[bigbrother]

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm not that old. Granted I am at the age where I can say "20 years ago" such and such happened. Well, this is one of those rants. Born and raised in PA and grew up hunting, shooting, and fishing from the end of my memory. When I was 12, and just started hunting, PA had deer....lots of deer. Nobody complained about it, in fact most people loved it. Nobody shot any real big bucks but hey we ate well. Back then if someone saw a bear, it nearly made the front page. You went to school or work and told EVERYONE...it was like seeing a meteor or tornado...it just didn't happen.

Flash forward to now. I've got bears....lots of bears. In fact I can't put my garbage out on my 8'x10' front porch unless I want to clean it up in the morning. In fact, the other day while I'm mowing the yard on my riding mower, and my 2 boys who are 4 and 2 are playing in the front yard, I notice bears...in the yard, about 25 yards from the boys. I yell at the bears (a momma and 2 little cubs) trying to get them to leave but they don't care. So, I sit on the porch with my boys and watch the bears from about 30 yards as they pick through a garbage bag. Finally after about 15 minutes, they decide to leave. ODD? Not really at my house. This is not the first time something like this has happened. In fact every summer I do battle with the bears over my garbage. One summer we accumulated a total of 13 different bears in the yard (not all at once) including a boar that was ear tagged and weighed at least 350#. He didn't mind being yelled at or having his picture taken either. This summer, our count is 6. One young boar, One little momma with the 2 wee little ones and another sow with a single cub. She has a wonderful white V on her chest. And luckily she's a little more shy than the other.

Things are wonderful here in PA...and that big buck...well, a guy just came into the office this morning and started telling EVERYONE about the one he saw.