I came up on Friday the 31st and the chain across the driveway was not how I left it and Paul, who mowed for a bit today (9/12), said it wasn't him.  All okay with the house.


Quarry Hill Farm Visit
On Saturday, we went to an open house at Quarry Hill Farm, where they train and sell beautiful Arabian horses.  I had taken a picture (below) of their pasture and sent it to them, and they replied with an invitation to their event, which was a lot of fun.

Pasture at Quarry Hill Farm, Lakeville, CT

Young Arabian at Quarry Hill

Char at Quarry Hill Farm - 9-7-12

Solveig Visit
Solveig, Olive and Olive's friends are coming up this weekend (9/14).  It should be a lovely weekend!

Winter Visits
I have arranged with Paul for he and/or Catherine to make regular visits to the house over the winter, including coming inside to clean up mousetraps, etc., and that they can bill for it.  I've told him I'd let him know when we close the house.

Happy Labor Day!

Char's two week vacation here is coming to a close and she is sad. 

Sebastian sent Carl up with a load of stuff to store.  Char consolidated the plastic bins from this and prior shipments and we put them in the basement on the pallets.  The more fragile boxes live in the small, back bedroom downstairs. 

Char also spent some time recently cleaning the basement with the shop vac.

Bear

We have heard about bears up here and I caught a glimpse of one last season.  Recently, one has started to hang out in the yard and near the posts at the driveway, where there are apples he likes.  He was far less scared than we thought bears should be, feeding on apples even when the Propane man was here with his loud truck.  Charlyne also almost ran into him at night when we were going for a moonlight canoe.  He hadn't run away even when we were talking loudly near him.

When we first saw him his left front paw was clearly hurt and he rarely put weight on it.  We called the town game warden, who instructed us to call another agency.  No one seemed interested in the bear so we scare it off whenever we see it.  We don't want it getting used to people.

Injured, apple-loving bear - 8/12

Propane
We recently purchased 400 gallons of propane from Ormsbee Propane.