Ain't No Bears in Beaglesonia

 At least not lately.  There were lots of them around here back in the '70s because they hadn't been hunted in a while and they had learned to feed at the township dump.  These are black bears, not the grizzlies that are found out west.  They mostly avoid people, but they can become habituated just like coons and coyotes.  "Habituated" is what they call it when wildlife gets used to being around people but does not become tame or domesticated.  This is not considered good for them, or for the people either.  About the time I moved up here, the DNR opened a limited bear hunting season just to teach the critters some respect and, sometime later, all the township dumps in Michigan were ordered closed and replaced with "transfer stations".  Garbage is deposited in a steel container, and a truck comes to haul it away when full to a licensed certified landfill.  A landfill is like a dump, but it's farther away and more expensive to use.  I think there are still a few bears in the area, but they stay out of town.  I haven't seen a bears, bear tracks, or bear poop in decades.

Other parts of Michigan, especially in the UP, have more bears than we do.  There are no natural caves to speak of, so hibernating bears have to dig their own dens.  They would have a hard time doing that in Beaglesonia because of the high water table.  Our DNR asks that they be informed of any dens people find.  They visit them in late winter and check out the cubs while Mama is asleep.  She will be hungry when she wakes up in the spring and will travel long distances in search of breakfast.  Bears will eat anything that doesn't eat them first so, if you don't want bears around your house, don't leave anything remotely edible nearby.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/woman-escapes-bear-attack-by-punching-it-in-the-face/ar-AA13irBM?rt=0&ocid=Win10NewsApp&referrerID=InAppShare

We didn't get any snow out of this last round, but I understand that some places in the UP got a foot or more.  We did get some blowing, though, and lost our power for about three hours one morning.  It could have been worse, though, some areas were still without power all the next day.

I'm not surprised that the Trumpists are coming down on the wrong side of this Ukraine thing.  Trump has expressed admiration for Putin and his ilk in the past.  What an asshole!