Deb called me down to watch something on television last night. It was on PCN, a station that generally runs things like tours of local companies, such as Just Born (Mike & Ikes, Peeps, etc.) and C.F. Martin & Co.. This was a program about bears in neighborhoods, what the signs were, and what to do.

The program was presented by the Dauphin county officer of the PA Game Commission. Here's some random factoids:

A few years ago - 2004 & 2005, I believe - some counties had extended bear hunting seasons. They're bringing back extended seasons this year, as they don't think they stabilized the population, so there should be less of a bear issue next year.

The target number is to keep it to around 15,000 bears across the state.

In Dauphin county, the number of bear calls to 2006 were relativity steady - in the tens to teens, I think. In 2007, there was a few more, but in the high teens. In 2008, there have already been 45 calls.

Country-wide, there have only been three fatalities from black bears: one in the Rockies, one in the Smokies, and one in New York. All three happened at parks where there was human-fed bears.

In Pennsylvania, there was only a very small number of bear "attacks". One was a hunter who shot the bear four times, then walked up to it and it bit him on the leg before it died. Another was the one I reported a few years ago of the three kids from Philly who got "mauled" by the bear just up the road from here at the Hickory Run state park - turns out the evidence was later shown that the mauling was due to running through the woods at night, drunk and half-dressed, and no bear was believed to be involved. Two involved scouts bringing food into their tent, which brought a bear in after the food - one was a boy scout at Hickory Run with chocolate bars, the other was a girl scout a few miles further north (I don't recall what food she used as a lure). The last was a woman who went out after dark to bring her bird feeders in, and her dog attacked (and was killed) by the bear.

He also mentioned how bears he relocated up to 90 miles away came back. Others that he relocated 15-20 miles away never returned.

Apparently bears born here tend to migrate down along the ridge and end up in his neighborhood, but from what he implied, some of that migration was due to them being "pushed" down the line.

All in all, I feel more comfortable about the situation, and Deb says she does as well. The Game Commission has a bit of their site filled with links on black bears, safety precautions, and so forth here.

A couple of new Brandonisms:

neener neener - used as one might guess, this little gem is also mistakenly used as a follow up to a safety-related scold, as in: "I don't have to. Neener neener." He was rather disappointed to find out that not only did he have to, but I didn't find it as entertaining as his big sister did - who egged him on to it and stood in the corner for the half a minute I pointed this lack of entertainment out to him. She was also the one who taught him this gesture.

'Eakey, 'eakey! - revenge upon big sister, as her band nickname makes for a scathing insult when wielded by one who will be three years old tomorrow.

male bonding - what happens at the house when Deb takes Rachel out, leaving Mr. B with Justin or me, or if all three of the guys are home alone. Sunday - as the girls ran out for a quick soccer photo session - male bonding involved a hammered dulcimer, chanter, recorder, rainstick made from a bit of cactus, native wooden flute, orchestral flute, electronic percussion, and a djembe. We suspect that the result of said male bonding was what really scared the bear away from next door and saved Hugs & Kisses from death by stupidly barking at a small bear twenty times bigger than them. The neighbor yelling at said bear was probably less disturbing than three of us playing a variety of instruments rather badly. We did discover that the modern orchestral flute is the only instrument on this planet (or any others we've been to) that I can play better than Justin. This isn't really saying much. We also proved that the wind needed to play trumpet can be aimed into a highland pipe chanter, and it sounds better that way then when I try.

Later in the day, we played a tiny little bit. Rachel and Justin practiced a number of things. I spent most of the time discovering that active pickups need batteries to work, 9-volt batteries last somewhat less than a decade even if they're not used, and, most importantly, that some moron kid who had his 1969 Guild S-60 refinished and assembled with three active EMG single coil pickups really should have said "Yes, please" when the guy doing the work back in the early to mid Eighties asked if he should cut out some of the back to provide access to the battery. The strings were at least a dozen years old, so it was worth it to take them off; it was unfortunate that the entire front pick guard had to be removed (involving the removal of all the strings) to be able to plug in the guitar and hear the results via an amplifier. There's a buzzing on the first fret, killing the open notes on the D and B strings, but other than that it plays much better than I had remembered.

I worked with Justin for a little bit on some improvisation - trading blues lines back and forth. He gets overly frustrated trying to think about what note would sound good, and what should come next. He is apparently a little un-trusting that centuries of music theory agree that any of those seven notes in the scale would work - five, actually, as we stuck with the pentatonic for the exercise. Early in the day, he watched and then worked through the first exercise in the piano lesson DVD I picked up for him. Funny enough, it stressed a few things I had said were critical for him to learn from it: posture, finger position, & improvisation.

Saturday, I took care of some things I had to do - but really, there's so much going on, and so much to do, that I didn't get enough done this weekend.

There was a really impressively powerful thunderstorm in there somewhere as well.

Somewhere along the way, I managed to make my way through the entirety of the Michael Hedges tune Ursa Major. I can play about half the material semi-competently, while the other half remains in the semi-incompetent stage. There is, however, hope.

I also managed to stumble across the Legend section of the Study Notes on Rootwitch.com which clearly indicates what I'm supposed to do with notes represented thusly: (9) Somehow I had missed the existence of this section - or glossed over it - while I was able to determine much of the rest of the stage directions from the individual study notes and from the MPEG tutorials. Of course, I discovered that this morning, and I played the song last night, so the twain should meet as soon as I can get a guitar in my hands. The technique here is simple: play the notes so softly that you can barely hear them; the attack of the pick is louder. Of course, for this particular tune no pick is used, so I'll have to play around - and listen to Michael play the piece - to determine exactly how to play the part.

Without any further documentation, I was able to do the tap harmonics, although they're a lot harder to produce than the slap harmonics. On the surface, they seem to be identical techniques. The slap harmonic is sounded by thwaping the strings with a finger - usually index or middle - over a fret to get the harmonic to ring out across multiple strings. The tap harmonic also involves striking over a fret, but it uses the tip of the finger instead of the length. The difficulty with the latter involves getting the note to ring out as a harmonic - it's too easy to just tap the fretted note. That's a common technique, brought to fame - although not invented - by Eddie Van Halen. Getting the quick attack needed to play the passage and combine it with the right touch - a bit softer than usual - isn't as easy as it looks.

Part two of last night's 10 minute practice section was As the World Falls Down - just the vocal melody. I've managed to learn the chorus, so now all I have left to learn are the vocals following the second chorus - essentially, more bits of chorus and ad libs. Such a simple and beautiful melody over a 3/4 waltz.

I didn't even attempt to work further on the music itself - I was half asleep when I went upstairs, and just played through the songs before lying down and drifting off. Actually, I think that's what helped with Ursa Major: I was playing quietly to avoid disturbing Rachel and Brandon, and the song benefits from a light touch.

The day before, I did realize a goof with the bass part I was working on - for the first four measures the bass clef is replaced with the treble clef and I hadn't noticed that. That changed the notes played, and because the fingering was different, helped me realize that the bit is a set of variations on the same arpeggiated chord structure used in the Police's Every Breath You Take. That realization made it easier to play, but both nearby fingerings cause some difficulty with the intro melody. That melody on its own is exceedingly easy, but the two parts just don't fit together - as written - on the same guitar neck. With one of the fingerings, I lose the signature slide if I want to hold the notes that are supposed to ring out; with the other, I'm not even able to get near the melody part. I'll still have to mess around with it and see what compromise works out the best.

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This afternoon I have to take care of Justin's birthday present. We won't be giving it to him unitl his birthday - a week away - but I have to take steps to get it ready. Next year at this time we'll have to see if we have a spare car lying around. Of course, I watched him and his cousin - who drove up after dropping dragonflypug at the Schoolhouse with Deb and 1jadedhart - play GT3, and after seeing them bounce a Dodge Viper off wall after wall after other Viper, I'm not quite sure how he'll do on the road...

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In other news, Brandon likes to go "out-ide" so we've been spending more time doing so. This can be difficult for Rachel, especially, who wants to Catch 'em All^R. Justin is generally happy to go out, provided someone is there to toss a baseball or frisbee or kick a soccer ball back and forth - which generally means "not me" because I don't like to let Brandon wander alone around the yard, more so after the close call last year with the bear. I really don't want to find out how good - or bad - I am at bear wrestling. Rachel doesn't like baseball much after she tried to catch the ball with the side of her face and then, a few days later, her wrist.

Well, they actually do have something in common: my yard.

In no particular order, I discovered a second of the winterberries is, in fact, a she and not a he. Luckily, the one in a prominent position in the center of the Stone Stream island is, and she had two potential offspring that grew bright red - and then were hacked off, along with a bit of twig and a mouthful of leaves, by one of our white tailed rodents. The other, just discovered today, has only one fruit, but it has thus far evaded the hooved herbivore Hoovers.

The katsura tree has lived up to its expectations - as soon as the leaves go from green to yellow, it gives off a smell somewhere between cotton candy and caramel. Of course, since it's still just a twig, there's less than two dozen leaves, so you have to lean over and sniff. I've caught the scent at a distance once or twice; faint, but it shows promise. Which reminds me, I tried to convince Justin to get me some cotton candy while we were at Fair in the Square in Watertown last weekend, but he didn't...

Justin thinks a bear ran by him while he was down getting the trash barrels earlier today. He says it was the size, shape, and ran like the one we had seen last week. Only it was white.

So. Looks like I might be able to get some ammunition for that RPPB that was discussed on TH last year some time. Of course, stuffing a polar bear - even a smallish one - into the rocket shell is always the challenge, and it's best to buy the stuff fully loaded. Or just to stay away from the whole dubious concept.

Deb is of the opinion that it was a wolf; I suggested coyote at first, as they're known to frequent, well, everywhere. White, however, isn't a likely color for either one or the other, although I suppose it's more likely than an albino black bear.

Even more likely, is that it was a large white dog. Think I might even have seen one somewhere in the neighborhood before, which makes it even more likely.

One or more bears in the yard nearly ever day for a week.

Two walked by in the back yard. Three in the front. One more, today, right now, on Bank Island, down by the Rachel River.

The other day, recess at Rachel's school was pulled inside because a bear was sighted across the road.

The neighbors on both sides of us were advised to keep their trash in, and only put it out first thing in the morning, to decrease the chance of a bear eating their trash cans. Both now have claw marks in their trash cans, and continue to practice the same things that attracted the bears the first time around.

The neighbors one house past that still store their trash outside, even though they periodically have to go and hunt down their trash after the bear drags it back into the woods.

Despite the large numbers of bears sighted this year (including a family of four, with the 500+ pound mama bear) there have been no reports of tourists from Philly being mauled and stripped naked like what happened last year with the attack by a "massive" (i.e. yearling, baby-type, just-out-of-mama's-care) bear.

The bear is back.

I think.

Some thing popped the top off the compost bin and ate a melon and maybe some other choice scraps. No scratches or signs - and I'm thinking racoons, although certainly industrious enough to get in, would have to struggle more to get the lid off. The bear, however, had the strength to pop it off, although it's amazing he didn't destroy it in the process.

Just in case any of the neighborhood bears are reading this: Thanks for not ruining the bin! Your efforts are much appreciated. And, hey, the other day the kids gathered about three quarters of a million acorns and spread them along the back trail, so if you want, lie in wait back there and snag some of the hooved rodents as they gambole through. Once you've had venison, you'll find compost and bird seed pales in comparision! Cheers, and happy dining!

And, just to cover all bases, here's one to the racoons: Think big! Go for the deer! Them's good eatin'!

Some mostly unrelated little things:

1) Saw another toad or frog - I saw it leap, Deb saw it, but wasn't sure which. I expect it was a toad, as we don't have enough water nearby to support frogs.

2) Neighbors reported that Tanis chases bears (add to the list: golden retrievers, German shepherds, white tailed deer, black bears.)

3) Mowed the lawn and got string trimming done Tuesday night. Expect the resulting clover explosion is why I was out sick Wednesday and Thursday.

4) Deb finally saw the ovenbirds, in the middle woods, just past where Tanis was buried. They have an interesting song: chertle-cherTLE-CHERTLE! that grows louder as they sing along, and she's been trying to get a positive id, but they proved elusive for a while. A week or so ago, I thought I spotted them walking around the edge of the deck and all around the backyard, but I'm still not sure.

5) Noticed that the deer hit the weeping willow and pussy willow prior to Tuesday, noticed last night that they also trimmed most of one of the new flowering crabs and took bits and pieces off of both elderberries.

6) Took a picture of a deer - came right down the path while kids were sitting at the table; opened the sliding doors and snapped a few of shots (flash going off, so he/she posed for some of them), and then we all went out on the front porch to watch the rodent slink off into the woods. Hadn't discovered the elderberry damage at that time, or I would have encouraged Tanis to take chase and bring it down. As it was, he stood on alert, but once the deer was walking away, and we were all standing around ignoring him, he decided to rub up against our legs instead.

7) Fixed the last remaining bug on the primary piece of coding for the project I'm working on - no worries, I'm sure there'll be more when testing resumes. Making progress on the worksheet print - going to hard-code it for three possibilities; a future release (when there is time and/or money) will make it dynamic. A mass-manipulation program and a navigational center were added to the task list - about one week before the betas get the software. Almost want to knock them out first because they won't take long (find-and-replace on some names, and a tweak on the recordset involved), but this worksheet has to work in mode 2 at the least...

Monday evening, a pileated woodpecker took off from the Middle Woods, about 60-100' from the house. This is our second sighting - last year he flew along the back edge of the property. Last weekend we were discussing last year's fly-by, and it was mentioned that they are fairly rare in our area (which is verified on the distribution map on the link). No mistaking his size, red head, or call, however. Hopefully, he doesn't stay around though - he likes to eat carpenter ants. Of course, if we *have* carpenter ants in the area already, hopefully he finds a mate and raises a family nearby.

The woods are really starting to fill out nicely - lots more sweet birch and American chestnut in the 1-3' size range than I remember, as well as a significant quantity of the not-as-yet-positively-identified "cherry." I'm almost positive that the multi-trunk, 2-3' tall sapling along the edge of the driveway is a Washington hawthorn - definitely positive that it is a hawthorn of some flavor.

The dawn redwood we planted last fall is very close to, erm, needling out. The one planted last spring is almost fully open. One of the redbuds and one of the goldenraintrees we planted this spring is starting to leaf out, and the other one each seems close. Almost everything planted this year is showing signs of growth - the American beech and American sweetgum seem to be furthest behind, and do cause some concern. The Christmas fern finally started to poke itself out of the ground. Was a bit worried about it because the native ferns (of which it, technically, is; although we don't have any growing natively) are almost fully opened, or at least standing tall in preparation for the full unfurling. The three Pam's Choice foxgloves seem completely DOA, although the three Apricot Delight flavors are doing fine.

One of the local bears is definitely active: unseen, although it left obvious signs of its presence. It climbed over my neighbor's fence and proceeded to feed on suet and birdseed, leaving some wreckage of feeders and a birdhouse behind. The fence shows signs of where he got in, but isn't destroyed. Keep in mind that Blue, a trained guard dog, has run inside the yard, although she was inside the house at the time of the feast.