The "locals" are keeping us busy!

The "locals" are keeping us busy!  Our compost design was successfully tested as a bear attempted  to no avail to break into it.  Every night I bring the bird feeder inside.  Seemingly every morning new evidence of marauding critters greets me as I bring it back out.

Bear tracks decorating our property.  Notice how they are raised in relief relative to the ground.  The bear walked over moist ground and compacted the sand grains together.  The uncompacted sediment around the tracks were less resiliant to the coming rains and eroded more quickly than the now silicously-cemented tracks.

Just passing by.  Wolf and bear headed in opposite directions.  To put this into perspective, our 80lb dog's prints are just above the bear's on the upper right corner of the picture.  Compare that to the wolve's.

While temperatures at night have been cold enough to antagonize some yellow out of the brush and even some red out of the maple; August is the beginning of the harvest.  Berries are in the freezer.  The walleye fishing is picking back up.  Lake Trout have been hitting all summer.  The apple trees are beginning to bow to the stresses of burgeoning fruit.  Chard and spinach continue to florish.  Garlic, onion, parsnip and carrot are slowly cresting to the surface.  The peas and beans are delicious.  Our tomatos are beginning to blush.

The first harvest.  Red and Russet potatoes with a lone "test" garlic on the left and the start of our outdoor tomato and bean harvest on the right.

Penelope at 12 weeks!