[Barney Bear]

Went out to East Bear Island yesterday to prepare for the wild lady's visit. Our neighbors had already removed our plants from the dock, moved our small lighthouse to the land, and secured the Baby Bear Buggy in her slip. What wonderful neighbors we have! We closed hinged shutters on the east and south facing sides of our cottage. Also removed all small items from the porches, including hummingbird feeders, wind chimes, porch furnishings, etc. We removed some frozen items to bring home in a cooler. Checked our portable generator - we will come out to the island after Irene heads to the Canadian maritime provinces to run it if power is lost. Secured our small aluminum fishing boat on the dock and tied it to adjacent posts, and removed the small drain plug at the stern. We brought the Baby Bear Buggy into Fay's where she was taken out and put into the large boat storage building. We secured the Bear Buggy in her covered slip with extra lines to keep her from rubbing against the adjacent pilings [tied a streamer on one line that stretched across the walkway that we share with "Slickcraft" from Welch Island]. We hope that the strength of the potentially naughty lady continues to diminish as there are numerous tall trees around our cottage and at our home in southern New Hampshire.