Sewing Studio/Wildlife Viewing Station

I was just sewing away in my studio...putting the final borders on my super queen-sized top. I was feeling so guilty about being inside on such a lovely day...I was still in my pajamas at 11:30 a.m., when I popped over to my ironing board...looked out my studio window and saw a little black bear sitting in my back yard. 

I grabbed my son, Zack who was in the garage and he threw rocks and sprayed a hose at him but pretty much he was determined to stay and eat...garbage. Seems he had just walked by the front of the our house and grabbed a sack of garbage from our garage. Zack had been in the garage getting ready to ride his motorcycle when he popped back in the house for only a moment...how quickly it all happened. Forrest and Jenny were outside and barking like crazy and I had checked to see what they were barking at but that must have been when the bear was on the front side of the house. 

Our house sits in a neighborhood of about 200 homes. Our backyard adjoins state land that cushions the sides of Eagle River. We sit on a high bluff over the river. This bear is on the edge of our bluff so all of the land between us and the river is in it's natural wooded state. He hung out for about 20 minutes...wandered in two other backyards and went back down the bluff. No one was outside but me...all my immediate neighbors were off enjoying the pretty day.

Two hours later...I was still working on my borders...but I was dressed and had brushed my hair.  I popped over to the iron again and this time I saw another black bear...only this one was bigger.

See that head poking up? I know it was bigger because I saw the entire bear but digital cameras have this completely frustrating delay between pushing the button and snapping the picture!

I thought that was pretty exciting and from my basement studio window I taunted the bear as I tried to get a better photo...but she would have none of it. She gave me a look and determined I was completely non-threatening. She turned her back and looked for the garbage...which the first bear had pulled down the bluff a bit. Then I saw the best thing...two adorable cubs scampered up a very talk spruce tree.

This is the best photo I could get....one of them headed down the tree. I watched the cubs for about 10 minutes in the tree...they climbed all the way to the top...hung out...played with each other and finally came down to tag along with mom. 

I completely expect to see brown bears next...that's the way today has been going! None of my men folk are home or my neighbors so I'm not picking up the garbage until someone else is around to attempt to rescue me. The garbage was very mundane kitchen garbage...nothing exciting like fish guts or raw spoiled meat. I guess the first bear did leave a lovely present in one of my neighbor's yards so they didn't miss out completely.