Bear with me...

No, that is not a play on words.
I really do feel like I always have a bear with me
when I am at home these days.
Last night I was skuttling around the back porch mostly.
I was grilling and I was cleaning out my dehydrator,
which has been living and working on the back deck for a few weeks straight now,
and I came in the house for something, looked out the window,
and there was a big black bear with a tan snout.
This was a different bear from the 7 others I have already seen
just at home this year.
8 bears, in our yard! 8 different bears!
This guy was mosy-ing around the big apple tree that has no more
apples on it when he heard the neighbors start some diesel engine,
he then popped up on his hind legs, (making him seem well over
6 feet tall!) and then he ambled off into the woods.
I went for a walk later in the evening after splitting a 1/2 cord of nice
larch firewood, and on my way back into the yard I noted that
there he was again, out in the meadow.
I clapped my hands and shouted at him so that he would be aware of my presence,
actually my neighbor was walking with me,
so our presence and he dashed off into the woods by the creek.
I walked the neighbor home and then wandered down through the meadow
in the very near dark. I didn't see him again.
I did clap my hands as I emerged from the woods trail out into the meadow
by the apple trees just in case he was out there sniffing for a "midnight" snack.
So yeah, he brings the count to 8!
I think he has been living in the area for awhile.
I have been hearing "someone" in the trees that I call the "wild apples"
almost every evening, and there is a bear "bathroom" area
that shows signs of heavy apple eating and varying levels of "freshness" in the scat.

the meadow

The wild apples are several old trees that have been neglected for ages and
produce very small apples that are kind of mealy.
We have enough good producing apple trees that we haven't tried to prune or
revive this bunch. Plus we need to have some apples to share with the
abundant wildlife in our neighborhood! Maybe that will keep them out of the
good trees! Ha! I try to explain that to them, but the word is not getting out
properly!