Surprise visitors

Gambol woke me up very early so he could stand on the front porch and smell.
Buddy took the long way around to get to his favorite pee spot.
It's a full moon.
D called me as I was headed into Julian on my way to work to ask if eastern neighbors have bison.  Yes, they do, a small herd.  Well, they were in her back yard as we spoke.
I did a wheel-y on Beaver Rd and headed home.  They were crossing our driveway headed to greener grass at Murch's.

from Paul:

I put the dogs in the truck and headed down the drive to see what was happening.  At the culvert by Ron and Darlene I saw a couple of the Bison and a guy who was apparently herding them.  I asked if they were herding them downhill or uphill and he said uphill, so I said I would return to the house.
I got back and put the dogs up in the carriage house and walked back to the garden to take a few shots.  The lead herder said that I better move back as they passed the shed or I might spook them.  I walked back to the carriage house and took a few pictures as the whole herd passed by the house and into the forest on the Jennifer Trail.  I asked if they knew where the break was in the fence and one guy said that probably a tree fell last night and the Bison found the opening.

later:

For our morning walk I put Buddy and Kilo on the dual lead and then to the long leash and Gambol was on his red leash as we walked up to the Shannon Curl.  The dogs were pretty crazy around the house but settled down fairly well for the walk.  As we headed back from the last turn on the Curl I saw what I think was a 2-4 point buck run across the forest ahead of us.  The deer stopped and looked back at us and I was pretty sure I saw 2 spikes.  None of the dogs saw the deer then but when he continued off toward our left both Kilo and Buddy spotted him, so they were determined to investigate this trespasser.  Once we got back to the house I took them down Jennifer Trail to the second cross trail and then back up to the house.  Doggies had their noses to the ground just about the whole way.  Pretty sure if they weren’t on leash, they would have been off on the hunt for bison. 

Not sure exactly where they herded the bison—going to the fire pit would not get them thru the fence.  Maybe they walked them all the way down to the corner of the property and got through a gate down there.

still later:

I just walked the doggies on the full meadow walk, including the shed for a drink and then down to the fire pit.  Gambol and Kilo were in the dual lead for the last half of the meadow walk, but from the shed on, I let both Gambol and Buddy to go off leash.  We came back to the house via the eastern part of the Jennifer Trail and the doggies didn’t seem to be as excited about the scents as this morning.   No problems getting everyone back home.

And we're off to the next excitement living in rural Julian.

Proof

10 points? Asymmetrical. And an ear tag so he is probably left over from the Paradise hunting days.
It's 16 degrees with occasional flurries in the air and a light breeze; too cold for the camera and bare-handed photographer for very long.

After a lot of research we are calling this an elk. Any readers have a different call?

Monster deer at Paradise Ranch

From the Baron and Gambol:

This morning at 0800 when I took Gambol out for a walk we had a real experience--there was about 3-4 inches of new powdery snow and under that was a layer of ice. Every step caused a crunching sound as the ice broke in a oval around my boots. We were making a racket walking along one of the forest trails that we usually take. It runs to our property line where you can see the old 10-12 foot high fence that surrounds the hunting lodge property behind us. The fence was installed to keep the imported trophy deer and elk within the hunting property's 777 acre boundaries. As we approached the fence I noticed that there was a horizontal shape, the size of a large log, on the other side of the fence that shouldn't have been there. It was the profile of a huge deer (I want to say it was a mule deer because of its size) and it had what I estimate was an 8 point rack with a spread of 2.5 to 3 ft--this was a monster deer. It was watching us approach and I could see it move its head and antlers as it tried to get a better look at us through the branches of the trees that are on our side of the fence. At this point Gambol spotted the deer and barked several times. This did not seem to bother the big buck and he slowly walked away from us, perpendicular to the fence up a 20 ft wide logging trail. I turned Gambol around and he got back to sniffing the snow for squirrels and rabbit tracks and I looked back at the buck--it had turned back towards us and was watching us leave.
Well when I returned from the dentist at 1300 I took Gambol out again and sure enough, the buck is still in the same area. I turned us around before we got too close so we wouldn't spook it--although it sure wasn't spooked when we saw it this morning. I planned to take the camera by myself (sorry Gambol) and see if I can capture it with pixels later this afternoon. What a monster of a deer!
As you might imagine, when I returned to the area at 1500 with the camera around my neck there was no sign of the big buck. I think I will try to look for him again over the next few days, but I will have a camera with me just in case.

After later research: It turns out that Paradise Ranch is being renovated.

Spring 2004

Feb. 29, 2004
Our second Spring Break in Julian, we wandered around trying to imagine what it will be like to live here. We saw evidence, a foot print in the snow, of a bear. It seems late, or early, for a bear to be out and about. We met with our team of Architect par Excellence, Michael Haluga, and Ameron Excavation Lead Engineer, Steve Balkey. We got all lawyered up again and signed on for the house on March 2, 2004.

While the Baroness was straightening her left toe, the Baron visited his construction workers to lay out the site and semi-finalize the floor plans with Michael. We can change things up to the beginning of construction without much bother, but after that it will cost time and money.

He cleaned up 17 bags of trash: cans, bottles, shotgun shells, and other detritus of a by-gone era. Trash will not do at the Barony. We had our house plans, so all we though we needed was the big shovel. We were, of course, still waiting for Joe Hall, King of all Septic Plans, to decide on our fate. We aren't too happy with him since he signed off on our first plan which was then kicked back to us by the Pa Environmental Protection Agency for being too close to the drop off. We had to start the whole process all over again including paying new fees.
Our southeast corner is adjacent to Paradise Ranch, a 777 acre hunting resort. They have an 8' high fence to keep us out and, presumably, the exotic wild animals in. Our side is a wild tangle of grapes, roses, and barberries. We'll call it our Bear's Lair. This corner is our lowest corner at about 1,000 ft above sea level.
The northeast corner is near the top of Blueberry Hill and the Jennifer Trail, the old logging trail that runs north/south most of the length of the property, down to a great, private camping plateau. (We haven't yet named a good Shannon trail.) It's close to the highest part of the property at about 1300 ft.
Following the northern boundary is an easy walk down hill, but tracking the orange ribbons on trees and "posted" signs can be tricky. The boundary takes a slight jog about 2/3 of the way down and crosses a seasonal trickle of water. The northwest corner is near a hemlock patch.
To find the final corner requires a hike up hill, across the meadow and driveway, and back into the forest. It's west of Paradise's fence, but we haven't actually found it yet.