Brian,
I just read your story on the Wooly Bear's. Up north (Chicago, IL area) we used to call them "wooly bullies". Last weekend I showed my grandkids (Diana 7 & Alex 2) a couple (5 to be exact) of Wooly Bears that were on the bricks around my flower bed. These woolies were a good 4 inches long and probably 1 to 1-1/2 inches in diameter. Every one of them were almost totally black, you could barely see the brown fur. Of course my granddaughter was like "ewww bugs", but my grandson just loved them. He was giggleing, holding them & petting them & they just stretched out and let him do it. We saw these a day or 2 before we had those couple of really cold, below 35 degree evenings. So, do you think we should prepare for a harsh winter like the Farmer’s Almanac says??