My old gardens which are now my childrens place we lived in the heart of black bear, and griz land.Also a natural wildlife corridor along the creek that bordered the property.The surrounding area are filled with wild apple,plum, raspberry as well as native foods that connect down into the wildlife refuge. We also had the mountain lions, bobcats, and a few other wildlife adventures. Unlike alot who only got these as nightly visitors.if the population is high or there happens to be young ones leaving mom.You can be raided both day and night.Some of my most pesty bears were day timers, and these included ones trying to break into the house. As my son just learned this year, bears also love soil amendments such as bone meal and blood meal, especially after a nice rain shower.I remember my first tulip planting using them both only to get up in the morning and watch a sow and 2 cubs digging up my newly planted plot licking the dirt and tossing my bulbs..I have had them go through the greenhouse walls after Alaskan fish but also a couple of the newer products in organics like the sugar daddy.If it smells sweet or plain stinks, they think it is all for them.I was never able to find a actual way to keep them from the compost area, so we found it less damaging to let them "flip" our pile.Any over ripe veges can become targets although the over ripe fruits are the favs,I know we planted our berries away from the house as far as possible and we used to get a nice harvest even sharing. The biggy really becomes on knowing the bears in your area.In our old area the game wardens actually had us using marking shots to identify the problem bears.We had 8 to 10 visits a day from blacks and the more rare from the grizzly,, although spring and fall were more their times as the bruins would chase down all bears to kill..As to the fences workign on bears, that is always a debate, my sons neighbors have an 8 foot with razor wire totally electrified along with their cattle guard,, still had a grizz bruin break down the front door to the house Bears are commonsense,, the cats are a bit trickier,,even growing up around all of them as well as employing hunting dogs back when the ex was a game warden ,I found them to be a concern with our kids riding the woods,only one had a chase adventure because he accidentally got caught between mom and baby when one of the dogs found the scent..

Flooding so bad here that my kids have a 2 hr delay to school tomorrow.Their school is right downtown in our tourist district where the city dock area floods the roadways. Because there are a series of one way streets and many flood, they can't get to school during high tide which coincides with the start of school. It was flooded this morning but we made it there just in time but then diverted traffic caused a massive traffic jam (we left for school early thankfully!). I as fortunate to miss that! We've had much more rain today so will be worse so the school decided to open late after hearing the roads will be closed. We live by the water (about 200' from the shoreline) and my neighbor's pier is totally submerged. the water has flooded from the shore almost to the end of my street which dead ends about 30 feet beyond my driveway. It is still raining!

Reptiles probably would be more reliable, but they are somewhat "rare" around here. I just go by the calander and hope for the best haha. In years I plant potatoes I do use dandelions as the cue for when to plant them. Once the neighbors yard turns yellow, I stick them in the ground. It takes a white for the tops to break the soil and even if they do, I can just throw dirt on top of them if it gets too cold. Peppers go out in mid-late May (because I grow them in containers I can move them out of inclement weather) tomatoes get planted in the garden a week or two later. If we get a frost in early June (which is pretty uncommon), it doesn't much matter if the warm season stuff like squash and tomatoes get hurt by it, at that point there's not really enough season left for them to produce anyways.

Alisande, I understand you rooting for the bear. But...remember, "A fed bear is a dead bear". The bears need to be in the woods eating natural food. Check out this article and video about black bears getting too fat and dying early due to eating garbage and bird food in Washington state. http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article208464354.html Saying goodbye to an old summer fling is never easy, but on Monday the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) issued a warning that bears in the foothill communities of King County are getting fat and dying early, and it should make residents of Whatcom County think about what's best for the bear they fell in love with and nicknamed Barkley during the summer of 2017. Rich Beausoleil, a WDFW bear biologist, is studying bears along the I-90 corridor, and his research shows bears in communities such as Issaquah, North Bend, and Snoqualmie are nearly twice their average weight, in some cases, and are dying early, he told KOMOnews.com. Bears seeking food are attracted into neighborhoods by the trash and bird food residents leave outside their homes, and humans who are frightened by them sometimes shoot them, Beausoleil said. Or the bears can be hit by cars. "When they stay in the woods and they don’t come around people, survival is about 85 percent. But when they come in close contact with people and they visit these neighborhoods to get these food rewards, survival is about 59 percent," Beausoleil told KOMO. Assuming Beausoleil's numbers hold up in Whatcom County, that would mean Barkley or any other bears that visit area neighborhoods, are 30.6 percent less likely to survive than any bears that stay in the woods. "While some people may like seeing them because they think they’re neat, the next neighbor may not and so that’s how they’re dying," Beausoleil told KOMO. "They’re getting shot from homeowners. Or they’re getting killed by vehicles, but more often they’re shot by homeowners because out of fear." And if they're killed by people, they're getting fat — really, really fat. "The average size of bears in Washington, for a female, is 150 pounds," Beausoleil said in a story posted on KING5.com. "Bears that inhabit neighborhoods and take advantage of trash and bird feeders, females are 300 pounds. The average size of a male bear in Washington is 250 pounds. We've seen bears on the ridge in Issaquah and in North Bend that are 450 pounds. "These bears have become accustomed to people food, and they're being rewarded for taking advantage of it." Hate to say it, big guy, but it's time for a diet. Beausoleil is asking King and Snohomish coutnies to transition to bear-proof trash cans — not just bear-resistant containers that bears are smart enough to figure out — to help discourage bears, who can smell food from about two miles away. He also asks homeowners to take down bird feeders now that spring is over and has even suggested homeowners associations consider banning them. If the food is not around, he says, they bears won't come around anymore. "People are intentionally or unintentionally feeding bears and that's resulting in the death of bears, especially for newborn cubs," Beausoleil told KING5.