Ain't Over Yet

The bear stayed away for three nights, then at 0300 this morning, it made a big mess out of the neighbors freezer.It had to happen during a miserable rain storm with the wind blowing hard.I knew when the phone rang, it was going to get ugly again.
We picked up dozens of packages of frozen food that was rolled in sand and mud. The door of the freezer was also as muddy as it could get.We stood watch for an hour, but as usual a no-show.
The gal next door called the local Fish and Fin who were sympathetic. They don't seem much interested.
The bear or most likely bears, hit others last night scattering garbage and things down the street.It looks like a large boar and a large sow with a big cub are the ones guilty of the terror attacks. All three have been seen at different times ripping things up. The sow slammed the side of a friends pick up a couple of nights ago, scaring the snot out of him. He was coming down the driveway as she was leaving. I guess she didn't want to move over.
The boar operates independently of the sow and cub. They seem to be competing to see how much stuff they can break in to. The whole situation is a mess. Once the bears learn that they can find food by breaking into things, they will always be a problem.
Some say "The bears were here first". Well, I have been here for a lot more years than these outlaws. I try to live in harmony with them and for the most part we get along very well. However they sometimes get lazy, like a lot of two-legged critters that I know. I'm going to stand guard every night until we have their freezer moved.
I've heard that the Fish n Fin used to dump bad bears here on the Peninsula, that were causing trouble elsewhere.I do know we have more bear maulings here than the rest of the state combined. It does look like we have a nice gene-pool of nasty critters. Although the local authorities won't admit it, we have far too many bears here than anywhere else. We really don't have than much growth, but things are expanding slowly.Something has to "give" soon.
What we need is some factual bear management, which we don't have. We haven't had a bear season in many years because a dozen or so of bears are killed by folks protecting their property each year.So we now have an over abundance of bears.
Don't mistake me for one who thinks we should kill all of the bears. Some of you will surely try to pin that on me.Read other blogs and you should figure that out.
I just know things are out of order right now with no relief in sight.Until then, I will spend some sleepless nights doing what the local experts won't do!I could just sit quietly like most, but I know that the freezer next door is ten feet away from the sliding door on the kitchen. Inside is a gal with three little kids that I happen to think the world of.If the freezer is moved, as hopefully it will be today, I wonder what a hungry 1000 pound bear will do??
Personally I don't like the odds.

Here We Go, Again!!

This the time of a year when the salmon are gone from the streams. The berries have fallen, and the first snows have came.The nights are usually in the 20's with occasional snow and rain showers. Just a nasty time.
With all of that, the bears are out scratching for a few more bites of something before bedtime.Some of the local bears have developed a rather effective way of topping off before things get really locked up with ice. They simply come to visit at dark and grab garbage cans, pies out cooling, or my favorite moose stew.
I have heard the dogs barking the last few nights. They usually never bark at moose or anything else. They do raise cane when the bears are in the hood. I knew it wouldn't be long before we got hit again.
I tried to ignore the tell-tale barks, hoping it was something else. Well, it wasn't, Lin heard a ker-thunk on the deck night before last. She couldn't get me awake enough to go check. She did go check. Not Kool!!
The next morning the bird feeder was completely empty. She had put bread and bird seed out for the birds.I told her it probably was one of the critters coming to visit.I don't think she actually believed me.
Yesterday my neighbor lady called and said a bear had broken into the folks down the ridges garage, and ate 100 pounds of dog food. It was nice enough to leave two large deposits in the yard.
I knew it was coming!
Just after dark last night my phone rang and the gal next door was a bit worried. Her husband was off at work for a week, leaving her there with their three little kids.She proceeded to say that a bear was outside eating on something.
Lin and I grabbed the guns, lights, and drove over there.The grizz had opened their freezer, dragged out a dozen packages of frozen meat, and was chomping on it. Most of the folks on the mountain have freezers outside, including me.The bear scooted off into the brush and hid.
The neighbor gal said if I used a little "stealth", I could probably sneak over and catch him.I told her that I wasn't into a little "stealth" with a hungry bear trying to eat. I don't try to sneak up on a feeding bear in the middle of the night! Not chicken, just not real stupid either!
I called the Troopers and told them about the bear. They were busy and didn't seem to care much. I told them I was going to take a few steps if the bear kept up with the stealing. They reminded me to turn the head and hide into the Fish and Game if I whacked the bear. It's not bear season unless it is destroying property.
Once a bear starts breaking into things it has crossed the line of being a bad problem.
Tonight I will park over there and wait to see if the rascal comes back. I don't want to whack him, but I don't know if it will stay "scared off".It is never safe to try to shoosh a grizz. We'll see if he will shoosh again. Dealing with a grizz in close quarters is very risky at best, and I don't like having to do it.It's a call I'll have to make tonight. We can't afford to let that critter break into their house.
I noticed that it had walked in front of my house last night. Those big foot prints weren't there yesterday.It probably will come by and break into my house while I'm over guarding the neighbors.We'll see.
Bubba n Lin, walking "The Wilderness Trail"

Oh Well

I write about a lot of things. It comes from my way of life, experiences, and opinions.I will never think that everything I say will be accepted by everyone. That is kool. I am different than some. Not just a tad, but real different.
I live a life style that has disappeared a hundred years ago in the lower 48, for the most part.
That's the reason I live here in the last frontier. I wouldn't change it for anything.
We still hold on to the old family values.
We still hang on to the pioneer spirit.
We still hang on to the belief that most folks are honest and have a good heart.
We still believe that a persons word is good and can be depended on.
We still believe in respecting others ideas and opinions.
We still live a faith based life, and respect others rights to believe in what they choose.
We respect the land and it's wildlife. We put wild game in our freezers, and work hard to see that the balance between man and beast is not disrupted to where wild life is in jeopardy.
Our life-style is very close to nature and we co-exist in a natural-peaceful manner.
Most eco-nuts have no clue how the real world can co-exist with nature. I suppose that they are so removed from reality, that all they know is what some air-head has told them.Yet, they have the right to their opinions too.
I know that those who believe in nothing,in fact, automaticly believe in the forces of darkness. Those are the bravest souls around. They gamble on eternity as if it will never affect them. Some will find out much too late.The bad part is...they can't change anything at that point.
When I brag on my Creator, it always gets a raise out of them. I guess it tends to make them a bit nervous to think that there may be a real Heaven, or possibly a real hell. Since they reject the first plan, the thought of a real hot-place makes them a tad squeemish. It's still their choice. Be it far from me to persuade them any differently.
It does make me sad to get comments from them attacking me for what I believe.I guess when that old ticker stops, we both will know who was right.
Until then, I plan on writng about my daily challenges and dumb mistakes.I will continue to share my personal experiences and sometime humorous events that we all experience, but never talk about.I will continue to share the lessons I learn and some of my own "made up" sayings, or bits of wit.
Here is one.. :telling my wife she can't do something, is like throwing a t-bone at a hungry hound".
Here's one I learned years ago.." telling her to shut up, is like throwing a fire-cracker into a hen house."I doubt if I ever would get away with something like that!
One "commenter" wrote that I was just a scared little boy. When it comes to my little "owner", I do have a bunch of good old common sense!
On the same hand, I spent the night in the wilderness with a wounded grizzly that I shot with an arrow. The next day, they bandaged up my wounds, and I skinned the bear. His hide is on my wall, my hide isn't on his.
Yep, I was scared. Still have bad dreams about it!
Keep those comments coming. I'm encouraged by the positive ones and not much bothered by the negative.
George"Bubba"Hunt, walking "The Wilderness Trail".

Environment??

Recently I had a reader ask if I was concerned about the environment, and If I was concerned about how I would leave the wildlife for my descendants.
Well, the fact about the "environment issue" is the sportsmen are among the most "environment conscious" clan of Americans.
How could anyone who loves the wild critters as much as we do, possibly want to decimate them.
We put millions of sportsmen dollars into developing habitat, and managing wildlife in a responsible manner.We realize that the future of wildlife depends on proper management.
My Father was a Government Trapper in Northern California for decades. He was paid to keep the predator population in order to protect livestock, and to allow the smaller critters to be able to live.
You will find that in the early 1970's, the poor old mountain lion was in danger of becoming extinct. Actually the mountain lion had a very healthy population at that time.
Since that time it has been protected, and now has over-populated the Western states.
The years since then has produced generations of cats that have lost their natural fear of man to the point of not having much of a fear at all.Actually the big cats have began to view people as food in many cases.
My Father kept the coyote and mountain lion populations down to a place where sheep and cattlemen could raise their herds, and still make a living.
Today, the coyote population in California is so rampant that they have all but wiped out smaller animals.
There used to be a healthy population of red and grey foxes. Now they are all but gone.The lands where I could still hunt pheasant, quail and cottontail, are all but barren.
By not managing the predator population has all but destroyed what should have been protected.
The problem came when The California Dept. of Fish and Game gave in to the pressure of special interest "Environmental Groups", and let them influence the management of the wildlife in California.
In other words, fish and game management is influenced by people who know very little about managing the fish and game.
Most of them, who don't happen to see the "nocturnal" mountain lion, when they are in the outdoors, believe the lions surely must be in danger.
In fact "they" are the ones in danger when they take their nature walks, thanks to the over abundance of the lions.
I don't usually beat this drum, but it does kind of tick me off when a California Politician, instead of addressing his own issues, tries to make laws to control Alaska's wolves.
I wonder what, do you suppose, would happen to Alaska's moose and caribou population, should we not control our healthy population of wolves and bears?
I also wonder how the outsiders would feel watching a cow moose die slowly due to being ham-strung by wolves.
I'm not against wolves, I just have the sense to know that they too, need managed in order to keep the healthy populations of everything else in line.
There's always two or three sides to everything.
I noticed when I was in Hollywood, on the Jay Leno show, everyone was very interested in ANWAR.
I will say this about that...for some reason they had never heard the truth...when they did, it left them with a lot more questions.
Most of them felt that they had been bamboozled by people who had never been there.
I have been there. I have spent two years in the Arctic, and I've been in Alaska since 1969.
I know what's there, and how the oil companies protect the oil fields with very STRICT rules.
I expect I'll get hate mail from some of these air-heads.
I'm a big boy, I can take it.
I'm also a former elected member of Interior Alaska's Fish and Game Advisory Board.
I don't claim to know it all, but I do claim to have some plain old "common sense", which seems to be uncommon these days.
Bubba Hunt, oldbearhunter@alaska.net