Caterpillar says...

...another bad winter?!?! 

While raking leaves today, we found a couple of these little guys.  In the picture, he's all curled up in his "I am spiky and not good to eat" pose.  Or maybe he just doesn't like to have his picture taken.

Folklore around these here parts says that these "wooly bear" caterpillars are predictors of the weather.  No, it's not whether they see their shadow or not.   They're supposed to have an orange band in their middle - the more orange hairs they have, the milder the winter.  The more black hairs they have, the rougher winter will be.  Some folks even say that each of their thirteen segments represent the 13 weeks of winter, and you can tell how many bad weeks we'll have just by counting the black segments.

As you can see, this guy is all black.  That's just like last winter, which was a bear and a half with all the cold and non-stop snow.  Despite his bad prediction, we sent him on his way.

By the way, J. says this is a "woolly peter", but I think he's pulling my leg.  I, however, am not pulling your leg and you can read more about these interesting little critters here.