Blah, blah, blah.

My frustration is nearly palpable.  I ordered the materials for my garden project 12 days ago.  They were supposed to be delivered 9 days ago, so I could begin building last weekend.  Thanks to Coronavirus-induced overbooking because everyone and their brother decided to do home improvement projects whilst quarantined, my delivery was pushed back.  It was supposed to be here two days ago, but was delayed again.  Today the delivery finally showed up, and it was the wrong type of block.  GRRRRR.  Hopefully I'll have a corrected order Monday.

So one more weekend reserved for building has become a "what else needs doing?" query.  Oh, so much.  I decided to start clearing the bank at the head of my driveway.  It's slightly overgrown in places and Br'er Rabbit habitat in others.  To add to the fun, there is an old electric horse fence that's buried in the undergrowth.  Well, it's a good project.  I'd like to clear it out and plant my shade loving perennials under the large oaks and maples that line the upper driveway.  The Her Side(Mom's)/My Side property is bisected by a stone wall.  Here's my side, pre-attack.

Fun, fun!  My string trimmer on wheels is currently in the shop, so I'm starting by wrangling the bigger dead limbs and pulling the old fence posts.  I moved my containers down to my side because at some point I'll be setting up all my raised vegetable gardens down here, so why not just move them now?  Peas are in the large pots as usual, and radish in the white window boxes.

I didn't get an early start today thanks to a snowy morning.  Luckily it didn't amount to much, and melted by lunchtime.  Unlike a few weeks ago.

March 23rd   5:51am

March 24th   5:50am

That was a surprise.  About three days later it had melted, thankfully.  

Oh, and we've had visitors!  We've run off three porcupines and a bear is roaming the neighborhood.  He was here a few nights ago and bent one of Mom's shepherd crooks to the ground in an effort to destroy the suet feeder that was hanging from it.  The same night he hit a few of our neighbor's feeders.  Most folks have pulled their bird feeders in, but not everyone.  *eyeballs Mother*  Some people just won't pull in all of their feeders.  (I am not a feeder of feathered creatures, and it's mostly because of the other animals it attracts.  I don't appreciate bears near my mules, thankyouverymuch.)

Anyway, the brutish beast came back again last night.  Mom went out for a smoke and heard Fargo snorting and blowing, so she had me bring out the flashlight.  I did a sweep of the pasture and spotted the bear not too far from the paddock edge.  

He crashed off into the bushes once we started yelling at him.  

(Your mother was a circus poodle and your father was a Russian dancing bear!  Goldilocks reject! Go back to Build-A-Bear and finish putting your stuffing in!)

We thought we were safe from the nocturnal horror of lesser Yogi, but no such luck.  A mere three hours later I was awoken by Mom's dog barking.  I grabbed my shoes and the flashlight, and ran out on the deck furiously swinging the spotlight across the pasture.  I'd left the exterior barn light on and could see the mules clearly.  Interestingly enough, they were looking right at me.

Cue the slow-mo "Ohhhhhhhhh noooooooooooooooo!"  

I swung the spotlight to my left and 

there

he 

was.

I went into screaming banshee mode, and given my state of half dress, my insane mane of grey-white hair flying wildly about my head, the moon glinting off my yellow teeth...wait.  You get the picture.

Anyway, I had grabbed a brick off the ground as I descended the deck stairs and threw it at him as I raced across the back yard, screeching.  Stupid move, but crazy enough to send him a-runnin'.  Hopefully after that little display, he'll think twice about coming back.

Or not.  

He's a bear.