Clang, clang clang went the pot lids

A couple of weeks ago I was cleaning up the boat and getting it ready to put in the lake for the year when my neighbor Bob came over to chat. And chat. And chat. Bob’s a chatter.

The topic inevitably turned to bears and how to chase them off, as it so often does around here. Bob said a big black bear had been in their yard the other day. “Olga always bangs pot lids at them. Is that what you guys do?”

“No, Woody barks at them and they run away.” Bob looked incredulously down at Woody, who was sitting at his feet with his best “I’m such a nice little doggie” look on his face.

“Really? They run away from Woody? Huh. I thought they’d be running after him.” He was apparently considering Woody as a potential snack for a hungry bear, rather than a chaser thereof.

“Yeah, really. He’s not very big, but he barks, they run.”

The next morning, around 9 am. As Dean so eloquently put it:

“From out on Bob’s lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Out on to the deck I flew like a flash,
And then through the woods came a big rumbling crash.”

Dean heard pot lids banging and “Get out of here, go on!” accompanied by the sound of something crashing through the trees, running into the wilderness area behind our house. Okay, so the banging and clanging chased him away. It also woke up the whole neighborhood. I think we’ll stick to having Woody bark at them from the deck. It’s just as effective and it’s something the neighbors can sleep through.