Bear Maintenance...

I bet you thought this would be about the bear hunt.  Well surprise, it is about garden decor.  More specifically my fishing bears.  They are dry cracked and two of them have lost their marbles.  They needed some TLC.

I stained them with some deck stain.  Giving them a nice summer tan.  Then I glued their eyes in, or tried to.  Don't think that was a simple task.  The little bear has big eyes and the big bear has little eyes.  Of course, I came to that realization after I dropped the big marble in the eye socket of the big bear.  My husband commented that it looked like he had a head injury because his pupils were unequal.  Do you think I could get that marble out?  We had major optometry surgery on the porch.  It took awhile but the operation was successful.  I got the marbles in the right bears and glued the heck out of those eyeballs.  

 I found them some fishing line and even a bobber this year.  I put the pump in and the bears are back on the porch.  I think they even look happier.  Now that I think about it, we did see three bears on our hunt and fishing trip to Canada.  Like the little guy, we even caught some fish.

T 

That isn't the end of my bear story.  I am here to say Gumbo Lily is right and there is nothing better than lard when baking.  I took our guide's advice and made a blueberry pie using the bear grease in place of shortening.  WOW.   Again I quote my husband (twice in one post he is on a roll), "I don't like change, but this is the best pie crust ever."  

Not only did I use the bear grease for a pie crust, but also in biscuits for my morning egg sandwiches.  There are no photos of the breakfast sandwich, because we were hungry.  I did have a biscuit leftover, slathered it in honey, and took a photo before eating it.  The honey is from our beehives.  Though I don't know if we will have bees much longer.  Our keeper brought in a new hive and they are ornery.  I've been stung 4 times already this year.  Before this year, I've only been stung once since we got them in 2009.  I wasn't even poking around the hives.  Just working in the orchard.  If they don't settle down they may have to go.  

Anyway,  back to the bear grease.  My only advice would be add add more flour or use less grease.  Here is my cloud biscuit recipe.  It makes four biscuits.   Just right for two people. 

Cloud Biscuits

1 c. flour add another 1/2 if using bear grease

2 t. sugar

1/4 t. salt

1/2 c. bear grease or shortening

1 egg

1/3 c. milk

2 t. baking powder

Sift dry ingredients, work in shortening until crumbly, add egg and milk.  Don't over stir.  Pat out on a floured surface.  Don't overwork the dough.  Bake at 350 degrees until brown.  Sorry forgot to watch the timer.  

Geeze, quite the weekend.  That was only a quarter of what I did.  It is good to get outside and get things done.  Hopefully, some flowers will start blooming.  What did you do this weekend?