Best. Summer. EVER! Part 1: Summer Job

Ok, it has been a really long time since I posted on my blog and a lot of things have happened since the last post.  Basically, I have had the best summer ever!  Some aspects could have been better, but overall, things were pretty great.  Let me start at the beginning...

Part 1: Summer Job
I got a summer job working at the West Coast Game Park Safari in Bandon.  I was part of the presentation staff, so I got to do some of the animal shows.  I got to play with these cuties...



Coco the cougar is on the left and Bobbi the bobcat is on the right.  It was quite a memorable experience.  Not many people can say they've been bitten in the neck by a cougar or made a bobcat purr.  These babies are pretty amazing and I can't believe I had the opportunity to handle them on a daily basis.  I also got to work with other animals.

We had three of these little guys:


I love baby opossums.  We had three brothers.  They crawled all over my shoulders.  Opossums are super cute as babies, but not so much as adults (though our adult was super sweet).

   We also had two sweet ferret sisters.


They were also super sweet and loved to sleep in the hood of sweatshirts.  Apparently, they are illegal to own as pets in some states (they are legal in Oregon).

We also had a young red fox.


I liked her, but she didn't like to be shown.  She was a bit bitey and hard to hold on to.  I hope the owner stops showing her soon.  She gets very stressed out when she is handled and clearly doesn't enjoy it.  I hope she gets to join the other foxes soon.

This was my favorite Nurseryland baby...


This is a baby apricot skunk!!!  I LOVE skunks!  I have learned that they are legal to own as pets in Oregon and that they make amazing pets!  It is easy to have the scent glands removed so they can't spray and you can litter box train them.  They will bond with people just like a dog or cat will.  Nick and I would like to have a skunk someday!  I would like to get a kitten and a skunk at the same time and raise them as litter mates.  It will be a while though, because our dogs would not tolerate having another animal in the house.

I have also discovered that I do NOT enjoy these animals:


Yes, they are super cute, but they are smelly, noisy, always hungry, and obnoxious!  They poop and pee everywhere!  Plus, they get mean and have very sharp claws.  I don't think it is possible for me to truly hate any animal, but raccoons come close...though this one is pretty cute...

I got to interact with a few other animals as well.

A pregnant coati snuggled with me a few times when I fed her.


She had to be separated from the others until after she gave birth and she just wanted some love.  These animals are basically the raccoons of Central and South America.  Not all of them are as sweet as this one is and I wouldn't try to snuggle one in the wild, but I was happy to have the opportunity to spend some time with one.

I also got to feed one of these pretty creatures.


This is a De Brazza Monkey.  Ours would pick through her food bowl and eat her favorite things first, bananas and grapes.  She always ate her fruit first and then her vegetables.  She never actually let me pet her, but I was able to go into her enclosure and hand feed her.

Working at the park allowed me to discover a passion for my new favorite animal!  It's a...



Ring Tailed Lemur!!!!!!  These animals are so soft and sweet (most of them)!  There was one we had who liked to ride around on my shoulder while I cleaned out his enclosure.  I even got a few lemur kisses on my nose from him.  I also got to go into an enclosure with a community of lemurs and hand-fed them.  They are very soft, like a chinchilla.  My lemur friend is definitely what I miss most about the job.

I worked here for almost two months.  It wasn't a bad place to work, but I was working almost full-time and I didn't want that.  Nick was home alone all day and I really wanted to spend time with him before the school year started up again.  I decided to work until the end of July and take August off to spend some time with Nick.  I'll talk more about our August adventures in another post.  Overall, the animal park took pretty good care of the animals.  All of the presentation staff deeply cared for the animals and their well-being.  I think the management could have done a better job.  The enclosures are small and the animals don't have enough room to run around in, in my opinion.  Also, I think our show animals were overworked due to the demands of our customers and the owner.  It isn't enough for me to completely boycott the place, but I will only go on very rare occasions.  I will probably take my kids there someday.

That's about it for my summer job adventures.  I know way more about these wild animals than I ever thought I would.  On a hiking trip, Nick asked me if bobcats bury their poop, and sadly, I knew the answer...yes, yes they do.  I am thankful to have had this experience, but I hope I don't have to have a summer job again.  Please feel free to ask me questions about these animals.  I am happy to share my new knowledge.  It is late and I am tired.  I will post another summer adventure soon!

Cheers!
Ashley

Sandboarding...Take Two...

Over the break, Nick made sandboards in our garage.  He is so amazing!!!  We took them out last Monday.  It was a lot of fun, but the sand was so wet that we wouldn't move.  We found some steep dunes that we could go down without stopping after a foot or two, but we couldn't get much speed.  That was good for me since I'm scared to go fast, but Nick was disappointed.  I also discovered that sandboards make good sleds!  I even took Stevie down with me a couple of times.  The dogs love it, because they get to run around off leash and they get so exhausted from running in sand.  We love that they are exhausted!

We tried to go again today.  It hasn't rained since Thursday or Friday, but the dunes were still too wet to do anything but climb up them, which is not an easy task.  I think we're out of luck until it dries out more...sigh...I was really looking forward to the new form of exercise.  We did not take pictures today, but here are a few from our first attempt:

Sledding with Stevie.

Here I go...

...and this is me falling.

Here's Nick going down the big one!

And now he's running back up, that crazy boy!

I even have some video!  You lucky viewers!

Eventually, I'll get some more exciting footage and hopefully have some better stories to tell.  Until then, you'll just have to read about our other adventures!

Salut!

Ashley & Nick

Working Part-Time=Time for Hobbies!

Lately, I've been doing a lot of sewing and knitting.  It took me a while to find hobbies since I haven't had time for them in ages.  I made almost all of my holiday gifts this year.  The only exceptions were two gifts I bought for my cousin before I decided to make them.  My embroidery machine is amazing and we are creating some fantastic things with it.  Nick has figured out how to turn his drawings into embroidery designs that we can then transfer on to fabric and clothing.  I have also become a much more adept at knitting.  Now when I see a cute hat or scarf in a store, I just think of how much fun it would be to make it myself.  I am finding endless free patterns online and I'm excited to have more time for new creations.  I don't want to post pictures of everything here, but here is the link to the Facebook album I've created to showcase my projects.

I Like to Make Things

Enjoy!
Ash

Birthday on the Coast

It's been a busy couple of months and I have a lot of pictures I haven't posted yet.  Nick and I took a mini road trip for my 28th birthday.  We drove South on 101 until it got dark.  Our first stop was at a little yarn shop in the tiny town of Langlois.  I wanted to buy some natural/local yarn, but it was uber expensive, so I skipped it.  Next we stopped at a little wetlands boardwalk in Port Orford.

There wasn't a lot there other than mud, but we got some pictures of the hat I knitted for my sister.  We headed on through Port Orford and found this beautiful lookout.

After Port Orford, we made it to our only planned destination...the Prehistoric Gardens!!!!  What could be better for a birthday adventure than dinosaurs?!

We kept driving south until we got to Gold Beach.  I've never really been south of Bandon before, at least not that I can remember.  It was extremely exciting to drive until we saw something interesting.  I think those are some of the best adventures!  We stopped in Gold Beach to watch the sunset just south of town.  First we stopped in town at the mouth of the Rogue River.  We saw this old fishing boat.  Nick wanted to play on it, but for some reason I didn't think that would be a good idea.

We found this beach that was not sandy like most beaches.  It has millions of rocks and pebbles instead of sand.  There were some interesting and beautiful ones that we brought home to put in our aquarium.   We secretly wanted to pan for gold, but we didn't have the proper equipment...sigh...

 The final beach we stopped at was probably the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.  It was not a large beach, but there were over a dozen huge rock formations in the water.  We imagined climbing on them if the tide was lower.  We decided this is where we would watch the sunset and end our adventure.

 I would like to go back to this beach someday when we have more time to explore.  This was the best way to end an amazing birthday adventure!

Cheers!
Ash

Adventures at Eel Lake

Nick had conferences last week, so I only worked in the mornings due to half-days all week.  Nick carpools with a coworker, but Thursday his conferences ended much earlier than hers did, so I picked him up.  I took the dogs with me so we could play frisbee on the fields at our school.  Some of Nick's students were on the playground while their parents were in conferences.   They came down to the field to play with our dogs.  Fun was had by all!

After we were done playing frisbee, we decided to do some exploring.  We stopped at this little convenience store down the road called the Wagon Wheel.  Nick discovered that they have amazing Beer Dogs for only 99 cents.  He was in heaven!  With a delicious Beer Dog in his tummy, Nick suggested we take the dogs up to Eel Lake.  It was only a few miles north on the highway.  We have kayaked it a couple of times, but wanted to explore the hiking trail.  So, we did!

We didn't hike the entire trail because we were running out of daylight, but we did about 3 miles round trip.  It was a beautiful little hike.  The dogs found an exposed wasp nest along the trail and both dogs were stung a couple of times.  I carry Benadryl with me after Eliot's last encounter with bees.  Both dogs were just fine.

The trail is also open to mountain bikes, so Nick wants to build me one.  The trails were wide and would be good for the first time mountain biker, like myself.  Here are some pictures from our adventure:

 Eel Lake is behind us.

 Nick decided to build us a survival shelter.  I'm not sure the four of us would fit.  Luckily we didn't need it.

 Since the dogs didn't need their leashes, Nick adopted Sticky and is walking her on Eliot's leash.

 Eliot was so happy!

 Nick and Eliot looking at the lake.

 My boys on the trail.

Stevie.

Sticky is on the blue leash.  We then adopted Branchie and she is on the black leash.

After we got back to the park, Nick decided to play with the dogs on the slides.

We had a blast exploring Eel Lake!  We plan to go back again soon to hike the rest of the trail.  

Cheers!

Ashley, Nick, Steve, and Eliot