It's November and I'm quite a bit past the date I stayed at the center until last year.  The best part about that is I can see all the animals going into the rut and experience the fall.  Last August I saw the caribou shed their velvet but this is the first time I've seen the moose do so.  Below is a pic of Nelson, our two year old bull, losing his velvet.

We first noticed it by hearing it first...thats what happens when you live above the barn!  Haha Teal, Kayla, and I were nodding off the sleep when we heard Nelson rubbing his antlers on the stall door below.  He was super itchy.  Also this time of year you get to experience the elk bugling and the caribou locking antlers.  Things have really slowed down since I've last blogged.  We've all transitioned into our fall positions and are preparing for the winter.  Erin and I are holding down the fort at the center taking care of the animals and doing programs while the other girls are helping the maintenance guys build the new bison enclosure.  Forest service donated 165 additional acres for us to put the first group of bison to be released in spring 2015.  They're making some headway  but it'll be a huge project.  Shuttles are also down to only on weekends now.  Below are some pics of our last couple of sunny/warmer days we've had.  You can see the lynx are really enjoying it.

Erin taking some pics of Hugo playing with crabapples in the pond

Solo eating some breakfast...notice his teeny little antler nubbins!?  We'll give him a break, they're his first pair 

Creeping on me while I was gardening

Bottle feeding our HUGE muskox calves Chugach and Wrangle.  They are now weaned off the bottle and eating grain, haylage, grass, and veggies/pumpkins.

Sometimes I like to try and play tag with them afterwards 

Chuggie loves to suck on Wrangle's ears..we've started to put lemon juice on them

Nectarine donation!

Throwing them out to the bison

I just love this bull's do ; )

The fireweed is dying...winter is coming

The lucky breeding bull elk for this year shedding off the last of his velvet

If your wondering why I've been so busy this last month it's not just taking care of the critters at the center but with Scott's birthday came a new puppy named Rufus.  He's been quite the handful but well worth the work.  Below are a few pics of Scott's birthday celebration and the new pup.

Uncle Pat giving kisses 

He's about twice the size of this now! Haha

Look at those HUGE paws!!

We have a river that runs behind our place which is perfect for finding good sticks to play fetch with!

So with the fall not only came Rufus but I've moved into the dry cabin with Scott.  It's not much but it's enough for us.  We've even hooked up a propane tank so we can cook dinner on our stovetop and in our oven.  It's still very close to the center (right across the street) so night bottle feedings are still doable but far enough away where I'm not living and working at the same place.  The first time I've had a place in a year since I graduated college!

Now that it's fall we've also received our annual donation of Alaska state fair vegetables!  If you look closely you can see there are large cabbages, rutabaga, and more.  The bears love to feast on these as we dump a whole tractor bucket full of them.  We've also received a lot of pumpkin donations post halloween which practically every animal at the center enjoys.

As far as the center goes below are a few pics of happenings with the animals.  Things have been going well as we head into the winter.  This morning we finally got some snow thats stuck...which is GREAT!  Not only have I missed snow (missing out on winter last year) but snow is the primary source of water for our critters and since it's been cold and rainy with no snow our water bowls have been freezing everyday which equals a pain in the butt.

As you could probably guess Walter here is far beyond being weaned off the bottle but we've continued to give him a water bottle so he's easy to give medicine to.  He sure does remember the bottle!

Sarah and Kara whipping around with the gator to feed crab apples to the bears

Hooty in his new enclosure (older male great horned owls tend to start fighting).  He's about to eat his dinner of rats and mice.

A series of photos from walking Jade our red fox kit.  He won't be released coming in at such a young age so we've been training him and desensitizing him to prepare him in his career as an education animal.  Like Snickers Jade will eventually travel to schools in Anchorage, Palmer, and Girdwood for free programs for the kids.

Teal and I.  Probably out of breath after chasing Jade and playing in our old caribou enclosure.

Fall is the time of year for moose hunting season.  Meaning we get lots of donations of harvested moose and will sort through and store all the leftover meat for our animals.  Here I have an impressive set of ribs which I'm sure would make the bear's mouth's water.

A little mishap.  Can you guess what happened to our four wheeler?  I bet black bear Uli eating the seat didn't come to mind.  Naughty bear.

Chugie and Wrangle eating their grain.  They are getting so big!  Now they're weaned off the bottle...they went from 6 bottles a day to none.  And like typical babies I feel like all they do is eat, sleep, and poop.  You'd be amazed by the amount of poop we clean from their enclosure daily.

One of our fall projects was swapping Adonis from his enclosure to Jade's.  That way Jade gets more room to run around and Adonis will in turn get more shelter from the barn.  Since he has a full amputated left wing it's difficult for him to regulate his temperature...especially in the chilly winter.  

Interns Kayla and Teal (our best builders for enclosures) working on Adonis's new perch and home.

My favorite Patron greeting me at the back of the bear enclosure smiling for the camera.  One of my favorite things to do is call her out and walk with her along the fence line for the public. 

Walking Bert!

Wood bison tracks behind the brown bear enclosure

Erin and I joined Autumn and Kevin at Octoberfest at the day lodge in Girdwood.

Teddy and I : ) 

Rufus meet Uli

Nelson and Teddy are always so intrigued by Rufus.  So is he!  So much so we have to keep an eye on him so he doesn't go into their enclosure

One of my favorite things to do as an animal keeper is make different meals for the animals out of random donations.  This is one of my latest...Kate's black bear nummers.  It consists of albacore with ginger and soy, tomato sauce and sardines, broccoli, and dog food.  It was a hit : ) 

With animal care comes the occasional sickness or injury.  Chuckles our yearling reindeer recently got a foot injury on both back feet and so we had to get him from the enclosure (not so easy in the rut) and put him in the trailer to give him extra care.  He ended up ripping my pants and cutting my leg from my butt to my knee! Needless to say he's feeling much better and full of energy...caring for him is now a two person job.  

A rainbow at the center.  It reminded me of all the rainbows I would see on the farm in Maui.  I sure do miss that place, this time of year especially....kidding season!

One of the highlights of the last couple of months, besides Rufus of course, was that I had my first visitor in Alaska.  My dad came!  Even though I had to work we were still able to do quite a few things and have a great time.  I think his favorite part of the visit was getting to intern at the center.  We were able to spend a couple nights in Girdwood at a cabin, spent a night at the center (Dad got to experience the dry cabin lifestyle...dry meaning no running water haha), spent a couple nights in Anchorage, went on a bush pilot flight, visited Whittier and Seward, and even spent the night in a yurt at the Eagle River Nature Center.  That was probably the most exciting night we had...or scary.  To get to the yurt we had to do a 2.5 mile hike in and left a bit later in the day than we were planning so it was starting to get dark and visibility wasn't very good.  We were walking along with Rufus on a leash (thank goodness) and up ahead right in the middle of the trail I saw a black shadow with fuzzy ears and a nose.  We had come across a black bear!  We had to stop, make our presence known, and it took a few steps towards us.  Ok now my heart is racing a bit.  Then he turned around and disappeared out of sight.  Scott and I wonder if he maybe climbed a nearby tree because we couldn't see him anywhere in the distance when we continued on.  That was probably about halfway through our hike so the rest of the hike while it was getting darker and darker I think we all were a little on edge.  I guess the silver lining is Dad got to see his bear in the wild.  So because its been SO long since I've blogged uploading hundred of pics was in itself quite the job.  Below I've uploaded a ton of pictures so they're a bit shuffled and out of order...you guys will have to bear with me : )

Now that it's November our bears are getting ready to hibernate so here's one of Hugo's last meals of meat.  Now we are on to dog food since they don't always eat and aren't always showing up for meals.

A typical pose for Hugo

Snicks loved dad!

...till Dad tried to touch his tail while he was eating a peanut.  Yup,  dad is one of two people who have been quilled by Snickers.  

Our big boy Nelson (2 years old)

Dad and the moose spent quite a bit of time together.  Teddy meet Teddy haha

A picture of us with the bush plane we got a ride in.  We stopped at a sand bar.

We saw 5 moose, a few bald eagles, and lots and lots of swans on our plane ride.

Unfortunately it was too cloudy in the mountains that day to see the bears eating berries.

During dad's visit we had a school event with a bunch of kiddies from Girdwood.  We did mini presentations of Snickers, Bert, and Snappy as well as a puppet show, hay ride,  and gardening.  As you can see I did Snickers...one of my favorite programs to do.

By far my favorite picture of dad interning for the day.  Feeding the infamous lynx!  

Sirloin is on the menu for Uli and Kuma 

Nice throw!

Luckily dad was able to see these two before hibernation!  Uli rarely makes an appearance these days

Crazy Jade.  Probably one of the more entertaining animal encounters dad got to make

One of Jade's favorite things to do is to jump on us interns' backs.  He often catches me by surprise while I'm bent over giving him new water or cleaning.

Classic moose banana feeding

Teddy is such a sweetheart.  Moose kisses!

Scott and I taking dad on his last stroll around the center : ( At least the weather was good!

Dad getting a shot of the beautiful drive to Eagle River (Scott's Jeep)

Scott, Rufus, and I leading the way on our hike to the yurt...pre-bear encounter

The yurt!

That wood stove kept us toasty warm

Bonfire pit by the river

River behind the yurt

Sign we encountered while hiking to the yurt.  Relieved to have read this the next day after our hike

Even though Whittier is a ghost town this time of year we stopped by to see it and pick up some awesome shrimp that Scott and I made dad for his last dinner in AK

Panoramic view of the mountains just outside the Whittier tunnel

One of the days we drove to Seward to check out the SeaLife Center (which was closed when we got there!) and made a pit stop at Exit Glacier

Dad with Exit Glacier behind him

Meeting the pup : ) One night dad came to the bunkhouse for salmon dinner and to hang with the AWCC crew 

Feeding Hooty

Another bear feeding.  BIG chunk of meat for BIG J.B.

Haha dad thinking "will I be able to toss this over the fence?"

Dad meets Patron!  It's like he's meeting his granddaughter ; ) 

It took some time but Solo finally warmed up to him.  Guess all it takes is a bit of love and willow.

Meeting the boys!

Luckily he made it for one of their last bottle feedings before they were weaned off the bottle

We even saw belugas coming in with the tide along the Seward Highway

Last evening in AK.  Dad got the true Alaska experience and spent a night in our dry cabin.  We relaxed and took Rufus on a walk to the river and had shrimp and guacamole before heading to the airport.  Crazy Rufus...

He just wouldn't pose for the picture.  This pic kind of cracks me up

Hope you enjoyed your visit as much as we enjoyed having you dad!

After dad left it's been pretty quite around here.  It's starting to look more like Winter and we're getting less tourists and more locals.  One of the highlights of October was our Halloween event.  A lot of the Girdwood folks bring their kiddies to the center where we have different stations that are animal/halloween themed, a hayride, and tons of candy.  I was in charge of the honey bee station which was interesting for me because I didn't know much about bees before.  Beekeeping in Alaska differs from beekeeping in the lower 48 as you can imagine since we get such cold weather.  Because it was a younger crowd I more focused on the life stages of bees and different kinds of honey bees (workers, drones, and queens).  Kelly even had her supers set out so kids could smell and see the honeycomb from this last summer's batch.  Kelly was able to get 8 gallons of honey this year!  Last year she only got 4..probably because of the warm summer we had.  

The fox den maze we constructed with hay bales.

I was the bee and Scott dressed up as the crazed beekeeper.  Here's a goofy pic of him "smoking me out".  The smoker he's holding is the smoker Kelly uses to help make the bees sleepy when she wants 

to collect honey or work with the hive. 

Uli collecting straw Erin and I threw in her enclosure for her den.

Now that it's just me and Erin working outside with the animals (besides Sarah who does the larger feedings) we've tackled a lot of Randi, our wood bison calf's, feedings.  I like to do the night time feedings since it reminds me of the babies and all-throughout-the-night bottle feedings we have in the spring/summer.

This was a rare instance where Randi actually got semi-close to me.  Here we're touching noses.  Like most bison calves Randi is very skittish and hot and cold when it comes to having a relationship with a handler.  Randi can be a more difficult baby to work with as far as feedings and consistency goes so this was a very special moment.

Now that I've come to the end of my blog and update from the last couple months I have some pretty exciting news.  As you all know I've fallen in love with Alaska and have been kind of all over the place as far as a "life plan" goes.  And being young with no obligations I can get away with that haha.  However I've recently accepted a full-time position/big girl job with the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward.  For the last month I've been volunteering with their rehabilitation and mammal husbandry program and I will now be working full-time with them as their HR Assistant starting next week!  Though I won't be working with animals this position will allow me to not only stay in Alaska for quite a bit of time but pay off student loans and work towards my ultimate goal of vet school.  Also I will be working for a non-profit organization that focuses on research and rehabilitation of marine life in Alaska.  I couldn't be more thrilled.  I will miss the center greatly but look forward to volunteering with them as well as continuing to volunteer for the SeaLife Center.  Because of confidentiality reasons I can't post pictures of my volunteer experience with the center but I can tell you what I've learned and have been doing.  So I'm primarily volunteering with mammals, meaning the sea lions, harbor seals, and sea otters.  Right now the rehab program even has a 4 month old fur seal which is quite possibly one of the cutest babies I've ever seen.  That's right...I, Kate Huff, am volunteering with what used to be one of my greatest fears...sea lions! Haha.  I've been driving to Seward every Monday and working in food prep (sorting fish for the day), making buckets for training sessions, cleaning....lots and lots of cleaning, and training observations.  My most exciting experience so far has been actually getting to to free feed one of the harbor seals Kordelia (Korde for short).  As a volunteer I wasn't expecting to get any interaction with the animals in this capacity so I was stoked when Moorea, one of the mammologists, asked me if I'd like to free feed.  Free feed is when you just feed the animal without training them.  I look forward to the new job and continuing to volunteer.  So I won't be woofing in Maui or volunteering in Thailand but who knows what will come this spring/summer!  I'm not giving up on that dream ; )  it'll just have to be a vacation. 

Because Scott works at the AWCC as their director of marketing and sales and I'll be working in Seward at the SeaLife Center (an hour and a half from Portage) we decided to move to Moose Pass...the perfect in-between.  Moose Pass is about a 45 minute drive to each of our workplaces.  Scott and I went house hunting this past Wednesday and lucked out with the first place we looked at...a partially furnished log cabin just the right size for the two of us and a puppy.  We'll be moving in this next week just in time for me to start my new job.  As much as I love our dry cabin I can't tell you how excited I am to have running water and an actual kitchen, living room, and lofted bedroom.  O yah, not to mention the full size fridge!  

View from the front window...still surrounded by mountains : ) 

My favorite part, besides the running water...a wood stove!

Our very Alaskan door haha

Our property also borders the national forest boundary for the Chugach forest...lots of space for Rufus to run around.  This trail goes past our cabin.  Can't wait to try my hand at cross country skiing!

Well thats all for now!  Next post I'll have more pics of our place once we're more settled in : )