Bear Story #1

After our sunset swim we headed back to the cottage and got ready for bed.  The children went to sleep quickly as they were all tired from traveling and swimming.  Mom and Dad followed soon after.  D, S and I tried to stay up and visit but we were falling asleep mid story so we gave up too.  We headed up to the loft, I was falling asleep, D and S were still giggling about something when we heard what sounded like porch furniture being dragged across the porch.  D called out to mom, like she had gotten back up and was rearranging the furniture, no answer, she was still asleep.  After checking to see if all six children were still asleep in the loft, they were, the three us us headed down to the main floor to check out the noise.  Maybe we thought there was a raccoon trying to get into the corn shucks that were in the garbage can.  D stubbed her toe going down the stairs.  Nothing was amiss on the main floor so we decided to check out the lower level, we turned on the light and crept down the stairs, when we got to the bottom of the stairs, S flipped the switch intending to light the basement but, it was a three way switch and plunged us into darkness, I squealed!  Another flip of the switch revealed nothing amiss in the basement.  We headed back up the stairs and decided we must check out the porch.  I remarked to my sisters that I thought there were four garbage cans, they affirmed this. We then decided that this was no raccoon but more likely a bear. We heard snuffling and dragging noises not far from us at the edge of the woods.  So, I hollered, "Hey!" and the noise moved farther into the woods.  In the dark we could barely see the garbage can's white wheels at the edge of the woods.  We headed back inside, we had by this time woken up Mom and Dad, we left the light on to deter further visits from the bear.  In the morning Dad picked up the scattered garbage and secured the garbage cans to each other and the porch.  And we tried to take the garbage out in the morning before the garbage trucks arrival.  Thankfully the bear did not try to revisit the porch during our visit.  Nor did we have any visits from a raccoon!