Funny, i was just thinking yesterday that i hadn't seen one in several years. You are so lucky! I’m near Cape Cod.

I see them in the woods, usually in late winter, but the white-breasted are more common here in central NH. I am a bit surprised that they found such a high feeder. IME often birds struggle to find second floor feeders unless the area has nearby tall trees.

Nice that the birds have found the feeders! It sounds like you have good habitat, Petalique. And you get a wide range of birds at the feeders. I do understand your reason for the high birdfeeders.

I stopped feeding birds about 20 years ago when bears became a constant presence locally. I see at least one bear most years and see sign of more. This year, from what I observed combined with what others told me, I know that there were at least three bears in the cornfield next door, and since I don’t want them to transfer attention to my house after harvest, I am quite cautious. It used to be that I was fine by early December to not be concerned about the bears, but last year I saw bear footprints in light snow in early January. I try to make noise in the woods so they know where I am since happily they typically avoid people here.

I remember you writing about your not having anybird feeders uo because of the many bears. You are one reason I had to re-evaluate. I read that a couple of weeks ago a blck bear attacked a 10 year old boy in CT (west-central). The bear tried to drag the youngster into the woods. IIRC, it was the child’s grandfather wo came to his rescue.

I don’t want to encounter one up close. I’ve already had one at my kitchen window. Fun to see on Youtube, or from afar, but I don’t want one kissing me.

Babs, I am a lurker and infrequent visitor to this forum, so I felt my heart sink when I learned you were moving. I’m glad that you will be living closer to your family, and wisconsin is beautiful — but it’s not next door. ;-(

You will definitely have to stay connected or we will need to lasso the cheese and summer sausage state and drag it east.

Are you going to take any of your plants? I have lived in Wisconsin (ages ago). Very nice people and lots of beautiful places. I don’t know when your moving, but I hope you have an easy move and fun doing it.

Thanks, petalique. I am glad that you are starting to participate more, though lurkers are always welcome. I expect to be back next summer, so If you want to come up for a visit, I love garden visitors.

I am not taking any plants this trip, though I will be moving some plants to a garden on a piece of the farm that I won’t be selling. I think it will be too late to do transplants this season since I hope to be on the road in about two weeks, And I think my car will be full of things too precious to trust to the movers, like 2 bins of my husband’s hand-turned wooden bowls and the dog. ;-)

But I do expect that I will have a carload of plants next fall when the gravel mulch in my new gardens has been removed and the beds given some TLC and widened. i am planning to fence a piece of the yard for the dog to run and want plants along the fence. I also have a drainage corridor behind the house that was recently redone, so I want small trees and shrubs to plant there.

Right now the move is a bit challenging, but I will survive the transition taking a day at a time.

Finally, I made it back! Busy days for everyone, and by now, Babs, you’ve reached Wisconsin, had a wonderful Thanksgiving, but are still unpacking?

I thought of you and your DH last week with that wild Lakes snowstorm and sure hoped you were not having to drive through it. Did you manage to avoid it?

Yes, indeed, I would love to get together with you next summer. How nice that you chose to hold onto some of your land.

Yay that your DH makes wooden bowls. I’ve never seen a wooden bowl I didn’t fall for. I love burl too. I few years ago, a 6 - 7” diameter sassafrass tree fell over. The wood is pretty plaine, but I intended/hoped to find someone to mill some of it into some boards because I wanted something like a spoon or mudler from it; maybe a cutting board. Never got to do that.

I hope all is going well with your move.