Dale Thacker Aurthor

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  • The Healing

    The Healing

                As I lay there in the mud wallow and I’m wallowing around all the bleeding stops. I feel no pain, my head is spinning, I don’t have a clue, what was in that marijuana, that Lucifer had given me, it wasn’t Ceasar’s marijuana for sure. I’m having flashbacks, don’t get me wrong! I am glad that bastard farmer Brown is dead. He had to die, for what he did to Ceasar. I’m not sure if I had it in me, without this marijuana, it had purple smoke. But I’m so ashamed of killing the farmer’s wife. I had never wanted to hurt her. If wasn’t for the marijuana, that I have to assume was laced. But with what, PCP, Cocaine, Heroin, Fentanyl, Ketamine, or LSD are some of the things that comes to mind. Speaking of mind, mine is just spinning. I hate this feeling. I need it to stop, but how?

                I remember I have some of the marijuana, I had gotten from the farmer’s wife. Will smoking this help? I smoked the whole bag and my head is not spinning as bad. I was able to crawl from the mud wallow, to the bank of the pond. I have no idea, how long I laid there, I must have passed out. I think I was having dreams, I’m uncertain it seems real. I was with Luna; we were to raise a beautiful family. Right now, I don’t know what real, and what is not.

                When I woke, it was the most beautiful bear standing there. My head is so groggy, was this Luna here with me, I don’t know reality right now. Could it be? are we are together now? What about Maverick, I don’t want to do anything to harm that beautiful family. I told her, she was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I couldn’t help myself, the marijuana had me out of my mind. I smacked her on her ass, and gave her one hell of a bear hug, and nose rub. Then I introduced myself as Benjiman, and asked her name. She said you crazy thing, you know who I am, I’m Luna. I was shocked, and apologized of what all, I had said and done. I tell her, that I don’t know what all had happened to me. I think I may have had some laced marijuana, but with what. I told her that due to my mind being altered by drugs, I had killed the farmer’s wife by accident. I just shoved her; I didn’t mean to kill her. I then turned to farmer Brown, I think he shot me 5 times with his shotgun, it felt like fly’s. After that I went towards him, as he shattered his gun on my head. I then made 1 swipe with my paw, ripping his body apart blood went everywhere, I flung him into the wall, so hard that the whole house shook, it felt like an earthquake. I then ripped his heart out of his lifeless body, and I ate it. Luna said did it taste good. I said YES. She said OMG you have been to hell and back. She gave me a big hug, and said she will always be his friend. I thought after telling her these details, she would be so applaud at me. I felt like she would never talk to me again. I was applaud at myself, for killing the farmer’s wife. But I’m glad that fucking bastard farm Brown is dead.

                She asked if I was able to make it back to her den, that she would help to nurse him back to health. I said it might take him a little longer than normal, but he would make it there. She helped me all the way back to her den. Once in the den, she told Maverick to go tell Sophia, she must know. I’m worried for Bud, he is my younger brother, but seems like my son.

                Luna said we need to get you all cleaned up and showered, to prevent infection. The mud wallow stopped the bleeding as it was supposed to. Washing will probably get you to bleeding again. So, I’m going outside to my herb garden, I’ll get some yarrow to stop any bleeding, also some goldenseal to prevent infection. After your shower I will put the herbs, over all your wound sites, I will bandage these herbs in place, to help you heal. After getting him all cleaned and bandaged, I went outside to get a basket of spinach to cook, I’ll place 5 pounds of bacon in it. The spinach will help to raise your iron level, since you lost so much blood. You need to drink plenty of water also, to help rehydrate yourself. We are so lucky you didn’t die.

                I’m now in so much pain, all over my body, it feels like I’ve been hit with multiple loads, of bird shot close range. I’m damn lucky that I’m am still alive. I will need marijuana for pain control, what I have left is probably not enough to get me out of pain. Luna has taken such good care of me. She is the very best friend a bear could have. I will get Maverick to go over to farmer Brown’s home, to get him to get all the marijuana, out of the large drawer. I’m not going to let him know of the small evil drawer. I have no idea if what Lucifer gave me, came from the small drawer, or somewhere else. I’m very depressed also, now knowing what I did to the farmer’s wife. That purple smoke is so mind altering. I need to know from Lucifer, what was in that marijuana. It might be a week or 2 before I go and talk to him about that. I need time to heal!

                I have smoked a couple of cigars now, the pain is easing up, I tell Luna to have one. She said, no she doesn’t have any pain, she don’t need one. I tell her I was glad she is keeping up with the promises, we all made to Ceasar. Sophia comes running in saying OMG, I thought I had lost you, as she gave me a big bear hug. I screamed in pain; she was horrified, that she hurt me. I said you didn’t know you was going to hurt me. Here comes my Bud, I tell him that we no longer need to worry, while we are fishing at farmer Browns pond. I didn’t want him to know any details. Susie and Dottie were just glad to see me. I tell Luna, to roll me another cigar, she said we was out, but that Maverick would be back soon.

                All the cubs were so good and concerned about me, they wanted to do anything they could to help me out, especially Bud. Sophia and Luna are now fixing supper, they tell me to just rest. Luna said the herbs will help with the healing process. Luna said everything she fixing for supper, will help raise his blood levels, as they are rich in iron. I was thinking, I couldn’t have a better friend than Luna. I may be dead now, if she didn’t find me at the pond. My head isn’t so groggy now, from Lucifer’s purple smoke marijuana. But oh, the pain is getting worse.

                Maverick is back now, and he has a very large bag of marijuana. I have never seen so much, but all of us will be supplied, for quite some time. I asked if that all came from the big drawer, he said yes. I’m pretty sure the small drawer, is PCP laced marijuana. I plan to go get it, when I feel better. I will put it in a safe spot. I don’t want anyone, to get hold of the evil marijuana. I tell Maverick to roll me a large cigar, which he did and lit it for me. I smoked the whole cigar and was in less pain. Sophia said that supper was ready. I started to go into the kitchen and the pain made me fall to the floor. Luna and Sophia helped me back on the bed. Luna said you silly goose, you are staying in that bed, for the next several days, until you are healed and able to get up. I said yes Ma’am.

                Luna brought in for me, another large bowl of spinach with bacon, also a whole deer backstrap, and a 2 loafs of sourdough bread. She said everything is high in iron, and I be healed in no time. A bear could get used to this pampering, from such a beautiful bear.

                For the next week, we all stayed with Luna and Maverick. The cubs and Sophia, would go to the pond fishing, to past time. We decided we were to manage the pond now, that there would be no more restocking’s now, with the evil farmer Brown dead. No more than 1 fish daily, per bear would be kept, with a 22-inch size limit. Everyone agreed. Fishing the pond is much more fun than the stream, and we can’t fish it out. It would take several years, for fish spawning to get to keeper size.

                Every day they would bring 1 or 2 fish back 22 to 25 inches was the largest. Bud said, don’t worry the world record size trout, is still there and he will catch it. We didn’t laugh at his optimism this time, we saw how his pole was doubled and pulled him in last time. We also now believe the pond may have a world record rainbow trout lurking in it.

                Everyday my pain is getting a little less, I began to get up and walk into the living room and kitchen. I’m still weak, Luna insists that I lean on her, while I move around the den. I must say, I didn’t mind, but I know we are just friends. I’m not feeling as strange being around her, and having her rub against me. I have accepted again, that we are just friends, and oh what a friend I have.

                It’s now been over a week, I have begun to go outside some, with Luna staying close to my side, making sure I’m ok. Everyone is fishing at the pond and I tell Luna, I would like to venture down to the pond. She said that’s a lot, are you sure you up to this. I said yes if I get tired, I’d just lay down and rest. It was a tiring trip to get there, but we made it non-stopped. Susie shows me a 23-inch trout she had caught; it was the only keeper they had so far. I see Buds pole looking like it had a nibble. Bud said relax, that’s just the extremely large minnow, he is now using, trying to catch the record rainbow trout. Dottie screams I have a big one. Its jumping out of the water and doing acrobatics. It’s a nice rainbow but it doesn’t look to be the record setter. It’s all she can do to pull it in. It is a large rainbow but not the record setter. It was 28 inches and weighed 10 pounds.

                Seems like the action had slowed down, no bites in over an hour. I was taking a bear nap, when I hear Bud yell. I got the world record on my line; this time he is braced up against a tree to keep from being pulled in. That rainbow trout was out of the water, more than in the water. It was a huge trout, if he was to get it in, it will be the world record. He battled it for over a half hour. He reels in line, then the fish would pull line off, as the drag would be screaming, as the line is being pulled back off the reel. Bud has finally tired the trout out; he gets it up on bank. It’s a remarkable 44 inches long and weighs 38 pounds. I tell him that will taste good tonight. Bud said no, no it will not, he had so much fun with that rainbow trout, he was going to release it, so someone else could do battle with this monster fish. That was a proud big brother moment. This trip to farmers Brown pond was what I needed.

                We all headed back to Luna’s den, during the walk back, I know I have recovered enough, that tomorrow, we would be headed back to our den. We had one last feast that night. I tell everyone we would be returning to our den. It will feel good getting back to our den. I knew I had an appointment; I need to follow through with. But I may need a short period of time, prior to talking to Lucifer.

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  • Lucifer

    Lucifer

                 As I go outside to see who the hell, could be knocking at midnight on my den’s door. I smell a familiar smell, it’s the smell that I smelled yesterday at Ceasar’s, after finding his body. I hear a familiar voice saying, I’m sorry for bothering you so late tonight. It’s the 18-year-old farmers son. I was in no mood to deal with him tonight! I tell him, I have had a long day, and that I would come see him tomorrow. He agreed, as I closed the door. I’m thinking what kind of favor does he need of me, I wished I didn’t owe him this favor. What kind of hell will he bring to my life? Our family has already lived hell today!

                I go back in and sit beside Sophia, as she is telling Red Riding Hood nursery rhyme to the cubs. Bud said who was at the door. I tell him it was the farmers son. He then wants to know what he wanted. I said it was late and I told him I would come over to his house tomorrow, to see what he wants. I’m terrified as to what this favor, he may want of me. I know it couldn’t be good, as he had protected James and myself from his dad. It’s time to pay my favor back!

                Sophia read the story, of Red Riding Hood, everyone was still awake, they said, they were now afraid to sleep, the big bad wolf might come get them tonight. We tell them it’s just a make-believe nursery rhyme. Sophia then turns the page to read Teddy Bears Picnic. Half way though this nursery rhyme the cubs are now sound asleep. Sophia and I reflect on the day. We talk of the good times but also about the darkness, of how Ceasar was killed. She asked how I was doing. I tell her not very well, but the marijuana would help him again, to get through this. Last question she asked was about the 18-year-old farmers son, why did he come over so late at night. I then told her about how he saved James and myself from his dad, after we had killed his hogs. He had told us then, we owe him a favor, and I think he came to collect it. I told him I would come by tomorrow. Sophia was more worried now, that not only had they loss Ceasar today, but what dark favor does the 18-year-old- farmer-son want of Benjiman.

                After a sleepless night, I arose and Sophia has bacon and eggs cooking, along with some sourdough bread. She tells me to wake the cubs, that she has breakfast was almost ready. She had a wonderful breakfast that we all enjoyed. I lose my memory but for only a few minutes, as to what I must do this morning. I tell everyone to behave today, I don’t know when I will return. I must go across the mountain to the farm. Sophia tells me to be careful. I gave nose rubs to all the cubs and Sophia. Bud asked Sophia, if they could go down to the stream, he needs to practice fishing. She said yes.

                After crossing the mountain and going down to the farm, I see the old farmer go in his barn. The 18-year-old is over working on his car. I go over to him and said I’m here. I can smell that smell again, I guess it’s just farmer thing. He said I haven’t introduced myself yet, but my name is Lucifer. I guess you are wondering why, I came by last night. I said yes, I assume you are wanting me to repay your favor. Lucifer said, well no not exactly, I want to help you. I have heard about Ceasar being killed. I know as you know, that farmer Brown killed Ceasar. I would kill that son of a bitch myself, but you see with human laws, I would be put in prison for life, for taking a life. If you were to kill him, it would be an act of nature. Nothing would be done to you. I know nothing would make you happier right now, than for you to see that BASTARD dead. I agreed with him, but I’m confused. You probably know, I was already planning to kill him. Yes, but I also know, you have a heart gold, and it would be hard for you to kill anything, that wasn’t food. I agreed with him, it would be hard, but I think I may be able to.

                Lucifer said I’m going to help you, so that it will be so easy for you to kill him. Here take these two marijuana cigars, you need to smoke them 15 minutes prior to breaking down his damn door. The cigars will give you the mental edge, that you will need, to rip his fucking ass apart. I am now so confused, as I tell him he has smoked a lot of marijuana, and it give him the opposite effect, it calms him down. He said yes, but these are special cigars. Just do as I ask, trust in me, you will kill him with no trouble. I do want him dead, so I agreed. I know when I get close to farmer’s Brown house, I will smoke both cigars, but I would be so calm, I couldn’t kill a possum, laying right at my feet. I decided I would slip by the den, and get a fishing pole, so I can fish afterwards.

                With my pole in hand, I am headed to farmers Brown’s. I am now insight of farmers Browns house; I see him go into the house. I feel very angry right now, I should just go confront now. If I smoke the marijuana, I will be so chilled and unable to kill him. But I decided to follow Lucifer directions, he did say they was magic marijuana cigars. I light the cigar as I take a couple puffs, I blow out purple smoke. This marijuana has a slightly different taste, but I’m enjoying the purple smoke, I am not feeling calm. I am feeling very angry, as I snapped my fishing pole in half, I continued smoking the first cigar. I light the second one thinking how much I hate, that damn farmer Brown. With my head now just in a total spin, I draw in the last couple puffs of the cigar. I take off in a full gallop and break the door down. The Farmer’s wife was in front of me screaming, as I pushed her out of the way. She is just lying there; OMG the blood was everywhere. I guess I didn’t know my own strength. I had killed her but, in my drug, induced rage I didn’t care.

                I heard a loud noise and then I felt a little fly land on me. This was repeated 5 times, I see Farmer Brown in front of me, he is holding his shotgun, with smoke still coming out of it. I guess those flies were his bird shot hitting me. I calmly walk over to him; he raises his shotgun and hits me over the head. His shotgun barrel looks like a boomerang now, the stock is splintered into a thousand pieces laying on the floor. I hardly felt it as he hit me just another fly. With just one swipe of my paw, I ripped his body open, his body hits the wall of the house, the whole house shook like an earthquake. I go over to the lifeless body, and snatch his heart, from his lifeless body and ate it. I then ran up to the pond, and laid down in a mud wallow. The dirty deed is done, farmer Brown is dead.

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  • Ceasar

    Ceasar

                After breakfast we get all our poles and a couple of baskets, and head toward Luna’s, she will be our first stop, as we getting close to the stream Bud takes off running to our right. Oh, he is going to the sliding board and hollers for Susie and Dottie to join him, which they did. Bud hits the pool and comes out with a 10-inch native trout. We gave them 10 minutes to play and fish in the pool, then I said, it is time to go, we have a busy day today. I’m having a thought I haven’t had yet this year. I need a sow, to call my own. Will today be the day?

                While we were heading toward Luna’s den, we run into blackberries and raspberries which we ate some and picked some. Sophia said if we come across berries, we can take some to Luna and to Angel. We filled one basket with the blackberries and raspberries. Dottie wanted to fill the second one, but Sophia said that’s for blueberries and huckleberries. Wasn’t long until we found them, the cubs were chowing down, and then filled the basket.

                We are now at Luna’s and she is outside with 2 sow cubs, she said maverick has gone hunting. We give her the 2 baskets of berries, which she dumped into her baskets.  I said who do we have here. Luna said the one with the white v on chest is Susan, and the other one is Heather. I tell her they are precious as I go over and playing with them, Luna brushes up against me a couple times. I must tell myself; to control myself we are just friends nothing more.

                I then tell her I had named the boar in honor of Oliver. How, I mean Bud sounds nothing like Oliver. I then tell her Bud after a Marijuana bear, she died laughing and was rubbing up against me, as she was laughing. I just wanted to turn and give her a big nose rub and a big bear hug. I couldn’t do that we are friends; she is with Maverick, and they have a precious family together. Maverick just came in with a large doe, he was very glad to see us. After all the introductions to maverick, I decided it was time to leave. I was feeling very uncomfortable with Luna and how she was rubbing up against me, I was afraid I may say or do something, that may harm our friendship. She is the most beautiful bear in the world.

                Ok, now we on our way to Angel’s, yes, we are picking berries for them also 2 baskets full. Angel is at the den with only 1 little sow cub name Elizabeth [Liz], she was black as coal even her snout was black. I asked where Samuel was and she said, oh he is at the pond fishing with Samuel Jr. [Junior/Jr]. Bud said, oh great let’s all of us go to the pond. Angel said she would get the poles for her and Liz.

                Upon getting to the pond, Bud said is this the ocean, I have never seen such a large body of water. Samuel laughs and said no this is farmers Brown’s pond. The 5-acre pond looked huge, compared to the small pools in the stream. Samuel said that farmer Brown had restocked the pond, and there is some large rainbow trout in there. I showed everyone the one, I had caught, it was just over 20 inches. Bud said that’s nice rainbow trout, but he was going to catch one twice that size. We all laughed at his optimism.

                Although 10 minutes later, only Bud had caught any fish, 1 was 18-inch and the other a 21-inch rainbow trout. I tell Bud looks like he is quite the fisherbear.  Liz then says she has one, it was 19 inches then Angel caught one 15 inches. Everyone now except Bud was catching fish. He said that’s ok I’m just waiting for that world record rainbow trout. He knew he would be catching a trout over 40 inches. Samuel was ready to go, so his family all went back to their den, I told them we wanted to visit Ceasar. Angel said, she would have supper ready when we get back, and she would invite Maverick and Luna. Well, looks like I will have to stay my distance from Luna. Doesn’t look like we are going to catch a world record rainbow trout today, as we headed towards Ceasars. We just left our poles hidden in the brush, since we would be coming back by the pond, on the way to Angel’s.

                Headed towards Ceasar’s I just had a funny feeling, that something was wrong. The forest is too quiet. No bugs or birds making their joyful singing noise. No squirrels barking or crows a crowing. I just not sure what up, but I have an uneasy feeling. We continued on our way and not even a squirrel is a stirring. As we arrived at Caesar’s den, I tell everyone to stay outside, that I’ll go inside to make sure everything is OK. I go in and hollered Ceasar, with no answer I continued into the kitchen, I’m noticing stuff had been knocked in the floor. This is not normal for Ceasar, he keeps his den very clean; I have never seen his kitchen in such a mess. About then I hear what sounds like Bud screaming; it sounded like the scream was coming from the bedroom. As I go into the bedroom, I see Ceasar’s lifeless body, is lying on the floor, with a large pool of dark coagulated blood around his head, there was a large 1-inch diameter hole, in the side of his head. I immediately think back to the time Ceasar said farmer Brown, wasn’t all that bad. I know back when he said that, I was thinking farmer Brown was his big supplier for marijuana. Could of farmer Brown killed him. I looked all around, it looks like whoever killed him, took his marijuana, there was only a possum bag left to be found. I must smoke a cigar; how will I tell Sophia. I sat there and smoked the Cigar, before I got up and went outside to tell Sophia. She was so distraught I rolled us both a cigar. She said everyone loved Ceasar, who could have killed Ceasar. I tell her of my suspicions. She said she thought he was a good guy, other than protecting his rainbow trout’s.

                After we had finished off the possum bag, I tell Sophia to take all the cubs with her to the pond and fish with the cubs. He would be doing some investigating, to find out who may have killed Ceasar.

                At the pond the fishing is good everyone is catching 15 to 20-inch trout. Bud is now getting a little upset now, he knew he would have had a world record trout by now. They plan to fish until Ben shows back up.

                While in Ceasar’s den, I could pick up a scent, I will follow this scent, I will have found my killer. The scent is leading him towards the pond, but then cuts down the mountain, before he gets to the pond. It is leading towards farmer Bowns house. I have his house insight now; it’s an old Victorian farm house that has Virginia creeper growing all over the house. It has an evil gothic feeling to it, as I look at it. I get a very uneasy feeling, as I approach the porch. The scent doesn’t appear to go up on the porch, for some reason it seemed to have stopped at the porch. The door then creeps open, It’s the farmer’s Browns wife. Why are you here she said. I’m here because your husband killed Ceasar. She looked shocked when I told her that. She said that’s impossible, he has been right here, for the last 2 days in bed sick. I didn’t believe her, but I was ready to leave. One last thing before I leave, can I buy a deer bag of marijuana from you. She asked big drawer or small drawer, I said big! She brought it to me, and I thanked her. I knew I would be back! A few yards away from the house, I see a nursery rhyme book, it must of came from Ceasar’s den, I picked it up to take with me.

    I headed back to get Sophia and all the cubs. I smoked a large marijuana cigar as I was headed to the pond. I wanted to kill farmer Brown, he has taken our great friend, Ceasar, from us, the whole forest will mourn the loss of Ceasar. I wanted some PCP laced marijuana now. This would help me, to kill that damn evil farmer Brown. I need to chill out, before I get to Sophia and the cubs. I sat down and chained smoked 4 more cigars; I have never had so much hate in my heart. I feel as though I’ve calmed enough to go to the pond. As I’m getting to the pond I had to spring into action, Bud’s pole was bent double, he was holding onto his pole for dear life. He had his pole in his front paws, and hind paws were trying to dig into the ground. I believe he may have his world record rainbow trout, on his line. I get to him, as he was pulled into the water, I dived in to help Bud, once he entered the water, he was forced to let go of his fishing pole. I help Bud, to the bank of the pond, then I go diving for his fishing pole. I found it and I get out of the pond. I handed Bud his pole, as he was winding it in, I believe his world record rainbow trout has gotten off his pole.

                Bud said, I had my world record trout, I loss him this time but next time he will be mine. All this excitement was what I needed I’m calmer now, than I have been since discovering Ceasar’s lifeless body. I had all the cubs fishing, while myself and Sophia talks. I tell her I followed the scent to farmer Browns porch and his wife, had covered for him saying, he hadn’t been out of the house in 2 days due to being sick. I was slightly perplexed that the scent didn’t go up on the porch. I then bought a deer bag of marijuana, which confirmed for me he is the big dealer and the killer. Bear season isn’t in, but he killed Ceasar. I chained smoked the marijuana, because I didn’t want the cubs to see me that upset, due to me being outrageously mad. Seeing Bud, being pulled into the pond has helped for now. But I know that farmer Browns days are numbered. Do I have it in me to kill him?

                We must stop by and let Samuel and Angel know about Ceasar. Angel will be heartbroken of losing her granddad. They both will be devasted. I will let them tell Maverick and Luna. I let it slip to Sophia, I didn’t feel comfortable when we were there, due to her rubbing up against me. I told her it probably wasn’t anything, but since I love her, it was tearing my heart out of my chest, not being with her.  Sophia said she thought that was getting easier on me. Yes, but when I’m with her, she brushes against me, it’s all I can do to keep my paws off of her.

                We are now at Samuel’s and Angel’s and tell them. They are heart broken. Samuel said he had noticed how silent the forest was, but he didn’t know why. I asked Samuel to go outside with me. I tell Samuel everything I know about farmer Brown, and his wife defended him, saying he had been laid up sick. Samuel said I don’t know, but from everything I have ever known about farmer Brown, he was a good guy, as long he didn’t catch you, fishing in his pond. The scent my nose was following went to his porch. It must be him that had killed Ceasar. I tell Samuel I will kill him.

                I hear Maveric, Luna, Susan, and Heather say we are here. With all that has happened today. I had totally forgotten; we were having supper with everyone tonight. Well, they must know about Ceasar, I tell the whole story again and they were so upset, Luna said the forest will not be the same. Luna gave me a big hug I gave her a big hug back. It really feels like we should be together, but I cannot let her know I have feelings, other than as friends.

                Angel had a big supper fixed that was delicious. We needed to get back to our den, so we tell everyone goodbye, and off to our den. When we get to the stream the cubs wanted to play in the pool, so we let them to burn off some energy. We stayed at the pool until midnight and then we went to our den.

                We go in and I handed Sophia the rhyme book I had found. I tell her I think it had come from Ceasar den, but I found it outside of farmer Brown’s house. About then I hear a knock at the entrance of our den! Who the hell could be outside our den, after midnight tonight? I am in no mood tonight for company!

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  • Spring Becomes Summer

    Spring becomes Summer

                Its 1am now, yes, keeping the cubs up all day, until 10 pm didn’t work either. They are rambunctious and wanting to play. We were able to get them back to sleep at 3am and slept until 6am. We did get slightly more sleep last night, but far from what we used to getting. A bear likes to sleep.

                We had breakfast and I decided to do some remodeling around the house, for the cubs to their own room work? Or is sleep just not going to happen, in this den? Bud was very interested in what I was doing, and tried to help a little. Susie and Dottie were helping Sophia to clean the house, and then they slipped outside and went to the stream to fish. Sophia took 2 baskets to fill full of trout. She was hoping, she remembers how to fish the old-fashioned bear way. With Lucy and Ben fishing for her, other than with a pole in hand, she hadn’t done any fishing to fill the freezer. Both Susie and Dottie were having fun. They tried to catch a few fish but wasn’t quite able to catch any. Sophia at first was very rusty, but it did get better. She caught both baskets full from 7 inches to 19 inches but she was very proud of her biggest native trout at 21 inches.

                Back at the den I was having a blast with Bud, he was keeping me on my toes. He wasn’t a good helper yet but he did try. My biggest issue was he be with me one second, then he be gone the next second. I believe Bud was looking for Susie and Dottie, they had never been separated before. But the new room will be complete for the cubs tonight, with a lockable door. I think myself and Sophia will get some much-needed sleep tonight.

                Sophia is back and said, WOW, the new room is looking good. She hopes for a good night’s sleep tonight. She said for me to stay with all the cubs and make sure they all stay active. Sophia is going to fry up some of the fresh native trout and some greens with bacon. It wasn’t long until she said supper is on. After supper we all stayed up until midnight talking, we felt sad due to talking about Oliver. The cubs were rough housing in the floor. Sophia went into their new bedroom, and gave them one last drink of her milk. I stayed in the living room and had me a cigarette. Hoping it would help me rest, and get a goodnight sleep. When Sophia showed up, she said roll her one also. So, I rolled 2 and after we finished, we went to bed.

                The next morning at 8 am I wake up to screaming, Sophia said they are gone. I go into where Sophia is screaming, they had somehow gotten the door unlocked and was gone. I tell Sophia he was sure they probably down at the stream. He would go down and get them, and you stay here and fix a picnic breakfast to bring down to the stream. She agreed but was hesitant, as she felt she needs to be out looking for them also, in case they are not at the stream. As I get to the stream, everyone was in the deep pool, Susie, Dottie and then pops up was Bud with a 14-inch native trout in his mouth. Look everyone my very 1st trout I caught all by myself. I must say he made his older brother proud.  All the cubs then were trying to catch another trout, no more trout was caught this morning.

                Sophia shows up and 1st thing out of her mouth. Listen here all of you, don’t y’all ever scare me like that again. If y’all ever leave the den without letting me know I’ll beat y’all’s ass so hard you can’t sit down for a month. All the cubs said yes Ma’am. Sophia then says anyone hungry; I have a picnic basket. After a healthy and filling breakfast I tell everyone let’s go on an overnight adventure. Everyone was excited. I wanted to go and visit Tom and Sue and see their cubs.

                As we are going to Toms, the woods were loaded with fresh fruits. We had our fill of strawberries in the meadow and then the black berries and raspberries were so delicious. Buds favorite though, was when we were higher on the mountains, and found the blueberries, he was gorging himself on them. We also found huckleberries and that was Susie and Dottie’s favorite. One thing for sure we all not skinny anymore from hibernation.  

                We get to Tom’s den and no one is in there, so we go in and we were tired from the long trip, and we all take a nap. We all was awaking when Tom, Sue and Joelene comes in. Tom said this is Jolene, we had 2 cubs but one was dead when we woke up from hibernation. I tell Tom how sorry we were for their loss. He said its ok, we have this precious Jolene I couldn’t be happier. He then said that it was normal for some of the cubs not to make it. Then he asked who we had. I said this is my older brother Bud, I tell him I had named him, honoring Oliver, and how I came about the name. Both Tom and Sue laugh being named for a marijuana bud. Then I said this is Susie, I named her after you Sue, and finally we have Dottie, Sue said I guess due to that white dot on her chest.

                Sue says I wished I knew y’all was coming, I would have had a plenty of strawberry rhubarb pies made. She then said if Ben and Tom would make the main course, you can help me Sophia to make the pies. Let’s see that would be 4 big pies and 4 little ones. Sophia said she would love to help.

                Tom said I’ve been saving this for a special occasion I have 2 racks of ribs in the freezer. How would you like Barbecue ribs, Ben. I Said sounds delicious I have heard of them, but I have never eaten any. But I do have ribs in my freezer, so helping you prepare will be great. He said go outside and place some wood in the smoker and light it. Wow I don’t have a smoker, I guess I’ll have to get one or build one. After I had lit the smoker I came inside, Tom had cut the ribs in half, and was putting a lot of seasonings on it. We then take them outside, and place on the racks of the smoker. He said he normally likes to slow smoke them, over about a 12-hour period. We need them to be done before we go to bed so we will have more heat and cook a little quicker. They won’t be as good, as if cooked slowly but still will be good.

                It’s now 9pm, a little later than we normally eat, but everything is ready to eat. Tom tells me to take the 1st bite, OMG I thought I had died and went to heaven, it was so delicious. All the cubs had barbecue sauce all over them, but they looked like they were enjoying the ribs. Sophia and Sue also were enjoying, and Sue went in to get the pies, she brought out the four small one’s 1st. The cubs were so happy everyone finished theirs at the same time so no fighting tonight. Then we ate ours and thanked Sue for them.

                We stayed up and talked a little while, the cubs played and rough housed. We tell them that we were living in Toms old den, due to was too many cubs at Lucy’s. I tell them Lucy had 2 Cubs Patches the boar bear and Lucille named after lucy. Sue said yes, there were a few sleepless nights here also, then she remembered the nursery rhyme book, from when she was just a little cub. I have read 1 or 2 rhymes every night, and they sleep all night long. I’m thinking I’m glad it works for Jolene, but you don’t know our cubs yet.

                Its bed time now and we have 2 area’s, that we will sleep in, one for the cubs, then one for us older bears. Sue goes in and tells all the cubs to gather around; I hear Once upon a time there was there was a little girl whose hair was so bright and yellow etc. etc. by the end of the rhyme all 4 of the cubs was sound asleep. I heard snoring Tom was also. We all went to bed and left Tom, where he was a snoring.

                We woke up the next morning at 8 am and the cubs were still snoozing including Tom. I tell Sophia we have to go to the Bears Goodwill store and get one; she said that’s a must. We have breakfast before heading back to our den.

                On way back to den 2 yearling does is standing close to us, so I know this may be some easy food for us. I tell Sophia watch after the cubs, he was going try to get us some fresh deer. She said OK. I take out after the deer, when I hear Sophia yell out Bud STOP; I continued the hunt and chased the deer into the steep rocks and kill the 1st one. By then there is Bud right beside me, he said he get the other one. I knew he was too small, but I let him have a little fun, before I went in and finished killing the deer. Bud said that was so much fun. I want to be your hunting, Bud.

                We get the 2 deer back down to where Sophia and the 2 little sows were, and Sophia dragged one back to the den, and I dragged the other one back to the den. Sophia, Susie, and Dottie go in to the kitchen to prepare supper, while Bud and myself stay outside, to dress and bag the deer for freezing. Sophia has prepared some ham and green beans, seasoned with bacon and some sourdough bread. We had a delicious supper, and go in the living room and stayed up until midnight. I don’t have a rhyme book yet, so I tried the story that Lucy had told last night. At some spots I made up my own version. Before I got to the end, they all was snoozing.

                I tell Sophia tomorrow we will go and visit Luna and Maverick and see their new family, also go to see Samuel and Angel and their new family. We will take enough fishing poles, and stop at the pond, hopefully farmer Brown has stocked the pond by now. We can also go visit Ceasar, he may have a rhyme book. Sophia is concerned of fishing in the pond with the cubs!

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  • Spring Time with the Cubs

    Spring Time with the Cubs

    James and myself are hunting to get some meat. We have lot of hog meat now, but we could use some deer, turkey, and possum meat. I hate leaving Bud, but a bear must do what a bear must do. James is telling Lucille and Patches goodbye. We know possums are so easy to kill, and high fat content, so we know of a holler not far away, down close to the stream, that usually has a lot of possums. When getting there they are everywhere, we have hit the jackpot. We killed 26 possums, we are going to need the baskets, to get that many back to our den. I told James, I’ll go get 4 baskets, he said OK. I’ll continue hunting. He was only able to kill 2 more possums. Then a flock of turkeys came by, and he had the best day ever for turkeys, out of 35 turkeys in the flock, he killed 13 of them. James is becoming a master hunter, Oliver taught him well. I’m back with the baskets, the possums had filled the baskets, so we took them back to the den, and then went back to get all the turkeys. Today has been a good day.

    The next Day James told me that him and Lucy, will try to get some deer. I was happy I get to play with Bud, while they are gone hunting. I tell Sophia while she stays with 4 cubs, that I was going to take Bud for a walk down to the stream. She said they need another week, before going on such an outing. She agreed that the 2 of them would introduce all the cubs, to outside of the den. This was so much fun they had never been outside. At first every noise they heard they would freeze. I started teaching them, that they needed to climb a tree, when they see or hear something that scares them. You got it, Bud was the first one to go up the tree, followed by Patches. Before you knew it, they all was up in the tree tops having a blast, eating the fresh green leaves. I then showed them how to get down, 4 of them came on down, but not Bud. He had laid down on a limb, after having a full belly, and was taking a bear nap. Sophia went back in with the other 4 bears, and they all took a nap. It had been a long day with the adventures outside. I decided to nap under the tree, until Bud comes down. I was wakened up by a thump, when Bud landed with a large thump on my back. Before I could stop him, he was headed for the stream. I ran after him, he was quick, though at times was more of a roll, then a run for him. He jumped right in the stream, and was having a blast. I jumped in with him and showed him how to fish. He a little young yet to be able to catch a fish himself. We then headed up to the den. Sophia was mad at me, why are y’all all wet, you went to the stream after I told you not to. I couldn’t get a word in, to say, how he took off. and I had to run to catch him. Bud was over there being all innocent, and it looked like he was even grinning, due to the hell I was catching from Sophia.

    Wasn’t long after that James and Lucy shows up with 4 yearlings does. I tell them, they had really helped to fill the freezer. James then said, y’all nothing, I told Lucy this was her hunt, she killed every one of those deer. Wow Lucy is stepping it up, she is a great hunter. She said, “Well duuhhh look behind you at those antlers, you have never killed such a buck as that.”

    Sophia has now fixed a nice supper for us all, fried trout, fried taters, and onions. The cubs were given a plate first. Bud again was the first to finish but this time Dottie finished right after he did. So, he went to Susie’s bowl and bullied her and finished her fish for her. OK Bud, got his nerve up and goes over to Patches plate, and a huge fight breaks out. This time after the dust settled, Bud was the winner. He walks over and finishes Patches plate of fish. Is Bud going to be the alpha cub? As of right now it looks like it, but there will be more fights to see who is the alpha cub.

    Nights seem like they going to be interesting also. Once you get a couple of the cubs asleep, the others are so rambunctious it wakes them up. It was after 1am, before we get them to sleep tonight. And at 4 am there were 2 of them awake and rough housing with each other. How will we ever get any sleep?

    Next morning during breakfast, when Bud tried to eat Lucille’s food, she whipped his ass but good. He had a high pitch scream as he was being chased away from her food. James said that’s my girl. After breakfast it was determined by Sophia, that my idea of taking the cubs to the stream to play, wasn’t a bad idea after all. We need to keep all the cubs busy all day long, and maybe we can get some sleep tonight. I told Sophia, I would stay at the den, where everyone else takes the cubs to the stream. My plan was to get some much-needed sleep. Sophia says, “Oh no you not staying behind and think you will sleep. You got just as much sleep everyone else did. This is going to be a family outing.” While at the stream the cubs had so much fun. There was a steep bank that came down to a deep pool. They used this steep bank as a sliding board. They are really using up their energy, we may sleep tonight. After the cubs was getting bored, playing in the creek, and deep pool. We decided we would walk down to the road, then make the 6 to 7 miles hike, to where we can cut up to Tom’s old den. While walking the road which is now in good shape, we saw 2 cars, I heard the people inside the 1st car say, I have never seen so many bears, 2 sows 2 boars and 5 little cubs. The 2nd car stopped and got out and was taking a bunch of pictures of us, I felt like a movie star.

    We then cut up to Tom’s old den, it is just like I left it. I told Sophia we could move in here with her cubs, and let James and Lucy have their den back. Sophia said no maybe later, I love having all the family together. I said OK but, in the future, we could move in here. I would feel closer to Tom and Sue.

    We now cut across the mountain to our den. We haven’t been able to go our regular pace with the cubs, it’s been much slower. It will be 2 to 3 hours after dark, before we get back to the den. Due to lack of sleep, I’m ready to just go to bed tonight, and sleep but Sophia said, “we have to put on weight from being in hibernation.”

    We get back to the den and Sophia and Lucy, fix some backstraps and greens with bacon, also some porridge for the cubs. Myself and James took a bear nap. It didn’t seem but 5 minutes, when Sophia yelled supper is ready. All 5 cubs were curled up together, and out cold. Myself and James went in to eat. Sophia said where the cubs, I said sound asleep, she said, “Well they have to eat, so I woke them up.” They ate all their food and were back just a playing. We finished our supper, and we all was ready to turn in. We go into the bedroom but none of us got to sleep until after 2am and was awake again at 5 am That little nap was all the cubs needed for a while.

    Sophia said “OK Ben you win I’m beyond ready to move. 3 cubs are going to be a lot easier to handle than 5 cubs. I’m going to fix breakfast, and you can be getting our stuff ready, to go to Tom’s old den.” I was extremely happy with Sophia changing her mind. The only food I’m taking with us, is half of the hog meat, I’ll hunt closer to our new den for other game to harvest. While getting all packed up, there was a familiar smell the sourdough bread, it smelled wonderful. We haven’t had any since last winter; the kitchen smells wonderful. All the cubs must have thought so also, of how good it smelled, here they come into the kitchen, this was the first time they had come in by their selves. Sophia had made 4 large loafs, and 5 baby loafs of bread, she fixed for the cubs, The cubs all got half their bread with honey, the other half was plain, also a bowl of porridge. Everyone had eaten everything at about the same time, except apparently Patches liked the bread with honey best, he hadn’t eaten any of the plain sour dough bread, so here comes Bud to claim it, and a fight ensued. Patches won the fight, and decided he better eat the rest of his bread.

    Well, we have eaten and packed our belongings, Sophia was going to help clean the kitchen for Lucy. Lucy said no she has all day, go ahead and go to y’all’s new den, you will be busy until dark. Lucy and James had to hold Patches and Lucille; they wanted to follow the other cubs. They had always been together so they wanted to stay together. We are making good time going to the den.

    Once at the den Sophia said she would clean and unpack everything, if I wanted to go hunting, and try to get some game for supper. I go up the mountain planning on getting a deer up in the steep rocks. But a flock of turkeys happened along. I was able to harvest 5 turkeys, one being a 30-pound gobbler with a 14-inch beard. I’m thinking about Lucy, and her huge antlers hanging on the den wall, so I decided this beard would go on my wall. I have never heard of one being killed around here that large.

    I get back to the den and Sophia said Well everything is all clean and unpacked, looks like we are having turkey for supper tonight she said. Wow that’s a huge gobbler you got there. I didn’t know they would grow that big. I cut off the beard and it’s hung on the wall. I said that’s for Lucy when she visits us. I said I was going in and lay down, she said like hell you are. You keeping these monsters awake, until we all lay down about 10pm tonight.

    She said that it was time to eat, we all had our supper and yes, of course Bud is being his normal bully self, and finished off both Susie’s and Dottie’s food, they gave it up with no fighting. We all go into the living room; we make sure all the cubs stayed awake and were rough housing until after 10pm. As we were laying down, I’m thinking OK great, we have figured out the right combination, for a good night’s sleep!

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  • Hibernation

    Hibernation

                Sophia and Lucy are already about to turn in for the winter, they can feel nature calling them. James and myself are still very active, so we will continue hunting or fishing, until we feel nature saying, it’s time for a very long wintery nap. We also bring Sophia and Lucy some food and drinks to their beds, until they fall off into dream land. It was less than 2 days and they had begun their hibernation. It is normal for sows to go into hibernation, before the boar bears do.

                Myself and James without spending a lot of energy, were able to get 2 deer and 6 possums. We also have a been going to the stream fishing, it is very low energy activity, but high fat content in the native trout. We just sit around talking and gorging ourselves, until we are also ready for hibernation.  I believe that James is over 250 pounds now and I’m getting close to 300 pounds. Some of our favorite topics of the past, is talking about Oliver, how much the whole forest misses him. Another topic is Tom and Sue, I believe that James gets a little bored, when I speak so much of them. But Tom really helped to save my life, when I was depressed. But if not for me, Tom would be dead, and I never attempted to have Sue as mine, even though that was what she wanted. Then I tricked her and she has been extremely happy, ever since I did. For James his favorite story is, how much joy Lucy has provided for him. He is so thankful for Rob, and all he did to prevent Lucy being shot, without Rob she would be dead. For both, Rob is bitter sweet; bitter because he killed Oliver, sweet because he saved Lucy. He was willing to not only tell the 18-year-old, no to shooting Lucy, but as a true man, fights for his beliefs. He has earned respect by the humans around him, and the entire forest.

                I asked James if himself and Lucy has spoken of any names yet; he said the only name they have come up with is Lucille, for Lucy which is her actual name but Lucille is close and that’s the name I came up with. We have tossed some other names around but have no true favorites. We decided to wait until they are born and let their personality and or markings, give them their name.

                James then said how about Sophia, do you know if she has come up with any names. He said she hadn’t but I had suggested Bud. She said she likes that. Then I told her how I came up with the name. I told her it’s actually in Oliver’s honor. It’s because Dale was the first to call him the Marijuana Bear, due to his weight being 420 pounds field dressed. I don’t want to name him Marijuana Bear but marijuana has marijuana buds, so that how I came up with Bud. I then tell James that Sophia said I have a sick sense of humor, for the reasoning for Bud. But she likes Bud so we will name a boar Bud if I have one. James tells me that he agrees with Sopia that I am sick.

                James said he was going in and lay down with Lucy, he is feeling nature is calling his name. I said yeah, I’m not far behind you. I will fry us a big basket of trout and bring you half of it, and I’ll eat the other half. For one last boost of protein. After they ate the Trout, they tell each other they would see each other in the spring. James said he can’t wait to see Lucille and Bud. I agreed.

    Snore

    Snore

    zzzzzzzzz

    Snore

    zzzzzzzzzz

    Snore

    Snore

    zzzzzz

    Snore

    Yawn, yawn

                I am now waking up and trying to get all my thoughts together, when suddenly my thoughts was Bud. Do we have us a Bud. As I sprung up on to my paws, I go over to Sophia. She has 3 baby bears that appear to be around 5 or 6 pounds each, I have been told that at birth a new born black bear weighs about one pound. They will take care of themselves, living off of mom’s milk, until mom wakes up. I must know how many sows and how many boars. I reach down and pick one up it’s a sow and has a white V on her chest. I havn’t even thought of any names until after I picked her up. I hope Sophia will name her Susie after Sue. The next one was another sow, she has a little white dot on her chest. I’m worried now do we have a Bud; well, yes; yes, we do, the 3rd bear was a solid black boar. I just sat there for an hour holding Bud, I felt close to Oliver doing this. He begins to whine so, I put him back down to Sophia. He found a nipple and began to suckle. I figured I would fix breakfast now, but first I had to know how many babies lucy had. She only had 2, but I didn’t bother them I’ll let her or James whichever is awake first to check to see if sows or boars.

                As I go into the kitchen the 1st thing, I see is Lucys huge buck antlers, hanging on the wall. I was in the kitchen, as I’m digging around and all I find is fish, fish, fish, where the hell is the bacon. I found it on the bottom of the freezer. We had a little deer left and a lot of fish. We won’t go hungry but will have to get out and hunt if we want much of anything other than fish. We have no eggs so I have 20 pounds of bacon and an 8-gallon pot of porridge cooking. The smell of bacon sizzling in a pan, will wake almost any bear. I hear someone stirring before long I’m hearing James say wake up Lucy, we have a beautiful boar and he has several patches of white on his chest, also I want you to meet Lucille. Lucy says you have held Lucille long enough give me, give me. He reaches down and picks up the boar bear. Hey Lucy what do you want to call him. Her response was well duuhhh that’s Patches. So, James is holding and playing with Patches and Lucy is holding Lucille. I hear Sophia stirring, and I turned off the stove, I went in to be with our expanded family. I reached down and picked up Bud, and tell Sophia meet Bud she said awe, he is so precious and he looks like a Bud. Then I pick up the one with the white V on the chest. Awe she is precious, says Sophia. I quickly speak up and said I miss Tom and Sue; would it be ok to name her Susie. Sophia says Susie, I like that I like that a lot. It made me very happy that Sophia liked Susie. So, Sophia said I had a sow and a boar. I then reach down, I grabbed the one with the white dot, and said you had 2 sows and a boar. I hand her to Sophia; she sees the white dot and she says well hello Dottie. I guess everyone now has a name.

                James hands over to Sophia this is Lucille, awe she is so precious reminds me of you Lucy. Then he hands over to Sophia, the boar cub and says this is patches, well with all those patches I don’t know how you came up with that name. We let all the 5-to-6-pound cubs, meet each other for the first time. They were running and rolling around the den like crazy. This den isn’t going to be boring any time soon.

                James says OMG I smell bacon is that bacon I smell. I said yes, after waking up this morning the first thing I had to know, was if we have a Bud or not, I found 2 sows and a Bud. I played with Bud for an hour until he started to whine, then I put him back down to Sophia, to let him suckle on Sophia. I then went to fix breakfast, I knew the smell of bacon sizzling, would get everyone awake, what bear cannot wake up for bacon. I feel like I haven’t eaten in about 3 months, lets dig in. They said everything was delicious, we ate everything except about a gallon of porridge, and a pound of bacon, we broke the bacon into smaller pieces, to give to all the cubs, that are now tearing up the den. I had each of them a bowl full and Bud was the first to finish his bowl. He bullies his way into Dottie’s bowl and finishes it off. Then over to Patches bowl, oh no patches say, what the hell you doing, you not bulling me. He put Bud in his place, by this time Lucille had already finished hers. The 2 boars are going to be figuring out, who is the boss. Sophia said, what have we got ourselves into, with 5 of the cutest bear cubs. This is going to be a full-time job. It wasn’t bad with you and Lucy. But 5 cubs in the same household may spell trouble with a capital T.

                To keep order, we know at all-times 2 of us, will have to stay with the cubs, and 2 can go out to hunt and fish. We decided that deer and turkey and other mammalian meat is the most important, since we have plenty of fish. I had an idea and James approves. We decided to cross over the mountain to the hog farm, and get us a couple hogs. We out of bacon and some ham and sausage would also be good. We knew we had to be careful, or we could be shot. We are down at the farm now, and see no one around. We enter the hog lot, as we kill 2 large hogs. That was easy, well not so fast, here comes the farmers son, he said I should go get my dad, and tell him y’all killed 2 of his hogs. But I’m not, he has grounded me, for sneaking off with the neighbor’s daughter last night. He then said, I hear my dad coming, I’ll go and distract him and y’all drag the hogs up that trail, to the top of the mountain, it will be your easiest path. He then said he may want a favor from them, at some time in the future. We agreed that we owed him a favor.

                They get both hogs back to the den, and wow so much meat. Sophia and Lucy were surprised, but terrified that we had killed hogs. They knew we had been to the farm, on the other side of the mountain, to have killed the hogs. But they were also, happy to have the hog meat, All the side meat was cut into bacon over a 100 pounds of bacon the ribs were left for barbecue ribs. They have only heard of barbecue ribs, and had never eaten any, but they do have the recipe, for best ribs of the south. They had 4 large hams, and the rest of the meat was removed from the bone, and ground up. Red pepper, salt and sage was added to the ground meat and mixed up then reground. It was over 300 pounds of sausage. This family will be eating well. Ben suddenly got a big pit in his stomach. What have I gotten himself into with the farmer’s boy. What favor will I have to do? James and myself made a pack not to tell Lucy and Sophia this, they would be worried for us!

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  • Kill Season Ends

    Kill Season Ends

                After hearing the hounds running on top of the mountains, we have tried to be careful. We know that we down to less than 2 weeks, until the end of kill season. The weather has been warm and pretty. We can hear large equipment that’s been working on the road below us. I decided to walk toward that equipment, to see the progress. It’s a 2-mile hike, the road below the heavy equipment looks good. But from the where the equipment is, up to where our den is, is destroyed. I feel that unless a hunting group comes in from other side of the mountain, we are safe for the rest of the season.

                We all decided we were going to be hunting and fishing some since the cupboard is running low. We had such a good supply of food, prior to Sophia’s den being destroyed. We decide not to go higher than half way up the mountain, incase the hunters and hounds come in from the other side of the mountain.

                Lucy and Sophia are fishing in the deep holes and has much luck fishing. James said he will be hunting the mountain towards Sophia’s old den. Myself, I’m seeing deer as I chase the deer, but I am having to stop the chase, at half way up the mountain, I am having no luck at all. I’m just burning fat, rather than layering more fat on. I decided it was worth the chance, to continue the chase high on the mountain, and into the steep rocks. We need the added protein for the added fat. I see 3 yearlings, I begin to chase, as I am chasing them, they do as expected traps themselves in the steep rocks. I go in for the kill, I have killed one, and when getting ready to kill the second one, my worst fear, I hear hounds, they are close to me, and closing quickly. I don’t want to go towards the den, so I head towards Toms old den. These hounds are fast and they catch me. What can I do; fight or go up a tree. I know going up a tree is certain death. I stood my ground, I had my ass end protected, back in the notch of where a blown down tree, meets with the root ball. I had my ass right where the tree meets the root ball. There are only four dogs; can I fight them all off. I hope I can, the first dog makes a mistake, comes in close to me, with one powerful swipe, the dog goes flying in the air. I never knew my strength before now, the dog flew a good 30 feet and crashed to the ground. I believe I killed him he is not moving. The 3 dogs are now trying to figure out how to get to me, they are staying 10 feet away from me now. I believe they are scared now, to come any closer. I decided to charge them and hopefully I can kill one more, during that charge, I take off full charge, the dogs turn to try to run away, I was barely able to smack the last dog as hard I could. It to flew maybe 25 feet. It wasn’t moving either. I decided now is my chance to try to escape. As I ran, they are following me, as I’m  now passing Toms old den, they are 500 yards behind me. I’m getting tired, but I knew I couldn’t go up a tree, or I would be dead. I have concocted a plan; I need to continue all the way to the county that Tom lives in now. Then I can go up a tree and the dogs can have me treed. I can rest until the hunters get there, and they will have to pull their dogs off of me. Can I run all that distance. I must if I want to live. Sophia and Lucy need me. The dogs are also tired and not closing on me as fast, so, my pace doesn’t have to be as fast. I have now crossed the road, I go about 200 yards off of the road, and go up a tree. The dogs come in and is jumping up on the tree, trying to get to me, and are barking full cry. I know I will have to stay where I’m at, until the dogs are put on lead and pulled away from the tree. I will live until another day. The hunters came in, one hunter said to the other, it’s almost like he knew when he was safe. The other hunter said, he killed 2 of my dogs he must die. The first hunter speaks up, no we are ethical hunters, we not changing now. We know every time a dog is released, we taking a chance of a dog dying. Yes, you are right and pull the dogs off the tree. I was so scared I was going to die.

                I’m only a couple hours from Tom’s, I’m hungry and tired, so I’ll go see Tom and Sue, and stay until dark tomorrow night. They were so excited to see me, and they gave me great hospitality, and wanted me to stay, at least until the end of the season. I told them no, my home is with Sophia, Lucy, and James now, that Oliver is dead. The following night I’m fat and happy and have 8 strawberry rhubarb pies to take back to the den, 2 a piece or should I camp out at Toms old den, until they are gone, that would be a lot of deliciousness.

                I’m at the county line a hour after dark, and continue the trip back to our den. That’s when it hits me, I know everyone is probably thinking I am dead, no I’m not but 2 dogs are. I make the trip as fast as possible; I want to be in the den well before daybreak. Upon entering the den everyone is asleep. I put the pies in the refrigerator and go to bed myself, that I see everyone is safe, I turned in for the night.

                I had a very short night because as soon Lucy was awake, she was screaming, oh my god brother you are alive. We thought you were dead. They were amazed when I told the whole story, of how I survived. We decided not to go high on the mountain, until after last day of the season. I said I have a deer, I must go up and get. James said he had found it, and it’s in the freezer. We will hunt low if possible, and kill some game. Maybe some possums are our best bet now. Also, the stream is still full of native trout. This went well for the next week and it is now the last day of the season.

                On the last day of the season Lucy was up before anyone, and has made her way down to the stream, and has 2 baskets to filled with trout. As she was fishing, she hears dogs coming, they are coming straight up the road, straight at her. She knows she can’t go to the den, as though it put all our lives in danger. She doesn’t want to go high on the mountain, where other dogs may be. She runs low following the road and stream. I’m now awake, and I can hear 6 different dogs and they putting on the steam. I’m so afraid I will lose my sister today. She always wears her blaze orange ribbon, with the marijuana bud on it. I hope and pray this will protect her today. Myself and James, have no protection, so we just stayed near the den, and prayed for her. Sophia says she can go help; she has her protection with her. We said no, you also with young cubs and the cubs is Olivers cubs, I will not let you go. Lucy is Olivers daughter, she is smart and powerful.

                We hear the hunters walking up the road, and I hear a couple of familiar voices its Rob and Dale and 2 others. We hear them say, it’s the last day and hoping for a good day. I know they will honor the ribbon. I feel a lot better now. Rob says looks like the bear is staying low it will be easier walking, except this road sucks after the great flood.

                Lucy runs as fast she could but Robs hounds, has caught up with her, after a 3-mile chase. She then fights and kill one dog, but the other dogs close in on her, she had no option but to go up a tree. Lucy has never been treed before; she was scared to death. She sees her Blaze orange ribbon, and says I just hope this will protect me. She doesn’t know its Rob’s dogs. She has never actually met Rob.

                Rob is looking at his GPS unit, says they have treed, and we will kill us a bear today, if it is legal. He said they are treed low on the mountain, not far off the road. The young 18-year-old shooter was excited, he has only been hunting with Rob, this kill season. He wants to kill a bear, and have to have a bear skin rug made. Rob says well let’s get to it, we will have a long drag out due to this road.

                I could hear all this from the den but I have faith in Rob. He is a man true to his words. Sophia and James doesn’t feel as sure as I do, that no harm will come to Lucy. All we can do is sit there and wait, with some marijuana, to help keep us be a little calmer. It’s going to be a long last day of the season for us.

                Rob and his crew are now 200 yards from the tree, and see it’s a nice-sized bear. Rob said Well looks like it’s a shooter, he hasn’t seen the blaze orange ribbon yet. The 18-year-old is ecstatic, he going to have a chance to kill his first bear. They were now only 75 yards from the bear, when Rob says that is not a legal bear. The 18-year-old says, what you mean that bear is easily over 200 pounds. Rob says you are not wrong on that, but this must be Lucy. What you mean Lucy, well you remember I told you of the large bear that I killed, opening day of the season, his name was Oliver. He had a family, Benjiman was with me that night, and was so upset, I ended up giving him 3 Blaze orange ribbons with a marijuana bud’s on each one. He had one for himself, his sister Lucy and his mom Sophia. This bear is too small to be Sophia, so it must be Lucy. It’s not Ben due to this is a sow bear. The 18-year-old was very upset but said OK, since you made that promise I will honor that. They get up close to the tree, and the 18-year-old job is to get all the dogs tied up on leads. He gets 2 dogs tied up and is getting the 3rd one, that’s when Lucy takes a big shit, yes it went all over the 18-year-old. He reaches for his gun, and Rob yells NO. The 18-year-old has his gun pointing at Lucy, and is pulling the trigger, as Rob gets to him, and tackles him, the gun fired. Rob had gotten to him just in time, the bullet missed Lucy. Rob tells him you disregarded my direct order; you will never hunt with me again. He then reaches for his gun, making sure its unloaded, and then wrapped it around a tree. The 18-year-old was mad as hell. Wait until I tell my dad, you are in trouble Rob. Rob said you don’t have to tell him, that I will. I will tell you, you damn hot-headed punk, you lucky your dad wasn’t here, you would have probably been the tree, that your gun was wrapped around. I have hunted with your dad for 20 years; we have much respect for each other. You just showed me no respect. Now get rest of those dogs tied up, and let’s get the hell out of here.

                Ben and James, being outside of the den, heard the gunshot and is very depressed. They know that they just lost their sister and mate. When they go in the den, they were at a loss of words, they go over and roll a large cigar, and one for Sophia. Sophia knew without any words, that she had loss Lucy. I said, I can’t believe this; I knew Rob would be true to his words. I decided I don’t want my cigar, as I angerly go to the road, Sophia begged me not to. James seeing this, also head down to the road with myself. Sophia knows she must stay, due to her babies. She set there mourning Lucy, and know she will probably lose Ben and James also. When they confront the hunters, they will be dead.

                Back at the tree the 18-year-old has all the dogs tied up, the 1st half of trip to the truck, was complete silence, and then he apologized to Rob. Rob said, that’s words mean nothing, you must prove you are sorry. 1st thing I want to know from you is what you learned today. The 18-year-old said, that a man’s word means nothing if you break your word. I also learned bears do shit in the woods, and even on you. But getting shit on is nothing, compared to letting everyone down by going against your words, even if you were to get shit on. Rob said OK, I will accept your apology, next year you can hunt with us, but you will be on probation period for the entire season, before you can become a full fledge member of the hunt club. The 18-year-old agrees to these terms, you have my word that I will never go against your orders. I’m very sorry, I was not going against your words, until I got shit on, then I wasn’t true to myself mostly, and also to everyone else here with me today. You know shit happens and that’s when you find your real integrity as a man. You must work through what hand you are dealt, today has made me a better person.

                Lucy, being faster than humans made it back to the den, Sophia was so happy she was alive. Sophia was sad but chilled, she had smoked 4 large cigars. She then thinking about Ben and James, she tells Lucy she must get to the road, that they going to confront, Rob and the hunting party. She made it to them, had just finished telling them the story, before Rob appeared over the hill, headed towards them.

                The 18-year-old said he was so sorry, that he had disregarded Rob. He tells them he has learned his lesson, that even when a bear shits on you. You still have nothing, if you have lost respect of yourself, and of all your fellow friends, and hunters, if you end up doing something, that you said you would not do. Lucy kind of giggled a little and said, I did not mean to shit on you, but the dogs had scared the shit out of me, and I couldn’t hold it in any more.

                Back at the den everyone was happy they had made it safely though kill season. I tell Lucy I thought it was funny that she had shit on him. We have about a week or two left now, before we will go into hibernation. I was thinking to myself ok our den has 4 bears in it, when we go into hibernation. How many bear lives will it be, when we wake up in the spring?

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  • The Great Flood

    The Great Flood

                Well, looks like we will be shut in for a while, the only way to go through this snow is to tunnel through it. The good news is the storm has stopped, and it’s a beautiful sunny day. It’s morning time, and the temperature is already 40 degrees out. With days like this, maybe in a few days, we will be able to get out of our den again. We have plenty of food to eat, good protein of deer, possums several turkeys and possums, also a lot of native trout and a few rainbow trout. Plenty of greens with bacon to go in the greens, and porridge. Best of all we have a lot of flour, and sourdough starter to make sourdough bread. A plenty of honey from the 7 buckets of honey, we had collected, and berries for Sophia’s famous berry cobbler. Our den couldn’t be doing better, except we all still miss Oliver.

                Being couped up, we will have to play many board games, to keep energized, and not wanting to go into early hibernation. If we were to go into hibernation too early, we would have an extended hibernation, which means we would lose more fat, and be skinnier come spring. Food is no problem so we can continue to fatten ourselves, for several more weeks, prior to go into hibernation. Speaking of hibernation, I can’t wait until we come out of hibernation, to see my brothers and sisters, and nieces and nephews bear cubs.

                We have now spent 4 days couped up inside and gouging ourselves putting on weight. I decided that I would venture outside. Over half of the snow has melted very quickly. I can hear the stream below it sounds like a huge river since the snow has melted so fast. I wanted to get out and venture a little, and walk down to the stream, oh I mean river. I have seen the stream flooded before but nothing like this.

                I wonder back to the den, and everyone is now awake and Sophia is fixing sourdough bread. She has already made porridge, fried turkey eggs and bacon. We have a feast, and everyone wanted to take a little bear nap. I woke up to a loud creaking sound, at first, I had no idea what I was hearing, then I saw a small stream of water and it is getting larger, coming from the back of the den. There was so much melting snow, that the water, it is breaking our den apart. I get everyone awake, and we all ran outside, just prior to the den being ripped apart. All our belongings, and food is being washed down the mountain, and into the raging river below.

                We are grateful for escaping with our lives. I grabbed the deer bag of marijuana, prior to escaping. We will need this now, while we try to relax, and figure out, what we could do. Everything is gone, I mean everything. Our whole lives washed away in a moment of time. We all roll us a cigar and are grateful of escaping the den, prior to it being ripped apart. As we are beginning to chill out. I think about Samuel and Angel, maybe we can share their den for a short period of time, until we can make it across the road, then we can use Lucy’s and James’s den, until next spring, then I can find a new den for Sophia and myself. Everyone is on board with this. But will Samuel and Angel, let us share their den?

                We decided on our way to Angel’s, we need to do a hunting expedition, to help pay our way, if they were to let us stay. There is only a foot of snow now, we probably won’t get any small game, but hopefully we can get some deer and turkeys. We see the biggest buck I have ever seen, the rack was thick and very wide over 24 inches wide and had 18 points best I could tell. I wanted to kill this deer, but I told Lucy it was hers to kill. She said she wouldn’t let me down. It will not be as easy as, the 5 deer I killed, in the heavy snow. Lucy stalks and gets below this huge buck, and then she sprints towards it. The deer did what she wanted it to do. It ran to the steepest part of the mountain, and into the rock bluffs. With a few swipes of her paw the deer was dead.

                We would get 2 more yearlings, and we ran into a flock of turkeys and harvested 6 turkeys. This should keep us in good graces with Angel, for a few days. We take all the game to Angel’s den; she was happy to see us. We didn’t see Samuel, I was were almost afraid to ask, but I did. Where is Samuel at, oh he went fishing down by the pond, said he was so bored, staying in their den all this time. We tell Angel about our den, and she immediately said y’all must stay with us, until you can get across the river and road to Lucy’s den. We also let her know about Oliver being killed. She was so sad for us, and gave all us a big bear hug.  She said looks like y’all brought some food, I said it is the least we could do, for the hospitality. Angel said that’s a hell of a buck you have there. I told her Lucy had killed it; the meat was theirs but for some odd reason that I don’t understand, Lucy wants the antlers to hang in her den. I have never been able to eat antlers, so I don’t understand why, she has a strange addiction to wanting them.

                Everyone decided to go to the pond, knowing with the weather, the likelihood that farmer Brown, would be out was very low. We grabbed the last 2 fishing poles, and all go to the pond. Samuel was happy to see us, and we let him know Angel had said we could stay, until we can get across the road to Lucy’s den. Samuel said yeah, this has been a crazy storm. He said we were welcome to stay as long as we wanted to. Samuel said with all us staying in the den, we needed to have a ton of fish. We love sitting here on the banks with fishing pole in hand. But let’s all get in the pond, and do fishing the old-fashioned bear way. Farmer Brown will restock in the spring. Let’s just catch every fish we can. The rich in protein will fatten us up well, and we will be ready for hibernation, here in a couple weeks. We were very happy getting in, and catching as many fish we could. We had to go back and get 10 more baskets. Oh, we going to be happy fat bears.

                We take all the fish back to the den, and we decided to give Angel the night off cooking. Sophia, Lucy, James and myself fried up 2 baskets full of rainbow trout, and made 50 pounds of French fries. Sophia saw where the freezer was full of strawberries and rhubarb. She decided to try Angel’s recipe for her famous strawberry rhubarb pie. Angel had shared this recipe also with Sue. Smelling this had me missing Tom and Sue, and hoping they were doing ok. I just feel at ease they in a county where there is no hunting. Maybe later in my life I will move out closer to them, but Sophia and Lucy and James need me now though.

                We hear snoring coming from the living room, boy could Samuel snore. Angel said yeah you should try sleeping with him. If I didn’t love him so much, I would move out. We tell Angel everything is ready, and to wake Samuel up and come have a feast. She wakes Samuel and they come in. I tell Samuel I heard him snoring, he denied being asleep and said he doesn’t snore. Angel just gives him that look, you know the look. After supper everyone was stuffed, and said it’s so nice of farmer Brown providing us with all the rainbow trout. We decide it was night time, and we all laid down for the night.

                The next morning, I wanted to go visit Luna and Maverick, I was the first one awake and I headed down to their den. She was so happy seeing me, she gave me a little nose rub. I’m not sure that was good thing, I mean it felt sooo goooodddd, but it gives me false hopes. We are friends that all that was, I must believe that. I know she loves Maverick, and I would never do anything to hurt Luna. Maverick said it’s so great seeing you Ben, it’s been a while. I first tell of the loss of Oliver, Then I tell how I helped Tom and Sue, to a different county, where no bear hunting is allowed. I then tell him about our den getting ripped apart, so we will be staying with Samuel and Angel, until the river goes down. I then said Well farmer Brown’s Pond is all but fished out. They invited me to stay the rest of the day, and have super with them this evening. After dinner Maverick said its late, so I might as well spend the night. The next morning Luna was up early, and I had breakfast before heading back to Angels.

                As I walked out the den, I noticed the sound down below. It didn’t sound like a raging river any more. I,m thinking we probably could make it across the creek now. Angel has breakfast fixed when I got back, and I said no, Luna had a good filling breakfast, before I left her den. There was sourdough bread so I said yes, he would partake in a loaf of sourdough bread. That when it hits me of the 6 buckets of honey that was left, was washed away from our den. I was very saddened. There is no honey to be found this time of the year.

                After breakfast we headed on towards Lucy’s Den. The road is washed out badly, I don’t know if it would get fixed, before the end of kill season. We may be safe from hunters’ for rest of this season. Is that a blue bucket that I see, that was caught by some brush, could it be some of our honey. I walked down to it; it was still sealed, and we now have 5 gallons of honey. That made all of us happy.

                We headed on up to Lucy den we are hoping it is still in good shape, and not ripped apart. It is in very good shape. Sophia said she would clean some, while Lucy and myself try to get some food. We are starting all over, kind of like Tom, except we have each other. Lucy said she noticed that the stream had washed several deep pools, and we could try to get some native trout. I was all in for that. We dive in the first pool; it was loaded with trout, 2 baskets full. We go down to the next pool, as we walking, I see something blue, several hundred yards down the stream, could it be more honey. I tell Lucy for her to fish, while I walk down to see what the blue was. It was another 5-gallon bucket of honey. We are now in good shape on honey. By the time I’m back to Lucy, she had filled the last 2 baskets with trout. We take them back to the den. Sophia was happy get the trout and honey. James and Sophia fixed supper for us, and we all had a big day. We now have a den that Lucy and Sophia can have their cubs in, later this winter.

                The next morning, we hear something we wasn’t happy to hear. There were dogs running a bear, on top of the mountain. They must have come in, from the other side of the mountain. Now with less than 2 weeks of the season, would we be safe until the end of the season. My anxiety was beginning to get to me. I rolled me a Cigar to calm down, it’s stressful being the boar of the den. How did Oliver do it, and he never seemed to be stressed at all, after all those years? Will I ever be the boar bear that Oliver was? Will we survive rest of this Season?

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  • Return Home

    Return Home

                I give all my good byes to Tom and Sue, I truly hated leaving them, at least I know they will be safe. It would be nice to live in paradise and not worried about being killed. But North Mountain, has always been home, there is no place like home. It’s a little before dark as I head out. I don’t want to cross the county line, until after. The back country road, divides the counties.  It’s a moonless and starless night, but bears are nocturnal and I can see just fine.

                It’s now pitch-black outside, as I cross the county line, I saw a truck go down the road with a dog box on it, just before I crossed the road. I need to make good time so I can cross over Stone Coal Gap Road, at least 2 hours before daylight preferably longer than 2 hours. It has been snowing here, making travelling a little slower, I already know I won’t make it the whole distance. I decided I would just spend the day at Tom’s old den, when I get there, I was having going have to stop there, to get what all Tom had left me anyway. Upon entering, I was remembering, when I first met Tom, and he was sitting there waiting to die. All the emotions, good and bad, were flowing though me. The marijuana had changed Toms life, but he was able to get off of it. Then during chase season, when we turned the tables on the dogs. We just left them stranded up the tree. Best part of that day was without a doubt, meeting Sue. I was as determined she would be Toms, as she was, that she would be mine. A little trickery, and she fell for Tom. I’m just so blessed to have them both in my life. They have giving me a purpose in life, since I have no mate. Without them in my life now, what would my life be like?

                I don’t even know what Tom had left for me, but I’m about to find out. I hope there is some food for me here. I,m now be getting hungry, after that trip back here in the snow. I started to look around the den, and there is a whole yearling, he left for me, also in the cupboard, there were 6 strawberry rhubarb pies, I was in heaven now, thanks Sue. As I was preparing the deer backstrap, I was just thinking tomorrow is Saturday, and all the hunters will be out. I need to just stay put here, until tomorrow night, as though there is no hunting on Sunday, it will be safer for myself, Lucy, James, and Sophia. It would be reckless of me leaving scent going up to our den. So, I have Toms den all to myself, until after dark tomorrow night. I have all I need inside of the den, So I don’t need to go outside. The good thing is, it is continuing to snow; it’s hiding my track so, the hunters and hounds can’t track me here. As I’m preparing the backstrap, there is porridge, collard greens, and several pounds of bacon. I put the collard greens and bacon on to cook, but decided to leave the porridge until morning. The den is smelling, as if Sue was here cooking. I’m going to miss those two. Ever since meeting Tom I have had a purpose in life, I’m just hoping that doesn’t change now; with the loss of Oliver. But even though James, will be in our same den this winter, I consider myself as the boar of the den now, that Oliver is dead.

                Supper is done and I dig in, everything is delicious for the main course, I had popped 1 of the strawberry rhubarb pies in the oven to warm up. Heated it taste almost as good, as when Sue pulls one straight out of the oven. This den just brings back so many great memories, and some that wasn’t so great, when I first met Tom. I still get sad thinking about him sitting right here, stating he was waiting to die. I have 5 more strawberry pies; I should I eat them all I’m thinking.

                The next morning, I go to the entrance of the den, boy this is one hell of a doozie of a storm, there is almost 3 feet of snow, and it is still coming down. I knew it would be a week or 2, before anyone would be hunting, so I decided to go ahead and head to the Sophia’s den. It’s been a week now, since I’ve been there.  I cooked breakfast; I’m having the rest of the bacon and porridge it’s so delicious, well there’s pies left so I dig in to them. I guess now is as good a time as any to head home to our den. I grab rest of the food and start towards the den. This storm is a storm to remember, as I’m trekking my way to the den, it’s a whiteout blizzard condition. It’s a good thing bear has a good sense of direction, or I’d never find our den. It’s very slow going, my plan is to get to Stone Coal Gap, before I start hunting for deer, then If I kill one or 2, I can get the belongings that Tom left me to the den, and then myself and James can come back for the deer.

                I finally made it to the road, and there are 5 deer right on the edge of the road. It was the easiest kills I have ever made. It was more like hunting possums, I walked over to them, and 1 big swipe they were dead. I guess myself and James will be making several trips to the road. Yes, I did kill all 5 of the deer, a bear must eat and get fat, this time of the year. I take everything Tom left me to the den it, doesn’t look like anyone is home, I also see no tracks outside of the den in snow. I go inside, and I find everyone safe and sound, taking bear naps. Sophia is the first one to wake up, she said I did not expect you back, this is the storm of the century. I figured you would stay with Tom and Sue, at least until the storm was over. I tell her I needed to be here, now that I’m the boar of the den. I tell her how I got 5 deer laying down at the road, I am going to wake James up to help me, to go and get them back to the den. Then I showed her the 4 strawberry rhubarb pies that Sue had left me. She said that’s amazing they each can have one for supper tonight. Then she says James knew the storm was coming, so he had killed 3 deer prior to the storm. Also, you know your sister, she fished all the time before the storm, we were trying to be prepared. So, we have plenty to eat until time to go into hibernation. I was pleasantly surprised, that everyone had prepared for the storm and hibernation.

                I wake James and Lucy, they were very glad to see me, and Lucy said I wasn’t expecting you back during this storm. I tell them, that being the boar of the den, I had to make my way back to the den, come hell or high water, well snow. James tells me he had killed the 3 deer, and Lucy had caught 10 baskets of fish. I tell James, let’s go and get the 5 deer laying down on the road. Lucy said, she would go also. 3 bears walking in all this snow, looked like a snow plow went down off this mountain. We each grab a deer and took to the den. Once there Lucy said, her and James would go and get the last 2. She said just sit here and relax, with Sophia; you have already had a long day.

                Sophia was asking how Tom and Sue were doing. I tell her that they were ready to move to a new county, that doesn’t allow bear hunting, when I got to their den. They were moving due, to both their neighbors was killed, the same day that Oliver was killed.  We took a nap and were ready to go to their new county come dark. It was a long night getting their belongings there. We spent the night in a very small shelter. I found them a den on our first full day there, but I didn’t find until almost dark. So, it was several hours after dark before I got back, to the small shelter, that they spent their 1st night in. We stayed in the small shelter the 2nd night, then, the next day they moved all their stuff to the den. Tom and Sue were extremely happy with their new den. They both wanted me to stay, but I told them I knew they was safe, and I had to get back to y’all, since I was the boar of the den now.

                James and Lucy are back now, and we all clean and bag the deer to put in the freezer. While we are doing this, Sophia starts cooking some fresh backstraps, smashed taters, and put on 4 loaves of sourdough bread. Sophia has this den smelling wonderful. She finishes cooking about same time, that all the deer is in the freezer. We had a feast and after the feast Sopia tells Lucy, go and look in the oven, at what Sue had sent us for dessert. She said OMG, it’s her famous strawberry rhubarb pie. The smell when she opened the oven was delicious. Everyone enjoyed their own strawberry Rhubarb pie. Could it get any better than this? What does the rest of this winter and kill season hold for us? Will we all survive rest of this kill season? How long will this snow storm of the century snow last? So many questions but so few answers!

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  • Tom and Sue

    Tom and Sue

    The next morning as Sophia feared, I was thinking about leaving tonight to go and check on Tom. I will have to take the path we did last night, using the creek to wash away my scent. Sophia wants me to stay. I said my other blood brother may need me. Well at least we will have today, our new smaller family, she is bawling. We get into a group bear hug, then I roll a huge cigar for everyone. They sit and smoke the cigars, everyone has their own tales about Oliver, that they shared with each other. Our mood is improving, having our discussion about Oliver, along with the cigar that everyone was smoking. Sophia says she will fix breakfast and Lucy said I want to help you. It’s been a while since we have cooked together. I tell them that a little berry cobbler would be good for dessert. Lucy said, “you will get whatever we fix.” Yes, Ma’am I said. I asked James if she always that sassy now. James says, “yes Sophia had taught her to stand up for herself and unfortunately she wears the pants in our household.” I remember the day y’all moved into y’alls den and how Sophia had jumped you and Oliver and then she told Lucy to take notes on how to keep her bear in check. I about died a little latter when Lucy had told you she would cut you off. She learned quickly from Sophia.

    Wasn’t long that the den was being permeated by delicious smelling aromas. I know, I smell sausage which we don’t get very often, and the unmistaken smell of sourdough bread. Lucy says it’s almost ready y’all can’t come in until its done.

    We hear Lucy say come and get it. Along with the sausage and sourdough bread was eggs and porridge. There was a loaf of bread for each of us. I must say I was disappointed no berry cobbler. We all dug in and had a feast of bears. I’m fat but happy now, and about to go into the living room and lucy say’s hold on I have something else. She walks over to the oven and pops out a berry cobbler for everyone. My eyes lit up and I tell Lucy how great of a sister she is. She about in tears, tells me I’m a great brother, and she couldn’t stand it, if she was to lose me. Then myself and James, excuse ourselves to the living room, Lucy speaks up, ok Sophia and myself is going into the living room, for our break now, while y’all clean the kitchen, and don’t forget to clean the oven well, the berry cobbler had spilled and is now baked on. I’m thinking to myself, damn you Sophia, you are the cause of this. But then I remembered we all must all help each other out. James says he will clean the whole kitchen; I only need to clean the oven. I said deal, in about 20 minutes James said he was done with the kitchen. This damn oven with everything baked on so hard, I’m not even half done. Then James speaks up Yeah, I’ve had to clean the oven twice now, after Lucy fixes cobblers. 30 minutes later the oven is clean.

    I go into the living room and it is filled with smoke. Sophia and Lucy have a very fat cigar, that they were smoking. I was thinking I don’t even need to roll one for myself, I just have to inhale. Well, I rolled me a fat Cigar and everyone else almost done with theirs, said to roll them another one, so I did. The household is calm and we are talking, and having a family meeting. Sophia then speaks up and tells me she wants to know everything that I know about Oliver’s death, and events afterwards. I just told her I was sitting on the hill, with James and we heard Dale and Rob talking about how that son a bitch killed 3 dogs, and that they glad he is dead. Then while waiting for help to get Oliver out of the mountains, they ripped open his belly and pulled his guts, lungs, and his heart out. Sophia screams OH MY GOD, I cannot hear any more right now.

    We changed what we were talking about, and started talking of all the happy times, the family had together. We talked about this spring, when we had come out of hibernation, and sliding down to the stream. How Lucy caught the largest native trout and I started a fight with her. How Oliver broke the fight up and made me apologize to Lucy. I then said I miss him so much. I then talk about Rob calling Oliver the marijuana bear because of his weight after field dressing was 420 pounds. I tell everyone looks like we have become the marijuana family, I then remind everyone, that we need to do other means of finding joy, before turning to the marijuana. For like the next 3 days lets agree to keep it in our system we need it now. After 3 days we must try to get weaned off the marijuana. The family agreed to this. We sat there full from breakfast and didn’t even think about eating lunch. Lucy says around 5 pm she a little hungry now and its mine and James’s turn to fix supper. I look at Lucy like that’s women’s work, I was going to tell her that, she can’t cut me off. Then I thought, she is right, this is a family, we all need to share responsibilities.

    I tell James let’s just do fried fish and fried tatters. Then we can also do a berry cobbler. James said yes sounds delicious. We both prepared the tatters to fry and get the fish battered up. James will do all the frying while I fix the cobbler. I mixed all the ingredients including the honey. Now I’m placing it in the oven thinking about payback maybe, I’ll spill a little cobbler. Well supper is on and we call the sows to the kitchen. Everyone enjoyed the fish and taters. Then I brought out the cobbler. Lucy says wow twice in a day I don’t think I have ever had cobbler twice in a day. After supper, I tell Lucy she has the stove and Sophia can clean the kitchen. Wow, that look could have cut right through me. I go in the living room and I hear Lucy say damn you, the oven is clean. I just knew it was going to be a mess. Lucy then helps Sophia to make quick cleaning of the kitchen.

    We sit around in the living room and have us a cigarette we are calm but we need to keep a level in our body. We had a good time talking for a couple hours, and then I said it was time, for myself to leave to go and check on Tom and Sue. Everyone was sad to see me go, James wanted to go with me. I said no Sophia and Lucy need a boar bear around the den until I return.

    So down to the stream I go and I walked the stream though the culvert and then follow the stream a good way to hide my scent. I continue out the mountain, staying about half way up the mountain where my scent won’t be as noticeable for the bear hounds. As I’m going, I decided to check on the young bear couple I met before meeting Tom. I get to their den and knock; no answer I go in the den is empty. Where are this young couple? Are they OK?

    I then decide it’s time to go and check on Tom and Sue, I hope they are ok! I get to their den, and it looks very different, everything has been moved to one area. Tom says hello brother, how are you doing. I tell Tom I’m not doing very well, that Oliver was killed, day before yesterday. Tom was very sad to hear this. I then ask if he had seen the other young couple and he says oh yes Myself and Sue watched both them, get shot from the same tree, day before yesterday. We heard hounds and thought, they were coming for us. But they were chasing the other couple, and the dogs were almost catching them, they went up a tree. They remained treed in that tree, for almost 2 hours when the hunters came, and shot them both out of the tree. I said that’s horrible they seemed really nice. I then thinking OMG where is Sue. So, I ask Tom where was Sue. About that time, I hear Sue say I’m here in the bedroom, as she comes out with a paw full of their belongings. I asked what’s going on. Tom says after watching them being shot, Sue states she knows of a county, 2 counties away that doesn’t allow bear hunting, and you can grow big and old there. So, we have decided to move there. I tell Tom that I would miss him brother. And he said yes, I can’t thank you enough helping to get my life back, and finding and helping me get this marvelous sow.

                They said they would be moving out tonight after dark and it is illegal to kill bears after sundown. They said they going to lay down now for a bear nap, that everything is packed. I tell them, that I would snooze with them, if they didn’t mind. They were delighted I would be staying for a short period of time with them.

                Upon waking I had a great Idea; they have lots of stuff to transport so, I’ll help them move. Tom and Sue are now awake, I tell them, they were ecstatic. Tom says that the 2nd best thing that has ever happened to him, was me, and Sue was the best. I was happy being 2nd best.

                Time to go to work now, we all get all that we can carry, there were just a couple things left, Tom told me I could have anything left, on my return trip home. We have 45 miles to cover tonight to get into a safe county. So, it’s no Lolley gagging around, we are on a mission to complete.

                We have made it inside the county lines and is safe. Sue said there’s a small shelter she knows of, only a mile away, that they can stay in, while searching for a good den. So, we go to this little shelter, she is right, its small, we must leave all their belonging outside, and the 3 of them retired for a bear nap. Once they wake up, they have a little to eat, we decide to head off in 3 different directions to look for a den. We will meet back here at dark.

                We all headed off in our own directions to find a den. Tom and Sue both get back to the shelter right at dark. They asked each other if they found a den or seen Ben. Their answers were no. They are wondering what could of happen to me. I was on my way back to them, but it would be over 4 hours after dark, before getting back to the shelter. I made it back after midnight, they were still awake hoping I was ok. I tell them the good news; I found a very nice and large and spacious den for them. I tell them it was almost dark when I found it. I was determined to find y’all a den, I knew the time frame that there was no way, I would make it back to the shelter before dark. I’m just so happy I found y’all a den.

                They get a good night’s sleep in their little shelter. Sue is so happy that she is getting a den, in a county that doesn’t allow bear hunting, and they can grow old together. The next morning it is getting all their belonging, to their new den. It didn’t take as long as yesterday, since I was zig zagging, trying to find a den. It only took us a little over 3 hours to get there. We had a quick snack to eat and Tom and myself head out hunting. Between the 2 of us, we were able to kill 3 deer, 2 turkeys, and a couple possums. Tom zig zagged until he was able to run down a rabbit also. We take all the game back to Tom’s new den, to dress and freeze. Sue said give her 3 of the back straps, and she will prepare them for supper tonight. She already had the den smelling delicious, that wonderful smell of sourdough bread.

                Sue said just rest after y’all get all the game in the freezer, and she will let us know when supper was ready. I was just remembering, it’s been over 2 days now since I have had any marijuana, but I’m so happy helping Tom and Sue. I havn’t had time to think about Oliver. About then, Sue said supper is ready. Tom and myself go in; wow she has a feast prepared. We all had a backstrap of deer. She also had both possums and rabbits fried to perfection. Collard greens prepared with 5 pounds of bacon, and a loaf of bread a piece. Sue tells me she wanted to make sure he ate good; I couldn’t thank you enough, for everything you have done for us this year. After eating our main course, Sue goes to the oven and out pops a strawberry rhubarb pie one for each of us. I tell Sue she trying to butter me up, to stay. Sue said you are always welcome here. I tell her thanks for the hospitality, but I will have to leave shortly, so I can get home before morning arrives. I feel good leaving y’all behind, knowing y’all are safe. I must get back to Sophia, Lucy, and James. I don’t know if they are even still alive! What will I find when getting back to the den?

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