Bear Encounters of the Close Type

Look for the bare necessities...

The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
Old Mother Nature's recipes
That bring the bare necessities of life...

From Disney's The Jungle Book (1967)

I loved this movie so much growing up, and I could (and still can) sing all the words. What I'm not as in love with is real-life bear encounters.

In 2019, I came face to face with a momma and her two cubs at The Frost Place. That is a long story for another day. At home, we've had more than one encounter with a bear with the beehives in the past as well. Last night, one decided to tip our trash barrel over right by the door to the house. Geoff heard it, and I went out to fix the bin, and wow, the bear was maybe ten feet away, moseying along by the woodshed. His/her butt was wide and glossy, and it must weigh in over 300 lbs. I shut the door. 

This same bear has been making the rounds in our general area for a while now, and folks are really good about putting their food trash in secure places. It's not like anyone is intentionally feeding it (all he/she got out of our trash is an empty bag and a folded up cardboard soda container). Not many people are that foolish, believe it or not. But we do live in an area where there are lots of critters, and I'm not surprised-- berries and apples abound, and we live near a wooded section of town. 

That said, it's hard to manage sometimes; "learn to live with them" is what Fish and Game has told us in the past. "Lock up your trash"- not easy, when you don't have a shed, and most bears do not find the average shed to be much of a deterrent. We don't have our bird feeders out, so that's not a lure, either. They live here, we live here, and we just have to be cautious about going outside after dark. We have motion sensor lights and a high-pitched sounder out by the beeyard, and that's about all we can do to stake our claim.

This bruin ain't no Baloo. And I'm no Mowgli.

C