This Seems "Bearly" Safe

We have officially moved to the country.  Really I still would consider where we are the suburbs, but the fact that we have acreage surrounding us on three sides pretty much means country living.  We have resident frogs swimming in our pool , a chipmunk that lives on our back patio, bunnies so tame that you could almost pet them, garter snakes, spiders galore, mice, and deer.  I have not seen the raccoon, but their existence is evident based on their dismantling of my trash can. 

The other evening we got a special kind of visit.  We glanced into our front yard just in time to see a mama bear and her three cubs come traipsing through our yards.  They traveled over to our trash cans that were set out to be collected and the mama snatched up a white kitchen bag.  They took off so quickly that we never even got a picture.  It was exciting for us all and a reminder that we need to be careful!

About an hour and a half later, the kids and I set out down towards the road to see what scraps of paper had been left behind that we needed to clean up.  I figured the bears had taken the bag deep in the woods and would not be seen again.  Wrong, wrong, wrong!

 There they were hanging in the woods that bordered our yard.  Mama bear was eating food scraps and the babies were tumbling around wrestling.  We backed off near our front door and watched as they hung around our house for over an hour.  Cars slowed to watch and the bears continued to investigate the trash.  At one point they retreated right next to our backyard, so we hurriedly shut the gate.

The next day they came back again only to discover the trash had been picked up and the cans were empty.  I waited a bit to collect the trash then told Cecily if mommy was killed by the bears to just stay in the house and someone would eventually find her.  It was a really neat experience that we are taking every precaution not to repeat!