bed time snack

[burlman]

well the first snow has fallen, temperature has dropped, the lake froze over, we are all getting ready to huddle in for the season except for our new neighbor. We just finished packing the venison in the freezer. I headed out to the shed to clean up, cut the antlers off the bucks for souveniers, and such. noticed some strange tracks on the road, then some antlers lying in the snow, Turned  out it was one of my deer heads. I got to the shed, to discover a huge black bear had decided he didn't get enough to eat before bed. He pulled the log cabin siding off one wall, clawed his way through the chipboard only  to find out he was to big to fit betwwen the studs. So the next step was to tear a locked door in two. he was able to pull the bottom out far enough to get a mouthfull of 2 inch pine,you can see the teeth marks in the wood. he then pulled the door apart, and made off with somme hides and a couple of heads. I followed his tracks in the snow, and was able to recover my antlers, the skulls were picked absolutley clean. Now I have a repair job on my hands. We had a problems everywhere this summer in south  west Quebec. The ministry of natural resources announced that they will open the fall bear hunt next fall. Hope I get to meet this big lad again.

[Ianab]

Holey Heck
And I thought I had problems with Moron my cat getting into the cat biscuit packet  

Ian

[EZ]

A bear coming that close to the house and doing that kind of damage, I'm afraid there would be open season on big bears. The only trouble I have around here is the coon getting in the hog feed.
Be safe.
EZ

[slowzuki]

Could do what they do in Alaska, leave sheets of plywood with nails in them facing up around buildings. Put up signs though!

Black bears here break into camps all the time.  The neighbour has a camp and he just started leaving the door open so the bears wouldn't trash it so bad.
Ken

[Weekend_Sawyer]

 We have had more bear sign around our cabin in WV than anyone can remember. It sure did answer that age old question about does a bear squat in the woods.

[Buzz-sawyer]

I had this post come to mind while workin today...
and remebered the only sure way to cure yourself of cabin bears.....

Every mornin nail a fresh bear hide to the door of the cabin....

Guaranteed to fix the problem and provide bear grease for the door hinges
Don

[SawInIt CA]

I had to cap one that was in my Garage...my truck....my deck. Tried to make him not want to be here .....but he chose to fill my freezer instead.

[Corley5]

We had a serious bear problem twice up at the cabin.  The first time I was probably 11 or 12.  One night before bed I was coming back into the cabin after taking a whiz and looked out the window over the kitchen table and saw this big black shadowy thing across the creek about 20 yards away ???.  My 1st thought was it's a deer.  Then I realized what it really was .  Needless to saw I pretty excited and yelled for Dad.  We banged pots and pans, shined lights at him etc. and he never did leave except on his own accord.  The next morning you could see where he had squeezed between the truck and the cabin thus wiping the mud off the side of the truck and his damp paw prints were still visible on the deck where he had come right up to the door.  A couple weeks later my Grandpa Whittaker, Uncle Fred and cousin Greg were there for a week of fishing.  The bear came back.  The first night he was there he ate a stringer of pike that they had left in the creek to clean in the morning and he washed those down with a gallon milk out of the spring ;D.  The next morning after the damage was discovered they cooked a breakfast of sausage, eggs etc and went fishing.  Being summer they left the windows open with the screens in ;D  The bear came after they left and helped himself to the left overs and even licked out the cast iron frying pan.  After he licked out the pan he looked at himself in the mirror of the medicine cabinet and left a big greasy nose print on it ;D 8) along with several greasy paw prints on the floor from holding the pan down while he licked it out.  Then it was on to the coolers.  He was only able to get into the styrofoam ones but did some damage to the Coleman cooler.  Grandma still has that one and it bears (pun intended) tooth marks.  When they got back from fishing they had to go to Grand Marais for groceries.  The bear cam back again that night hoping for more fish and after Grandpa shot a few rounds over his head with a .38 he wandered off for the rest of the weekend.  He paid a couple more visits that summer but none were as destructive as things were put up and the cabin was kept closed whenever we weren't there.  One of the locals told us the next spring that a big male had been shot during hunting season a couple miles away.  
  A couple years later we had an even more aggressive one.  This one was a real problem.  He started showing up 1st thing in the spring.  Pike opener actually, May 15th.  He ate fish worms, bait minnows, tore up coolers, and drank pop and beer.  He even liked gasoline believe it or not.  We were building the new cabin at the time and came back to the old one for something about mid afternoon.  As soon as we got out of the truck you could smell the gas.  Dad had 5 or 6 five gallon cans behind the cabin for the tractor and truck.  The bear had came sometime after we had left that morning and tore up every gas can.  There was gas all over.  He had also torn the asphalt siding on the woodshed and put fresh claw marks on the cabin logs.  We called the cabins Bear Cabins prior to this as there were old claw marks on them from a time before we bought them.  This wasn't good but we were going home the next day for the week and didn't see him that night.  The following weekend we heard that at a camp about four miles from ours the bear had met his match.  The occupants of the cabin were cooking lunch and the bear decided to try to invite himself.  The woman was slightly injured getting the door closed to keep him out.  The DNR came out and set a trap with plans to relocate the animal.  Sometime shortly there after they found the bear dead in the trap from high speed lead poisoning.  One the locals had gotten there first and put it down.  It was a good thing as a bear like that is a real danger.  We've seen bears on a couple occasions at the new place but they have never caused a problem.  One morning there was one out at the fire pit and as soon as Dad opened the door he was gone.  We walked out back a bit with the dogs and then decided to go back.  We called the dogs back and as they were headed in one tripped on some brush and another one ran into him.  The one that tripped must have thought the bear had him for sure from the sound of the yelps that he let out ;D ;D ;D.  Then he was pretty embarassed ;D
A couple summers ago here at home Dad and Mom had a bear problem.  The 1st one ever.  He tore down the bird feeders and Dad caught him one night making off with the trashcan of sunflower seeds.  He was halfway across the backyard when Dad fliiped on the yard light and he dropped the can which he was carrying tucked under a front leg while walking on the other three.  The feeders weren't put back up, the seeds were secured and he never came back that we know of.  
  Here's another bear story that happened here at home.  Mom saw one cross the road east the house and head down along the fencerow to the south.  The neighbors kids saw it too and being good little Native Americans 8) they promptly armed themselves with sticks and were going to go kill the bear : ;D :D 8) 8).  Mom saw them coming out into our field from the house and got them stopped although by this time the bear was long gone .    

[Tom]

Ah yes.   Kids are invincible. :D

[Den Socling]

We have a lot of bears around here. They are usually only a nuisance - stealing food from camp, dragging off garbage cans and such. I haven't tried this yet but a friend made this suggestion. Smear bacon fat on aerosol cans of paint, turpentine or whatever you wouldn't want exploding in your mouth.  ;) It's supposed to give them a bad taste for your property.  :D

[Jeff]

The neighbor at the cabin uses peanut butter on Pepper spray. Bears are smart. They bit the first 2, now they just lick them. The best defense is make sure you don't have anything that they are interested in. As much as we would like to cook out at the cabin, we rarely do because just simple grill drippings is an excuse to bring them up around the cabin.

[Kevin]

What's the problem?
Just release Linda, she'll take care of them.

[Jeff]

Kevin, thats for sure. She just shot the last deer in the eastern U.P. with the muzzle loader last weekend. Big ol' dry doe. Course I think they are all dry. Didn't see any fawns all year. I think between the huge Coyote population and the DNR's wolfs, the deer are in dire straights there. Anytime the deer go out and bed on a frozen pond at night because they are scared of whats in the cedar's, something is wrong.