Cougar in my yard

[Sir Henry]

The Washington State Department of Fish and Game tagged six cougars near Cle Elum, WA and tracked them via satellite for a year. I saw their presentation of the tracking and it was interesting to note each cougar had their own territory and there was very little overlapping. It also showed that one walked down mainstreet often. The refresh rate was about once an hour but over a year it showed they took the same routes and the dots were more like a solid line.

During the year of tracking there was not a single report of one walking down mainstreet. Looking at each individual dot you could see it was always at night.

[Sir Henry]

I wonder if these two have anything to do with the cougar in the area? It was taken out my kitchen window about ten minutes ago.

DSCN5600.JPG (3.45 MiB) Viewed 2062 times

[dave77]

My neighbor and I were just talking about how in spite of his seeing a cougar in his yard or on the road nearby and also the report a few years ago of a horse further up our canyon being taken down by a cougar, we've never had a problem with one trying to get at our livestock. I had a horse for over 25 years along with some pygmy goats and we've had a small herd of goats for the last 5 years and have had no incidents. Fence is field fence with a few strands of electric, no more than 5 feet tall which I don't think a cougar would have any trouble jumping over and although we are fairly close to town we are on a rural dead end road with very little traffic. Maybe just lucky I guess.

[Sir Henry]

My neighbor and I were just talking about how in spite of his seeing a cougar in his yard or on the road nearby and also the report a few years ago of a horse further up our canyon being taken down by a cougar, we've never had a problem with one trying to get at our livestock. I had a horse for over 25 years along with some pygmy goats and we've had a small herd of goats for the last 5 years and have had no incidents. Fence is field fence with a few strands of electric, no more than 5 feet tall which I don't think a cougar would have any trouble jumping over and although we are fairly close to town we are on a rural dead end road with very little traffic. Maybe just lucky I guess.

I bet they make a living eating smaller game like rabbits and cats.

[BigAl52]

Theres nothin better than a Washington Apple. I use to sit in the wild apple trees in my neighborhood and eat those things like crazy. Sure do miss those days.

[Sir Henry]

Theres nothin better than a Washington Apple. I use to sit in the wild apple trees in my neighborhood and eat those things like crazy. Sure do miss those days.

I planted the tree 27 years ago and have seen deer eating from it for about 20 years. The ones high up will feed birds later. One cold snowy winter I saw a very large 4x4 buck on his hind legs standing straight up reaching apples the other smaller deer couldn't reach.

[dave77]

Theres nothin better than a Washington Apple. I use to sit in the wild apple trees in my neighborhood and eat those things like crazy. Sure do miss those days.

My neighbor is a truck driver, mostly hauling fruit so I get to sample some of the newest varieties. He had some of the latest, greatest apples a couple of weeks ago and they were excellent, can't remember the name but he said they would be scarce and expensive for quite awhile.

Where were you from in Washington? I've lived here in Wenatchee for 65 years and it sure has changed. I guess they still call us the "Apple Capital of the World", there used to be many orchards inside and just outside city limits but now most of them are gone to housing developments and the orchards have moved to more remote areas. We do still have a lot of fruit warehouses/packing facilities.

Cherries are where the big money is now, if you can grow the perfect, big cherries the Japanese want to import you can make a fortune. Only problem is if you get a heavy rainfall before they're quite ripe enough to pick, they'll split and your whole crop is worthless.

[Sir Henry]

Theres nothin better than a Washington Apple. I use to sit in the wild apple trees in my neighborhood and eat those things like crazy. Sure do miss those days.

My neighbor is a truck driver, mostly hauling fruit so I get to sample some of the newest varieties. He had some of the latest, greatest apples a couple of weeks ago and they were excellent, can't remember the name but he said they would be scarce and expensive for quite awhile.

Where were you from in Washington? I've lived here in Wenatchee for 65 years and it sure has changed. I guess they still call us the "Apple Capital of the World", there used to be many orchards inside and just outside city limits but now most of them are gone to housing developments and the orchards have moved to more remote areas. We do still have a lot of fruit warehouses/packing facilities.

Cherries are where the big money is now, if you can grow the perfect, big cherries the Japanese want to import you can make a fortune. Only problem is if you get a heavy rainfall before they're quite ripe enough to pick, they'll split and your whole crop is worthless.

I have a favorite cherry stand in East Wenatchee. I believe he passed away and the new owners aren't the best growers. But I also just liked listening to him tell stories. A couple prods and he is yacking. So my views might be a little clouded.

[BrokenolMarine]

Tina planted six fruit trees in the back yard last year, and plans to add six more, and blueberries and blackberries. I'm guessing we'll have to put up fencing to keep the deer out. otherwise, why bother? We let the lower pasture grow over... for the deer. They sleep down there most of the year. We rarely allow hunting on the property here. I am not against it, just not here on our place.

[Sir Henry]

We can discharge a firearm where I live if its safe to do so. I'm pro-gun but would argue it is not safe on most properties. I sometimes hear shooting off in the distance but its always on two properties which are safe.

This side of the road is zoned one house per acre and the other side is one house per five acres. Some are larger but none are smaller.

[BrokenolMarine]

It's three acre minimums here. We have 14.56 but when we had horses, the small lambs the girls raised for the farmer up the road, four dogs... the lower barn, boathouses... we just decided the only shooting on the farm would be on the range. We have let a Pastor and his son bowhunt a couple times in the past, and each time they both took deer. But they have been like family and knew it wouldn't be every year, and not to talk about where... We didn't want to be flooded with requests.

[North Country Gal]

Cougars are known to be great wanderers.

Though there are frequent "sightings", the CT DEEP denies that a native cougar population exists here; however, one was killed in CT by a car on I-95 a few years ago. It's DNA matched a population of cats from South Dakota, 1500 miles away.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-moun ... ZE20110727

Our DNR was slow to concede that cougars were present in Wisconsin, but people we're picking them up on their game cameras and finding tracks. Have been sighting, too. The DNR now lists it as being present in the state.

Not that it's likely, but I do worry about one hitting our neighborhood because our neighborhood forest is badly over-populated with deer. Our forest is actually not very healthy, as a result. Would be good to trim the deer herd, but we all treat them like our pets, even though they make planting anything a lost cause unless you fence things in. We see deer in our yard, everyday. I actually have to be careful on my fast downhill mountain bike runs to avoid possible collisions.

[Sir Henry]

I could live with getting rid of the deer and rabbits as they eat my flowers but the cougar and bear that live here don't bother me.

[BigAl52]

Theres nothin better than a Washington Apple. I use to sit in the wild apple trees in my neighborhood and eat those things like crazy. Sure do miss those days.

My neighbor is a truck driver, mostly hauling fruit so I get to sample some of the newest varieties. He had some of the latest, greatest apples a couple of weeks ago and they were excellent, can't remember the name but he said they would be scarce and expensive for quite awhile.

Where were you from in Washington? I've lived here in Wenatchee for 65 years and it sure has changed. I guess they still call us the "Apple Capital of the World", there used to be many orchards inside and just outside city limits but now most of them are gone to housing developments and the orchards have moved to more remote areas. We do still have a lot of fruit warehouses/packing facilities.

Cherries are where the big money is now, if you can grow the perfect, big cherries the Japanese want to import you can make a fortune. Only problem is if you get a heavy rainfall before they're quite ripe enough to pick, they'll split and your whole crop is worthless.

Dave I now live in Colorado. But my sister right now lives in Covington which is just east of Kent. I was born in Bellingham and raised in Normandy Park which is on Puget Sound just south of Burien. There were lots of vacant lots around when I was a kid that had wild apple trees and lots of blackberries. Tore myself up a time or two picking those for mom. We had cherry trees and bluberry bushes in the yard along with of course apple trees. Dad always said he liked the Jonathan apples the best. We had one of those trees along with a delicious. Never have cared for the delicious I liked the Jonathans as long as there not over ripe. Cant stand a soft mussy apple. My favorite right now is a honey crisp. Al

[Sir Henry]

Honey Crisp mmmmmm good.

[dave77]

Honeycrisps are good and the prices are coming down too but my new favorites are Ambrosia's, Opals are really good too but still pretty scarce.

I spent quite a bit of time in the Summers in the Lake City area when I was kid, my older brother and his wife lived there. They moved to Bellingham later on and had a really good deal renting a really nice double wide about 2 blocks from Birch Bay but had to move when the property the mobile home was on became worth in the 100s of thousands dollars. Last time I was over there it was surrounded by million dollar plus houses. Home prices are becoming insane over there and the traffic is getting worse every year.

[Sir Henry]

Honeycrisps are good and the prices are coming down too but my new favorites are Ambrosia's, Opals are really good too but still pretty scarce.

I spent quite a bit of time in the Summers in the Lake City area when I was kid, my older brother and his wife lived there. They moved to Bellingham later on and had a really good deal renting a really nice double wide about 2 blocks from Birch Bay but had to move when the property the mobile home was on became worth in the 100s of thousands dollars. Last time I was over there it was surrounded by million dollar plus houses. Home prices are becoming insane over there and the traffic is getting worse every year.

Home values here are going through the roof. I live in a million dollar house and it is nothing special. I'm glad it is paid for because I could not afford to buy a million dollar house.

[dave77]

I know several people from Western Washington who have retired and moved over here. Even though our home prices are also rising they can buy a comparable home here and have a pretty good amount of money left over. Just have to put up with colder, snowier Winters and hotter Summers.

[Sir Henry]

I know several people from Western Washington who have retired and moved over here. Even though our home prices are also rising they can buy a comparable home here and have a pretty good amount of money left over. Just have to put up with colder, snowier Winters and hotter Summers.

I like the cold and hot and had a second home in Ephrata.

[dave77]

Home values here are going through the roof. I live in a million dollar house and it is nothing special. I'm glad it is paid for because I could not afford to buy a million dollar house.

That is a nice house, assuming it is the one in the photo in your Subaru post but I would bet it would be no more than 350/400 thousand over here. They just said our median house price was 300,000.

A million will still buy a pretty nice estate here.