In my last blog I mentioned that I will be staying until December....I meant to say that I am staying till December then going home for a wedding/christmas, and returning in January for work. So I still have a full time job out at the center and am so excited to stay a full winter in Alaska!
So here is what has happened in the past few days....
On Friday me and four other workers went to the Musk Ox farm in Palmer. We had a behind the scenes tour and learned how the musk ox were used for their Qiviut (pronounced kiv-ee-at).
This musk ox is "Safety" she is a 3 year old female.
This is the vehicle they use to herd the musk ox. The dents are from the bulls hitting the truck during rut. Rut is the time of year when all the male animals will be fitting for dominance over the females. The time will be here in a few weeks.
We then went to a book store. If there is one type of place that I miss having around it is a good ole used book store that I can spend all day in finding new reads. After I purchased a couple of novels, one being "The Help", we headed to lunch. When I woke up that morning I discovered a 20 dollar bill in my pocket! Don't you just love it when that happens....
So what did I get for lunch? Some good ole Mexican food. Oh it was so delicious!
We headed into Anchorage to run a few errands. I wanted to look at cameras. Since I will be living in Alaska now I will be needing a better camera. We had been in the mall for an hour or so when we got a phone call. There had been a terrible wreck on the Seward Highway. 3 cars were involved with 1 fatality, 2 critically injured and 14 total injuries. Please pray for the people involved in the wreck. Because of the wreck, the seward highway was closed until 7pm. So we were stuck in Anchorage. We decided to eat dinner and just hang around to kill time. So when 4:00 rolled around we got another call that the highway was closed till 10pm! So we went to see Cowboys vs. Aliens. Finally it was time to head home.
Saturday was a very busy work day! The moose calves were hungry....as usual. The bears were out and about.
Last night we had our end of the year work party. It is really sad to see people leaving already.
Today I had a friend visit from Russia! She brought her family and I gave them a behind the scenes tour.
Inga was one of roomates in the dorm my freshmen year of college.
There was also a lady visiting that brought along a few pets with her....
This is a Taiwanese Beauty Snake named "Mercury". Sarah conqured her fear of snakes last year.
This is "Tiamat" who is a Argentine Tegu. Tegus are known as "beaded" lizards because of the way their skin feels. That's all I really know about these types of animals.
Vanessa is posing with her new friend who is An Alaskan Husky.
Well I will try to keep up better on the blogs!
Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn
Oh...and did I mention we got a fox kit in a few weeks ago....we haven't named him yet so.... any suggestions?
Still waiting for those suggestions....
more rain...but Alaska is still just as beautiful.
Scott and Joe Boxer where wondering what the other was doing...
Sarah AKA-Howie left 2 days ago ;( Now we are only doen to 3 interns! The summer is coming to a close so fast!
My horse was named Thundercloud. She is 17 years old. 
The guide took us up a less used trail since we could handle the trail.....or so he thought. When we got to the top of the mountain this was the view.
As we started to get to the bottom we were able to take a group picture. I think it looks really cool with the background. 
At the end of the ride Thundercloud received a lot of grain as a treat. 
Hershey, the caribou that we walk daily, has completely shed his velvet already. he shed it all in one day! The females were taken out of the enclosure to prevent the males for fighting over them, and possibly injuring themselves. 
I told you it was a B-E-A-UTIFUL day! :)
After work me and sarah went in with Chimo. He is our 11 year old Alaskan Bull Moose. The Alaskan Bull moose is the largest member of the deer family. Anyways, so this is Chimo. He has a hoof growth deformity. This means that we have to annually trim his nails for him. If he were to be released into the wild he would eventually not be able to run from a predator or even walk around since they would grow so fast. 
When we were feeding the calves at 6pm we wanted to goof around and take some funny pictures. The moose both turned around and well.....it was just a funny picture I think. 
Patron was already waiting for her morning snack of hotdogs and reindeer dogs. 
Hugo and Joe Boxer were hanging out as usual.
Thursday morning I also had the AM bear shift. I even had a few staff members from the sealife center in Seward visit for a behind the scenes tour. It was just as beautiful yesterday as it was on Wednesday. However, we did have wind all day long....which still beats the mosquitoes.
We had a really busy day full of running around with the sealife center employees. There were only 2 interns working yesterday, but we still managed to get all the animals fed and cleaned. Joe Boxer was following me around the bear enclosure as I was walking it at 5pm to check for any holes. 
Today, Friday, I fed the moose calves at 8AM and they were ready for their bottles. They are now getting 32oz. 5 times a day! This is Nelson that is looking at the camera and Gilly is in the background. 
Now Gilly came over to check out what we were up to.
This is Gilly. He still has his orange coat that the younger calves have. He will probably be all brown with in a week. He is shedding it like crazy!
We have been keeping an eye on patron's nose. About a week ago we noticed that she had a single porcupine quill in her nose. I know, how does a bear only get 1 quill? Well, it was definitely a quill. Eventually, it either fell out or has burrowed itself completely into her nose. Either way, we are keeping a close eye on it for any signs of an infection. She seems to be doing fine. 
uys I only had to work one day. So as I headed home I stopped by to visit with one of the maintenance guys dog...mazzie. 
Shaggy dug right into the fish. The brown bears seem to like silver salmon way more than pink salmon. Also, they would rather eat the brains, eyes, and scales, rather than the actual meat that we love. 
I was feeding the cubs before I headed into the gift store for training...don't worry I was very careful not to get stinky salmon on my clothes.
Taquka really liked to play more with his fish rather than actually eat it....He would sling the fish around. 
This musk ox is "Safety" she is a 3 year old female. 
This is the vehicle they use to herd the musk ox. The dents are from the bulls hitting the truck during rut. Rut is the time of year when all the male animals will be fitting for dominance over the females. The time will be here in a few weeks. 
Inga was one of roomates in the dorm my freshmen year of college. 
This is a Taiwanese Beauty Snake named "Mercury". Sarah conqured her fear of snakes last year. 
This is "Tiamat" who is a Argentine Tegu. Tegus are known as "beaded" lizards because of the way their skin feels. That's all I really know about these types of animals.
Vanessa is posing with her new friend who is An Alaskan Husky.