A Beary Special Tree

On today's adventure, Mama promised Sandy that he would see a beary unique tree... a tree like no other!! He was beary excited... wondering what this tree could be...

There it is!!! It is... it is... it's a cottonwood... but Sandy has seen a lot of cottonwoods before! What is so unique and special about this tree??

Well, it's what comes out of the tree... can you see it??? Sandy couldn't either... although he could hear it!

See the two red arrows and the red circles at the top and bottom?? It is a stream of water!! Yes... water!

Holy moly... there is a pipe coming out of the tree and it is pee-ing... well.... not really - it is fresh clean mountain water... but it is called the Pee-ing Tree.

It has quite a forceful flow and Sandy wasn't quite sure it was good to drink. He might get beaver fever or something... but Mama did drink it... yum!

Bye-bye pee-ing tree...

River Gazing

Sandy went for a walk down by the river today, but a different area... this one is an island and is beary beautiful...

 There are big tall trees...

With interesting carvings... some are small (like this one)...

And some are large, like this one...

And some are medium sized... like this one!

There are lots of dry leaves to scuff through...

 

And beaches to sit on... but not like a beach in Meh-hee-ko!

But there are gorgeous views... and sometimes Sandy just needs to sit... particularly after a long stretch of adventures - scary ones too!

And then it's time to scuffle off to Gramma's for pumpkin pie (but not from Sandy's carved pumpkin!).

Beary Spooky Halloween Contest

Halloween is coming up in a week... and in the spirit of the season, Sandy's pals, Jerry & Ben, are sponsoring their Second Beary Spooky Halloween Contest! Sandy deliberated for quite a while over what to wear... He thought maybe he could be the Invisible Bear!! With a bit of photo magic (courtesy of Mama) that might have worked... but the costume would be a bit hard to see! But then... Sandy had a bright idea... and with a bit of help from Mama and the tp rolls... we have...

The Beary Spooky Mummy!!

 Oh yes... roaming through the remains of the pumpkin patch...

 lurching forward with that typical mummy gait....

stalking through the wood pile, scaring squirrels and birds alike... until...

the Beary Spooky Mummy comes face-to-face with the garden mirror balls...

and the Mummy squinted a bit (it was a bit hard to see with all that wrapping)... could it be...

Oh my goodness!!! There was a mummy in the garden!!! A Beary Scary Spooky Mummy!!! Run for the hills!!

And so ends Sandy's Beary Spooky Mummy adventure - shuddering under the covers... perhaps next year Sandy will dress up as Paddington Bear!!

P.S. The results are in and Sandy won First Place in the Costume Contest (yay!!).

Sandy's First Pumpkin Carving

Jerry and Ben are hosting a Pumpkin Carving Contest!! At first Sandy was a bit worried about it. Mama is not the greatest pumpkin carver and Sandy is just a young bear so... this could be a bit scary! But... Jerry and Ben also demonstrated Pumpkin Carving for Beginners so... here we go...

First - get a pumpkin... which was Mama's job.

At first Sandy thought she had gotten a dud of a pumpkin (all green and gnarly) but... after pushing it around to the other side...

 Sandy decided it would do!

Then you carve off the top of the pumpkin, where the stem is...

Then you scoop the innards out... ummm... first you have to make the hole bigger!!

There we go - you scoop out the innards which are very slimy and gooky...

Sandy did an inspection of the innards and except for a few seeds... it looked pretty good.

Next you have to mark where you want your face to go... at first Sandy tried a pencil but... that didn't show up at all!

So Mama gave him a Sharpie felt pen which worked great!

Mama got to do all the knife work... that way Sandy would get all the glory if things went well... and Mama would get all the blame if things went wrong!

So far things are going OK... You have to do the major cuts first and then you can fiddle with the details later.

There we go!! Sandy was a bit concerned when the Sharpie marker wouldn't wash off... but luckily Gramma had some rubbing alcohol so that cleaned it off good!

 Hmmm... that's a beary nasty looking pumpkin with those sharp teeth! We'll have to take a picture outside when it is dark to get the full effect!

 There we go!! Sandy and his pumpkin!! Except... you can't turn your back on a fierce pumpkin like that...

Noo... because pumpkins with sharp teeth can turn on their creator!

 But it's just a playful pumpkin! Sandy giggled wildly because the sharp pumpkin teeth were tickling his toes!

 Sandy even found a scary spooky cat to pose with the pumpkin...

P.S. The results are in and Sandy won Second Place in the Pumpkin Carving Contest (yay!!!).

The Problem of the Pants

Back in August, Sandy was in Bearlin and had a problem with his pants...

They were starting to split along one seam... not because Sandy had eaten too many yummy German chocolates but because he is a rough-and-tumble bear who is always on the hunt for adventures!

Faced with the prospect of a bare bear bum... Mama took out her emergency sewing kit... put her tongue between her teeth and stitched up Sandy's pants. The job was... adequate... but not... aesthetic!! But... while Mama is not a seamstress, Gramma is!! One night when Mama had already gone to bed, Sandy tugged on Gramma's pants and asked her to fix his pants...

Look!!! You can hardly tell there was every a split there!! And...

Gramma strengthened the seat of Sandy's pants as well because the seam was starting to look weak there too.

And just to be on the safe side, Gramma stitched up the other seam no Sandy's pants... Whew!! He is ready for the upcoming Meh-hee-ko trip!

Yellow Maple Leaves!

Sandy was out today and saw some yellow maple leaves! They looked so pretty...

 

They go well with his green coat too!

River Adventure

Today Sandy took a little walk on the rocks down by the river...

 It is beary pretty down here and the river is quite low.

 Sandy can scramble around the rocks and hide and pop out going "boo!" to unsuspecting humans.

 Of course, it makes a great spot for photographs as well...

But then Sandy sees something interesting sticking out of the rocks... what are those??

Big iron stakes with rings on the end! What are these?? Turns out they are anchoring points for the old river steamboats that used to go up and down the river in the olden-days... Cool!