Back Alley Bread Deal

Righto... we are leaving PG this morning, beary early, but first we are making a stop. It is beary mysterious... We drove down a back alley in downtown PG... this doesn't look good!!

Hmmm... there is this huge silo type thing with "Rogers Flour" written on it...

And I'm not sure what these things are - but they look like big icing bags!

Ohhhh... we are behind the Pastry Chef Bakery!!! Whew... I was getting a bit nervous about this back alley business...

Oooohhh... look at all that bread in there!

Yup... that's a bakery in there. Gramma is in there negotiating a deal for rye bread. She is beary particular about her bread and this bakery makes the best rye bread apparently. She had ordered 5 loaves a few days ago... but the order got lost so now she is going to clean them out of their daily allotment of 4 lb loaves... 4 lbs???

I better make room in the trunk... Hmmm... I don't remember buying chocolate hedgehogs!!! Yummmm!!!

Oh wow... here are three of the breads... holy mackeral!!!

These are ginormous breads!!

And there are the other two - good thing I made room... Who knew I had a career ahead of me as a bread smuggler!

Birch Fungus

Hi again! I am still visiting Prince George (not the royal kid)... and today we are off for a hike to find some birch trees.

The trail we have chosen says we should "Be Bear Aware"... I am an aware bear... I think...

There is a cute lake up here... and you can see the yellow of the birch trees off in the distance.

The trail is beary nice and the fall leaves are beautiful.

Here we go - I found some birch trees!! Why do we want them?

Hmmm... apparently there is a fungus that grows on dying birch trees. It is called Chaga and is good for people are sick... We saw some about 30 feet up a birch tree. But there was no way to get up there... The humans suggested that I climb up there and get it but... I am not the best climber!

I have to say... the birch trees are beautiful!

There is some more... again, beary far up the tree...

Oh look... a cute squirrel!!! He could climb the birch trees but he seemed more interested in chewing spruce cones.

It is a beautiful day and nice to get out for a hike.

And then... we found a birch tree where somebody had made some cuts through the bark. Apparently the chaga thing will grow out of wounds in the dying birch. So clearly, we are getting close!

And there we go... some Chaga just a few feet off the ground!!

Somebody was here ahead of us though and took some...

But we found some...

Really... this is what we want?? It is sort of woody and looks quite ugly.

After quite a bit of work, we had about a cup of the stuff...

There was a lot of Chaga high up in the trees... too bad no-one has tree-climbing gear!

What do you do with Chaga? Well... some people grate it up and brew it like coffee... other people, like our friend in PG brew it up in a pot. It looks like quite a vile brew. Beary interesting...

R.I.P. to Canadian soldier shot in Ottawa today

Road Trip!

While we were at Gramma's, Mama told me that we were also going to visit Prince George...

From Canada.com

Eh??? Like the royal Prince George??? I didn't pack any spiffy clothes!!! I don't even have my passport!! I'm not ready for London!!! ... Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Mama was just shaking her head... we are not going to visit Prince George (the person) but Prince George (the city)... Whew!! And we are doing it by car... road trip!!!

I am ready - can I drive!? Hmmm... I can't even get us out of the carport... guess not.

But that's OK... cause I make a good dash ornament!

It is beary nice here... with mountains...

And beautiful fall colours!

One of the great things about road trips is that I get to have some junk food... Cool Ranch Doritos are beary good!

But Hawkins Cheezies are THE BEST!!! Oh yummmm....

As we were coming into Prince George, we stopped outside one of the Starbucks shops - this is where Mama and I first met! She says it is where she adopted me... but I would say it's where I adopted her!! Heh-heh!

We are visiting a friend here in town and helping her with some yardwork.

I can't mow the lawn or weed the garden or fertilize things but... I am beary good at making campfires!

It's getting going...

Ahhh... this is the life... I have a great place from which to supervise the humans... I wonder what else we are going to do while we are here?

How to make a little bear happy.

Ingredients:
Mug
Milk
Hot chocolate powder

Directions:
Heat milk.
Combine milk and powder in mug.
Serve!!

A pumpkin

Do you think I could use this pumpkin for Jerry and Ben's contest???

(posted using the blogger android app)

Sewing 101

One of the cool things with helping Gramma with things (like putting up shelves) is that Gramma then helps us with things (besides providing salmon and bluebeary pies). Mama brought her hiking pants with us because they are too long...

Gramma is super good with sewing - here she is cutting off the bottom strip of the pants...

She's doing a beary good job - I am trying to learn a few tips because I am a little rough-and-tumble bear and sometimes my clothes need repair.

But... there are a few problems...

Gramma is beary well equipped...

She has everything that anyone would need to do sewing... Hmmm... this looks complicated... maybe I will just stick with what I do best...

Finding lost things! Gramma dropped a pin on the floor...

And I am beary low to the floor so I got the job... let's see it must be around here somewhere...

Ah-hah!!! Found it!!!

Now Gramma is pinning the new hem up - this is taking a while... so I am just hanging around...

Ah... here we go... finally some actual sewing!

I don't know that I could ever get the hang of sewing - there are so many dials and settings...

But I make a great supervisor...

Not that Gramma needs supervision, of course!

There's the bottom end of the pants...

But no picture of the final product - it turned out great though. Thanks Gramma!!