Another thing to be aware of.....

{Photo by Ethan Livengood}

A bear! A bear!   It seems in the neighboring town we have a bear on the prowl.  The picture above is a black bear sighted in the downtown area of this small town brazenly walking down the street.  Seems like he knows that we walk on the sidewalks.  A citizen snapped this picture.  Conservation agents have been notified and they are trying to locate the bear to remove it from populated areas. 

The advice given is --Don't Feed Bears!   It reminds me of an old Yogi Bear cartoon.  

The conservation site says that black bears wake up from hibernation in the spring and go searching for food. They shouldn't be confronted or given food intentionally.  Bears will remember where food is from year to year.  

The black bear is native to our state, but they were wiped out during settlement.  Only in recent years are they making a comeback.  They are more common in the southern part of the state, but have started moving north.  

I never thought that I would have to be on guard for bears, but I guess a time's a changin'.   

Zoo Overnighter

This week I took my class and a handful of their parents to spend the night at the zoo.  It was great fun!  We went in after hours and had the whole zoo to ourselves. 

 Two zoo staff planned a program of activities for us and accompanied us as we explored the zoo.  After dark we went back out and explored again paying attention to the nocturnal animals.  Finally, exhausted yet exhilarated we headed back to the exploration outpost and hit the sack. 

 Early morning we woke and had a light breakfast ( and lots of coffee for me) and went back out to see the animals again.  This was before the zoo officially opened for the day.  

Our day ended at the stingray exhibit where we were able to pet the stingrays that came up to us.  

Our guides shared a lot of information with us and talked about conservation and how to save animals.  

It was a good trip but everyone was tired as we traveled back home 24 hours later. 

Bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin


I am now linked up on Bloglovin
I used to use google reader before they took that away.  I haven't really found anything that I like as well as google reader.  I am going to try bloglovin as I have seen it on many blogs.

What blog reader do you use? 

Reflecting on A-to-Z Challenge

The month of April flew by!  I made it!  I was able to post everyday with the correct letter of the alphabet except for the letter Z which was a day late.  *sigh*  Thanks to everyone who is involved with the Challenge.  You do a fabulous job!  Also thanks to everyone who stopped by and read my blog and to those who commented.  I appreciate you.  Knowing you have an audience and reading comments is so motivating.

This was my second year participating in the A to Z Challenge.  After last year's challenge, I had grand plans on proceeding with blogging in general and how to accomplish this year's challenge in a more efficient and product way.  Then life switched gears on me and interrupted my best laid plans.

My work changed and I no longer had as much time or brain power left over as I learned new job related content.  I considered dropping out of the challenge before it even began.  However, I mustered up whatever gumption I had and jumped in with both feet.

I love reading the blogs of people that I would never come across if I didn't have the A to Z Challenge. I enjoy reading about different topics, themes, and  just life & culture in general from around the US and the world. I've made some new blogging friends and have found some blogs that I will continue to follow throughout the year.   I regret not having the time to respond to every comment that was made on my blog.  I also regret not reading as many blogs as I did last year.

I did suggest to a friend and blogger that she try the challenge this year.  She took the challenge and did an awesome job.  I enjoyed reading her blogs on the authentic life.  Her blog can be found here. 

I definitely will try to do the Challenge again next year.  Third try is the charm, right ?  This didn't work out for me this year, but my goal and plan will be to begin writing my posts early so I will have more time to read more blogs and respond.  I  also want to be able to blog on a regular basis.  Instead of setting a higher goal of blogging 3 times a week (like last year),  I will shoot for something weekly.

 One of my frustrations this year was to be able to leave a link to my blog when I commented on other blogs.  Last year I remember seeing an A-to Z Challenge blog post that explained how to do that and I was able to do it last year.  This year for some reason it didn't work  for me.  Perhaps the blogger platform changed in some way.  If anyone knows how to do that I would love to read the instructions again and try it out.

If you are reading this and did not participate this year in the A to Z Challenge -  my advice is to take the plunge next year.  You can do it!