Back in the Lower 48!

Wow what a busy end of the year it has been.  I haven't blogged in a while for a few reasons.  First, I could not find my camera charger for almost a month back in November.

The snow arrived shortly after that.
                                    This is Rick, one of our handy men, feeding the Bison herd.

In order to get ready for the holiday season some of the animals were also preparing for the big day in December....particularly Bert the reindeer.  Tom, Sarah, and I were walking Bert around so he could get used to walking around kids again.  He did very well when we took him to Girdwood Elementary for their annual Holiday Bazaar.  We also took him to a few holiday parties as the greeter at the door.

Soon it was time for my vacation!  I decided to make a pit stop in Hawaii to visit a few old friends from the summer.
  I needed to thaw out a bit!

 

 First stop....Maui!  Kate, who was an intern at the center, is now doing an apprenticeship on Maui at the Surfin Goat Dairy Farm.  She picked me up from the airport and wanted to show me where she worked.  Just as we arrived it was time to milk some of the goats.  They just walk right up to ramp and get their feed as they are being milked.

 Then, Kate let me hold some newborn baby goats!

 Ahhhhhhhhhh...more babies!!!!!

  

 Next on my agenda, snorkeling! As a thank you gift for house sitting; my co-worker Ethan and his family bought me a day trip to Molokini Island!  Wow!!!! What an awesome form of payment!  I also rented an underwater canon camera to make things even more interesting. 

I was having a blast!

Just before we were taken back to the harbor the boat crew stopped at a popular site to see sea turtles.  Sea Turtle populations are very protected.  They are finally back on the rise!  They can lay up to 200 hundred eggs at a time.  Unfortunately, only 2 or 3 hatchlings will survive to adult hood!

On my last day in Maui I just layed around and soaked up the sun, let the sand get between my toes, and take a few last minute splashes in the ocean.  

 and also enjoyed a sunset view...

 But that wasn't the end of my Hawaii visit.  I jumped on a small 10 passenger plane and went to visit another friend on the Big Island Hawaii.

Claire took me to Waipio Valley.  It was beautiful!  We hiked from the road down into the valley to enjoy the black sand beach.  Claire taught me a few interesting facts about the islands of Hawaii.  The black sand beaches are so young that there hasn't been enough time for the wearing away of the coral and rocks to have whiter sand.

 Just before Claire and her family took me to the airport to fly back to Texas; we stopped and had lunch on a beach close to the airport.  I love the tidal pool that is behind us.  I love exploring them and finding things hidden in crevices and under rocks.

I had a blast on the islands and am so glad that I was blessed to have such wonderful friends take care of me during my visit.  I hope to return the favor one day.



I know it's late but I wish all my viewers a Happy Christmas and New Year.  Goodnight Lower 48, or I guess I should say Goodnight upper 2!

-Erin

 

 It's that time of year again when pumpkins are being donated left and right.  Here there are two crates full of pumpkins just as you drive into the center.  We also have multiple pumpkins that were donated by students in Whittier as their service project.  In a week or so we will be doing Thanksgiving with the animals.  This is when we load up our tractor bucket full of pumpkins and dump them into each enclosure.  The animals go crazy for them!



I quickly stepped in with the lynx to catch a photo of Venetie.  They really seem to love hanging out on the balcony since they get the best views from there.

 I drove out to the point on my day off to get a good 360 view of the Chugach mountain range.  The sun was just peaking through.  Speaking of sunlight; we had the longest day of light until spring just a few days ago.  Adios sunlight!









All of our calves are getting so big!  I remember when these moose calves weighed only 40 pounds or so.  Now it seems that I have to do a dance to avoid them every time I go into feed them.  

 I also wanted to check out Portage Lake while the sun was out.  The Lake still isn't quite frozen enough to go out on yet.  It is at the top of my winter list to cross country ski out on the lake.  Or maybe ride my bike?

 Sarah, a dog I have been taking care of the past few weeks, was just waiting to go for our daily walk.  She will not let me forget to walk her....or I pay the consequences by having a very energetic dog at 10PM at night when I am getting ready for bed. 













I have been house sitting in Girdwood, and it sure is nice to have such beautiful scenery so close to me. 

Sarah and Sophie waiting for their nightly treats...

Today I am in the ticket booth.  It is a good day to blog and catch up on any emails or tv shows that I have missed. 

However, my day didn't quite start out like it should have.  We actually had an extra bear roaming the center this morning!  It wasn't one of ours.  It seemed to be a year or two old and couldn't figure out how to get out of the center.  Eventually, he made it out of the park. 

I am sure I will get some good photos emailed to me later....I will post in the next blog.

Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn

Halloween at AWCC

Halloween at the AWCC was a success!  But before I get to that here is what happened the week prior....

Living at the wildlife center I never realized we had our own private ice rink!  We had high tides about 3 weeks ago.  Since all the water flooded the pasture and then froze we can simply throw on our skates after work and well the rest is obvious. 

However we do things a little differently and with style....

So here is everyone gearing up to get ready for the ice.....they even had a fire pit out there!

 Not a bad few.....

 woo hoo!  Sarah is on the sled in the back with Abby looking like she is holding on for dear life, and her friend is rolling around Indiana Jones style. 

I had my turn on the yellow sled and I  think I  laughed like a giddy 12 year old the whole time!  It was so much fun!

 ahhhhhhhhh how cute and romatic! 

Que music: Sarah and Scott sitting in a tree.....











I have also been very busy house sitting in Girdwood.  Remember Scout?

 He thought he owned that Gift Store by the end of the week......
Thanks Kat for letting him hang out.

 Lately, for the past month or so, I have started volunteering on Mondays at Bird TLC (Treatment and Learning Center).  I get to basically feed the birds, clean cages, and work on any other projects they may have for us. 

This is Kodi a crow.  I am not sure what his story is but he always is trying to get into things.  Birds like crows in captivity need to be kept busy.  We did things like putting his food in closed containers so he had to work to get the bottle open.  We also hid his food around his cage in things like cardboard boxes and toilet paper rolls. 

Here one of the long time volunteers is preparing the daily meals for Bald Eagles, owls, and other birds.

 This is a Golden Eagle that lives at Bird TLC for now.  I think they are so beautiful!  One reason I like volunteering at Bird TLC is that I am learning so much about birds.  I don't have much experience working with them so I figured what a great way to learn about them and it's hands on. 

Ok we are getting closer to present day....

Dog sitting with Scout is over :( , but now I am on to another fun dog named Sarah.  I will be house/dog sitting for another two weeks with this lovely gal and a cat named Sophie.  (Sophie will make her debut next blog) Sarah seems to find the biggest stick when ever we go on walks.  She nearly takes out other passers along the way!





                                                              Halloween is here!!!!!
It was such a great success last year that we changed up some of the stations this year.  Kelly, the Director of Education, made a really cool hay bale maze for the kids to crawl through representing bats and sonar.  She also had a bat activity for them to make their own hanging bat. 

 The lovely Kat Jacobs, AKA Morton Salt Girl, ran the "feed the animals" station where kids did a bean bag toss to feed the painted animals behind her. 

 Patrick was a German boy that had Mosquito Man for the kids to toss ping pong balls at where that learned interesting facts about blood and animals. 

For instance, did you know that cats have 11 different types of blood?  Cows have over 800 types!

 Sarah was a green troll.  She had the kids step into a green room where they had to identify animal sounds. 

 I was Rosie the Riveter.  I made a graveyard where the kids unburied bones and tried to identify which animals they belonged to.  We had a Musk Oxen, Moose, Wood Bison, and Brown Bear. 

 Scott was a mouse at his station.  The kids dissected owl pellets and tried to identify which type of animal the owl ate by matching the bones to a chart.  I think Scott really enjoyed playing the role of the mouse.....

Sarah has her head down and is looking longingly at me just hoping it's time to go run around outside.  So I better go let her burn some energy. 

Goodnight Lower 48,
Erin

School Programs have begun!

 And now it is time for bears to hibernate, tourists to return home, and Kiddos to see education programs!  To kick off the school season we had a fun packed day with the K-2nd graders from Girdwood Elementary.  We started off the day with a puppet show.  Sarah and Scott were the puppeters and did a great job!

Afterwards we divided into two groups.  Kelly and I did a porcupine presentation and a Caribou presentation; while Sarah and Scott took the other nuggets (little kids) on a hay ride.  -more to discuss about the hayride later.....

One thing the nuggets are going to be learning about is earthquakes.  Since we are at the center of where the 1964 earthquake happened we were in a good spot to show kids the effects from the earthquake.

Sarah and Scott were on the hayride.  Well the ride part lasted the first 10 minutes until the wagon broke down!  Here they were using tractors on both ends to fix it. 

 The kids were having a blast; especially since the Wood bison were surrounding the hayride thinking there was going to be food for them.  Talk about up close and personal with the bison....

They finalyy threw some pumpkins to the bison so thay couyld get back to work and fix the wagon.
We got about 6 pallets of pumpkins donated since they froze before the seller could actually sell them.  I think they were put to good use. 









Meanwhile back to the earthquake lessons....We have an old Portage cabin on property that is one of the last cabins remaining from the old Portage town site.  We keep a sign near it so that tourists can see the difference the earthquake made.  The ground sank 10feet during the earthquake!

Every year the cabin seems to fall apart a bit more...

Kelly then went back to the barn where we did our porcupine presentation and Kelly did a Caribou presentation. 

















One of the last things we did before the nuggets hopped back on the bus was let all the teachers do a bottle feeding.  It turned out to be a gorgeous day for a field trip!  We ended their field trip by making these two musk ox calves very happy and full from their bottles. 

Well it's back to work and guess what....snow is here!!!!!!!  We have already had about 4 inches total.  The snow is actually sticking and I think it is here to stay for the next 5 months......oh boy I don't know if I am ready to give up warm weather already!
Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn

time to move

Well as I said in my previous post...it was time to start moving out of the summer cabin and back over to the wildlife center.  Since I now have two pet chickens; I wanted to get them introduced to their new neighbors.  Luckily, my good friend and co-worker Sarah was able to help me move.
After the fact that I asked her to hold Boca and Tofu for me on the ride over to the center; did she mention that she wasn't a big fan of chickens!

 Tofu is meeting her new neighbors.  I hope the old ladies don't pick on the newbies.  My chickens should start laying eggs in about 2 more months.  I can't wait till I can have fresh eggs in the mornings.  Of course I know that I will only get 3 or 4 eggs a week; if they are good layers. 

 My chickens are so cute!  They are called Barred Rock Chickens. 

 Saturday was such a gorgeous day!  We had Bald Eagles hanging around the center left and right. 
On the right their is a pair of mature Bald Eagles.  A juvenile Bald Eagle is on the left.  

 I also spotted a second juvenile eagle later in the day. 
Bald Eagles, along with other species of birds, mate for life. 
Another fun fact about bald eagles:  of the mating pairs the females are usually the bigger of the two.

In our two Great Horned Owls that we have at the center; the female, Snappy, is the larger of the two. 

 I had a bit of spare time on Saturday to drive to Turnagain Flats.  Turnagain Flats is an area about 15 minutes south of the center in the Kenai Peninsula.  Every winter one side of the road is designated for snow machiners; while the other side is designated for cross country skiers.

I plan on learning cross country skiing this winter.  I would even like to groom a path at the center when the snow returns. 

 The snow is already about a third of the way down the mountains.  Soon enough the snow will be on the ground!

 In one of the most recent work days I had to make a run to Girdwood for some groceries.  I also made a pit stop at the potable water fill up.  Just across the street the volunteer fire department was testing their hoses.









Kara, another co-worker, came along and we re-filled some water jugs for the bunkhouse.  Well, I guess I should say that she did all the work since I was busy taking blog pictures of the fire trucks....Thanks again Kara! 

Sadly, the last 3 interns will be leaving over the next week or so; and then it's just the winter crew left!  Man the summer went by fast!

 I changed the settings on my camera to make the colors really pop!  I wanted so badly to run under neath the hoses....but I remembered I wasn't in Texas weather anymore. 

Before winter really hits I wanted to clear out our garden.  I pulled all the cabbages, broccoli, lettuce, and cauliflower to feed out to the animals.  Along with the musk ox; the elk were big fans of their special treats.



Tomorrow I have to make an early run to town for some tulips so I better head to bed.

Goodnight lower 48,
ErIn