My New Best Friend?...

 11:30pm 10-24-15

Happy Fall, y'all.  Seasons are changing, though not by temperature standards.  In the past couple of weeks, there have been a lot of inversions with 6am temps in the low 50s at the end of Staymon but mid 30's in the valleys.  55 as I type, in fact. Nice color here and there, and leaves falling left and right...and myriad visits by my new best friend.

The past year I've identified three different bears that have paid me visits overnight, sometimes several times a night.  Everyone asks me if I've give them names, but I just refer to them much like Goldilocks did: Papa bear, Mama bear, and Baby (more like Yearling) Bear. Haven't seen the massive Papa Bear in about 9 months, and about 3 months since I've seen sizeable Mama Bear. Above is the youngest and smallest of my bears, and just since last Sunday has come to (and sometimes on) my deck eight times, but only at night.  He knows from experience I keep bird seed in a rather large, locked storage shed, now booby-trapped with noise-making items should it venture that far given the din of barking dogs inside.

It means no harm, and I've gotten to where I like this fellow, gal, whatever. I'm not about to sex it.  Yes, uninterrupted sleep will be scarce until hibernation/aestivation sets in...and next spring, I'm guessing (hoping?) I'll be saying hello once again.  It is bear season, now, and well before sunrise there was what sounded like a distant gunshot somewhere toward Hall Top.  I will hope it was just a warning shot, if that's what it was.

Last night, I didn't bellow at it.  I just poked my head out of the door and as I talked to it in a normal voice, it turned around and faced me at my gate.  We just looked at each other a bit, very peacefully. Then, it turned its head and slowly slipped into the darkenss of the mountainside.  I vow that I'll be prepared to play one of my flutes for it one night and see how that goes.  :-)

Pretty good rain chances moving in tonight and hanging around through Wednesday.  Haven't had measurable precipitation for the past 12 days, which contrasted with the 10+ inches we had in the 2 weeks prior to that.  Lots of winter predictions are out, and I'll post something on that later next week.  For now, let's enjoy the above-average temperatures before they go on hiatus.

Bob