Ready or not ...

Nowadays my Sasquatch encounters are next to nil. That's not to say that they don't come around, they do. I'm am well aware of that fact, only after and each time I discover a foot print, or an area of the yard that has been tampered with I always tell myself  'Next time I'll be ready'. But the truth is, I'm not.  Each new experience leaves me kicking my behind a little harder because I know when I delved into this deeply; I know of the opportunities I have missed.

But I know how easily it is to get caught up in it all, and even now as spring approaches I am waffling with the idea of putting up a baby monitor and using the game camera once again. But if I do, what will become of me? This may seem like a light hearted question, but sasquatching is something not to be taken lightly because if one is not careful, what is likened to a hobby quickly turns into an obsession.

The camera wouldn't be for entertainment purposes. The camera actually helps to keep the big guys from tampering with my things, but I only have one and I should actually replace it. The thing has been used quite a bit, but with so much activity the first year of purchase, something happened and it electronically does not work as it should. The truth be told, ever since it took the over exposed pictures of what I believe to be a juvenile in the yard, the unit hasn't worked quite right since.

I need them to stop tampering with my things. I live on an acreage and I have my vehicle locked because if I do not lock it, they play with the interior lights. A few months ago, my hubby noticed my interior light on. He assumed I had left it on after my day of shopping. I told him no, I had not. But again he thought I must have been mistaken. I grabbed the keys, and started the vehicle. My logic was that if the interior light had been mistakenly left on, the battery should have been dead, as the vehicle had been sitting for four days. It fired right up. Letting us know that the light anomaly was a recent event. Within a day?

This past summer I had come home to find the almost brand new 70 ft garden hose I had left attached to a small pump inside our water well we use for the garden cut in half! I used this hose to water the garden that is in the vicinity and had left the hose out on purpose. The pump was not turned on, but I left it in the well intentionally as I was working every day of the summer, and it was just a convenient method for me to tend to our garden. I would wake up early in the morning, plug in the pump at the house, and walk out to the greenhouse and proceed to water the plants. When they had enough water, I would just set the end of the hose off to the side, and walk back to the house, and unplug the extension chord near the front door.  At night when I would come home, watering the garden was one of the first things I would do.  One night coming home, I found the hose cut - not chewed about 10 ft from the well. This is heavy grade hose! And it was expensive too! My initial reaction was that perhaps a squirrel or mouse chewed the hose but again complacency is a strong suit and complacency sometimes leads me into momentary lapses of stupidity. I am a smart person and my logic kicked in because I did not want to believe that a huge hairy biped was standing on its haunches, allowing curiosity to quench its thirst instead of the well water right in front of him/her...

That leads me to another thought. I have a heavy circular cement lid as a cover for the well, they ( him/her)  could very easily remove that if they really wanted to, what if they did... do? What if they removed the lid and forget to put it back. This could be a serious danger to Mugs, and any wild life that runs through our yard.  Okay now I'm getting ahead of myself...

How do you ready yourself for happenstance? You don't. All you can do is be ready when and if the time arises. Last March, I was working near the greenhouse and was out late in the evening putting up a home made trellis from saplings I had collected. I was up on a six foot ladder and could see across the road through the tops of our fir trees. I heard gun shots and three deer running the field on the other side. I looked down at my project and began tightening some screws that would hold some beams in place. I heard another gun shot and I immediately looked up to see the deer scatter, and then I saw it... a black figure zoom across the road towards my direction only a bit further down. I know what I saw but it was so quick and so fast, that I almost doubted myself. My dog Mugs knew exactly what it was as he didn't take off after the deer, but took after the silhouette of a familiar figure that I assumed ran in front of our property line in the direction of the valley. I scurried down off the ladder and ran after Mugs. I ran up the drive way to take a look at our treeline for a road side view. Nothing. Something was there, Mugs knew it and sensed it and followed a scent trail for a little ways but I called him back when it was clear he could no longer smell what he was looking for.

That- was the moment where I was ready. Come hell or high water I was ready to come face to face with Sasquatch. I was finally ready to confront it. I wanted it to challenge me for reasons most of the Bigfoot community would not believe. The truth is, you can't recreate moments and you can't get them back. It happens when it happens and if it happens it is meant to happen. No more no less. These things can't be forced and do not run on if only's and shoulda woulda coulda's. Living with those as mantras only serve to be the biggest hindrance of all.

And with that said, I think I'll leave the game camera where it is...as I anticipate an eventful summer...