About a week ago the bear came and totally demolished our strongest garbage can. It was one really hungry bear, because the bears never 'beat' that can before.
The can.

So I thought I would do what the campers in Northern Ontario used to do, and put the garbage up in a tree. So, using the highly technical rock-in-sock technique, I threw a rope over a limb in a big hemlock and I put each day's attractive garbage up there.
The garbage.

So now you have my most recent household hint.

Now I'm just hoping the bear won't go up the nearby, climbable tree, and reach over and get the garbage! Actually the climbable tree is not as close as it appears to be in the photo. Foreshortening.

Now THAT'S what I call a household hint!

Brings to mind the old saying "Necessity is the mother of invention"

?? How close to the forest do you live that bears are nearby? and the bears invade your garbage cans... do you report it somewhere so some wildlife ministry gives the bear a free trip somewhere deeper into the forest?

I live in a heavily forested area with a few roads punched through where people have cut small areas (mine is two acres) out of the forest. There's a town about 20 minutes away and deer routinely raid flowers and gardens at night.

No, I don't call the Fish & Wildlife guys, if they responded to every complaint about bears destroying garbage cans or raccoons or cougars eating cats and chickens or deer eating tulips they would never get any work done. It's just the price we pay for living in a clean-air, clean-water, peaceful, quiet, safe, under-populated area. And they don't believe in relocating an animal, you might as well just kill it, because you'd drop it, all stressed out and tranquillized, into some other animal's territory.

So we mostly put up with the raids, and use various fairly harmless deterrents. Of course in hunting season, that's another story.

Invite Cheny to go hunting with the bear. Either some of your problems will be solved, or some of ours. Sounds like a win/win situation to me.