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Friday, June 26, 2009
Last night we had a visitor - and not the paying kind! A bear, around 2 years old, decided that the side of our house was a great place to hang out and play in at 11:30 pm... He threw around a bunch of stuff, tried to get into our bear-proof garbage, and had lots of fun with our recycling containers (luckily we had just emptied them the day before). He didn't care that we were watching him from our windows or that we were making lots of noise - too many good things to play with, I guess. Eventually, he ran off when we weren't interesting anymore.
This morning, I was talking with a Ministry of Natural Resources officer about our 4 legged visitor. Apparently, a neighbour down the way believes in feeding local wildlife - this has resulted in several bear-related complaints as this fellow travels around our area. We believe that the constant food outside is why the bear is coming on a regular basis - not good! So...the MNR will be arriving on Monday with a "live bear trap" to humanely capture it and relocate it at least 60 km away from this area. This is a great lesson about living with wildlife - our food comes from the grocery store, their food comes from Mother Nature, and it should stay that way!
Friday, June 19, 2009
We are having the most spectacular weather! This weekend promises to be non-stop sun and warmth! Guests are out enjoying a lovely paddle to Marsh's Falls right now and I'm catching up on paperwork.
It's been pretty quiet on the nature-sightings front - lots of hummingbirds and dragonflies. There are no blackflies out today; I think their season is done!
No bear sightings this week (thank goodness!). Although, we did hear our neighbour shooting a rifle in the middle of the night two days ago... It's funny comparing country life to city life when gun shots come into the picture. When we heard the first shots at 2:30am, we continued to lie in bed and wonder who was shooting at a bear (we never really consider any other options...). After the 5th shot in 20 minutes, my husband got up - but only after he heard some neighbours talking outside. He then proceeded to get in his truck to drive around to see what was going on - only in the country do you drive TOWARD the gunshots!!! :-) Our "city" neighbours, who were up for the week, had all of their lights on at the first shot being fired and lots of movement happening... I feel kind of bad for them because we are so blase about the whole gun thing - I guess it's to be expected when in almost every house there are hunters.
Summer update - we still have a few cottages available during the 1st two weeks of summer. It's a great time of year to visit Muskoka because the trails in Algonquin Park are not very busy, the water's warm enough for swimming, and the nights are still comfortable for sleeping! In fact, we've been swimming in Lake of Bays for about 4 weeks now... Come on up for a visit!
Friday, June 12, 2009
It's such a beautiful day at our cottage resort today! Sunny, 23C, gentle breeze, calm water on Lake of Bays... Perfect! This weekend promises more of the same - you should be here!
Yesterday, I saw the biggest rabbit I've ever seen in the wild! He was hopping down the middle of our driveway by "A" cottage, happy as can be, until he saw me...oh well.
Last Sunday, my mom was watching the resort for us while we were off-site. Mom was sitting in the greeting room. Out of the corner of her eye she saw something move out in the garden - get ready...a bear!! A bear, in the middle of the afternoon, walking through my garden! Cool to see, but not good!!!!!!!! We know he's been around to visit our neighbours, but this was the first time the bear boldly went where no bear has gone before! Very exciting. Now if only we could teach him to pull weeds...
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
It's been a busy month at our cottage resort since the last time I wrote. The Victoria holiday May long weekend was busy, but the weather was not very cooperative - it was cool and rainy on one of the days, sunny and windy the rest of the days. Our guests were thrilled to see lots of moose and even a bear on two separate days in Algonquin Park.
The middle of May brought great sadness to our family with the sudden loss of Hildy Tapley (2nd generation owner). Thank you to all of our friends and family for your kindness and love to help us through this.
The end of May saw us visiting Las Vegas for a friend's wedding. Quite a wild place! I much prefer our forests, streams, and lakes to desert, 120F heat, and tarantulas!!! We're very happy to be home!
Summer is almost upon us - only 16 more school days to go (the countdown has started). We have lots of fun planned for our summer guests!
