eyes in surprise with excited grins.

Thankfully everything was as we had left it December 2. We were even surprised because we forgot we had gathered a night's worth of firewood in the cabin before we left last time. However, that pleasant surprise was short lived when we opened the stove and part of the rope caulking came off the wood stove door. R started a fire to see if we could make it work, but soon the smoke billowed out of that unsealed portion of the wood stove door and quickly filled the cabin. We had to rush Tyson and Willow out to the truck for fresh air before we extinguished the flames in the stove so we could start to air the place out... Que sera sera. R checked the weather before we left and the low was expected to be 29℉. We had plenty of blankets, so we weren't too worried.

We left at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday and arrived at camp around 8:30 a.m. It rained all day. Willow didn't care though. Willow loves the rain. She even blessed me with a cute little "purrrRR" in the video.

She also let me know that I need to work on expanding her Maine catio during the next visit or two. This one is too small, she says. She's comfortable enough now to have a Big Girl Catio. Ok, Willow, I'll get on it.

While Willow was taking her afternoon cat nap, Tyson, R, and I went on a hike through our woods to see if we could locate the western property line. Tyson enjoys bounding through the woods all willy-nilly, but we kept him close because in his old age (he'll be 8 in July) he's lost some of his vision and we don't want him to get lost in the woods. We've learned the hard way that calling him from afar can sometimes backfire because the echo of our voices throws him off. Plus, our walk was headed towards the area that we last year the coyotes, and we certainly don't want Tyson to be lured off to his impending doom.

Lets see if you can spot Tyson in the next couple of photos. The first couple are easy.

Tyson, in his spiffy bright orange jacket, so we can see him in the woods.

This picture shows about how much snow was left in the shady areas.

What a happy puppy.  Tyson is wondering why we aren't keeping up with his pace.

Ok - here's a good one.  Where's Tyson? 😁  His dang pink tongue is always out.

We were unsuccessful in finding any boundary, but we did find some other interesting things. We noticed there were a good few large'ish trees that had fallen, and we wondered why. Then we saw inside the snapped trunk and became even more curious.

I received the opinion of a few people on what might have caused this damage. Opinions ranged from straight-line winds and carpenter ants, to something called Heart Rot. Heart Rot is a slow-growing fungus that rots out the center of the tree while the young'ish tree continues to grows around it, fungus unseen. Heart Rot weakens trees, obviously, and can cause them to break and fall more easily. The former owner felled a few trees and we noticed what we thought to be a mysterious hole in the center of the trees, with solid outer rings. Unfortunately, I think Heart Rot might be a good guess, especially with all of the fungus we see growing throughout our young forest. Once the nicer weather gets here, we're going to contact our Forester and a regional biologist for their opinion.

More interesting finds - scat! We've read that you should pick through the excrement with a stick to see what it contains because that will give you an idea of what animal dropped a deuce. R did the picking...

Viewer discretion is advised. Please avert your eyes from the next picture if you are susceptible to a queasy stomach.

I know for sure the small pebble-like droppings are deer. I'm thinking the top right and bottom right may be bear, though we haven't seen any bear on our trail cameras. I'm not sure what the left two are. The bottom left looks like it could be bobcat? 🤷

While we had our eyes open for additional piles of scat, we saw Tyson just off the trail in the woods and he scratched at something. We hollered his name and he stopped to look at us (good boi). Hurrying over to his location, I looked down and gasped aloud. (Viewer Discretion is Advised).

Take a minute to look at this picture. Zoom in a bit, if you will.

WHAT. THE. HELL.

I have a....an issue with snakes. I don't care for them, as much as I value their place in the ecosystem. As I was crouching down for this picture, I was tensed, expecting them to leap up at me out of their dead state. I had to keep reminding myself that they were dead as a door nail, and I was not going to be harmed. 😅 A close friend pointed out that the top, knotted snake's exposed muscle from the beheading is still pink. This means it must have been a fairly fresh kill. Whatever it was, it's lunch may have been disturbed by the three of us traipsing through the woods! WHAAAAT. We leave it be and head back to the cabin.

On our way back to the cabin, we walked down the main trail that bisects our land. There are ditches alongside the trails to divert water from the thaw. The trickling water is such a pretty sound.. (wait for it...)

Oh! We finally were able to check our trail camera. We hadn't checked it since December 2, 2018. Much to my chagrin, I forgot to delete some files off of the SD card, and so the camera was only functioning until mid-February. Bummer. But we did capture a few woodland creatures on video!

The first is a grouse, which is a bird that looks like a basketball with a head. Willow and I have seen these in the woods.

Next comes the first sighting of a fox.

Lastly is another video of a bobcat. I'm wondering if we have two bobcats, because they look different sizes. I've read that male bobcats often have one or two females within their territory.