Rain.....oh it's nice to see you again.

Well, it has been a long time since I saw water fall from the sky.  We needed it!  the animals needed it! And most of all the land needed it!  It was getting so dry and dusty around here.  The garden is looking very nice.

                                                           Photo by Doug Lindstrand

        Our yearling Reindeer "chuckles" is getting walked daily.  Kara, a returning intern from last year was walking him when Doug snapped a photo of the two of them.

Another thing that we are always changing during the summer are switching the moose and elk back and forth.  Here in this bottom photo the Elk 

Our bison calf that we are bottle raising is doing well.  because she is not getting attached to us we are hoping that she could be re-introduced to the herd.  in this photo Emilie is trying to convince Randi to come closer for her 30oz. bottle.  Our formula is made of horse milk replacer and an exotic milk replacer.

                                                     
                                                         photos by Doug Lindstrand

 Meanwhile on our days off.....

I made a quick trip to fairbanks and Denali national Park.  from left to right...

Jeremy, Kate, Crystal, Me, Pet, and my bro Corey.  We are posing in front of the bus that was used in the movie into the Wild.

In the movie "Into the Wild"  some of our animals were used in filming.  a moose, caribou, Bald eagle, and a porcupine were all used from our center in this movie.

Later, on a hike, this ground squirrel on the right was posing just perfectly for about 5 minutes so I took advantage of his patience and snapped away.  I feel like a real "Doug Lindstrand"  this is my proud squirrel picture.

Again, this squirrel was so.....hmmmm what's the word?
MAJESTIC!  I wonder if he hasn't picked up a few treats from  hikers in the past.....

We hiked a mile and a half into an area of the park before turning around.  it was a beautiful sunny day there.

In total we saw 8 moose!  including a cow and her 2 calves.  Unfortunately we saw no bears.








One last group photo before we left the park and headed back to good old Portage, AK.  I was ready to get back and check on all the babies.

Well Denali, it was fun, but I need to run around the center some more.
Goodnight lower 48,
eRiN,

p.s. My family arrives on the 8th to visit me!!! woo hop!!!!

another Leighton sucked into Alaska

This summer is going to be epic.....yes I said it...EPIC!   My little brother arrived 2 days ago and is working up here at the center the next 2 months.  I am so excited to get to share some fun adventures with Corey.  It has been about 6 or 7 years since I have actually spent this amount of time with one of my brothers.  We started his Alaskan summer off with a bang!  Less than 24 hours of being in Alaska he has already hiked a mountain, walked to a glacier, and bottle feed a baby bison.
Not a bad start....

This was the group that went hiking.  Corey and I are on the bottom left.  Next to me at the bottom on the right is Crystal.  She works in the gift store and came from Utah.  Jeremy is in the center of the group.  Autumn, above Crystal, works for one of the most popular tour companys that comes through our center.  The two guys on the right are Pete (far right in pic) and next to him is Pat.  They also workin the snack bar and gift store at the center.  It was a great group to go hiking with.

                            Corey and I on our way to the top.  I guess He isn't my "little" brother anymore.

 Whew!  We made it.  corey was just hanging out at the top waiting for us.

                                        Of course we had to get a group photo of our success.

Meanwhile back at the center.....

Babies are born left and right!  Our count, as of yesterday, is up to 10 bison calves, 3 elk calves, 2 musk ox calves, and 1 rowdy fox.

The next photos are by Doug Lindstrand.  This time of year he is busy left and right catching all the colors changing in the scenery and of course all the wildlife that is coming out to enjoy this wonderful sunny weather.

 The elk calves always seem to be very photogenic.




Photo by: Doug Lindstrand

"Hey there!"
"Welcome to the group"

Photo by:Doug Lindstrand

                                      Take a look at all these long legs you models out there!
                                                            Photo by: Doug Lindstrand

what is that? You want to see more baby animals......ok sounds good to me!
Doug took this photo on June 5th.  It is fairly easy to spot any newborn calves....you can probably see why.....

 We have even been taking Jade, the red fox, outside for her daily strolls.  Here a snapshot of Sarah with JadeTIP:  When walking a fox on her leash make sure to take off her harness before placing her back in the kennel or else you just gave her a brand new chew toy.

Not that i am speaking from experience or anything...

-It wasn't my fault.

Photo by:Doug Lindstrand

Well it is that time of year again already to plant this years garden veggies.  The interns have been working hard getting all the stuff planted while we are having such nice weather.

We have planted: Broccoli, parsley, onion, potatoes, carrots (my favorite), lettuce, cabbage, and a few other things that I have forgotten.  Some of our tulips have finally bloomed.  Although out of the 150 that I planted with Sarah; I would have liked to see more than 20 or so that grew.

Amber, intern from Florida, was watering the garden as Doug stopped by on his way out of the center.  Because of all the sun we have had it gets really dry around the center fast.






We aren't the only ones enjoying this sunny weather...
Need I say more....

                                              Thanks Doug once again for all the great photos!

I better get to bed since I wake up in oh about 5 hours to feed some musk ox babies.
Gosh what a terrible way to start my day (sarcastically said)

Goodnight Lower 48 -wish you were here

-ErIn

another new addition....

The musk ox calves are getting big!  they are finally out for the public to see and they are loving the attention.  I also had a very important person visit me a few weeks ago.  Devin, my boyfriend, was just enjoying getting to feed these guys.

Chugach and Wrangle must weigh almost 60 pounds now!



We are also seeing some of their personalities come out.  wrangle seems to be the more personal one that tries to nurse off of everyone.  Chugach will definitely be the more aggressive one.











The whole week Devin was visiting the rain was pouring...but we still made the best of it.  We went on the 26 Glacier Cruise that goes out of Whittier.

 I believe this glacier behind us is called "Surprise Glacier".  Parts of the bay had so much ice that we actually couldn't get to some of the glaciers.

 So If you remember the ball that I gave to mukluk, a musk oxen, it's back!  I introduced it to this summers calves and they loved it!!!





ok so finally to the reason of this blog's title...we have a fox kit!  Our local vet examined her and determined her to be about 3 months old.  We first named her Brooks to go with the alaskan mountain range theme.  however, then Scott mentioned maybe naming her Jade.....we immediately liked that.  So we landed on Jade brooks.  So another JB has been added to the center.

 Today we introduced Jade to her new enclosure for now.  We used our baby gates to make a square enclosure in our intern kitchen.

                          We added toys, towels for chewing, and bags for her to go through.

http://youtu.be/aeEFHT-OU28


Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn

Summer is back!

ahhhh the birds are back, the moose are out, and we can pack up our heavy winter clothing because summer is here to stay.... for a few months at least.  I have started the hiking season right away by hiking with a good friend of mine named MT.  On saturday, we hiked a trail called"Turnagain Arm".  It was a total of about 7 miles round trip and my legs are still feeling it!

Along the way there are educational signs that teach you about the landscape.  I might know a lot of facts about bears; however, plants are not really my forte.

This is a photo of an Alaskan Paper Birch Tree.  It bark peels right off and looks like paper.  It is also a good fire starter if your camping and need to get a fire going.

The morning started out a little cloudy and not very colorful but by the end of the hike....

It was gorgeous!  If you look closely you can see the Seward Highway on the left side.  

Ok back to the animals....

The calves are getting so big!  They are already at 5 bottles a day now!  They start at 6 bottles a day when they are first born.

This little guy is named Kenai.  He is the middle aged calf and is the smallest.  

                                                Photo by: Mary Maddux

It has been the busiest time working at the center for everyone.  We are getting our spring cleaning finished and ready for some more employees.  A few gift store workers have already arrived.  We also moved into the new intern bunkhouse.  Pictures of our new home will be posted in next blog.

Even Teddy, the yearling, has been enjoying sunbathing in his hay!

Photo by:Doug Lindstrand

I am also currently dog sitting.  When I am not busy at work I am busy keeping 2 Brittany's (breed of dogs) occupied.  Yesterday, we did a quick walk up to virgin Creek.  I would say they enjoyed this little adventure.

The trail was still very icy; but that didn't stop these dogs.





Today, after work, I some how made it to yet another hike.  A few friends and I went about 1/3 of the way up Bird Ridge Trail before we decided that was enough for us.  I was ready for dinner!

Well after a very exhausting day I am in bed blogging and I am going to bring this to a close.  I have 2 dogs laying next to me and I just can't stay awake any longer.

Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn

baBIES, BABIES, bABieS!!!

It's getting to be that time of year again....babies!  Bison calves are expected any day now.  We had to do a bit of bison wrangling last week after work.  Last year's youngest calf has been limping a bit so we decided to pull him from the herd so we could better examine him.  This first pic was before Scott and I ran into the herd to grab the calf.  Mike Miller is driving the tractor so he could feed the grain out to separate the herd.

 ok it's go time!  Let's go get this bison!

 ok.....that calf was faster than we thought.....he is back in the herd now what?

In the end the calf was captured and was started on a round of penicillin to get his abscess taking care of.  We have been calling him "Rocky".  

 Later, in the week we snow machined out to Spencer Glacier.  It was so cool to be on a lake I went kayaking on last summer.  Kara in the first picture is a returning intern from last summer.  Kara plans on staying in Alaska more than just a summer. :)







Kara, Sarah, and I all went out to the glacier.  once we returned; Sarah and I went out a second time with Jeremy, another co-worker.

Now I can explain the title of this blog.  We have musk ox calves!

 Ok, Ok, I know this is a pink shoestring hanging around this calf, but he is a boy.  In fact, they both are.  We named them Chugach and Kenai is the younger one in the back.  They are named after alaskan mountain ranges.

 On another note; we had a photo shoot using some of our animals.  Roxy, the clothing brand for girls, had some models that they wanted to get pictures of with our animals.  it is not a very close photo but if you look hard enough you might see a little fur ball on the log with the model.  any guesses which critter it was?

Snickers!  He did so well!  In the end they got all the pictures they had hoped for.




We still had the school programs going as well.  On wednesday Sarah and I went to Chugiak Elementary with Snickers.  We then went to another school in anchorage to do another 2 programs on bones and Fur.  Whew!  This has been a busy few weeks!

 So after all that serious work I felt like pulling a prank on someone.  What do you do when you have 133 balloons that need a home?  You fill your room mates room up with them of course!

no need to explain the outcome....

 Oh but just when we thought the calves were done arriving with our musk ox a third one was born!  This little guy, and yes I said it was a boy, his name is Wrangle.  So the 5 streak male calves continues with our Musk Ox.









I ended my busy week with Keeper for a day on Saturday.  We had a group of 6 kids ranging from 4rth-6th grade.  They came ready to work.  we made more paper maches for snickers, bear popsicles, and even taped up hay bales.  Well that sounds like a productive day to end on.

Goodnight Lower 48,
Erin

Keeper for a Day

We couldn't have asked for a better day than to show 11 kids around the center what we do on a daily basis.

The age of the kids ranged from 3yrs-7yrs.  This year the size of the group doubled from last year!  I am excited that word is getting about about all of our programs.  After we walked the kids out to the brown bears and did a bit of training; we went to the barn and did a couple of different crafts.

One of the crafts that we did with the kids was make paper maches.  They were making these for our porcupine snickers.  It was really messy!  Good thing it was just flour and water!

DID I MENTION THAT IT WAS VERY MESSY!

 We also made bear pops.  We layed a variety of treats on the table and the kids would make their own bear popsicles.  We then put them in the freezer and will use these to feed to our Black bears through out the week.   We had celery, crackers, dog food, peanut butter, honey, peanuts, carrots, and then topped the mixtures off with snapple juice.   mmmmmmm those black bear are going to love these goodies.

 Today was an awesome day to spot Bald Eagles around our center.  I think we counted at least 5 or 6 different eagles.  This juvenile flew in and landed just above a mature Bald Eagle.  I don't think the adult eagle really appreciated his space being invaded by this younger eagle.

 Later, once the center was closed, the sun was still out and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to catch some more photos.  I rarely get to photo eagles perched this close together.  they were hanging around the brown bear enclosure hoping to catch some scraps.














Even the wood bison were photogenic today.  Usually when I approach them this close they run off.  They must have been thinking I was going to feed them or something.  This young female was getting closer and closer.  Notice her horns....she has her left one really worn down.  It is possible for bison to lose a horn.  However, since horns are permanent they do not grow them back if they lose them.

Tomorrow is my day off and I don't know what I am going to do.  If the weather stays beautiful like this I might just have to go on an adventure!

Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn