First freeze

Sunday morning was off to a nice start.  It was a little foggy, but it would soon clear up.

Only 20 minutes after I took the previous picture the fog was rolling away.  The mountains were peaking out, the sun was arriving, and best of all the rain was on vacation!

I was ready for a full day of work.  I fed the moose calves at 11AM, woke up the big bears, checked all the hot fences, and even started cleaning snickers' enclosure. 

Now that winter is around the corner most of the animals are going to start putting on weight.  One of the animals that may need to add a few pounds is Jewelie.

She currently gets 6 cups of reindeer grain a day, along with fresh brush, and a few fruits and/or veggies.  Every once in a while we give jewelie an extra cup of grain.  The sitka black tailed deer are not very adapted to the winters in Portage.  They are not in the wild in our area.  They do very well in the summers, but never make it as far south as portage.  Jewelie becomes much less active in the winter.  We really have to watch her weight.  She is at a very healthy weight right now and she is 7 years old.   I am also cleaning out the garden and pulling the remaining veggies before we get a big freeze.  I plucked some fresh broccoli, lettuce, and cabbage for jewelie and snickers.  Jewelie loved the brccoli.  We are always open to take donated fruits and veggies.  COSTCO donates pallets of mostly fruit every once in a while.  The pallets are huge and they are always a big help.  Members that come often will also donate fish from cleaning out their freezer, meat from hunting trips, or just come by to watch us give their donated food to the animals.  We are ALWAYS very appreciative. 

Jewelie always goes for the flowers on the broccoli first!  She also loves the broccoli leafs.

 The moose calves got their daily lunch.  A 44oz. bottle each along with 20 cups of grain.  They also had birch leafs that were donated by a member.  He cleaned up his yard and knew that our moose would be more than happy to take the branches.

 Around noon it was so nice outside that I wanted to feed the bison a little early.  This particular group of bison are the bulls.  Total amount of grain that I fed to all the bison in one night was 720 pounds!  Can you imagine the food bill!

 I also did a porcupine presentation.  Snickers was very interested in watching me clean his house.  It was his annual cleaning before winter arrives.  Boy!  Did his house stink!  If you have ever smelled a North American Porcupine try smelling where they live!  Well, anyways, it is clean now...at least for the next few days....

Snickers had the remainder of the cantelope along with fresh lettuce and broccoli from the garden. 

As I was passing the garden I saw a great opportunity to get a picture of one of our caribou.  For the most part he didn't mind me taking a few pictures.  He just huffed at me a few times but never really moved. 

I finished off the day by going back to the garden for some last minute cleaning before winter arrives.  Sunday night we had our first freeze and it was just a glimpse of what is coming soon.  On monday morning I walked outside and there was a very thin layer of ice on the ground.  It was very exciting.  I may be excited for winter now, but we will see how long the excitement lasts when the snow won't stop coming! 

I have a long day of work outside tomorrow.  I will finish up working in the garden after all the daily chores.  It is supposed to be a very nice day again I plan to take advantage of the last few sunny days left.

Goodnight lower 48,
ErIn