Bears in the Yard

This afternoon Oso and I were sitting on the deck. It was late so I had left my phone inside charging because nothing ever happens around here that time of day. Suddenly Oso is barking his bear bark and running across to our neighbor's yard. By the time I had looked, he was face to face, literally, with a medium size bear. I called to him - hollered at him actually - and he came back to the deck. Then I looked at the bear, who was peeking out from behind a tree. Coming up to her on the other side of the tree were her two cubs. Oops.

Oso heading back toward her. I'm hollering, "Oso, No. Come back. That's a mom with cubs. Oso, come here, now!!" One baby was up the tree. The other was hanging around curious. Oso comes back. Then he starts back for her again. This time when he comes back on the deck, I grab his collar and force him into the house, closing the door on him. I race to the other door, close it, grab my phone, and head back to the deck to take the pictures. These were all I got as she led both cubs up the hill and off into the forest.

Mama poised to defend cubs from Oso.

Cub up the tree out of harms way. 

Life in our forest is never dull. 

What's New?

I love thinking about words and their origins. Having done no research on this particular word, I have always assumed that the "news", that general word for everything brought to us by the media, came from being told what was new in the world, starting back when information was passed from person to person in the great oral tradition that preceded the printed word.

The word was even added to other words as a descriptive: news print (the paper on which the news was printed), newspaper (the package of news print delivered  to the world),  news reporter (the person who searched out the story and wrote it so it could be printed in the newspaper), news boy or newsies (the young person who at first stood on the corner and shouted the headlines so people would buy the newspaper and later who, by foot and by bicycle,  delivered the newspaper to homes).

The word was used in many ways because it was important, it meant something new was happening and we needed to know what that new thing was. Even today, in the age of the internet and 24/7 coverage, we expect the news to bring us something new, or at least a new twist on the story.

Given that background, I had to laugh at the subject matter from the New York Times California Today email I received this morning.

"California Today: Wildfires, a Heat Wave, Power Outages and a Pandemic"

So? What else is new? Tell us something we don't know. heheheheheh

Seriously, everyone of these stories did add something new to my understanding of each of those events which are all too present in California lives right now. It was just funny when I read our old lives laid out so very clearly as if they were new news. Ah well, there's this pandemic and I guess we find our distractions where we can.

Ulu

 

This is an Ulu. It is a very sharp knife, native to the Inuit of Alaska.

Meredith and David gave it to Dean for Christmas a number of  years ago 

when they spent the winter in Alaska for David's work. Dean likes it

and has used it often. For some reason I have just discovered it.

This is the Ulu at work. The blade rocks back and forth across what you are

cutting. It cuts simply and easily and with no effort. 

So far so good. Chicken chopped for chicken salad. So much easier than slicing

all those little pieces with a straight knife. Yes, there are some things a knife cuts

better. My chicken salad has celery and I cut the stalks long with a knife. Then I

chopped them fine with the Ulu. The Ulu can chop straight down as well as cut

with the rolling slice. 

I have to wonder why it took my family living in Alaska for a year for us to discover

this delightfully easy to use knife. Why don't all knife sets have an Ulu included? It

makes me smile when I use it and it certainly makes certain chopping easier.