Our summer is winding down as Mr. Troutbend prepares to return to Las Vegas for the winter on the 24th. I need to give him my list of things we need to do before he leaves. It includes a trip to the thrift store with some stuff salvaged from the cabin we replaced with a new one. It includes a 1970s aluminum screen door that is a smaller than standard size. It will either be a real find for someone or nobody will want it. There are still some very old cabins and houses in our area and it might be just what they need.

But the light is changing, and soon leaves will start to turn.

Our day today was spent at a Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting. They are held at various locations around the state, and this happened to be in our nearby town. It was pretty dry, but we learned a few things. 1. Sea lions on the west coast are swimming up rivers, sometimes 150 miles from the coast, looking for salmon. There is a conflict between trying to restore the salmon population and protecting the sea lions, which were headed toward being an endangered species. And 2. we learned about managing the deer herd in our area. It wasn't as interesting as we'd hoped it would be because it was more about statistics than Bambi and friends.

This time of year the bears go into hyperphagia where they look harder for food so they can pack on the pounds before hibernation. They're active until late October, so we're going to have to be even more vigilant to keep them out of our buildings and cars. The wildlife guy said to keep the key fob by our bed and if we hear the bear sound the alarm in case that will startle the bear. The question of the day is why do we hear stories of bears getting into cars, but nobody ever mentions them setting off car alarms trying to get into cars.

This is a small bear, probably a year old.