Garbage In, Garbage Out

 In the olden days, there were no garbage trucks around here.  Each township and the City of Cheboygan had their own dump, and it was the responsibility of the residents and even businesses to bring their own garbage to the dump and throw it into the hole.  When the hole was almost full, somebody would come with a bulldozer, dig a new hole, and use some of the dirt to cap off the old hole.  Periodically, the garbage would catch fire, either accidently or on purpose, which would reduce its volume and make the hole last longer.  Furniture and appliances were usually not thrown into the hole, they were set aside, and people were free to salvage them for spare parts or whatever.  It was said that some guys brought more stuff home from the dump than they brought to it.  

Sometime in the 1970s, a couple of guys with pickup trucks started hauling people's garbage to the dump for money.  About that time, the state passed a number of burdensome dump regulations like no shooting, no burning, no salvaging, and the garbage must be buried at the end of each day.  It got so that going to the dump was no fun anymore.  The two guys bought more and bigger trucks and eventually sold their business to a conglomerate chain that periodically raised their prices, which led to the rise of several competing firms.  The townships finally found it cheaper to pay the professionals to park large roll off dumpsters at the dumps and haul them away when full than to operate the dumps the old- fashioned way.  The dumps were now renamed "transfer stations", and the final resting place of the garbage was called a "landfill". 

It is my understanding that mama bears give birth during hibernation.  Maybe they wake up for the blessed event, but they soon drift back off to sleep leaving the cubs to nurse at will.  By the time spring breaks forth, the cubs are strong enough to leave the den and follow Mama around.  Bears mate in the spring or early summer, but they have a thing called "delayed implantation" which stalls the gestation and birth process till they are back in their dens for the winter.  A mama bear with cubs will usually not mate during the cubs' first season.  After the second hibernation, the cubs strike out on their own and Mama starts working on another family.  Daddy bears are not very nice, they will kill young cubs if they can, to induce Mama to mate again.  That's why mama bears are so protective of their cubs.