Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Coffee, Chatting and Critters. #3
Good morning everyone on this beautiful, sunny Tuesday! The weather is actually warming up finally and the sun is supposed to continue shining for several days at least and that is great. So I had plans to walk down to the river a couple of times this week. However, something came along to perhaps interfere with those plans. It is a bear.
Yesterday after coming home from shopping I noticed that my bear warning system had been triggered. Was he still on the deck or not? I told my friend to wait until I checked it out. As I got closer I saw this big black head stick out. He was still there. Then he came running off the deck, which unfortunately was in the same direction I was standing.
But he turned and ran off around back and out of the yard. That was much too close. He had also broken one of the poles that holds feeders. I could not fix the pole but I had room to hang the hummingbird feeder on the other pole, plus the chickadee feeder. The bear came back in the afternoon and went after the feeders. I tried to scare him away, but he would have none of that.
Instead he turned to me, growled and snorted. That was too much. This is my deck and I plan to use it. He can go eat somewhere else. So out came my bear spray. I just gave him a short blast to see what would happen. He ran off quite fast. But he had already destroyed my two hanging feeders and broken the hummingbird feeder. The stores do not have any of those feeders left now, too late in the season. So I am attempting to fix it and will hang it back up shortly to see if my repair job worked.
Anyway, the bear was back after an hour but there was nothing for him. I heard him groaning like he was rather upset there was no more food. He returned in about half an hour and checked again. Still no food so he left. He did come back again just as it was getting dark, but no food so he did not stay around long. He did move the step outside my door, picked it up with one paw and tossed it aside. That step is quite big.
So is the bear. He is about 5 and a half feet long from nose to rump and stands 2 and a half feet tall. It is early summer so he is still thin, by fall he could be a big bear. Having had a much better look at him now and checking size charts, he is likely 250 to 300 pounds. Not overly large, but not small either. And he is not afraid of people, that part makes him more dangerous.
So, I have to stop feeding birds and that means no more opportunity for pics out here. My only hope now is walking to the river. However, I am a bit nervous about doing that now. Sigh. Lock the doors, stay inside all summer. Hmm, but if I did that then my blogging would come to an end. Sigh. Here are some pics of my new “buddy”. And a more cheerful friend that will now be gone. Have a great day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. The Icelandic Mystery. Chapter 1. Sigurbjorn.
Well, here we are flying across the ocean again, but this time heading a bit north to Iceland. A man and his wife have a vacation lodge on the northern edge of Iceland on one of the many fjords. But apparently they have had problem after problem since taking over this lodge a few months ago. They are not really sure what to think about it, but they want us to investigate.
So far there has been nothing very serious in these incidents, but they do appear to be getting worse, so they would like to have this stopped soon before something serious does happen. The man’s wife is now scared to be alone, but her husband needs to travel for his job. Apparently this vacation lodge is just a secondary income which they hope will become their main job as time goes on. Their names are Mikkael and Fjola Agnarsson and they are in their mid 40s.
They also have a couple of live in caretakers for the lodge and grounds, plus one guide which we will meet at the airport. Soon we are landing at the international airport which is 50km from the capital of Reykyavik. But our destination is the town of Akureyri in the northeastern part of the island. Once in the airport we are met by the guide, a very nice young woman named Sigurbjorn Aradottir.
I think I might have a problem with the names on this case. Fortunately the cats can speak Icelandic very well and will help me with the names I am sure. Besides me and the 3 cats, there is Kat, Jennifer, Angel, Galyna and Nyura (our nurse) on this trip. Carine, Kristina and Rock could not come due to bad colds, and Annelie is still recovering from her second hip replacement. But the 9 of us should be able to handle things okay.
We had to drive from the airport to Akureyri which was quite a nice drive and we arrived just in time for dinner at the lodge. We just talked about normal things, getting to know our hosts a bit as well as learning all about the area, mainly from our guide. We were all quite tired from our trip so were off to bed fairly early and Mikkael said he would fill us in on some details at breakfast. About 2am I woke up to a strange noise which appeared to be coming from downstairs.
I got dressed and took Muffin with me and left MC with Kat. Once downstairs the noise was a bit louder but still appeared to be coming from the basement, except there is no basement. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder which nearly gave me a heart attack. It was Sigurbjorn, she motioned to remain silent and follow her. We did that and she took us out the back door. The noise stopped right away. “It does that all the time,” she said, “I know it comes from outside somewhere, but have never found out where.”
“You do not seem to be afraid,” I said, “why is that?” “I cannot be afraid of something I cannot see,” she said with a smile, “otherwise I would be afraid all the time.” We went back inside and I turned on the light in the kitchen. “Would you like some coffee?”, she asked very nicely. I accepted, this might be a good time to ask her some questions about this place and why we are here.
“I worked for the former owners too,” she said, “but nothing ever happened that was strange, not like now, everything has changed now. Mikkael and Fjola were so happy when they bought this place, now Fjola is afraid all the time and they are constantly fighting, something they never did at the beginning. Odd things happen, always at night, like dishes in the cupboards falling and breaking on the floor, plants dumped out onto the floor or tossed outside, clothes from our closets being scattered around the living room, taken while we slept.
Then furniture would be moved around, pictures hung in different places, odd things like that. But never any noise, except that odd noise we heard tonight which happens now and then. But it is not regular so I cannot be outside to wait for it to begin. It is the same with all the other things, when I sit up and wait, nothing happens. When I sleep, that is when things happen. It is like someone is watching me all the time. That part is, well, creepy. But I refuse to be afraid.”
“Do strange things ever happen in your bedroom?”, I ask her. “Only when they take my clothes to scatter around,” she said, “and it is strange that I do not hear them, little noises wake me easily.” Suddenly there was loud and repeated screaming coming from our hosts bedroom…
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 