Sticker Shockkkkk

[noelH]

And not a boat.

3 past springs of black bear deciding to put in new entries and exits to the fence that surrounds the yard.  Blessing in disguise.  Live in the middle of a heavily wooded 40. Just an ugly ~500 linear feet of wire fence with mostly steel T-posts surrounding the house.  Protection for the veggie gardens from the deer.  Process of downsizing everything.  Just a 34 x 34 ft fenced in garden to the south and similar area to the SW of the house that will not be fenced in.

Local building supply store wanted +$15 per 4x4 8ft treated. Didn't even bother to ask what the 10 footers are.   No one seem to know the CCA retention level. Just suitable for above grade. So I called the "local" farm supply center.  4" x 8ft treated fence posts for under $9.49.  Double what I paid a few years ago replacing a few 4x4 treated that sheered off at ground level.  Then the steel T posts. More than doubled from before.  $220 of posts.  Darn expensive lettuce.

Tax Day! Today is when I should be taking down the bird feeders (aka black bear treat), flush the well pressure tank, and replace the filter.  But awoke to..(image attached).    Use to be May 1st, but the black bear seem to be awaking from their winter nap earlier and earlier.  You cannot view this attachment.  At least there is no ice left even in the Bay.

[Chris Muthig]

When I first moved into Ocala National forest (Ocklawaha), 1st week I was there I bought a beautiful birdfeeder, made of metal, and filled it with seed.  I hung it from a tree, about 7-8 feet off the ground.
 Very next day it was on the ground mangled.  I straightened it best I could and gave it to my mom, never had a bird feeder again.  Been there 5 years, see bears in our yard almost every day, once had a mother and 2 cubs.  There was a huge male with a large scar on his back.  They never ever act aggressive towards us, either move of in the other direction or run when they see us.  I worry more about the coyotes, foxes, bobcats, and occasional florida panther.  I worry even more about rednecks that don't understand property lines and boundaries.  Every one of my neighbors is welcome on our property, but we all stay to ourselves and look out for each other.  It's a good life!  I'm right across the street from Lake Bryant, a huge lake quite a bit lower than us so we have no worries of flooding (would have to come up around 12 feet to worry).  Also have a 5 acre pond on our property that's a good drainage area also.  My neighbor's fenceline is Ocala National forest with a couple of miles of woods next to him.

[Timm R Oday25]

Noel ,we live just 20 miles east of Madison . Black bears are getting to be a regular sighting this far south .
Lumber prices are lower than they were during Covid . They are still high enough to have us thinking twice before we commit to bigger projects .
I'm fortunate to have perhaps (100) 14' two by fours and fifty 4"x6" by ten'.Dozens of 2x8" and 2x12" that we got for free last year .I couldn't imagine what we would have to pay at the local big box store for this much lumber

[Ed]

We've got a black bear with a den on the back of the property.  He visits a few times a season, they wander over a 50 - 60 square mile domain, he has only bothered the trash cans twice in 4 years.  He has walked up the driveway, probably 100 yards, from the edge of the property once, but since I put up the solar owls that are motion sensitive for the deer, he hasn't been up in front of the house.  We've started cutting up blocks of Irish Spring Soap and spreading them around the fences encircling the fruit/nut trees on the upper side of the hill (not big enough to be a mountain but it takes 20 minutes to hike down to the creek and coming back up is getting harder every day but the goats love walking with us) and the deer/bear/turkey/opposums/etc give the whole area a wide berth. I decided to give up on the store bought chicken coops from Home Despot/Factor Supply/etc that haven't lasted 2 years and build my own.  Started on a 4'x 8' flat roof coop and figure $800 for the wood and roof.  Solar accessories (door/fan/water heater for winter) will run $300 or so, planning to get them this week since there are no American suppliers, before the crazy prices start. Put a solar electric fence around Goat Pen two years ago, which encircles a quarter garden area, an interior chicken enclosure (we free range them inside the goat enclosure when no rain is predicted), and double compost pile next to the chicken enclosure.  The deer still like to come up to the kid's play area but stay away from the upper house plateau. It does encroach upon our sailing time on occasion but the new coop should be good for 3 - 5 days without us, as long as the DIL picks up eggs (8 - 14 a day) and the goats still need feed/water twice a day.  We are busier now than when we worked for a living.

[Riley Smith]

Ed, I'm waiting on chickens myself. My ex-SIL is bringing us 8 silkies soon and I've been building a pen. I know there is a local fox and also snakes, so we'll see how this venture goes. I really don't want to match wits with a fox. Or a snake for that matter, but I have a Lab for the guard duty.

[Chris Muthig]

Ed, you said as long as the daughter in law picks up eggs, what would happen if she didn't pick up eggs for a few days?

[Ed]

A few observations on chickens: silkies are broodie little shits!  Bantams are assholes and will quickly figure out a way to get in the garden.  Nest boxes have a built in limit and if not picked up regularly they will start hiding eggs in the most unlikely places.  The big learning point on chickens is don't name them!  You can't kill a chicken you have named.  All of ours have a plot in the Chicken Graveyard waiting for them.  We have, or will soon, have a big coop for our 19 birds and an isolation/baby integration coop.  Amazingly enough, I actually enjoy taking care of them.

[Norm L.]

A bit afar.
We know a lady who lives in the country well north of Lake Pontchartrain and not too far from the Mississippi border. They only way to reach her in that area is via text.
She is a woman whose life purpose is animals. She has rescued everything 4-legged, 2-legged, winged, or crawls on the ground.  There are some interesting stories.
This is a nice one.
She and her husband found an abandoned foe in the woods well behind their home. The brought in in and raised it, including it living in their home. This is illegal.
While young they let her roam the area, but she loved home. It is illegal in Louisiana to have a pet deer.

They gave her more free time, and she would be gone for days at a time. Her husband built a deer door as the deer's entrance into her past private room which included a bed and feeding area.
The doe had what they believe were two deer births. After each longer time away, it would return for a few days to visit the humans.
That is amazing pairing and suitable for a book or movie.

We and several of our friends love her for providing rescue dogs. Each one needed rescue and adapted so well. It took our Bella 6 months before she got closer to acting like a normal dog and before she would allow my wife Leslie to cautiously and briefly touch her.  We're moving toward year 4 with us and she will now allow a new person to slowly and briefly touch her after a second or third meeting.
Being a mother twice at an illegal birth facility she was going to be killed as she could no longer make money. Our friend rescued her weighing 45 pounds, and she's now at 65. It took me in a situation about 10 to 6 to 3 feet with my back to her, some food and water, and talking for 4 and a half hours.

It makes me think how much better it was to sail a scary sailboat. 

[noelH]

The black bears up here are relatively mellow critters.  Curious and intelligent.  Occasionally you run into one having a bad day.  Those are the ones you slowly back away from.  Just like a person having a bad day. Just try avoiding.

Hike the trails around the area. No signs of bear yet.  Tracks or poo.  Sure hope Brutus Caesar Maximus(BCM) survived last years hunting season. Largest black bear I and any of my neighbors up and down the township road have ever seen. Everyone thinks he is a +500 pounder.  Most males up in this region do not break the 400 pound mark.  He has a gentle disposition.  Had to shoo him off the deck once. He does leave an occasional pile of poo on my driveway half way to mailbox.  I think he is sitting in woods laughing at me each time I need to move the pile.  BCM keeps the other males off the ridge. Seems to have a large range. People on the north side of the ridge have seen him or a twin.

[Chris Muthig]

My wife went down to our pond walking the dogs, they didn't even notice the bear in the oak tree above her.  If the branches broke it wouldn't have landed on her, but it probably would have grazed her.  He did answer the age old question, as he unloaded a massive blast of poo that hit the scrub palm tree just behind her, which is what alerted her that he was there.  That one was probably about 300 lbs.  Every bear we've come across walking the dogs has simply run away from us.  Even when I first moved in, the momma and 2 cubs were coming around the 5 acre pond, and about 100 yards away from me she just guided the cubs up onto another property.  I have seen as many as 3 bears in 1 day in our yard, a few got as close as 20 feet away before they noticed us.  I'm not worried about them in any way, they want nothing to do with us.

[Timm R Oday25]

We live 20 minutes east of Madison . Essentially the area is farmland with a number of state plots . Lot's of food and lots of places to hide
Several years ago ,quite a few people had reported black bears being recorded on thier ring doorbell cameras .
It has become somewhat common to see black bears now .
My only hope is that someone doesn't doesn't start leaving food out for them .
It's happened in the past and the bears have had to be put down 

[pgandw]

While stationed in Alaska, we had to deal with a bear (sow) that had taking a liking to our propane supply that kept us running through the winter.  She would bite through the supply line to get some of that propane.  Had her trapped and relocated 200 miles away.  3 years later, the propane supply line chomping started reoccurring.  Turned out she had taught her 2 cubs that propane was fun.  2 cubs relocated to keep our VHF-FM mountain site on air.

Fred W