Gardening day

Today was another sunny, beautiful day in Portage Valley. It started out a bit chilly and windy, and ended up being about 65 and sunny with the wind dying down in the evening. I would much rather have wind and be chilly than have no wind, warmth, and tons of mosquitoes. It was a nice break from them. Although yesterday was my day off, I was glad to be back at work. I felt like I missed out on the party being in the bunkhouse half the day then on a bike ride/hike the other half. I like working with the other interns.

At 9am, I headed to the brown bear enclosure and was there for about an hour. I was relieved of my duties by my roommate, Scott. He is a funny guy from Minnesota. I then headed to the garden to finish up the planting I had started two days ago. I finished the carrots and radishes flower bed. It took about two hours to water all of the plants and plant the last of the carrots and radishes. I was proud of what the garden was shaping up to be. Our lead intern said that she was putting me in charge of the garden because I spent so much time there and liked it so much. It was cool to hear but also a little scary because all of the plants that are grown in the garden, aside form the ornamental flowers, are fed to the animals at the center. This means that if something goes wrong with the plants for some reason, I'm the one to blame. I am not too worried about it though because everything is going fine so far, and I am excited to see how they do.

After a lunch of a reindeer dog and a hot dog, I  drove across the street with the four wheeler with Vanessa, the moose enthusiast, and gathered willow and alder branches. The moose, muskox, porcupine, and sitka black-tailed deer really enjoy the fresh branches. We loaded up the front and back of the four wheeler and drove the ridiculous looking branch-covered camouflaged four wheeler across the Seward Highway and into the center. We were quite the spectacle.

I was then sent to the brown bear enclosure again to fill in for intern Erin, who went to help out at the ticket booth, which got really busy all of a sudden. I stayed there and talked to people about bears from about 2:30pm to 5:45pm. It was a fun time and people liked to see the three bears up close especially when I threw them chunks of salmon. The bears didn't mind it either.

At 6pm, I went back to the bunkhouse area where the moose calf is kept in a livestock transportation trailer. I got in there, after changing into clean clothes and sanitizing my shoes with bleach. The calf must not have been hungry. Last night at midnight he eagerly chugged the eight ounces of formula and wanted more. Today, we wasn't really feeling the bottle feeding at 6pm. I tried again at 8pm, and he still wasn't interested. The lead intern, Kristen, tried to feed him at 10pm, and this time he felt hungry. He drank the whole bottle containing two cups of formula. I will need to go back in at 2am to feed him again. It is fine with me because I would probably be up that late anyway seeing as how tomorrow is another day off! I am excited for tomorrow because my biology professor from college, Dr. Wolfe, will be coming to the center as well as a bunch of Houghton students! I am looking forward to giving them a tour around the place and telling them about the animals. It will be a good day, especially since the forecast is for 71 degrees and sunny! The beautiful weather continues. Well, I've got to feed the calf in a half hour, so that is enough about me and my day. Catch ya later. Oh, and here he is!