Wednesday, August 21, 2013

A Black Bear in Our Garden ~ Night Visitor, Leaves Tracks





In the spring we said we would do it right if we were to have a garden this year. It got later and later, hubby installed a sprinkler system and June was almost over when he started working the parched, dry, hard as rock earth. After some hard work, since we don't have the proper tools to make life in the country easier, we were ready to till the soil.


It was quite an adventure, done with me driving the truck and hubby hanging on to this grader we found in the shed that he hooked up to the truck. He had to actually lie down on it, yelling at me to do this or that with the truck, so we wouldn't damage the sprinkler system. If I couldn't hear him, he started pointing and waving his arms, a sure way to get me to go in the wrong direction. But we managed without major traumas, although we are pretty sure to rent a rototiller next year. 


On July 13, hubby sowed the seeds, while I sat in a chair above the garden, and noted what went where, so we'd know later. I definitely had the easy part of that chore. 


The seeds sprouted with amazing speed and all went well, some deer had gently stepped over the fence to drink some of the water left in a furrow and three gophers had to bite the dust. Then one morning the little fence was broken and a much larger visitor had trampled around in the east end of the garden. A black bear. 




While we could see the tracks, the bear had muddied everything up so it was really hard to get a picture of them. The above paw print was the best I could do. There were also some clear ones of the bear heading east after quenching his/her thirst and trampling our seedlings. 


The bear came back the very next night, and the above paw print also appeared. I know it's hard to tell here, but it was much, much smaller, still with five toes, like a bear. A cub, perhaps? We have a few black bears around here and sometimes in late summer they come to our place and eat juniper cones, so it's possible it was a mama bear with a cub, not something you want in your backyard. Or your veggie garden. 



After that second visit, hubby decided we needed a taller fence, so we got into Old Betsy, as we call our truck, put her in 4-wheel drive, and took off out on the land to see what we could find. And we found plenty of fencing material and metal fence posts, ideal for this venture. It's amazing what people leave behind. When I was younger, like in my late 60s, and lived here alone, I cleaned up a lot of it. And had a lot hauled away. But there's still so much left to do, and I just don't have the energy now. What you see in the truck are some of the leftovers from our round-up.


My husband put up the five-foot fence in one day, a lot of wiring the fence to the posts, but he got it done. He's so patient, unlike me. And the garden took off. On August 18, it looked like this. 


While everything may not mature in time, we will eat lettuce, spinach, collard and mustard greens, radishes, zucchini, carrots, and so on, for a long, long time to come.  

The big bobcat has come back, but we haven't seen any evidence of bear visitors in the night. 











20 comments:

  1. wow! you managed to create a wonderful vegetable garden! i hope you are able to harvest quite a bit from it. you were very inventive with your tilling, however. :) and the bear(s) are just a bit too close for comfort!

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  2. the garden is beautiful in that last photo and i got a belly full of laughs about the dragging that thing behind the truck.. to funny but it did work. hope the bear stays away, i am not sure if they eat veggies or not but they sure could do some damage and also damage to you and the pups.. be careful and stay safe.

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  3. Beautiful Radishes!!!!

    What an adventure you are having . . . wow.

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  4. Oh I just loved your description of your plowing the garden method. I can see it now:)
    Your garden is amazing I do not live in the middle of the desert and I do not have as nice a garden as you. You are certainly the better farmers. Watch the bear and the bobcat. Take care. HUGS B

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  5. I love the ingenuity and perseverance you guys showed to get your garden plowed. And now you're reaping the benefits. I don't blame you for wanting to rent a tiller next year, though.

    Wow, you sure live on the edge. Bobcats, coyotes, mountain lions, and bears. (Oh my!)

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  6. Oh, my! That's a garden to be proud of! Well done to both of you.

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  7. Wow you are dry...but your garden is WONDERFUL!!... hopefully your visitors keep away!

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  8. That's a wonderful garden, and you will definitely eat healthy with those greens and veggies.

    These stories about the critters are fascinating to one like me whose a bit leery of wild animals.

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  9. I have a question, why did you not till the ground and then put in the sprinkler pipe, seems like it would have been easier. You could have just gone around in circles. With him riding around back there reminds me of Gymkhana event of cowhide races. But hey whatever works. Hope the critters don't eat too much of your garden.

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  10. I believe the answer to doing things backwards was that my husband first thought of renting a tiller, then maybe digging, and then decided to do it this way. I agree, not exactly the best way, but we had a fun day doing it. So far, no one has bothered the five-foot fence and the birds eat the bugs, so all is going great. Gophers are the biggest threat and we had to kill three. But we waited until they were actually in the garden, inside the fence. Last garden we had, they would pull entire squash plant into their holes, so very destructive.

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  11. This is fascinating to read IngerDoodle, the garden I figured didn't have a chance but you and hubby proved us all wrong. The fencing did the trick. We love greens here so all that is growing would suit us to a T.
    Bears give me the heebie jeebies. SO far nothing like that here. All we have are humans that break into our car at night. The other night Sophie growled, woke me up and an intruder was scared off before stealing a knife and sunglasses from the vehicle.
    Ron

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  12. That's a pretty big paw print. I'm glad you have so many nice veggies.

    Love,
    Janie

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  13. Now that is determined and creative gardening. That tilling was a trip but it worked. Your garden now looks great but you really have to work hard not to have the creatures destroy it.
    Bears??? Please be careful, especially if she has a cub.

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  14. Your garden looks awesome, Inger! Hard work pays off. Unfortunately, although we've had LOTS of rain and cooler temps in Oklahoma this summer, my garden did not do too well. Oh well, I'll try again next year. ~Jeff

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  15. That is one AWESOME garden! I might get a little over excited about bear tracks! Yikes!

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  16. That's quite a garden you have going and if I lived closer you might be seeing my prints in the mud and missing some veggie's! :-)!!!

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  17. Wow, that's an impressive garden. I'm glad the fence worked for keeping your unwanted neighbors out. I'm sorry they made a mess but the paw prints are cute. :)

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  18. You'll have a lot of good stuff for your hubby to cook!!

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  19. Terrific garden, but I'm flabbergasted by your groundbreaking methods! Very creative. Where there is a will . . . Bears just flat-out scare me. More than rattlesnakes. I've so enjoyed all your wildlife tales and hope you have more to share in the future.

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Thanks for leaving a comment.. ~~ Inger

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