lightening storm

view from our back deck.



there was more than 1400 lightening strikes in this one storm, for California this is a very rare experience. It filled our hearts with fond memories of when we lived along the western shore of lake michigan.

back in internet-land

We had some sort of digital power surge that literally smoked our modem so we were without Internet for the last week and a half. At first I was annoyed not having it and that it would take them so long to get here, but after a while I liked the quiet and even read and finished a book in my spare time not checking facebook or blogs!

It seems that we have a small wildlife refuge living in our backyard. Our house backs up to the American River Canyon. The national forest is right behind our yard. It is lovely to live on a cliff and be up where the hawks and birds soar. We have deer, turkey, a raccoon that sneaks up on our deck and eats all of Caden's raspberries, and a bear with two little babies that prefer to lay by the bridge leading to our front door.

this is the pregnant deer watching me take a picture of here through the window next to our stairs leading to the bedroom level. She was munching on our azaelia. They eat everything.



she is literally six inches from our window. We were enjoying checking each other out!





And here is mamma bear. This is 2pm in the afternoon. I was heading to my car to pick Caden up from school. The only way we got her to leave was to set off the car alarm. Then she just slowly meandered away, like "ok alright already I get the hint." We are taking every precaution to be able to let the bear live here. As long as she does not act aggressively. We all keep our trash inside until trash morning. She did attack our trash the first week we were here, she enjoyed some of Caden's birthday cake. She spread our trash everywhere, it was quite a mess. Then we left the empty trash can down by the garage and she drug it back up the driveway.



We contacted the fish and game and they do not relocate anymore. They would destroy her and her babies. That does not seem fair. So the neighborhood, mostly us (because she likes our house the best) are trying to make her wary of people and we are very aware of our surroundings. She seems to understand. She grunts and warns us where she is, and we carry a whistle wherever we go. We also posted notices by the trail that is right by our house. We will see. I hope we will all get along, because now we will have three bears to worry about.


here is the fiercest animal in the hood, Suki, she is in love with all of our windows that go all the way to the floor!


Our little guy is not so little, he just turned 8 a couple of weeks ago, he was so exhausted from all of the commotion!


thanks for stopping by! Talk to you all soon!