Good question to ask of oneself when you hear strange noises in the night. My first thought was Craig must be putting equipment away. But at 10pm? I roused myself out of bed and looked out the window. Down below was a big black bear trying to pry the lid off of the  can filled with bird seed. I told him to go away. Did I mention that he was big? I called to Craig who came upstairs. That’s the biggest bear so far. Hank was asleep in the den. I told Craig that we cannot send our beloved dog outside to deal with the bear. What are you going to do? I said. Meanwhile the bear had managed to lift the lid enough that he was able to get a good grip on the bird seed bag with his teeth. He dragged the can up the hill beyond the playhouse.  Nothing to be done that night.

The next day Craig announced that he had gone looking for the can. He found it about a 1/4 mile from the house. The bear had given up on getting the bag out of the can. Was Hank with you? I said. Yeah, but he was no help, Craig replied. Hmmmm, I thought to myself.

I am so disappointed in my tomatoes this year. Planted 60 seeds, five different varieties. Most grew about three inches then stopped. By May, it’s usually like the Amazon rain forest in the kitchen.  I think I slipped up by not using Miracle Gro for all of the seedlings.

On the local political front, the St. Johnsbury School lost it’s third budget vote.  Lots of finger-pointing and name calling which is not helpful and only succeeds in giving people more reasons to not support the school budget. Oh, so and so thinks I’m an angry white man? What!  I should get off my ass and vote? Look whose voting now….There are 750 kids enrolled in the k-8 school compared to 1,000 when my own kids were there. The school boasts a hefty administrative staff including Superintendent and Co-Principals.  There is also a high percentage of children with special needs and behavioral challenges. Possible 25%? It’s one of the reasons so many families are choosing to enroll their kids in local private schools.  Not conducive to a democratic society.

It’s been a long while since posting in this blog. Our Internet has unpredictable mood swings. Sometimes it’s slow, sometimes there is no getting on. Sometimes it flows like melted butter on my pancakes. Don’t eat pancakes much, so there you have it. To top it off, I was sick with a head cold for two weeks and then went on a four day trip to Michigan. I am catching the Internet while the going is good.

So far we have planted 80 onion bulbs, two rows of peas and one row of spinach. We decided to hoe out the pond garden. This is one plot that has confounded us for the past 27 years. It’s a horrifying mess of Anemone and Yarrow roots. You have to take a shovel and dig deeply to pull up the stuff. Then sift through it until the soil is clean again. We added reams of Caledonian-Record newspapers covered with hemlock mulch. We are on the other side of this madness.

I need to comment briefly about Game of Thrones character Theon Greyjoy. I underestimated the effects of Ramsey Snow’s abuse on Theon, now Reek’s, psyche. He has been completely co-opted by Ramsey and now suffers from Stockholm Syndrome. If only Theon’s sister understood this psychological phenomenon. She might have  brought Milk of the Poppy to the rescue and knocked out Theon. Eventually, he might heal from his trauma. Meanwhile, Ramsey has some kind of twisted plan to use Reek, playing his original identity as Theon Greyjoy. One can only wonder when and how Ramsey will encounter his Karma. Everyone dies on Game of Thrones.

Hank running up the side stairs

The corral garden just beginning to bloom

For my Readers who miss snow. You know nothing….

Craig flew off to Florida for a five day tennis extravaganza. The house responded by breaking things one by one. First, the Internet stopped working. Not slow. Stopped working. Batteries died in some of the smoke/carbon monixide alarms. Then the furnace went.  After conferencing with Craig, decided that we had run out of oil. But the fuel guys can’t make it up our driveway this time of year. It wasn’t so bad when the sun was shining because the largish windows created a solar effect. The nights were cold. Hank was invited, no commanded, to join me in bed. I remembered the expression “three-dog night” to describe the truly intense cold that people endured before conveniences were invented like indoor plumbing and central heating.  Hank was like a big heating pad. Could have used one more dog.

Functioning indoors when the temperature is  50 degrees entails operating equipment that generates heat like the oven and dryer and then huddling under several blankets and binge-watching Game of Thrones reruns. I was cold, but nothing like north of the Wall.

Hope

What are we doing today?