My, My! Exciting Week!

My, My! It's been an exciting week around the Cooper Cabin!

This afternoon MacGyver's department was called out to a possible meth lab in a house. They arrived to find a bomb making house, not a meth lab. There were bombs and bomb making supplies everywhere. Then the bomb squad and bomb robot got involved. I'm glad he's "just" a firefighter and not on the bomb squad. I'm not sure I could handle him having that high risk of a job.

This morning, the Forest Ranger called to inform us they were tracking a collared mountain lion that has become a problem. He is getting aggressive and brave and a little too close to people. They wanted to let us know they tracked him to about 20 yards from our house. They asked us to be cautious and not let the kiddos or dogs get too far from us. We are hosting/taking a concealed permit class in a few weeks. It's perfect timing! And the kiddos are not allowed outside without taking Maggie, my overly protective Bernese Mountain Dog.

Yesterday, the dogs were barking. The kiddos went outside to investigate and realized the bear was getting into the trash can. Maggie, the guard dog, took off after it and chased it off. As much as a diva as she is, she makes me feel safer knowing she's around.

Earlier this week, my girl, Izzy, took first place with her 4-H quilt at our county fair. She will be sending it down to the state fair next week. We'll just have to see how that goes! I'm so proud of her! Thank you, Sandra, for all your help! I learned a lot about myself working alongside my girl.

A few days ago I tried to take off the tip of my pinky finger. I managed to keep it mostly intact but cracked my nail in the middle of the nail and bruised it very badly. I think I am going to lose it. I just wish the pain and throbbing would stop! And then the next day I slipped and fell down the mountain and cut my other hand and both of my forearms all up.

Both our laptops were down but we got one of them back with a brand new motherboard installed. Just like new! Now we need to get the other one up and running!

My chocolate lab is 5 weeks pregnant, starting to show and will be delivering in just 3 short weeks. We've been working on setting up a kennel with a top so the mountain lions don't get any of our pups. That would be terrible!

What a day! (with added pix)

Wow! What a day! We had a nice, quiet, fun family day. We did a new but rather surprising little hike. We were hoping for a longer hike but with our late start, it was just what the doctor ordered. It began and ended at a creek so the dogs and kiddos jumped in, cooled off and played a bit.

We ate our snacky packed lunch and left just as the afternoon rain was moving in. As we were leaving, a bear started to run out in front of our truck and stopped. We pulled over to try and get a picture but he decided to make a break for it behind us, climb a tree so he could get across the barbed wire fence, and took off up the hill. Sadly, these three butt shots are the only shots we got (and from my cell phone)...

After all the fun, we went home and got a short nap. Why is it that rain always makes me so sleepy? The kiddos watched Nancy Drew, we had jimbalaya for dinner with some yummy canteloupe I picked up at the Sunflower Market and then we ran to get the kids' picture IDs for 4H. The day ended with us walking our road tonight picking the brand new wild raspberries growing all over the property. Yum! Tomorrow we'll have to come prepared and bring some buckets! The sunset is beautiful and it was a nice, quiet, peaceful day. I love these kinds of days. They bring a sense of order among our crazy lives. I'll try to post some pix soon!

More Surprising Visitors

We had surprise visitors last night. Can I just say how shocked I am the census people found me? I filled out my form but not having an actual address throws them off. Not even 911 knows where I live as witnessed by the recent chimney fire incident.

And then this morning, we had another surprise visitor.... He evidently likes the horse grain. It was knocked over, lid off and scattered about this morning when I went out to feed. FYI, my son wears a size 5 mens shoe (or a size 7 womens if he wears my boots). Evidently, this bear is a bigun with big claws to boot (pardon the pun)!

I wasn't sure how well all our little friends ...elk...beaver...fox...coyote...turkey...eagles...got along or that they cohabitated with our big furry friend...the Mountain Lion.

I'm just glad he didn't get into our garbage cans. There's another project...bear boxes!