Man! today was a gorgeous day.  I was actually working outside and not in the ticket booth as well.  Sometimes it's hard to look out the ticket and see how sunny and gorgeous alaska can be.
After I got some chores done I ran back to the bunkhouse and grabbed my camera.

Before I get ahead of myself let me tell you how my day started....

Do do de do...I'm just walking to the giftstore....oh hey bison....oh wait bison shouldn't you be behind a fence?  Oh wait you should be in the enclosure with all of your friends!  Not chewing on the trees OUTSIDE of your enclosure!!!

I quickly called Mike and hopped in the yukon to block off the road.  We waited in the yukon and watched as another bison simply hopped the fence; because the snowbank was so high on their side.  Mike went and hopped in his tractor to go and get haylage to feed the bison.  As soon as Kat, the assistant manager in the gift store, hooted and hollared at the bison they turned and hopped back into the enclosure and all was well.  I did have to add some extra height to the spot in the fence where they escaped....but I guess it could have been a much harder task to complete if say 10 or 20 bison escaped right?

 So I went along with the rest of the day.

I did place some orders for de-wormer for our animals that we give them annually to just keep them healthy.  I only had to do a little bit of math to figure how much medicine to order for 125,000 pounds of wood bison.  Just when I thought I was done with Math.  I also ordered more de-wormer for 50,000 pounds of deer.  Well my brain was done for the day!

I was desperate to get back outside and get some fresh air!

This first picture is the pasture with the female bison and their offspring from last summer. 

 I drove around the corner to see our big brown bears.  This is Hugo just laying outside her den.  She actually hibernated on her own this past winter.  For some reason JB and Patron didn't let her join them.  My guess is Patron, the other female, had something to do with this.  They don't get along as well...typical. 

Patron also headed over to see if I had anything to give her.  She quickly learned I didn't and went back inside her den.

 Even though the fence level is really low becaus eof the snow we still have 3 hot wire fences running across.

 Jordan, our curator, was also outside checking on the bears.  This kiosk that he is standing by was placed there last summer.  It explains the future plans of our bear boardwalk. 








Speaking of future plans; the bear boardwalk has begun phase 1!  These pipes that are sticking out of the ground was the first step to building the boardwalk.  I believe they start the next step on wednesday of adding levels to the boardwalk. 

It is exciting to see how much the center has changed just in the past year since I arrived.  Mukluk, the orphaned musk ox is getting so big, Gilly and Nelson, the moose calves, are now living with Jack, and soon Taquka and Shaggy will be moving to Sweden! (Tear)  But with changes come new beginnings...is that how the saying goes?  Well anyways, you catch my drift...
Time for dinner!
Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn