Snaggle Nose lives

Just got an email from a camp owner who has spotted "Snaggle Nose", the bear who about three years ago lost half his face in a bad fight. He is now closing on 600lbs. This big guy looks very mean with his permanent snarl look from his injury. So keep your camera ready and get a 2012 picture of him if you can and send it to me.
The mountain laurel is blooming great on Cedar Mountain and is quite beautiful. Looks like it may warm up for the Rattlesnake Festival in Morris, which is good news for the snake hunters. Most of the snakes have been hiding during the cold spell we have had last week and the warm sun will bring them out to warm up. I will be getting some pictures to share. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Mountain laurel and stray cat

The mountain laurel is starting to bloom early this year and it looks like there is going to be a lot of it. I am thinking the warm winter helped with the health of the plants. We have been getting a lot of rain on and off, which isn't good for all the outdoor painting jobs we have this summer. Hopefully, we will get some dry spells to get a few things done.
I had a call from Slate Run store today, Deb said a white cat was spotted up West Rim Road at a cabin just West of Fahneystock intersection. She said someone lost a cat camping last year in this area and wondered if this might be the same cat. The cat is now wild and hard to approach. So if anyone out there lost their cat contact me and I will give you specific directions.
Just got back from taking the dogs for a quick walk between storms and after I spotted a large bear in front of house heading towards Hooke's camp. We went the other way and the dogs had their hair up most the way. They don't like bears much and the bears feel the same. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

P.S. The bear came back to our house and he is a big one 4-5 hundred pounds. I heard a sound around 8pm near the porch. It sounded like a bird hitting the window. It wasn't it was Mr. bear who I have now nicknamed, "Trouble", gently unhooking a hummingbird feeder. I leaned out the door and yelled loud at the bear only 8' away and he took off down the road. The dogs were growling behind me so I let them out in the fenced area to add some barking to the mix. Lee walked out and saw him down the road to Hooke's camp. She gave him the what for and he turned to look at her and then ran faster. You don't want to upset the hummingbird lady. LOL.

Memorial Day

Don't forget to remember the fallen soldiers today. We have two special ones close to me. Lawrence Ritter who crashed  his P47 not far from here. Following the link on his name will give you more info. And Capt. Campbell buried in Leetonia Cemetery.  Visiting these sites on Memorial day gives a hands on feeling to memorial day far above the family barbecue.

On a different note we had a visitor the other night. While watching television I heard Scooter growling at the fireplace. Scooter isn't one to make noise for no reason so I asked Lee if something was over there. Sure enough, there was a three-foot long Rat Snake like the one above crawling on the hearth. Now a rat snake can look and act a lot like a rattler to try and fool you into leaving it alone so I wasn't too quick to grab it. Once I identified it, I grabbed it behind the head and tossed it outside. Scooter and the rest of us were glad to see it on the right side of the house. 

I am not one to kill a snake when at all possible as they do a lot of rodent killing, which helps keep the intermediary host of Lyme's disease, the mouse population, down. Most of my snake killing is accidental during lawn mowing. Snakes do not go through a lawn mower well.

The bear who knocked the fence down has stayed away since we and the dogs are home and I am hoping it stays that way. Lee and I are spending the afternoon with friends having a cookout and playing a game called, "Dudo". My son sent me home with this game and it is simple and fun, specially if you are a good liar. It involves dice and trying to guess and bet how many of each kind everyone has. The guess has to get progressively higher so eventually someone has to lie and the next person calls, "Dudo". If there is not the number of dice kind bet the person who bet losses a dice, if there is the Dudo caller losses. Last one to have any dice wins. You start with 5 dice each. Part of most people's experience at camp is playing a non-electronic games. Hopefully, this will continue to be a part of camp in the future. Have a great Memorial Day. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Back Home

Home again. It is always a good feeling after being gone so long to be back in the woods again. I was gone for 3 weeks and Lee was gone for one week. During the last week when we were both gone a bear took advantage and decided to climb the fence I have between the house and garage for the dogs.
 Lee had placed her hummingbird feeders inside the fenced in area and it proved too much of a temptation. The fence came down easily along with the board that held it to the house. The weight of a bear is no match for this kind of fence. The welds on the wire are broken as well so it looks like I will need a new section of fence to fix the damage. When the dogs are home the bear won't gain access so easily. They bark and I can scare the bears away. This is the first time they have really made a mess of things and I am guessing cause we weren't around to make it harder for them.
Deb at Slate Run Store said, the bears have been causing a few more problems than usual. Seems like a high birth rate might be at the bottom of the bear problem. Feeding the bears contributes to this as well as the mild winter we had. If you value your camp it is best not to feed the bears as they can be very destructive looking for more food or marking your camp as their own. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Where I have been.

So much to catch up on since my Easter Blog. As many of you know Lee's nephew was going through treatments for Luekemia for the last year and a half. Much of our time has been devoted to trying to help as much as we could. Neal unfortunately at 18 years of age succumbed to his disease while I have been in San Diego visiting my son who I haven't seen for a couple years. Lee is on her way to the funeral in Illinois and I will be meeting her there next week. Neal was courageous in his battle and attitude for life and it is never easy to say good bye to one so young.

On the other side of the country I have been enjoying some time off from work with my son, Hal. He introduced me to a series of videos about our National Parks that National Geographic did. It is called, "Ken Burn's National Parks America's best idea." It is a six part series each one being 2 hours long so no small feat to complete. But it is well worth the time spent understanding how the parks started and the battles between commercial and public issues that still exist today with our gas well exploration in our area.

The movies make you think about how you view the use of land, animals and plants that are irreplaceable once they are gone. I have strong feelings about how our State forest is managed, which were definitely reawakened by this program. So while I am out for a while you can fill in your wild hunger with this and not be disappointed. Mountain girl, (temporarily displaced in a desert) logging out.

Easter Bunny barely escapes death!

It is dangerous being an Easter Bunny in Leetonia. The poor Bunny barely escaped death this morning delivering peeps to the Mountain girls.

A rattlesnake attempting to attack the Easter Bunny was thwarted when the Easter Bunny threw a peep into his mouth and as the rattlesnake gummed his way through the peep the Easter Bunny was saved.

Thank goodness cause I would have missed all the great stuff the Easter Bunny brought us this morning.

Looks like a chilly start to the day at 29 degrees this morning but the sun is warming it up fast and it looks to be another nice day on the mountain. Have a great Leetonia Easter Day. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Fire Warnings and Fire

Last Monday a forest fire was reported in the Slider Run area. I drove up the road about three miles from Leetonia, but couldn't see anything. We did notice helicopters dropping water that day. Currently, have no reports of the scope of this fire.

We are under a Red Flag Fire Warning A RED FLAG WARNING MEANS THAT CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EITHER OCCURRING NOW... OR WILL SHORTLY. A COMBINATION OF STRONG WINDS... LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY... AND WARM TEMPERATURES WILL CREATE EXPLOSIVE FIRE GROWTH POTENTIAL.

This will last through Saturday with gusting winds to 25 mph potential for damage is great. It is best not to have any fires until we get some rain and the new growth gets going. With a lot of people up for the Easter weekend we are holding our breath that everyone will be responsible. We don't want a rerun of the fire we had a few years ago.