Unwelcome visitor.

So after just posting last week, how boring our life is...we had a visitor this morning that really shook things up a bit. i heard my rooster crowing their usual predator warning. On most days this just means there is a hawk circling, or a fox near by in the woods.
So i ran outside to count my chickens, and scare away anything that may be out there.
When i walked up to the chicken coop, i noticed they were all huddled together under the coop and the goats were looking alarmed. i immediately started counting peeps...as they are always the first to 'disappear'. Then i looked up and saw this on the other side of the fence.

That's a black bear!! i totally panicked, of course...ran around the house and yelled at Kenan..then ran in the house for my camera. :) i know there are bears around here, but this is the first time we've actually seen one in the yard.

It was seriously checking out my goats and chickens, and didn't really appear all that scared of us. It wasn't until i let the dog out, and the dog started barking at it..that it backed away from the fence. It climbed up this tree, which is next to the fence and just sort of looked at us and the dog.

Thankfully, Kenan has a glass student here, who just happened to have a few fireworks out in his car. So we set off a couple that made a loud 'snap' sound, and the bear finally ran off into the woods. So yikes, lots of excitement this morning. That was a little too close for my comfort...especially in the middle of the day. It's not at all uncommon for Sage to be down by the chicken coop, while i'm working in the garden.
i think we are going to have to seriously consider adding solar electric fencing. It was something we had planned to do down the road, to keep the goats from getting out and eating the garden. i didn't realize how necessary it was to keep them safe.

Hopefully we gave the bear a good 'spook' and he won't return anytime soon and we can get back to our laid back, boring life.