Ursa Major: Big Dipper, Black Bears, and the Night Sky

                The Big Dipper, Ursa Major Constellation

Ursa Major, as it looks in the night sky: Tonight, I will go out and find the Bear, on Black Bear Farm!!

         I had an opportunity to name the speck of land around our house when I placed my first seed order, in spring of 2007. My last real garden was in Bossardsville, where in very hospitable soil,  the little transplants I started from seed grew rapidly. After dinner, when the hot summer day had cooled, Dale and I would spend an hour or so weeding the garden, with iced teas or vodka tonics in hand.

        That house is surrounded by open fields, planted in corn or clover. The white-tailed deer were not so bold as to venture close to the house, a quarter- mile or so from cover,  (Full disclosure, those that did hang about the tall white pines that flanked the north edge of our half acre were just in range of the bb gun from Zach's bedroom. This was a deal he struck with his father ; Dusk falls about 9 pm at the height of the growing season. After his shower, Zach took his post. When I heard him cackle, I could look from my window to see a nice sized buck or doe bolt back across the field behind our parcel, towards cover in the woods.....Nice shot for a nine year old!)

      With these happy memories and a great deal of optimism, I planned my garden, and filled out the Johnny's seed catalog order. It asked for a farm name, and looking up the slope in front of the house, I saw the long stone row that runs near the western boundary of the lot. Besides the mature oak and maple, the defining physical characteristic of the property ( moss green bilevel non withstanding) was this long stone row. Thus "Rock Row Farm" was lettered into the blocks on the order form.

        My first try at the "farming" here was a simple garden, and it lived up to its less than auspicious name. The weeds were less prevalent,  but transplants were not so eager to grow either........the soil was thin, acidic and stony, with very little organic matter, and too much shade from all those mature trees, even on the south side of the house. The rabbits and groundhogs grazed the raised beds notwithstanding the fence, before we could even pick anything.

         Lovely, rocket red bee balm flourished the first year, as did rudebeckia, coneflower, some peonies and an assortment of fern and hosta.  We had a bumper crop of oregano, for tomatoes that did less well. A little bit of baby lettuce, and some teeny weeny bumpy carrots was the total harvest for 2007. Through the spring and summer, Marty did build some absolutely stunning dry rock retaining walls, and a new stone path and front door landing, fulfilling his vision of Rock Row Farm admirably.

Path to the Front Entry

     The last few years have been dry, and the deer seem to multiply............the hosta, rudebeckia, coneflower have held on as best they can. The poor things are pretty well grazed on throughout the summer, and there is nothing to divide, even after four years. After all that effort, and little to show (except the ever present rocks, which were all in the same place!) I decided Rock Row Farm was a kind of depressing name, and should be retired in favor of the name of the road we live on. We are now Black Bear Farm.

         With the name change, I decided to work with what we've got.......We had a bumper crop of crabapples last fall, so we made jars and jars of crabapple jelly and crabapple butter, which is especially delicious with pork. We had a decent enough apple harvest on the three apple trees left by the previous owner, which we sliced, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, and froze.

       Because the mature maples are here, our focus is Maple Sugaring, and that will be followed by Beehives,  hens and eggs, and after a focused culling of some of the monster oaks that provide bumper crops of acorns for the ever present squirrel and deer populations, a Mini-Jersey milking cow. ( I considered making acorn flour, as the lenapes did, but after researching it......it's a lot of work)

      I am certain there are bear in the immediate surroundings. Above our neighborhood is a many hundred acre wooded reservoir. I have never sighted a bear here on the property, however, and I consider that a blessing, since there is nothing worse than a bear who raids the garbage. A "domesticated bear' is a recipe for trouble, in my experience.

     Most nights, I walk the dogs after dark. As I head back to the house, I am struck by the deep dark sky, brightened by twinkling stars. I pick out big and little dipper, the only constellations that I know.

   Today, after our little 8 and 12 oz. maple syrup bottles arrived, and we filtered and bottled some maple syrup, I worked on a design for a promotional card. I googled "Black Bear" images, and up came the illustrations of Ursa Major, pictured above. It was an "Aha" moment ! The "Black Bear" of Black Bear Farm is the twinkling constellation that shines for the dogs and I every night, from our vantage point on Black Bear Drive..........