Is there too close to nature?

[John_C]

I'm trying to design my new house to be as energy independent as possible.  On the cooling side this means large screened french doors and cross ventilation in most if not all rooms.  

Just after dark last Sunday my neighbor calls to say he just scared off a large black bear and it was last seen headed up my driveway.  I go load a gun, go to the front door and turn on the porch light and the critter is poking around at the foot of my front steps.  I start smacking the window, whooping and hollering and he looks at me and then slowly walks away.  I have a pretty average front door but it was way more reassuring than 20' or so of screen doors.   Maybe AC isn't a bad idea?

[glenn-k]

I had to shoot one - broke into several of the neighbors buildings and house and my chickens 2 times - third night I was sleeping outside with the 30.06 - it's luck ran out.

Many other creatures are cute at first but then become such problems action has to be taken.  I live in the wild-wild west.

Just put about 120 feet of 7 foot fence around the garden to keep the deer out.  They are large 70 to 100 lb rodents if you haven't seen them before. :-/

[Amanda_931]

I don't think that there are bears around here--coyotes, I think I once saw a wolf, snakes, skunks, fire ants, etc..  And a Chuck-Will's-Widow that has been making his call for three or four hours now (the other day there was a Whippoorwill)

But in a way I'm more concerned with keeping the cats from destroying the screen on the screen porch.  Two layers, one window screen (the allegedly dogproof kind), the inner one an inch or so away, 1/4 inch hardware cloth?

[glenn-k]

We can't keep cats very long here -- a week to a year is all it takes for them to become coyote food.  We have one indoor cat  who is not yet eaten.  The rest have all been eaten by coyotes.

[fourx]

The youngest cat of the three we have is only six months old, and scared of nothing- yesterday when I got home he was in the garden and looking down at him from a tree above, licking their beaks, were two Wedgetail Eagles- these have wingspans of about seven feet and can pick up a small kangaroo with no problem and fly away with it. That's eight lives left.

[Leo]

When I lived in the okanagon valley coyotes were a problem One Family got a russian wolf hound.Late one night the coyotes came in and the wolf hound was picking them up by the back of there necks throwing them for fun..i have a black snake that likes copper heads and rattlers for lunch..The number one cause of death from wild life is a deer through the winshield.