Just wanted to jot a quick post with some info about my wheel legs. I decided not to take a photo because I just posted a couple of photos with my shorter wheel legs, and I think you can aptly use your imagination and visualize it taller. But I would like to share the details. I had written that I wanted to raise my wheel higher, but I'm a little priss and didn't want to put the wheel on blocks, and so we drove to Lowes on Sunday (stopped in to see my daughter and grandson while we were there and took him out for ice cream-he is so cute), but anyway-at Lowes they have all different sizes of black pipe-the exact thing my wheel legs and short extensions are made of-and so I bought three 18" pieces of pipe, which they cut for free. I wish I had gotten them 20" because after cutting I discovered that I had to pay for five feet even though I only got 4 1/2 feet, but with 18" extensions my wheel can go high enough if I want that I could stand (which I don't want) so I'm fine. Another small detail I discovered after the pipe was cut, was that if I bought less than 10' I had to pay a higher price. Ten feet and over it was 2.40 a foot, and less than ten feet I think was 4.19 a foot. I could deal with it because the new legs still only cost me 20 bucks. So I'm pretty excited and Adam helped hold the wheel up while I put the new legs on. He's a little goofy and very helpful. He was more excited than I was.
This photo above is from a couple of weeks ago. It's really bad I know, but the best we could get in a where's the camera panic. We were sitting on the couch and all of a sudden Adam just says: Bear! and I look up and there is this relatively large (but I've seen larger) bear lumbering down our street. Now I don't live in the boonies, as in, on my street there are probably 8-10 houses within a few hundred feet, I am 1/8 mile from McDonalds and the highway, and about a mile from Hannafords and Walmart. I am however on the edge of the woods. We live smack in the middle (or maybe the edge) of bear country, still you don't just expect a bear to go strolling by in the middle of the day. Adam goes running out down the street after it trying to get a picture (not smart-and you'd think he'd never seen a bear before, although at the restaurant where he used to work in the Valley they would have to scare them away from the dumpsters).
I used to work at the same restaurant as Adam (how we met-he hired me-how cute) and one night I'm walking out to my car and I open the drivers door and this bear stands up on its back legs from the other side of the car. You just can't imagine how intimidating that can be. They are pretty big and imposing while standing erect. But my encounter was one of probably hundreds there. The bears are so strong they pick up the grease dumpsters and tip them over to get at the fat. I worked at another restaurant a few miles down the road from that one and same thing, on my way out to the dumpster and there one is. Fortunately I was not alone, and the guy I was with was much taller and meatier than I am, so I think would make a better meal, so I wasn't as worried. We stood and watched him for a while and finally had to scare him away to get to our cars. Realistically they are not dangerous. They are not attack animals-but they occasionally do attack, and it's almost always ugly, and so I would like that it never happens to me. Or anyone else for that matter. We have Black bears around here and the thinking is, if attacked, to fight back as hard as you can with a Black bear, while I believe the thinking with Grizzlies is to kiss your ass good-bye.
7 comments:
Glad that you got the wheel to the right height! I don't know how I would feel having bear encounters that often--don't think I really want to know either.
bears..we have them here too..i like them from a distance(10 miles)..but they make me nervous because of my dogs, who are loose...and not too bright. overall a very peaceful animal unless provoked(my dogs)..we also have coyotes, red foxes, groundhogs..and most interestingly black panthers(super rare)...love the mountains! .i am starting to ramble now..adios!
Bears are supposed to be very fast, too fast for people, but I was told that a dog can easily outrun a bear, good to know so I don't risk my life trying to save my dog who probably won't need saving.
A woman in California encountered a bear recently and he attacked her while she was walking her dogs, she ended up driving herself to a fire station and they called an ambulance. Apparently here in California with all the fires, bears are venturing into areas where they can find more food. Not to scare you unreasonably, but please be careful.
Most I have seen here is a bobcat and the deer come and brouse my gardens every night, but others have told me there are bears here, so I keep an eye out.
she's pretty lucky-depends on how you look at it though-I've heard about some attacks so bad that I don't think I'd want to survive-but that's me-it's definitely the thing I am most afraid of when hiking-but realistically I probably have more to fear from people-I'm pretty sure more people have been killed hiking the Appalacian Trail by people, than by bears-but I'm getting too gloom and doomy
we had some run ins with grizzlies when i was in boy scouts. we camped frequently up in northern minnesota which is grizzly country. never had an attack though. people don't realize how huge these animals are until they see them in the wild.
I've never encountered a grizzlie, and I hope I never do. Black bears are enough for me. This morning I had a flock of maybe 20 turkeys pass by my backyard. A little less terrifying.
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