The B.B.S.

Ok, this is the post I mentioned would be coming. What have the Styers boys been up to lately? The answer to that would be what we (the girls) like to call the B.B.S. This stands for the "Bear-Baiting-Station." It has been the constant "boy talk" around here lately. (Especially when all the boys are here at the same time together). A lot of thought and planning has gone into this, because they are all hoping to shoot at least one black bear. Currently each person is allowed to shoot 3 a year in the area which we live. The black bears are allowed to be lured into a "bear-baiting-station" like the one they are creating, because there is such a large amount of black bears, and lately they have been killing off the moose population.

What kinds of things have gone into this project? Well let me tell you...
1. First they bought a "burn barrel"
2. They scouted out a location about an hour north of Big Lake
3. The supplies were all taken out to that location
-Supplies include: dog food, anise extract, an anise scented ball that is hung from a tree, molasses, and clear scented balls that are scattered all around the area. All of these are used to lure the bear into the b.b.s.
4. They built a tree stand. The tree stand is about 10 feet off the ground, so when they go out to the B.B.S. they can keep watch from up above. This provides safety from the bears when they are lured into the area. (This is my favorite part of it all-the safety).

After they got this all set up, they left and went back a week later to see what had happened. There wasn't much sign of anything digging into the food, so that's when they added the scented balls. The new talk is that they are going to put a camera out there so that they can watch the footage later and see if there has been any "bear action." Tomorrow the boys will go back out there and wait with their guns to see if anything comes along...
Meanwhile the girls will be at home doing their crafts.

This is the area. Look at the picture below for a zoomed in view of the barrel.

I'll circle it in case you can't see it.