snow machines not snow mobiles

moose kisses. ok now onto the blog part.

When you start your day with this nose begging for a banana you tend to get slobbered on fairly often.

Hey I'm not complaining.

If you visit the wildlife center often times you find yourself ending up in Girdwood,Ak.  Girdwood is only 12 miles North of the center.  I actually moved here back in August.  I finally managed to get my skis dusted off and hopped up on the mountain a few weeks back on my day off.  It was so beautiful.  

It probably doesn't look this nice right now as it is raining for the next few days.  :(

One thing I look forward to each winter is gettingour snow machines out.

Oh wait we don't have any.  Why you ask?

because this happened.....

When you play with fire it tends to play right back.

This past summer our boss was burning some grass to re-seed.  Well, just when he thought the fire was out the wind picked up and happened to carry the fire all the way down to our snow machines!

So now thanks to Alaska Mining and Diving we have 3 brand new snow machines!

These next few pics are when they were actually delivered.  They were explaining the differences in the machines and which work better in certain weather conditions.

It is very important to have snow machines that are dependable.  Especially when you are herding a 2500 pound Wood Bison onto the neighboring pasture. 
 

Jade, our red fox was out and about waiting for his breakfast.  I think besides raw eggs he really loves chicken!

He even prefers to have a nice chicken breast over some fresh moose! 




                                  photo: by Doug Lindstrand
Speaking of moose,  I was feeding Teddy and Nelson a banana when Doug Lindstrand happend to pull up and snap a few photos for me.
I promise I was actually working and not just having a conversation with the moose!  Although, if you ask me, Teddy is the better listener between the 2. 

Teddy is on the left and has already shed his antlers over a month ago.  Nelson will lose his antlers any day now.                             photo: by Doug Lindstrand

YAWN!  Doug Lindstrand caught this great yawn by one of our lynx.  They will be turning 10 yrs old this summer.  They originally arrived here 10 years ago as victims of a forest fire.  They had severe burns on their ears and paws.

I wish they were friendly enough to touch.....boy I bet the fur feels so soft!

When Doug arrived he wanted to get some close ups of Jade.  Jade was a little hesitant as first, but as soon as Doug pulled some treats out he perked right up!

The musk ox calves are doing great with the herd!  We introduced them almost 2 months ago back to the herd they were born in at the center.  I still give them a daily bottle of water (3 pints to be exact).  This is just to keep them comfortable around us in case we ever needed to go in with them for some reason. 

Wrangle, in the photo on the right here was hoping I had more than just a bottle for him.

They must weigh about 350 pounds now!

                                                                                                       photo:by Doug Lindstrand

Mukluk, our 3 year old orphan from Dead Horse, Alaska, even tried sneaking up and stealing some bottle time!  Look at her beautiful horns that she is growing!

It is now March 6th and I am just looking back on last years calves.  Chugach and Wrangle were born April 14th and April 18th.  I can't believe I could be bottle feeding musk ox calves in as short as 6 weeks!



I should get my beauty sleep while I can.  Maybe the bears do know what they are doing when they sleep all winter and party all summer. 

goodnight lower 48,
Erin