Winter Quiz

It snowed a little last night, and this morning we noticed some tracks left in the new powdered snow; can you guess what they are?

First up:

Well, we guess that these tracks belong to one of the neighborhood cats...what do you think? We have a large bird feeder in the back yard, and at night the cats come around to investigate.

Next:

This is obviously a bird, probably a larger one and maybe the Blue Jay we saw at the feeder this morning; they sure do like peanuts!

Next:

These many tracks are left by the NUMEROUS squirrels that hang out at the base of our bird feeder; they're looking for any yummy treats that the birds kick out of the feeder.

Then, there is this print:

This one is easy, one of the seKretaries was out shoveling the sidewalk this morning and left this print. You can see that we only received a little dusting of snow, but it sure does make everything look very festive.

Finally, this one:

Ok, this one is a bit more difficult...clearly it is two different prints, side-by-side. They look like two individuals traveling together, one with 4 distinct legs, and the second on the right is just one larger, well, bottom. What do you think?  Can you guess?

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That's right, you guessed it! It's Karl and Bullwinkle!!

Karl and Bullwinkle arrived very early this morning...regular blog readers know that Karl travels from the Yukon in Northern Canada and stays with us each winter so that he can attend classes during the winter session at the University of Minnesota.

It sure will be a great holiday to have Karl and Bullwinkle share Christmas with us.

Do you have any visitors staying with you this year?

Winter Outing

Ben says, "Jerry anD me took a wintur hike today."

"Wintur haz arrived in MinneSOHta" adds Jerry. You can see that the hiking paths are coated in snow.

The lakes are mostly frozen over, and so the ice skaters and hockey players are out enjoying a great day. 

"In thiz photo, we're aktually standing on a lake" says Jerry, "anD you kan see the big city in the bakground."

"Luckily" adds Ben, "we have a sled to help us kross the snow covured lake...  ... wait a minute, why am I pulling Jerry??" Happily for Jerry and Ben, the seKretaries are able to pull the sled so that both can enjoy the sled ride.

After a hike, there is nothing more fun than sledding down a snow covered hill!

Jerry wanted to make sure to add, "Of course, we insisted on a hot chocolate and cookie break after sledding...little bears do get quite hungry after an afternoon of sledding!"

Do you have any show where you live?

Bearthday Catch-up

A few days ago, Jerry celebrated his bearthday!

This year, Jerry decided that he didn't want a birthday cake; yes, surprising news indeed. Jerry said he wanted a birthday apple pie, so Ben got out grandma's apple pie recipe, and cut up apples, and made a crust, and voilà!

It turned out really well...we know "really well" because it only lasted 2 days...yes...and entire pie eaten in 2 days...ok, not just because of Jerry, but the seKretaries and Ben helped too. Do you like birthday cake or pie?

Jerry is also showing a postcard we received a while ago from Little Fox; he traveled to Monterey...and we know Otto would sure like the image on this card! Jerry also received a fun bearthday card from Little Fox too! Thanks Little Fox!

Coming up next month, a new Jerry's Corner episode, stay tuned!

And the Winners are...

We're beary pleased to announce the winners of our 2018 Halloween Contest! Thanks to everyone for entering!!

Contest 1: Halloween Costume (mostly purchased costume)

First Prize: DROOPY, for his "O doggo mio…" Italian-inspired costume!

     

Isn't it great! It makes us want to take a gondola ride in Venice (Jerry adds: yes, with a nice hot cheese pizza to enjoy along the way!).


Contest 2: Halloween Costume (mostly home-made)

First Prize: SANDY for his bearded caveman/garden hermit costume!

We almost didn't recognize Sandy under that thick beard and mustache! 

Contest 3: Pumpkin Carving / Jack-o-lantern

First Prize: LITTLE FOX & FRIENDS for a great looking Jack-o-lantern!

Of course, it looks even better and more spooky when lit up at night! Great job!

Contest 4: Home-grown pumpkin or gourd contest (from your garden!)

First Prize: SANDY for his great looking orange gourd/pumpkin (we're not sure of the variety...are they for decoration or can you eat them?)

Thanks to all the contestants. Prizes go out tomorrow.

2018 Halloween Contest

"Me an Ben are beary happee to announze our

 8th Annual Beary Spooky Halloween Contest

You can view the results from last year's contest."

"That's right Jerry, same contests as last year:"

Contest 1: Halloween Costume (purchased costume)
Contest 2: Halloween Costume (mostly home-made)

Contest 3: Pumpkin Carving / Jack-o-lantern

Contest 4: Home-grown pumpkin or gourd contest (from your garden!)

Contest 5: Halloween Art Contest (no Jack-o-lanterns, but any other kind of art).
To enter, have your human companion(s) (1) take a photo of you in a Halloween costume and/or (2) take a photo of the pumpkin that you helped to carve, and/or (3) take a photo of you showing off your home-grown pumpkins, gourds or Halloween Art. Send copies of the photo(s) to us (jerryandben@yahoo.com) or post the them on your own blog and copy the post's/photo's address (URL) and paste it in the comment section of THIS post. For costumes, let us know which category you are entering. The Contest is only open to stuffies (sorry humans and seKretaries). You may enter as many contests as you wish, but each stuffie can enter each category only once (e.g. Ben may not enter 3 different home-made costumes). 

• • • Contest Deadline: Saturday, October 27, 2018

Postcard!

Our pal Jake agreed to present the postcard we recently received from our pal Little Fox!

Little Fox was visiting Lake Tahoe (lucky fox!); aren't the mountains and lake beautiful! Little Fox mentioned something about some amazing ice cream, but sadly couldn't include any samples for one little bear in our house who would have been beary happy to help taste test it.

North Shore Escape, continued.

Our pal Little Fox recently posted about his visit to some great waterfalls. After reading his post, Jerry said that he wanted to visit a couple waterfalls before we headed back home from our relaxing visit in northern Minnesota.

Before arriving back in Duluth, we stopped at Temperance River State Park. There are lots of pine and birch trees, huge rocks deposited by glaciers, and of course a river.

But after a little bit of hiking (the trail is nice, but sometimes a bit difficult for two little bears)...

we see deep gorges cut by an ancient huge waterfall and river, and the now much smaller river that continues to wind through the gorges.

The scenery is beary beautiful!

There are lots of cool waterfalls.

They are fun to explore! We know a Canadian Bear who would likely enjoy exploring more state parks with us next year!

North Shore Escape

August has been beary hot here, and it's also nearly time for us to complete our annual seKretaries' evaluation. We've been dropping hints about the heat (little bears don't do well when the temperatures are over 90 degrees) and our likely poor ratings for our seKretaries this year, and guess what? We've been surprised with a 3 day trip up north to the cool shores of lake Superior!!! (Note to all stuffies; if pleading eyes don't work to land you that well-needed vacation and rest, a few little hints here and there about the annual evaluation will do wonders).

 We first stopped at one of our favorite places: Split Rock Light House. We've visited the site before, but we always stop here along the shore and have a picnic. Can you see the light house perched up on the rock in the distance?

It's a great place to have a picnic.

The beach isn't composed of sand, but lots of very smooth stones that have been rounded and smoothed out by the glaciers and the lake.

Our nice cabin is right on the lake...and what a view...

It's so nice when a seKretary serve you some cranberry juice and a cheese and crackers plate while you relax and enjoy the sunset (we think someone was bribing us for a good evaluation score...).

The next day we set off to explore Moose Mountain (it's a big ski area in the winter, but just as nice in the summer).

We took a gondola ride to the top of the mountain.

There were some great views, but a little hazy because of all the fires out west. You can see lake Superior--it's the light gray area just about the dark blue-gray area.

We stopped for a yummy lunch at the famous Naniboujou Lodge outside of Grand Marais.

The painted ceiling and walls are incredible...

...and the the walleye fish sandwich is a favorite, so yummy, with homemade potato chips!

So far, we may have to improve the evaluation score this year for our seKretaries...

Bastille Day

Happy Bastille Day!

Ben. "Vive la France!"

Jerry, "Vive le chocolat et les patisseries!"

Ben also says "salut Rose!"

Postcard!

We received a postcard from Little Fox!

Little Fox visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and isn't any postcard with a cute bear on it just the best? Little Fox got to hike, take nice photos, and of course enjoy lots of after-hiking snacks. Thanks Little Fox!

Ah...Summer!

(No photo caption needed!)

We hope you're enjoying your summer!

Ajdin Mail

We recently received a postcard from our pal Ajdin

He was reporting from the Space Shuttle Discovery! Gosh, we hope they have good snacks in space. Safe travels Ajdin!

Garden Update

It's hard to believe that about 5 weeks ago we had a BLIZZARD--yes, a beary late April blizzard. Needless to say it was a long winter, especially for Jerry who was itching to get into the garden.

Well, a few weeks later and our garden is doing nicely, so Ben took some photos of Jerry showing off his flowers. First, some beautiful purple irises...

...and some red and white geraniums...

...some marigolds that are just getting started and some purple heliotrope (Ben calls this purple fluff).

We've also had a few visitors. Our gnomes are back; the red door gnome lives in the herb garden (more gnome updates later).

We also had a HUGE visitor in our bird bath, a Cooper's hawk. It was very hot that day, and we think he was cooling off.

We hope your gardens are doing great!