Mother Nature didn’t know my plans

Monday evening’s Bar-B-Q went off without a hitch at the volunteer rigs.  Above is this year’s ‘crop’ of refuge interns.  These interns work hard and put in plenty of hours on the refuge, so I guess they don’t have time to fix good meals very often.  Peggy and George, fellow volunteers that have been here since April 1, wanted to give them a farewell send off since they’ll all be leaving in the next week or two to go back to school.  There was quite a spread prepared for them that included pulled pork, deviled eggs, cole slaw, corn on the cob, baked beans, Key lime pie, and my whopper watermelon.  It was amazing to watch the amount of food that these young folks put away.   

Dang, they all look so young!  I did notice that the girls outnumbered the boys, and that all of the young women had long hair.  The last time I had long hair I was a senior in high school.  This vibrant group of interns all seem to get along with each other, and have enjoyed their time here.  Sadly, that isn’t always the case.

As I took Emma for her first outs this morning, the skies were overcast and there was a rumbling beginning on the northwest horizon.  Guess that persuaded Emma to take care of her business in short order.  We made it back to the rig just in time to beat a downpour.  So much for my plans to do some touring on Roanoke Island early this morning.  Apparently, Mother Nature didn’t get a copy of my plans.

Along about 10:30, the rains halted and I took the opportunity to pack Emma in the car along with the garbage containing all the melon rinds from my Monday bonanza.  I didn’t need those fermenting away in the rig. 

I took the back gravel roads the five miles to the dumpster, and found a couple of flocks of turkeys gleaning brunch from some of the fields.  Emma was uninterested.

As we rounded a curve, there was an obstruction in the road!  Mama bear and her three little ones were ambling down the road.  Emma spotted them, and suddenly came alive.

As we came to a stop, Mama bear decided it was best to take her triplets into the woods.  The size of the cubs makes me wonder if perhaps the two on the right are males, and the smallest is a female? 

                        Emma barked a little, and was on full alert as the family made its way into hiding.

As we slowly approached the area they entered the woods, Mama bear kept her eye out for us as the kids hid.  I didn’t have time to switch the camera to manual focus, so you’ll have to look hard to see her behind the foliage that the camera focused on.

The rain began again after that, and continued all afternoon.  I did take care of a few other errands while we were out, but didn’t visit the places I had originally planned.  However, the short encounter with the bears made my day worthwhile, and I think you can probably guess how I’ll finish this post…

                                                                               THE END!! 

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy