1:30 am

I was putting Benny back to sleep, his last stubborn molar is bothering him. I heard the wind chimes, and couldn't figure it out, because there wasn't enough wind in the trees to be shaking them. I stood up to put Benny back in bed, and looked out the window. There was a black thing out in the yard.  I figured it was the neighbors Black Lab that occasionally gets loose and roams. Then it lifted it's head and I saw it was a bear. A little one, but still a bear none the less. It was by the bird feeder, which explained the wind chimes. The bird feeder is about five feet from the house. I got Clark, but by the time he came out it had disappeared.
   My brother was staying here overnight and sleeping on the couch. I asked him how it felt to be sleeping eight feet from a bear. He said he didn't know because 'til he woke up the bear was gone. I think he was disappointed he didn't get to see it.
   This morning the bird feeder is in shreds. The post it was hanging from is bent to the ground. A bag of trash was dragged to the ditch behind the house and scattered.
   In the four years we've lived here, we've seen a wolf, deer and now a bear on or close to our property. Yeah, even though we technically live in a 'village', we are way more in the wilderness then I realize ( the highway running by my front door doesn't help reality). But I like my wilderness.