EEEWWW! SISTER C. KISSES A MOOSE!!

Saturday is our preparation day, which means that we get to clean and scrub, wash, shop etc., etc. When we get through, we also are allowed to check out the local sights. Last Saturday, Sister C. and I drove up the Glen Highway toward Palmer. We changed to the Old Glenn Highway and after ten minutes or so, we arrived at a farm owned and operated by Church members. It is a Reindeer Farm. Besides having a large herd of reindeer, they have Rocky Mountain Elk, a bison, and a domesticated moose.

Sister C climbed into a snow sleigh before we went

into the pen with the reindeer.

Inside the pen. The two young men helping with the

reindeer are the local LDS missionaries.

Our guide was a cute blue eyed blond from Palmer

who just happens also to be LDS.

Expectant eyes - a reindeer waiting for a handful of feed.

Almost all of the reindeer in this pen are from this

year's births. They are relatively small and mostly tame.

They gave us a cup of feed which we poured into

 our hand and then the calves would...

eat it out of our hand. It was a delightful experience!

It was a preview of the Millennium --

no enmity between man and the animals!

They were completely trusting.

They were also hungry...

This experience put me on a cloud.

The elders give service hours here twice a week.

They help with training the animals.

Sister Lamb explains that four of the small animals

are being trained and sent to Hollywood.

This is Dolly, the bison.

She has attitude issues. She enjoys the leaves

on the branches.

But, she definitely doesn't like to be touched. We 

were warned to keep our hands out of the pen as

she likes to try to hook people with her horns.

This is Denali, the eight year old moose. He was 

rescued down in Homer, where his mother had 

abandoned him. He was smuggled first to a Llama

farm.

When the people heard about the reindeer farm, they

called and asked whether they were willing to raise a

moose calf.

So, this five or six day old calf was again smuggled

to Palmer to the reindeer farm. This was all very

illegal at the time. But, the farm people have since

gotten the documents from the state to allow them

to keep him.

They fed him from a bottle for awhile - he actually

was in the house with the owners for some time.

He was finally put in a pen outside. But, he is very

domesticated. He loves the leaves from the branches

and he doesn't mind at all being petted.

His rack was still covered in velvet. That was an

interesting feeling -- rubbing his horns. The nose

is much like a horse's - soft and velvety. I never

 thought that I would ever get to pet a moose.

Denali loves bananas. So, they cut a banana in half,

then an intrepid visitor puts the banana in their mouth,

holding it with the teeth usually.

Denali then takes the other end of the banana and

then consumes it. The "pass" from human to moose

looks very much like a kiss.

After 37 years of kissing an "ape", Sister C. decided

that it was time to kiss a moose.

I ain't kissin' you until you wash your face and brush

your teeth, ya' know!

Her name is Mariah Lamb. She is about 5' 10" and 

is a junior in high school. She's very pretty and
 was a real sweety.

By the way, all of the reindeer in the pen where we

were have been given Book of Mormon names! -- all

except for one with miss-shapened horns whom they

named "Pippen." The elders did the naming.

They also have a herd of Rocky Mountain Elk on the

farm. These large game animals are fed a diet of grain

and hay. Umh-uhm! Just imagine how good a stake

from one of them would taste!

Sister C. next to the tractor --

my turn.

We both left the farm on an emotional high. Like I said, it was like a preview of the day when the Lamb and the Lion shall lie down together with out any ire. Besides which, the reindeer were so cute, you couldn't help but enjoy them.

APARTMENT CHECKS OR "LOOKING IN ON THE PIGS"

I had to visit my doctor in Wasilla two weeks ago to have blood drawn and analyzed. So, we volunteered to check on some missionary apartments for Elder and Sister Palmer while we were there. We had a fun time trying to find all the apartments. It was even funner going into the apartments the day before the missionaries were told the inspections would occur. Only one of the places was truly fit. The others were best described with a disgusting "OINK!"

Here, see what I mean.

 bed: unmade, sleeping on the mattress.

 Sleeping on the floor, instead of the bed frame.

 All of the missionaries were instructed to bring sheets.

 The closet of a 12 year old...

Junk left behind from eating.

 I'm afraid to guess what was in this sink.

 No place to sit except on the bench for pressing.

 The shoe garden

 A closer look at the couch.

 The front closet.

 Another pair of elders...

 sleeping on the mattresses.

 No clothes on the hangers...

but all over the FLOOR.

 Another bed on the floor.

 Oink!

 The bathroom was a bit messy...

 and the toilet hasn't been cleaned in a while. (Eeewww!)

 A mattress and bed frame in the kitchen???

 Kitchen a la Conan the Barbarian...

 So, how long has the garbage been collecting?

 What! Dishes in the sink???

 Suit cases and clothes all over the place.

 Another shot of the bed in the kitchen.

Perhaps the only plus in this apartment. The shoes

were either in or somewhere near the shelf.

Methinks that many of these elders weren't trained well at home. Either that, or perhaps their apartments are a reflection of their homes. But, one thing I know, I never had a pig pen apartment on my mission. We kept our apartments clean and presentable.

THE BEAR FACTS

We were exiting the house of a member of our ward just recently when a neighbor across the street yelled for us to stay inside because a black bear was in the space between the houses. We ran to the deck with the member and saw a bear making an exit from the neighbors' backyard, having just raided the garbage can.

The bear proceeded to visit all the neighboring houses and raided the garbage cans for food. We jumped into our car and followed the bear to get pictures and observe the Olympic "dumpster diving" technique Alaskan black bear style.

We saw the bear knock down a garbage can, paw the top open and then pull all the garbage out. It then ripped open a bag and proceeded to investigate anything the smelled of food. She (as it turns out) found one deli container that was half filled and she did quite the job on it. When she got to the bottom, she was even sticking in her paw to get the last of whatever was in it. When she finished, she had a white spot 0n her nose from the contents.

Eventually, we left for our apartment happy in the knowledge that not only did we get to see a bear while here in Alaska, but we got to see the bear and take several photos of the "cutie."

We learned yesterday that the state wildlife people shot her to remove her from contact with people. Bears who get used to people also have a tendency to attack dummies who get too close. So, the reason for the "bear-ectomy." The news really saddened us. She was so cute - despite the danger she represented.

Even sadder, neighbors not far away from where we saw her, reported three wandering black bear cubs two or three days later, which the wildlife people caught and "sent to the other side of the happy hunting ground." The whole thing seemed to be a sad shame to the both of us. But, there are so many bears close to the city that it would be prohibitive to "dart" the animals and haul them far enough inland to keep them away from humans. Sad!

 Here she is emerging from a backyard.

 She got quite close to us heading to the next house.

 Moving to the next "restaurant."

 Movin' on...

 Ain't she cute???

 Cute and deadly.

 Nosing through the goodies

 You really need to enlarge the pictures to appreciate...

 the "cuteness" of the little Momma.

 I wonder what the deli item was...

Whatever the food was, she absolutely loved it.

ZWEITER AUSFLUG

This Ausflug (trip) was with Elder and Sister Palmer and Elder and Sister Hawkins. The Palmers work in the office with us and the Hawkins are at the institute at the University of Alaska Anchorage. We borrowed the mission van and drove to Seward, which is about two hours south of Anchorage. We saw lots of pretty sights, toured the Exit Glacier, and then toured the Aquarium. Well, everyone except for me went into the aquarium exhibit. I stayed in the van and slept and then read - I'm such a bad boy!

Sister Campbell and Sister Hawkins by the sign at

the Exit Glacier.

Sister Campbell and her main squeeze at the same sign.

The right antler of a bull moose.

A full shot of a bull's antlers from the back looking

out over the moose's nose.

A rangerette gave us a 30 minute lecture about the

joys of being attacked and eaten by either a brown

bear (Grizzly), or a black bear.

This is the skull of a full grown grizzley. The rangerette

is right behind the skull, to give you a size comparison.

That is a rubber cast of a grizzly's paw print
 that she is holding in her hand.

You can see the heads of both a black and a brown

bear hanging down - still attached to their pelt. Below

are casts of scat (poo, that is).

Mrs. Rangerette showed us several pictures of bears that had been lurking around the grounds and the glacier. She said that most bears fear a close encounter of the third kind with humans as much as humans do having one with a bear - especially a momma and her cubs. She told us that if we were to keep up a constant noise while hiking to let the bears know that we were coming that that usually caused them to stay concealed.

 After the lecture, we lit out on the hike to go to the 

glacier, which has receded considerable in the last...

 several decades. There was quite of bit of hiking

upward. Silly me, what was I thinking. Here I was

 walking into another natural feature that I didn't...