Day 85 - Canoe Raffle (Pig in the Pines) / Day 86 - OFF

DAY 85

So today was a canoe raffle kinda day. Another intern and I set out this morning around 10am (we got to sleep in some!) and head to St. Germain, Wisconsin where the Pig in the Pines was taking place. Normally canoe raffles are at craft shows but this event was more of an eating/music kind of event. There are five different BBQ vendors with stuff like rubs, pulled pork, and more. There are ice cream vendors, kettle corn, funnel cake, and cheese curds.lots of food and directly to our left is a live cover band playing country music - Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Jason Aldean, and more. More of less this is my kind of event! The weather, although breezy, is spectacular! Earlier it was chilly but in the afternoon it was in the comfortable low 70s. Later that night it got cold of course! We ended up selling 100 tickets, tried some good food, got to listen to some good music, and so overall it was a great day!

I actually was able to finish half of a book and in the afternoon I participated in a rib judging! Basically they brought out 5 different ribs (Two in a box) from the five vendors and we judged based on tenderness, taste, and appearance. It was difficult because it was all so good!!! My favorite ended up being a place called Pigfoot but the two Ohio vendors were close second and third (one point difference). Overall the Texas vendor one (go figure).

Not much to say otherwise besides we stayed until roughly 9pm, when it got dark, and enjoyed out day! Very relaxing and almost felt like a day off!!

Live band and our canoe!

DAY 86

So lets be honest, today was another day I did not go anywhere. I watched the remaining first season of New Girl and intend to start season 2 on my next day off. I did leave the center for roughly 30 minutes to an hour by going across the street to a Chinese buffet for lunch with a rehabber, an intern, and an interns friend. Good food. Otherwise I hate two granola bars and a pork sandwich I bought at the Pig in the Pines today. Needless to say didn't eat much, move much, and overall rellllaxxxedddd. Today was a good day!

Day 84 - Education

Finally back on education after what feels like two weeks! Not sure if it was actually that long and it was my fault for switching with everyone. I truly enjoyed the rehabilitation and days off but sometimes education side of things feels almost like a day off when not many tours roll through the doors. I want to say I gave at least five tours today and even got two hugs out of one! My longest tour was today; 50 minutes! Truly I was not supposed to go this long at all but people surely enjoyed it and there wasn't any tours waiting afterwards so everything was okay.

Besides tours I answered a few phone calls; one of which was about the swan rescue from yesterday. It turns out since Mute Swans are considered invasive we cannot rescue it and therefore the Wisconsin DNR must be called to take care of the swan any further. I was sad to inform both people who called about the news but they completely understood and appreciated that I went out yesterday to check out the situation. At least they understood and someone was able to go out and identify the swan correctly. Originally it was mistaken as a snow goose based on the descriptions but after some analyzing and looking back on a book things were figured out.

Since the swan could not be rescued the rehab side had time for other things to tend to instead. Meanwhile we had tours and phones as said until 4pm. The day literally FLEW by. One minute I thought it was 12:30 and the next it's 4. Overall it went very well for education stuff.

We then helped out on rehab stuff. I swept and cleaned off some counters while the other education intern did dishes and later mopped. Meanwhile I helped the rehabber grab a bird that needed some wing maintenance; antibiotics on a wound. We hope to take the bird and our Snowy to the appointment thursday; meaning hopefully the vet is back and able to do the appointment. We then returned inside and the other education intern grabbed the snowy owl while I did her bandages while the rehabber left. After Snowy I fed the squirrels and the other education intern fed raccoons. The rehab interns were outside cleaning the ORC and filling out charts from feeding our residents. One ended up leaving and the other had to go to REGI because of a a young robin and a young blue jay that came in so she preparing for that and ended up leaving as well.

When we finished up though we returned upstairs and have been up here since. Currently we are watching a movie "Hes just not that into you" and shortly after will probably be bed! Tomorrow I don't have to wake up until around 9/930 to go to St. Germain for a raffle. So I get to sleep in, yay!

One of our three Red Squirrels we released. I saw two of the three today.

Video of our three red squirrels. Remember the new borns? This is what the looked like now! They have been upgraded from the incubator to the heating pad and now the cage with a heating pad beneath. Hopefully they will start eating solids very soon!!! Growing up fast!!

Day 83 - Rehabilitation

I cannot recall much from today because I had to type everything out the next day. I never had time on this day to actually type out everything due to being busy.

Basically when the other rehab intern and I went downstairs we started 8am feedings. We managed to feed all the raccoons and squirrels, and then worked on charts for all the critters. I personally fed raccoons and had help carrying out bowls. We had three volunteers in today because one normally helps feed mice and doing cleaning tasks while the other feeds/waters residents. She was helping out the third volunteer by teaching her the ropes of feeding, watering, and charting everything when it comes to our residents.

Once 8am feedings were finished, the other intern and I grabbed a flamethrower and head out to the mammal enclosures where we proceeded to flame throw two cages. All the wood chips had been scrapped out since the raccoons were moved to the ORC so the flame throwing process was next to 100% disinfect the cage so that more animals could be put inside. I must say, flame throwing was awesomingly fun and I know for sure that I have a touch of pyro to my nature haha

After this we honestly were not sure what to do since the rehabber was not quite around yet. He had to run some errands because he was trying to get our truck phone fixed. There's been some difficulty involving verizon so hopefully it will get taken care of soon. We basically went inside and looked for jobs the other two volunteers had not covered. For example doing dishes, cleaning off counters, and doing whatever feedings when necessary. The rehabber showed up but I cannot recall what all we did by then. Eventually lunch rolled around so we finished 12pm feeding and took lunch for an hour.

Once finished we went back downstairs and since the rehabber was not back from lunch yet because he had to pick up a squirrel near his home. So we came back down and I grabbed a bucket with soap water, a trash bag, and some plastic gloves then went out to Errol the Great Horned Owls enclosure and started picking up any feathers, feces in his gravel, owl pellets, and scrubbed at some dirty spots when necessary. I wasn't able to 100% finish because by 2:20pm I rushed back inside because the Snowy Owl had a vet appointment. However when I returned inside it turned out the vet was on vacation so the appointment was cancelled.

Instead of cleaning more owl enclosures I head into the Raccoon Isolation Room (RISO) instead and started scrabbing and disinfecting any cage I could. The trays were removed and were meant to go outside but I ran out of time because the other intern needed help with the snowy owls daily maintenance. I managed to finish all the interior parts of the cages but the doors still need work and the trays till need washed. The carrier inside needs removed and washed as well but either I will get to it when I am back on rehab or someone else might end up washing the stuff but who knows.

After helping with the snowy owl we eliminated 4pm feedings, did our closing tasks (sweeping, mopping, dishes), and just before we were about to load up a Bald Eagle that came in earlier in the day (due to being caught by a leg hold trap) a call came in about a goose with a broken wing. So instead of going straight to REGI the goose situation had to be taken care of first. I drove to it with a box and everything by myself and it turned out the goose was actually a Mute Swan. The rescue was unsuccessful since it went straight into the water but afterwards I was able to take the Eagle to REGI. I didn't arrive until roughly 10:30ish but Eagle was taken care of, I got to watch the initial examination and process after, then I got to see a juvenile red-tailed hawk before heading back to the center. I didn't get back to the center until 12:30am. Shortly after I went straight to bed. 5 hour drives are becoming easier to me but still are very tiresome!

Day 82 - OFF

Not much to say about today. I spent most of it watching movies (Hercules, Fox and the Hound 2) and TV series New Girl. I honestly love the show, it's hilarious! Other then that I feel like I have bad news more then anything. Rocky Boot never called back. I'm assuming I didn't make it to the next step: scheduling an interview. I intend on calling tomorrow but if I didn't make it then I guess it's going to make me a bit more bumped out then what I am currently. The library turned me down too. The guy said he would hold on to my resume just in case anything changes and for the future but in the meantime that's two jobs down. It's believed Subway has already hired but I am going to try calling them Friday. I intend on calling Rocky Boot tomorrow to see if I may have misheard when call backs will be or what is going on.

Campus Safety sent me an application two days ago but I did not notice the email until today. I mailed back saying so, due to a busy schedule, and that I am printing it, filling it out, and mailing it first thing tomorrow. Hopefully they have not hired all the people they need in the last two days. If they haven't then I hope my application isn't considered horrid and tossed. So far things aren't looking good. This happened last time though too; when I thought I would end up jobless for the summer or houseless for the school year and suddenly something good happened. I have the oddest feeling that the "good news around the corner" is not coming this time but I am, of course, going to try my best to stay positive.

Just going to keep hoping they get better, especially when I just filled out a 9 page application for campus safety, but we will see what happens. Intend on visiting McDonalds when I return to school since that's the soonest I can but otherwise it will be phone calls, emails, and hoping/praying..

Otherwise, as said, nothing really going on today. Work on rehabilitation tomorrow and then everything returns to normal. Next day off might be Sunday be we will see what happens.

Day 81 - Rehabilitation

Back on rehabilitation again today and off once again tomorrow! It was nice to get back into the swing of things but I honestly do not mind every other day off rather then two days in a row. I'm all the way caught up on my sleep, was able to get job applications in, and just relaxed. Of course after tomorrow I will be jumping back into the swing of things again.

So today my morning started off by feeding squirrels; we have the three baby reds, one young red, and the two young gray squirrels still. All three of them were fed formula and the one single red was given his solids as well (nuts and other things). A rehabber and I went on a produce run shortly after at Save More and Trigs. Thank God we did because Save More gave us two boxes of very nice fruits and vegetables!!! We ended using quit a bit of them today for our patients. Anything we could not give to our animals or was rotten was tossed to compost for the deer to use but we were able to use 90% of what we were given.

We then grabbed the Snowy Owl and worked on her bandages; took the old ones off, applied/injected necessary medications, and put new bandages back on. Once she was finished we put her back into a clean cage with new food and water then I had to feed squirrels again. At some point I aided the other rehab intern on duty today by simply carrying raccoon bowls to the raccoons, handing them two her, and changed a water dish. I was going to chart but kind of failed so she finished it up. I think we went on lunch after 12pm feedings, with squirrels, were finished up.

After lunch it was back to work of course. I had more feedings at 2, 5, and 8pm but in between 2 and 5 we managed to catch some resident birds. I personally captured Eddie the Bald Eagle which I was super excited about! The other intern captured Ethel the Great Horned Owl, Fritz the Eastern Screech, and I think Cecil the Northern Saw-whet Owl. I was either feeding or working on other stuff when she captured the three. Below is a picture of me with Eddie!

We also grabbed Woody the Wood Turtle and Tatiana the Russian Tortoise. When we captured the birds we checked out their beaks and talons; trimming or coping (filing) what is necessary. Same applies for the turtles beaks and nails; trimming or filing as well. Without the filing and trimming their beaks can close to where they cannot eat and the nails/talons can become sharp and hurt us or the animal themselves.

Besides bird/turtle exams we bleached the counters and did dishes. I eventually worked on our feeding schedule. I tore off any tape, erased all information on it after writing it down, and then began to cut tape to put new stuff on. We were hoping to redo the board by making the lines more straight and adding a medication section (what times they needed their medications which encourages us to check the folder to see what meds are being given out at those times).

At the end of the day our last chores were sweeping, mopping, dishes, garbage, and compost. I did some dishes and mopped while other intern took out garbage, a rehabber took out compost, and another rehabber mopped. I also helped out education by swatting flies in Hortense's enclosure then went upstairs. I eventually fed at 5pm as said before, went to a movie rental place to pick up "Mirror, Mirror", and then came back. We watched said move later, pausing only for 8pm feeding, and now I am finally typing up this blog post.

Overall the day went very well with work and after. Some news regarding Rocky Boots and the job applications! Rocky called today for an over the phone interview. The lady who called, I know her name but never mention names on her, asked me why I wanted to work at Rocky and wanted me to describe what all I did at my last three jobs. She then told me that today they were doing phone screenings and would either call tomorrow to schedule an interview (the next step) or not call at all. I'm hoping they call back and ask to schedule an interview. It would be soooo amazing if I could work at Rocky Boot considering it's one of the places I prefer to work at the most!

Pray they call for me, please! Pray even more that I actually get the job for this school year! I need experience, cash, and something to do when I am not focused on school!!!

Leaving this post off with a picture of one of our three baby red squirrels and a picture of one of our baby gray squirrels.

Day 79/80 - OFF

Day 79
I intended on spending my two days off traveling to the International Wolf Center up in Ely, Minnesota. However I cannot afford a hotel, the gas, and food. I did my laundry already this week so really all I have to do is go grocery shopping. Do I want to? Not really.

In other words I have spent my day off lying around and doing nothing but applying for jobs that I will hopefully get this upcoming school year. I have so far applied at McDonalds in Logan OH, Subway in Nelsonville and Plains OH, Burger King, Rocky Boots, and at the school as a Library Support member. Hopefully I will get at least one position that works with my school schedule. If not, I guess I will have more time for other things such as homework, projects, adventuring, reading, and TV. Beyond that, who knows what I will do.

I'm hoping the rest of the day will be full of adventures of some sort. I consider going out to eat or hanging out with my coworkers as an adventure anymore. Watching a movie sounds awesome to me. If not I wasted this day then but may go out tomorrow. Not sure. Overall I honestly want to go home. It's not that I do not love it here but I miss home too much. I will miss this place once I leave but as the days tick by I just want to leave more and more. Only 15 more days left since I am leaving the 13th instead of the 15th now. I almost wish it were possible to fly home for a day and fly back but then I wouldn't want to leave. I'm just home sick is all. Otherwise I still enjoy being here.

Day 80

Its a shame that all I am doing is sitting up here still. Yesterday I was filling out job applications to a variety of places in the Nelsonville/Logan/Athens area. I am hoping to acquire a job somewhere that works with my school schedule. Im willing to work anywhere; including McDonalds. Money is money when it comes to any job that is not natural resources related. I hope to work at Subway or Rocky Boots. I would not mind being a Sandwich artist. Rocky Boots is associated with natural resources in a sense so even though its a restaurant job I could still cook up the occasional bison burger. We will see how things go; just have to stay hopeful. I truly hope to find something at the school or natural resources related before anything but customer service work never hurt anyone.

I am going to continue searching for things to apply to today and at some point will go out and get groceries because I cannot avoid it anymore; unless of course I don't eat but that' impossible for me. Do I for see any adventures today? Not really. I may go out on my next day off though (Wednesday). Why do I have so many day off lately? Because I switched with people quite a bit and this is what I ended up with. I do not mind taking day to jut chill out and forget about everything honestly. Not seeing everyone though is honestly making me somewhat sad but tonight the assistant education director's parents have invited everyone over for a cook out so I intend on going to that later. Hopefully everyone else will as well; I miss hanging out as a large group with everyone.

UPDATE: Pictures added!!

Day 78 - Rehabilitation

Last night I just did not get very much sleep. I think I drank way too much pop and ate too much candy because I was not able to go to bed until roughly 12am, kept waking up every other hour, and then was wide awake at 6am. I actually got up and got ready for work around 6:30am and was messing around with facebook until 8. When I finally went downstairs I decided to feed raccoons since I was on squirrels the last two days.

We have three new raccoons whom did not seem to be doing too hot. By the sound of their lungs and the mucus coming out of their nose/eyes, they have an upper respiratory infection, and based on their stool and lethargic nature they are dehydrated. We began medication and occasional injections for hydration while they are still on hydration liquids. We hope that all they have is the respiratory infection and severe dehydration because other things they could have based on their symptoms include parvovirus. Humans cannot get parvovirus but we are capable of spreading it which means our other raccoons could get it without safe/preventive measures. We always bleach out feet and try to prevent the raccoons from not touching us at all costs so hopefully this will be enough. Since the disease is capable of being transferred to pets I intend on washing all clothes, thoroughly cleaning the inside of my car (particularly the floors), and throwing out my shoes before I come home. I believe in being safe then sorry so I do not want to risk anything. Some of my jeans will get thrown out too, mainly due to holes, but now I have another reason too. Everything else never gets near the animals so we are okay with that. Some diseases that harm wildlife can also harm our pets; they lurk in the world and although you should not be paranoid about it it's good to be wary.

Besides giving the raccoons their medication/injections and feeding both indoor and outdoor; us two rehab interns helped with feeding indoor residents and the snowy owl. I grabbed and the other intern learned the bandaging process with snowy's feet. The infection has been healing up really well but she still has more days of work ahead of her. The vet stated that she will truly never be able to perch again which means we may need platforms for perching rather than typical perches in her enclosure. I have seen her sitting on top of her perch but this does not necessarily mean she is perching correctly. When we put Snowy back and I think ended up doing 12pm feeding. Besides feeding patients, residents, and working with the snowy I cannot recall what else we did. Maybe dishes but beyond that I'm not sure.

We took lunch for an hour though and after lunch we did the 2pm feeding. Raccoons progressively improved through out the day, or at least seemed like they were, so hopefully they continue to do well tomorrow. After lunch we gave all our outdoor residents new water and then began cleaning tasks shortly after. I did tub dishes while the other intern did the kitchen/nursery dishes. I then went outside to our outdoor raccoon enclosure we just moved all the raccoons into and cleaned up a bag full of raccoon feces. We discovered the raccoons breached their half of the enclosure into the other half that had a door open; but thankfully no one escaped. We fed them and went back inside to finish sweeping/mopping. However we received a call so rather then continue helping out with cleaning I left to Hurley, Wisconsin to pick up young Peregrine Falcons. They died while on the way to Hurley so I ended up turning around and returning to the center instead. Carcasses will, or should be, turned over to the Wisconsin DNR.

After that I ended up going out to eat with a summer intern and one of our spring interns who stopped by to visit. We got chinese and the executive director showed up as well. She, the spring intern, ended up leaving early this morning so I missed her but did say bye last night. It was so great to see her and to hear that her new job is going well!! She is actually returning to the center this fall as an intern again.

After dinner I recall passing out and not waking up until 4am in the morning wondering when I passed out which is why I did not type this post up on the true day 78. Instead it's day 79 today and I am typing it up because I am off.