I was stuck indoors most of the weekend. There were two bears to butcher and no excuses. I spent three days cutting meat. Yes, I am the world's slowest butcher. It was a fine dance between frozen and thawed quarters. In the end there was 37 pounds of roasts, stew meat, and meat to grind. I also salvaged 5 pounds of bear fat that can be rendered down into the incredible bear grease. While doing all of that, I canned 11 jars of bourbon peaches, 5 jars of peach syrup, one giant jar of peach bourbon, 8 bottles of rhubarb wine, and two little jars of homemade vanilla. Somewhere in the middle of that I made a blueberry pie (using bear grease of course).
I was pretty proud of my accomplishments, that is until I spent an hour outside. In that hour, I saw a bunny, weasel (I have never seen a weasel up here), a hen turkey with her 5 poults, and last but not least I was buzzed by a hummingbird.
I didn't get a photo of the weasel. He was too fast. Hopefully, he was looking for chipmunks. We have a plethora of them. I did get a photo of this shy guy. He is the first bunny we've had around for a few years. Though last week a huge jackrabbit was laying in the yard and staring at my garden.
This grand dame wanders through the yard about once a day. Obviously, they are not worried about our bird dog. Ella isn't too worried about them either.
The hummingbird just about ran into me. It must have been the orange shirt I was wearing. That was the first one I have seen since July. Ella and I kept our eyes open, because there was a lot going on this evening.
Have you seen any animals rare to your area this year? What do you see in an hour around your home?
