That Time of Year Again....

Well the summer is officially coming to a close...interns have already gone back to school, the calves are getting weaned from their bottles, and the weather has just a little chill on the end of it.

The fireweed has died which marks 6 weeks till winter!  It has been over a month since I last blogged!  Living across the street from any internet access has made me lazy with my blog.

Since my last blog I had a very special visit from my mom.  I have lived in Portage, AK for a year and a half now with no vehicle.  It really hasn't been that difficult and if anything I would probably do it all over again.  I was able to get comfortable with winter driving before I really had to worry about owning my own vehicle; or even pay car payments.  Well, my parents surprised me with a truck, and one day I hope I can return the favor.

It was perfect timing to since I didn't have to ride my bike home in the rain.....

Since then I have also gotten to expand my horizon by learning some bird handling techniques.

Last week a volunteer vet, and 2 other volunteers from Bird TLC  donated their time by visiting the center and doing health checks on all our birds.  They even showed us how to handle the birds if the occasion ever arose.  Good news-all of our birds are healthy and exactly where they should be.  We even signed up to take a bird handling course in a few weeks so that we can volunteer at the their center.  

This was me helping hold down "Hooty"- the male Great Horned Owl.

One of our last field trips of the year was going to Barber Cabin.  It was located in Cooper Landing.  We parked and then hiked 3.3 miles to the cabin, and we couldn't have had a better time.  Their was also a canoe located on the lake with the cabin.  We attempted to canoe the lake but it was just way to windy to go very far out.

 I went with an awesome group of people!  From left-Kat (my awesome cabin mate/very good friend, me, Sarah-another very good friend of mine, Scott and Pat which are brothers.  Scott is an intern from last year, and convinced his brother to come work at the center in the gift store for a few months. 

This is Sarah Howard; we will be working together this winter and I am very excited!

In the past few weeks or so we have done some filming for a few different projects.  A movie called "Wildlike" starring Bruce Greenswood went in with our bears to get some shots.  Bruce stared in the new Star Trek as Captain Pike I believe.  I was very jealous that I wasn't at the center while all of the filming was going on.  Kara, an intern, recognized him right away and got a picture with him. 

The past few days we have had so much rain that I haven't even attempted to take pictures.  We are do for some very serious wind storms for the next few days.  Keep your fingers crossed that we don't blow away out here in Portage!

Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn