This year, there will be a bear hunt. I always have such mixed feelings about the bear hunt. I love animals, all of them, and as you can see from the pictures below, the mom and cubs walking through our yard are so cute.

We also have a young mid-sized bear that frequents the property…in fact our Yorkie, tiny as she is, yapped and chased it off the property and lived to tell…this time.

Every time we take her out, or walk to our cars at night, or walk out the door for that matter, we have to look both ways, and carry her in our arms until we are sure there are no bears. We see them on our property approximately 1-2 times a week, sometimes more.

Usually it’s the mom and cubs. Then there’s the HUGE bear, a gnarly looking old bear, that is the most intimidating bear of all. Our property…right up against the house and past the front door…are part of it’s pathway through the neighborhood. He occasions our trash, but we have things rigged now so that it is so hard for them to get at the trash, they don’t try much anymore. (I may eat those words in a day or two). And the “medium-sized” bear I told you about that my dog chased. These are our “regulars”.

I haven’t felt comfortable walking this summer…not because of the heat, but because of the bears. I never walk out my door completely relaxed, always have to be conscious of whether a bear is going to come around the side of the house…and believe me it happens.

Have we been attacked? No, not yet, but I’ve seen a threatening snort or two, especially from the Mom of the cubs…a Mom protecting her cubs is probably the most dangerous if you get near the cubs, or between her and the cubs.  In fact she came at the end of last week and tore down our bird feeder in broad daylight and enjoyed the seeds with her cubs, destroying the feeder.  Used to be that I could put out a feeder during the day and bring it in at night, then out again the next day.  But that isn’t working this year, it’s the second daytime feeder destruction of the summer, so I think I’ll have to wait until winter to feed the birds….disappointing.

So, the bear hunt seems like it’s necessary…even though I hate the idea.

Mom….

…and the Kids (Cubs) walking through our front yard after coming around the side of the house. Taken from the front door.  See how cute they are and why I am so conflicted?

These photos are have copyright and licensing restrictions, click through the image for details.

But it was enough to take me outside with my camera to try and capture a few pictures. I’m not really ready for snow, but better to enjoy it a bit than complain.

Happy fall? winter? to you.

We were there on Saturday, September 26, 2009, and probably the best day as it rained and was very overcast on Sunday.  This is an airport that we brought our children to when they were young to watch the small planes take off.  Now they are adults…it’s also a place we occasionally visit for a weekend lunch at their restaurant.  Always so quiet and peaceful, nestled in an area surrounded by trees, but last Saturday, the crowds were amazing to see.  Parking was up in the parking lot for the old Jungle Habitat, and was handled with great efficiency by our local police dept. and what I believe were members of a unit of the air national guard…correct me in comment if you happen to stop by and read this and I’m wrong.

I have always loved planes, this going back I’m sure to having a grandfather who was a Navy man and a retired US Air Force Captain.  Then there was my own Dad who was an electrical engineer all of his working years in the aeronautics division of a large company…designing parts for planes, including an invention or two, as well as designing parts for the space program when that became important to our Nation.  So I guess you could say it’s in my blood.  The funny part is that I prefer my feet to be on the ground, not in a plane…but there’s no greater sound to me than the rush of a powerful military jet flying low overhead, and nothing more fun than watching extremely skilled pilots make smaller sized planes do things I never imagined possible. 

I’m including a couple pictures here, and plan to devote some more time, pictures and detail to the air show through another venue soon, I’ll link to it here when it’s done.  You’ll also want to visit http://www.greenwoodlakeairshow.com – I hope this is the first of what will become an annual event.

Just noticed that my son added some pictures to his facebook page, stop by and take a look, he’s a better photographer than I am.

So this boomer, over the years, has gained a great love for history in my own way.  It started out innocently as a love for historical novels…history mixed in with a bit of drama, romance, and other things that made it more interesting to read.  Then great movies that portray events in history, then stumbling on museums and historic spots while traveling, and finally, the internet provides an endless resource for researching the history of anything.

Little things intrigue me, like when a light goes on because you realize that the name of a bridge has historical significance. I remember when they built the Verrazano Narrows Bridge that reaches from Brooklyn to Staten Island, NY.  I didn’t give it much thought at the time…it made it easier to visit some relatives and it was REALLY big was all that registered to me as a child. 

The bridge itself is named after the Italian explorer, Giovanni da Verrazzano, who came and explored the NEW YORK coast under commission by France. But he also explored the New Jersey coast in the early 1600′s.  I grew up thinking that this beautiful bridge went from my State to Staten Island, but I guess the only connection that it has to NJ is the fact that the man it was named after explored the NJ coast.

A few other posts related to history you may want to visit:Thomas Edison & the Stock Market

New Jersey Women – Ann Morrow Lindbergh

New Jersey Women – Clara Barton

New Jersey Men – Death, Duel & Weehawken, NJ

Happy first day of Spring! Spring arrived, not like a lion…but not quite like a lamb either, if a touch of snow coating everything can be used as a measure.  I don’t suppose everyone in New Jersey woke up to snow, we are a bit higher in elevation than some parts of NJ.

I took a couple of pictures, one of tulips that are starting in the garden, and one out over our deck showing snow, the empty lake while our dam is being restored, and across the “lake”, the hillside. The view will be transformed in only a matter of weeks, with green and color, I can’t wait, it’s been a LONG and COLD winter.  In fact, the wood stove that has kept us warm all winter so we could save a bit on oil is going right now, but soon that will change. I can’t wait.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

Everything is true in the article…well, almost…I guess since I have a blog for Work at Home Grandmothers, and a small but growing network of Work at Home Grandmothers one would imagine that I’m a grandmom…not yet, but maybe one day.  Most if not all of my other blogs and sites will be listed in my blogroll as soon as I finish typing this.

One thing I wasn’t “savvy” enough to do was figure out how to make the images so that you could click on them and bring up a bigger image, so if you’d like to be able to read the article, email me at claudiascorner[at]gmail.com and I’ll send you larger images, or if you live locally, stop by the store and pick up a copy of the Trends, and for more information about the paper, or to subscribe, click here.

3/19/09 Update:  Suburban Trends has added the article to their site, and IZEA did a post on their blog, you can click here to find the post.  Thanks to both of you!