Close Encounters of the Bear Kind

We went to the dump after dinner last night about 9:00.  Our COD stuff from Wal-Mart came yesterday and we had lots of boxes to take out.  We don't have a school janitor right now so we're taking care of the school trash as well.  It made for a pick-up load. 

We laughed as we headed out.  You get kind of giddy living out here ---- imagine, THEY are paying YOU to live here! The weather was beautiful and there was still plenty of sunshine for our adventure.  We drove up the hill and parked beside the hole where we have been burning our trash.  The Mister threw out the bags and the cardboard boxes and then we decided not to burn it.  We just turned the truck around and headed back the way we had come.  He paused and I told him that we might as well burn it.  So, the Mister got out of the truck and I turned my head to look out the other window.  It wasn't 30 seconds till I felt the truck move and there was a flurry of activity at the driver's door.  Seems the Mister had bent down to light the fire and was reminding himself to stay aware of his surroundings when he looked to see a young brown bear coming down the hill into the dump.  The Mister stood up and hightailed it back to the truck!  We rolled up all the windows and watched.  The bear had run away when he first spotted us but then, sure enough, he came right back down.  He climbed into the small pit and opened up a trash sack.  Someone had put lunchmeat out.  It was amazing to see him go through the bags.  He only opened the ones with food in them.  He left all the paper trash we had set out alone.  No other big bears came so we expect that he is an orphan.  I asked the Mister why he would stay at the dump when just down the road are so many salmon.  His answer was that the other big bears probably wouldn't let him in their territory.

We did eventually make our way out to the salmon pond by the airport.  We only saw a large male as he was going through some grass.  We could only see his back up over the high grass and bushes so I'm just imagining he was huge, too. 

A friend here was out last night.  She and her family saw 7 bears spread over the village area. 

By the way, we have made it through 3 days of school.  I've cooked 3 lunches and no one has died yet.  I am teaching the younger children and the Mister has 6th grade and up.  I have 2 kids, one in kindergarten and the other in third grade.  The Mister has six students.  If we don't find 2 more kids, they will close the school at the end of October.  So sad.  We would be moved to another location.  The students here are very polite and have worked hard this week.  We're enjoying our stay in Pedro Bay.