Bear!

We live in the middle of beautiful nowhere, and as such, wildlife abounds. While we sat at supper yesterday, a guest dined in our backyard.

Dining at the fire pit

Well, hello Mr. Bear! This is only the third time we've seen a bear in our backyard since we've lived here, so all manner of excitement ensued. We grabbed every camera we could and started snapping pictures.

Eventually, the very large bear finished his meal and ambled away.

Then, when we opened the door to get a picture without the glass in the way, he turned to face us.

"Dessert!" he seemed to say (in my mind)

And then, because we decided we don't want this fellow to keep visiting (no matter how cool and zoo-like the experience was), we shouted and made all manner of noise to scare him away. He turned and left quickly.

Do you wonder what he was eating at our fire pit? Was it dropped bits of hotdog or maybe a fallen s'more? Nope. 

Ants.

The bear was eating ants. In fact, he upturned all but two of the rocks in our fire pit looking for them. 

Those rocks were big and HEAVY!

For comparison purposes, the above picture is "after," and the two pictures below are "before."

Newly made

With a lovely fire

Except for the fact that repairs must be done, this was a very cool experience. It was also quite educational, so it'll be going down in the books as nature study. I think we'll even get a journal entry out of this one.