As an unusually mild, rainy summer was melting away or rather frosting its way into autumn, I took to noticing signs that our mountain people have always used to judge the forthcoming severity of winter. Everywhere, it seemed, I saw those little black and yellow striped, hairy caterpillars that I grew up calling “wooly boogers” but officially known as the banded wooly bear. This being an educational column of sorts, you should know that.