Well in between the rainy days we have managed to have a few spots of dry weather.  This past week has been jam packed full of events.  On Friday, I went to Whittier,AK and hopped on a 4 hour day cruise.  I did a quick 20 minute speal about  the wildlife center.  I must say I did not mind doing a little bit of glacier sight seeing....even if it was raining.

This glacier posted above and below is called Black Stone glacier.  There was even a bit of wildlife hanging around.

 We were able to spot a Harbor Seal and her pup taking a break on a chunk of ice. 

 Finally the sun was able to make an appearance!  On Labor Day we had a perfect day for gardening.  These two gals posted on the right are a great addition to our intern program. 

 Kate, from Michigan, is on the left; and then Claire is from Hawaii, on the right in this photo.









I even took a quick photo of the lovely Kat Jacobs walking her boo, Hershey the reindeer. 

 Unfortunately the gardening project did not last long for me.  However, I was able to spend the rest of the day with Sarah.  Sarah is a third year returning intern.  I am very excited to be working with her again.  In fact, I will be interning with her tomorrow...woo hoo!

Anyways, back on schedule, so we got a call that we needed to pick up about 12 pallets full of donated meat!  We quickly jumped in the flat bed and drove all the way to Wasilla.  We then spent another hour loading up the flatbed.  As we noticed that the donation was piling up very high; I had to purchase another freezer to store all the meat.  Sarah and I were mentally exhausted from the stress caused by the drive back.  We were both worried that we almost had to  much weight on the flat bed.  However; all ended well.  At the end of the day the bears were getting sirloins, filet mignon, and other prime cuts. 

 Once we got to the center we both felt like a load was lifted off of our shoulders.

 I could definitely have taken a nap!

Well it is 2AM my time and I have to go bottle feed three moose calve soon.  Oh by way; Claire, Nicole, and I just got back from Soldotna with 2 more moose calves to raise with Sullivan.  Did I even mention Sullivan AKA Sully?  We got Sully about 8 days ago.  He was attacked by dogs and needed some basic medical attention.  He is doing better and better every day.  So back to the 2 moose.....We are now bottle raising 3 moose, 2 musk ox, and I may or may not have purchased 2 chickens for my own personal hobby.  Tomorrow I will take some snap shots of Boca and Tofu (my chicken's names) and introduce my readers to them.  I suppose I could even photo thee 3 calves along with Walter and Hammond.

Toodle Loo and Goodnight Lower 48
ErIn

 Wow!  What a busy week!  The interns have just about all arrived!  Here are two new gals added to the AWCC summer intern staff.  Claire and Kate were walking Hershey for the first time this summer!  I think Hershey was very happy to be getting some bread as a treat.






Tonight MT, and Nikki were taught how to feed baby musk ox.  With a possible 3 moose calves arriving any day now I am training as many people to help out with bottle feedings as possible. 

Walter and Hammond are growing so fast!  Walter weighs nearly 35 pounds.  Hammond is coming up to 30 pounds fairly quickly as well. 

 After work I wanted to take Tug, my boss' dog, to burn some of his puppy energy at the "beach".  It is a nice little strip of land located on the back property of the center.  Instead of sand it is basically a silt like mudd.

 Tug was wearing me out!  He had so much energy!  By the way, if you have a dog with lots of energy that likes to jump....taking him to a beach made of mudd isn't the best idea.....

After work today; I went for a bike ride with a few other friends to good ole Portage Lake.  Last time I made that ride was over a year ago.  As usual; I am always astounded at the scenery that I live in. 

 I loved how the mountain's reflection was peaking through the bits of Lake breaking through the ice. 

Well, this blog was short and sweet with lots of pics.  I am tired and have a 4AM bottle feeding with a 2 day old moose calf.  Don't worry I will post pics of this little guy soon!

Goodnight Lower 48,
Erin

summer has arrived and so have new people!

 The adventures have begun!  Kat and I have been checking out the local rock gym a lot lately.  We even brought two more friends along with us.  Marcie on the left is one of the gift store employees that has returned for the summer.  It was her first time to climb...Kat was giving her a pep talk. 






Meanwhile...... back at the c!!enter....
the musk ox calves have been sprouting like weeds!  Walter is getting so big!  Jonathan gave him his bottle and he downed it in about 3 seconds!!!

                                        It's official meet....Hammond...AKA HAMM!

 The same day we had a huge donation of bananas!  Cyndy Lopez donated about 120 pounds of bananas!!!!!!  Gilly and Nelson were very happy with their treat.

Thanks Mrs. Cyndy!!!!!!








Even Snickers was given a donated Corn on the cobb...oh man did he love that!!!!

 It was my turn later in the day to feed the two boys...I didn't even have to look at what I was doing.  Walter could handle it on his own.  Hammond was slowly approaching for his bottle.










On my way home...yes I said home....I was walking home to a beautiful scenery.  Because we have so many employees living at the center this summer the center has rented to cabins for the summer.  I will be living with Kat.  Marcie and Sarah, two other employees, will be living in another cabin.  I will basically be camping all summer.  We do not have running water.  Typically this would be a bit harder to do; however, we do only live across the street from the wildlife center. 

 Today, Thursday, was my day off.  MT, another employee, and I went hiking.  I decided, while I was in a very energetic mood, that I  would sign up for a trail race on June 17th.  It is a hike that is 3 miles and 3400 feet elevation.

Today we did the Falls Creek Trail.  It was a 4 mile trail (one way) with a 4000 ft. elevation.

I can honestly say that the 2 scoops of ice cream topped with hot fudge and whip cream I chased down afterwards were well earned!    

 This picture on the right with my feet was when we reached the top.  I was too tired to even stand up too take the pictures.









All around the view was outstanding!

Well, it has been a long day!  I am exhausted!  I finally was able to post since I don't have internet over at the cabin. 

Until next time,
Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn

Walter and ?

Sorry I have spaced out these blogs a bit more than I have liked.  I have been so busy with not only Walter, the nearly 2 week old musk ox, but we now have a second musk ox calf!  We have yet to name him, hint the title of the blog, but we definitely have a few ideas in mind.

Here is Walter at 1 day old before we took him into our care in order to provide him with more nutrients that mom was not able to provide. 

                                                  photo courtesy of Doug Lindstrand
Walter in his new enclosure.....

                                                       Photo Courtesy of Doug Linstrand
Boy, with these 2 little guys time sure has flown!

New calf number 2!
Any name suggestions?  We were thinking Hamm?

I can't imagine what we are gonna do if we get any orphaned moose calves!

This summer sure is going to be a busy one; but a fun one!!!!

Raising any orphans or calves as young as the musk ox there are protocols that we must follow.  In order to make sure we don't bring any illness into the musk ox calf enclosure; or out, we must always wear gloves, bleach our shoes before and after the bottle feedings, clean their enclosure every few days, and even use a specified sponge on their dishes.

Kat and I did the 8PM bottle feeding last night, and I was FINALLY able to grab some photos.  Walter is on the left of us.  You can tell he is very comfortable and curious with us.  

We have also been weighing them every other day to make sure they are gaining the proper weight; and therefore getting the proper amount of formula.  If we were to give them too much they could get sick.  Their stomachs are very sensitive; the formula is fairly high in lactose so we do weigh out the powder when mixing their bottles.

For now they are getting 6 bottles a day!  So every four hours they are given a bottle; which means I better hurry out to the 8AM bottle feeding!

 http://www.ktuu.com/gotoak/ktuu-alaska-wildlife-conservation-center-names-baby-musk-ox--20120507,0,6060987.story

Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn

New addition to the center

 I must say it has been a fantastic week.  Where do I start.  I guess I will pick up right where I left off....
So I was spending my day off on Tuesday at Kaladi brothers.  I was also house/dog sitting at the same time.  I brought Scout along with us to Anchorage so that I didn't have to worry about him doing a potty dance at the house. 

I was told by a local that I met at the coffee shop about a nearby dog park.... perfect opportunity to try it out with Scouty boy!  So around 10am Scout and I headed out on the town in search of this park. 
It was relatively close, and right away Scout met a new friend named Kaluah.  We walked the mile or so trail with Kaluah and her owner for the rest of the way.  I was showed signs of where the beavers hang out in the bark. 

This tree was somehow still standing even though about half the trunk was chewed through!

 Along the walk I even spotted my first muskrat!  I know it may look like a beaver, but the tail is too thin to be a beaver.  There were about three of these little guys swimming around in the lake.  They were all this same size. 








The next day at work I did something that I haven't been able to do for a while.  I gave Taquka some peanut butter through the fence.  I guess I have been so busy that sometimes I forget the different things I used to do when I could go in with the bears.  Taquka was very excited to get this special treat.  He even let me keep my spoon when I was done! 

 At the end of the day Kat and I were invited to tag along for a rock climbing adventure!  We had met some friends one night in Girdwood and we dropped the hint that we were interested in rock climbing but didn't know anyone that we could go with.  They were very generous to invite us on their next excursion.  Here Kat had just reached the top of the cliff and was headed back down.

 This is a picture of the whole rock side that we were climbing.  The name of this rock climb is "Party Rock".  Kat picked out this location based on the name.  I must say it was a very nice climb for 2 people that didn't have any outdoor climbing experience.  I was about half way up the wall in this picture.

 When we were finishing up our climbing the sun was also setting.  I remembered to note the sun setting at 9:53 pm!  It is funny how fast the daylight returns.  Even now it is 8:49 pm and still sunny and gorgeous outside.  I may actually have to close my blinds tonight!





On Thursday I loaded up the yukon with the puppet show stage and puppets; as well as snickers for a few things we had on our schedule for the day.  After the puppet show was over Jonathan and I packed up.  I hoped in the yukon and headed to Snickers' appointment with ABC studios!  They filmed Snickers and I in 3-5 minute segments about porcupines.  Snickers was very well behaved.  Mrs. Dorene Lorenz was very lovely to meet and hope to work with her again for future programs.  Mr. Mark Colavecchio was a little nervous around snickers; he was also fun to work with. 

 Once word got out that Snickers was in the building; the crew had to get some pictures as well.

Alright, so you may have wondered what the new addition to the wildlife center is?  Well.....
A BABY MUSK OX!   This summer AWCC has decided to bottle raise any musk ox calves that our female musk ox have.  Because Mukluk, our 2 year musk ox orphan, was bottle raised as a calf we think our calves will do better bottle raised.  They are getting more nutrients through the bottle feedings than they would from their mothers.  This is simply because the nutrients that are normally found up north in the soil where they live naturally are not in the soil this far south.  

Kat and I literally just got back from doing an 8PM bottle feeding.  This little guy is only 3 days old.  He weighs 22 pounds!

 These next 2 photos are by Doug Lindstrand.  He is so dedicated to capturing all the action at the center that he drove down to the center before we opened and took these snapshots as we just moved the calf into his new enclosure. 

After about 10 minutes or so he was really warming up to Jonathan and Doug. 

We are giving this little one 6 bottles a day!

Which means I better go grab some shut eye since I have a midnight AND 4 am feeding next.  I love my job! 

Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn