Sandy the Eco-Warrior

Ah-hem... Sandy Bear here, out for another hike. And... here's the thing I've started noticing... as humans come out of quarantine... they like to go for hikes as well but...

The amount of trash that they leave in the woods is getting to be ridiculous!

Here we have some weird flavour of Coke bottle... I can tell it's a weird flavour because it has a purple stripe on it. And this was only 30 feet from the parking lot and a trash can!!

And then there are the coffee cups... and their plastic lids... Also 30 feet from a trash can.

So... this little bear has had enough. I have recruited my human and we are now picking up any trash that we see in the woods... in two bags... one for cans/bottles (which have a $0.10 deposit on them) and then one for garbage. I have negotiated with Mama and I will get to keep the deposit money from all bottles/cans and that can go in my treasure chest. Beanie Mouse finds tonnes of change on the pavement in his town but... I really only hike in the woods where I find no coins... but bottles/cans... that works for me!

So... here we are... err... what happened to my face?

Ah-hem... here we are... Eco-Sandy is on a mission... to clean up the forests!

It sure is pretty here early in the morning.

And voila... a waterfall... This is the one I was telling you about in the previous adventure... that seems to be connected to the dry reservoir... well... the water is flowing here for sure!

Oh look, someone left a mega-jumbo marker here... pour quoi?? 

That counts as trash in my books... will have to see if it still writes...

Good grief... 

See!!! There's the exit to the reservoir! And it is definitely dry... just like the reservoir.

I think they don't use the reservoir anymore cause of earthquake risk or something...

Sooo.. at this point, I have a bag of garbage already...

And a pretty good haul of cans and bottles.

But this is not a job for those weak of stomach... seriously...

Do you want to see something super gross?? Mama picked up one beer can and it felt heavy so she turned it upside down to pour out the rest of the beer but... there was hardly any in it... but there was stuff in the can and after much shaking... out came...

WARNING!

SERIOUSLY GROSS!!!

Three semi-dissolved slugs...

See... seriously gross...

Anyhow... them's the dangers of the trade I guess...

Along the way... I found some red huckleberries!!

See... they are moderately yummy... not as good as the black or blue huckleberries/blueberries but will do in a pinch.

And the Oregon Grape is ripening as well... they are meh for eating but quite yummy as a jelly.

That's it for now... Sandy Bear, Eco-Warrior signing off... Hmmm... I like that... Eco-Warrior... I could use a cape to go with that title... Maybe a Halloween costume... hmmmm...

Smokey Skies

 Sandy Bear here... I am trying to get out of the habit of pre-posting blogs two months in advance! Sigh... soooo many adventures this summer. OK... so this is from September 12... not tooo far out of date. I woke up this morning to... beary gloomy, smokey skies.

See... normally I could see the ocean and the coast mountains on the mainland from here... but it's all just smoke. And not from BC either. This is apparently all from Washington State and Oregon. They are having beary bad wildfires this year.

See... this is normal...

It's a few minutes before sunrise and I thought I'd wait and see if we could see it come up.

Just have to be patient.

Hmmm... 20 minutes after sunrise and not much is happening. That is some think smoke if the sun can't even poke through!

Ah well... 

At least we can still see the moon although... later in the day... that disappeared too. And now we are just in a brown orange haze...

Did you know fall is coming? Hard to believe, eh? It's been such a weird summer and here we are in fall already.

This is just a little hike... we don't want to go to far or too hard because...

We have smoke and our air quality index is over 10. The scale only goes from 1 to 10... so we are all encouraged not to do anything crazy or vigorous...

Well... guess that means it's time for my weekly brownie. Yes... the brownie is only once a week... it is a well-deserved treat for this little bear...

And we did eventually see the sun... it looked a lot redder than the camera could get it...

Oh, and this is a comparative pic from Vancouver... Smoke and no smoke... Crazy no?

Chef Sandy and Zoo-Kee-Knee Loaves

 Chef Sandy here... today we are doing some baking. Because we are swamped with zoo-kee-knee... sigh.

We found a recipe without any eggs... we use apple sauce instead... although you could use smashed bananas too... We doubled the recipe because it only takes 1 cup of shredded zoo-kee-knee... sheesh... we have way more than that!

First... we mix up the dry ingredients... flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices...

Then... we mix up the wet ingredients which includes the sugar... and oil and apple sauce and other stuff...

We are using store bought apple sauce but soon... it will be apple season and we can make our own!

As for spices... it calls for cinnamon, ground nutmeg and cardamom... we have NEVER used cardamom in any recipe ever... but... last year Gramma cleared out some of her spices and gave them to Mama and... voila... one of them was cardamom!

This is a vintage jar I think... and yes, the cardamom still smells like... cardamom...

We also need some vanilla extract...

Then... you mix the dry into the wet... stir well, but not too much... and then fold in the zoo-kee-knee... pour into baking pans (preferably loaf pans) and...

... wait patiently...

This one was done faster cause it's thinner...

We have to wait until it cools before we can do a taste test...

And then the loaf pan one came out... while they cool... does anyone(s) want to volunteer as taste testers??