Momma with 2 cubs closer to Quesnel, cubs are getting big!

Still seeing bears, this guy was huge! Must have been male. The Moose was the first female I’ve seen this year without babies, maybe hiding near by.

This little gem is an amazing find! I could not be happier with her! She is very easy to light. My kettle boils within minutes and the room warms up nice and fast too! Barry put the roof on the boot room today so we will be using it to regulate the temperature. I baked some sausages in the oven in a cast iron frying pan, these turned out great but I need to learn the temperature fluctuations so that I can bake a batch of cookies… will take some experimenting. I’m so excited, this is a game changer! Last year we were heating both offices with electricity and the bills were huge! This year we aren’t heating anything with electricity, can’t wait to see the savings!

Spotted these 2 on a dark ride home last night.

These 2 were loners so I am summing they were both males unless there were cubs hiding close by. One in the canyon, the other near Stanley.

This morning there was a family of Flicka’s in a tree next to my office. They were making a lot of noise which first brought our attention to the tree then I saw all sorts of debris falling. I could see something black and movement about a 4 foot span so I thought it was a bear at first but then realized it was more then one bird. I got close and it was 2 adults and some babies, not sure how many, it was hard to tell. I got some footage if I can figure out how to edit it, I will upload some… if you can see anything that is. :). Pretty awesome!

Apparently not for these two…

This was the cutest encounter I’ve had with bears so far! Mom with 3 cubs right by the Slough Creek Road enjoying the freshly paved highway… well 2 of the little gaffers were, mom and cub #3 were busy eating while these 2 rolled around and played… so adorable! Reminded me of how our kittens tumble around together.

Here you can see all 4… Mom was close by and not at all worried about me. I was alone with them for over 5 minutes. Took a lot of photos but I gave them lots of room so they aren’t the best pics… didn’t want to get too close and scare them away. They are getting bigger!

Eventually another truck came along, she called her babies and they crossed the road together… well almost. One little guy straggled behind then scampered across alone when she bellowed at it… soooooo cute!! This was a rare encounter, so lucky I was at the right place, right time! I’ve had a lot if rare wildlife moments this year… feeling lucky!

Bears first. I did not see these bears but thought they warranted being part of the count. Barry was working on the foundation for the house extension when they heard some crashing by the creek. Lily went to the edge of the bank and started going crazy barking when suddenly a baby went scampering up a tree on the other side of the creek right by the crossing. I’m not exactly how it all went from this point but he did say momma bear was not happy and he did get some photos (I will post once I get them) and everyone was unharmed. So that was 2 added to the count.

The other day I was getting ready to leave for work, walked out of the front door and heard something crashing around by the woodshed. I said over my shoulder not to let the dogs put, something was crashing around out here. Barry asked what is it? I turned back around and there was bear right at the woodshed! I slowly backed into the house and closed the door. He took off up the path behind my office, I was able to leave shortly after.

So that is 4 bear and 4 moose right in our yard in about 3 weeks! THAT is a record!

The latest 2 moose were a momma and baby at the other end the property… the baby is getting big but still cute and fuzzy.

The foundation is done!! Barry is ready to build next year! So exciting! As you can see in the photo, he has also started to put the board and baton on my office. Inside he has built the closet but we don’t have a door figured out yet. The laundry is all sorted out and the stove is very close to being operational. He will also be adding a boot room before the snow flies, the pad is ready and waiting! The cement around the office we are going to mosaic with river rock.

Let’s talk about Jack… this cat is unbelievable. I told you that he has been catching bats… we cannot figure out how he can do this! But he’s really good at it! And we want the bats, they eat the bugs! He has also added to his list of cariboo cuisine that he has sampled this summer chipmunk, weasels, squirrel, various birds, rabbit, vole, various small rodents and flying squirrels… now that is the craziest one yet! How the hell does he get a flying squirrel?? We studied them closely when we first moved here and it would not be easy to catch one. Jack is 2 yrs old and almost 20 lb! He is so muscular he looks like a cougar or something slinking around. He is as big as Lily, just not as wide. Because of all the big critters around lately I get the dogs to escort me up to work in the mornings and Jack is right with us… totally thinks he is a dog! Here he is on his perch, he gets up there in one leap! He’s so awesome!

Donn is getting better and better at being the prima-donna. She gets special treatment in every way but she is so sweet we can’t help it.

Mini has had a full recovery and she is back to being her happy cute self. Thank you everyone who sent messages for her.

Lily is, as always, the most loyal child I’ve ever known. She is more and more protective over me and escorts me around. She gets so excited when I come home… even just from my office and often I am only gone for a short time… she squeals she is so excited… she’s a sweetie. Lily hugs are the best.

We have officially become known to everyone as the mushroom house…

We had a fantastic visit with Nick and Stacey in the spring, they were our first guests in the HydeAway. They left us this cute design on the door step for us …

They are paving and widening the highway. They parked all of their equipment in our yard for a few nights, I wish I had gotten a photo, it was pretty crazy. They may be back, they have more to do near us. It’s just going to be sooooooo nice when it’s all done. All the delays etc are just fine, well worth it!

There is more but this will have to be continued… I will make sure I post the bear cub photos Barry got so stay tuned…

I haven’t seen any big critters on the highway for weeks but last night I heard a crack outside, looked a huge cow Moose was outside the window. It’s hard to get a camera and take a photo when you are restraining your dogs so they don’t chase after it! No photo, boo!

BUT I did have this nice gift from the cats this morning…

The organs above it are the same organs we find on the floor almost every morning, not sure which one it Is but they never eat it! Other early morning “gifts” we have found in the past week are 2 birds and an ermine (weasel). Lily decided to eat one bird and it was a huge mess! Yesh!

Stay tuned…

We got our footing poured… on step closer!

Our little Mini’s hair is thinning. She also was getting hairballs and so we thought we would take her in to have her looked at. She hadn’t had her annual shots for a while so we thought we would get updated on them as well as rabies because Jack is bringing live bats into the house now. So her and Lily went in together to get shots. Mini had a very bad reaction to the rabies shot. We thought we were  going to lose her at one point. She had the shot on Wednesday, I called twice, they assured us she would be fine, she just kept getting worse and worse until finally Barry started calling everybody on Saturday when all the offices were closed. Hilder’s daughter  is a veterinarian in Vancouver, she called Barry right back asked him 1 million questions and suggested she have some Benadryl. I am allergic to Benadryl so we don’t have it in our house and Hilder showed up about 10 minutes later with her other daughter Emily and they had Benadryl and administered it to Mini. She started to come out of the actual allergic part of it she bounced back within a day. BUT her back end was so painful she would only walk if she absolutely had to. She was so wobbly and she had little control of her back legs. She was eating and drinking water and going to the bathroom so we knew internally she was OK, but she was one messed up little puppy on the outside. Finally on Monday morning we took her back to the vet, she gave her some anti-inflammatory pain killers and gave us some to bring home with us, that was yesterday today she is resting and is almost back to normal, her little body is still  healing but she is wagging her tail again and is walking around and is able to get up on the bed with the stairs etc. This was an extremely stressful unnecessary situation. The poor little girl was in so much pain it was so sad to see. We felt so bad and guilty for doing this to our perfectly healthy little girl, it broke our hearts.

I wrote this a week ago, just getting to publishing it now. She is completely recovered, no permanent damage. We have our sweet, noisy, bossy little friend back.

Moral of the story… SMALL DOGS CAN HAVE VERY HARSH SIDE EFFECTS TO RABIES SHOTS!!! DON’T DO IT!!!

Here are the photos of the bear and moose that were in our front yard recently.

Ok first of all… SEVEN porcupine!! Wow! That’s a lot of porcupines!

I saw this trio in Devils Canyon last night, such cute little gaffers! We also had a bear wander down the trail behind the miner cabin this morning and head across the highway down the trail Barry created which has turned into a game trail! Barry got photos, I will upload once I get them off his camera!

This time last year I had seen 14 bears and 14 moose… interesting! Stay tuned…

We had a momma moose with twin babies in the front yard! We heard her up behind the miner cabin earlier then Mini spotted her at the outhouse. She came out from behind when the dogs starting barking and headed across the driveway then one baby, then another baby… so little and fuzzy! They sure stay close to momma! Barry went after them for a photo but only got a shot of their butts as they sauntered off down the highway. So many babies this year!

Jack never passes up an opportunity to get in the photo!

There are a few structures going up at the ski hill so the cement truck will be coming out a few times, we are gonna get in on one of the pours and we are ready!

Not many critters around when there is a lot of traffic. It’s been a busy weekend despite the rain. Store was super busy! Really exciting!

Saw momma with the smallest fuzziest baby on the way home. I don’t see beaver very often. He was on the side of the road, first time I’ve seen one on the road!

We have a momma with triplets on the property although I have not seen them, we have been told by others driving by. That could be dangerous. Hoping they move along.

It was almost dark and no flash so a crappy photo but here is a porcupine. Barry has better photos, I will get them from him eventually

I love you Dad, I hope you have a great day today. I wish I could be there to spoil you with sweets. Big hugs and kisses from all of us at Hyde Creek.

Wow what a drive home tonight! Driving up Devils Canyon and there was a lynx crossing the road in front of me. I looked back in my side mirror after I passed him and could see there was a bear on the other side of the cement barrier. I got up to the top, spun around and drove back down. The lynx was sitting on the same side of the barrier as the bear watching, as he saw me coming back he crossed right in front of me and up the bank. He was so so cool! The bear was across from a pull out on the opposite side of the highway, I pulled in there, turned around, sat and waited for a bit. I could see the lynx up on the bank, he wasn’t gonna come back down until I left so I carried on my and as I went past the bear, she scooted up the bank with FOUR babies!! I have never seen 4 babies, we see triplets a lot but 4 is very rare! The lynx was after her babies! I hope it doesn’t get them! There were a million bunnies on the road side tonight, I would rather see him take one of them out then one of these quadruplets. They were tiny!

Then I stopped and helped some guys whose truck had broken down, made a call for them when I got home. They were pretty happy, it was 8:30, there isn’t a lot of traffic at that time.