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There's Brains on my Pants
At Awesome Forest, we are all about sustainable resourse use. One of those uses included hunting. We have about ten hunt camps on the property, which you have to be a member of to hunt there. Most of them are older than Awesome Forest. (One is 150 years old...)
This past two weeks was the annual deer hunt. When deers are shot on our property the staff biologist goes around to take samples of the deer, so we can monitor the general health of the animals in the forest. For the purpose of education, Bossman often sends one of the other staff to help him out.
Last Thursday was my turn.
One of the biggest things we check for is a parasite called brain worm. It lives between the lining in a deer's brain and does not cause a deer much harm. It does do a lot of damage to moose, though. It actually makes moose go berserk. So we monitor the brain worm levels in the deer, who transmit it to moose.
Of course, to find the brain worm you have to get at the brain. So there I am at 8am holding the ears of a recently dead deer which the biologist peels open its skull with a saw.
Having freed the brain from its bony prison, the biolost plunks in into my hands. "Check this" he says, "I'll check the inside of the skull."
Fun fact: Deer brains have the texture of slightly runny cream cheese.
Then we take a marrow sample. Bone marrow is great, you can determine a deer's general level of health by looking at the texture and color of the marrow. However to get at it you have to skin a leg and saw out a piece of leg bone.
We also took measurements of the deer, and collected the head for the MNR who are tracking Chronic Wasting Disease. I have to say it was kinda fun having a growing pile of deer heads in the back of the truck as the day went on.
The nicest thing about the day was the hunters. Once they heard you were an Awesome Forest employee they would talk your ear off. We heard some hilarious hunting stories. Plus the food! Most of the hunt camps hire cooks, and they won't hear of you not having a snack and coffee.
Underpants
Lately Bossman at the Awesome Forest has been in a bit of a bad mood. Mostly to do with the wet summer we had, I think. We were not able to get as much work done as he hoped.
Boss Lady, Bossman's wife, has been in a great mood the last few weeks because the sled dogs have started running and they are finally earning their kibble again.
This has led to some funny situations.
Every morning at Awesome Forest the staff meets for 15 minutes to portion out work for the day. The other day we had just sat down when Bossman saw someone he really needed to speak to drive by the window. So Bossman runs outside. As soon as the door closes Boss Lady says "I hope THIS cheers him up, because I do NOT want to wear the black lace again..."
I love my boss...
The Fright of My Life
This past week we had the septic tanks pumped. Now, the septic tank at our Wolf Museum is kind of tricky. There are two 12 foot fences surrounding the wolf pen. You have to go inside the first fence to get at the septic tank. So I escort the septic guy into the pen, and then stand around holding bear mace and looking intimidating. (When we go in between fences we carry the mace just in case. Never had to actually use it). As I stand there I watch the pack who are curious about the fuss, but still scared of the big, creepy humans. Then I notice one of the wolves looks different. Closer, perhaps. I figured Ginger (She's the lowest ranked in our pack) was just more curious than the others. Then I saw her pass in front of the inner fence post.
In front? She was IN the area we were! Well SHIT.
Now, I know in my head that wolves generally are shy with humans, and will not come near one, let alone attack. My insticts, however do not agree. So I got a heck of an adrenaline rush.
I told the septic guy that we had to step back inside for a minute...I can't recall the excuse I gave...that the wolves looked upset or something. I just did not want him to freak out, because the biologist had drilled into all of us employees that the wolves should never see us afraid of them. We want them to think of us as badder predators than we are.
So we get out of the compound, and I run to the office to call my boss. He and the biologist book it over to the compound. They are trained to deal with the wolves up close, so the go into the fences and chase Ginger back into the pen. She jumped right over the fence! I think that adding a couple of feet to it may be in the future...
Wow...that got pretty long...
At Awesome Forest, we are all about sustainable resourse use. One of those uses included hunting. We have about ten hunt camps on the property, which you have to be a member of to hunt there. Most of them are older than Awesome Forest. (One is 150 years old...)
This past two weeks was the annual deer hunt. When deers are shot on our property the staff biologist goes around to take samples of the deer, so we can monitor the general health of the animals in the forest. For the purpose of education, Bossman often sends one of the other staff to help him out.
Last Thursday was my turn.
One of the biggest things we check for is a parasite called brain worm. It lives between the lining in a deer's brain and does not cause a deer much harm. It does do a lot of damage to moose, though. It actually makes moose go berserk. So we monitor the brain worm levels in the deer, who transmit it to moose.
Of course, to find the brain worm you have to get at the brain. So there I am at 8am holding the ears of a recently dead deer which the biologist peels open its skull with a saw.
Having freed the brain from its bony prison, the biolost plunks in into my hands. "Check this" he says, "I'll check the inside of the skull."
Fun fact: Deer brains have the texture of slightly runny cream cheese.
Then we take a marrow sample. Bone marrow is great, you can determine a deer's general level of health by looking at the texture and color of the marrow. However to get at it you have to skin a leg and saw out a piece of leg bone.
We also took measurements of the deer, and collected the head for the MNR who are tracking Chronic Wasting Disease. I have to say it was kinda fun having a growing pile of deer heads in the back of the truck as the day went on.
The nicest thing about the day was the hunters. Once they heard you were an Awesome Forest employee they would talk your ear off. We heard some hilarious hunting stories. Plus the food! Most of the hunt camps hire cooks, and they won't hear of you not having a snack and coffee.
Underpants
Lately Bossman at the Awesome Forest has been in a bit of a bad mood. Mostly to do with the wet summer we had, I think. We were not able to get as much work done as he hoped.
Boss Lady, Bossman's wife, has been in a great mood the last few weeks because the sled dogs have started running and they are finally earning their kibble again.
This has led to some funny situations.
Every morning at Awesome Forest the staff meets for 15 minutes to portion out work for the day. The other day we had just sat down when Bossman saw someone he really needed to speak to drive by the window. So Bossman runs outside. As soon as the door closes Boss Lady says "I hope THIS cheers him up, because I do NOT want to wear the black lace again..."
I love my boss...
The Fright of My Life
This past week we had the septic tanks pumped. Now, the septic tank at our Wolf Museum is kind of tricky. There are two 12 foot fences surrounding the wolf pen. You have to go inside the first fence to get at the septic tank. So I escort the septic guy into the pen, and then stand around holding bear mace and looking intimidating. (When we go in between fences we carry the mace just in case. Never had to actually use it). As I stand there I watch the pack who are curious about the fuss, but still scared of the big, creepy humans. Then I notice one of the wolves looks different. Closer, perhaps. I figured Ginger (She's the lowest ranked in our pack) was just more curious than the others. Then I saw her pass in front of the inner fence post.
In front? She was IN the area we were! Well SHIT.
Now, I know in my head that wolves generally are shy with humans, and will not come near one, let alone attack. My insticts, however do not agree. So I got a heck of an adrenaline rush.
I told the septic guy that we had to step back inside for a minute...I can't recall the excuse I gave...that the wolves looked upset or something. I just did not want him to freak out, because the biologist had drilled into all of us employees that the wolves should never see us afraid of them. We want them to think of us as badder predators than we are.
So we get out of the compound, and I run to the office to call my boss. He and the biologist book it over to the compound. They are trained to deal with the wolves up close, so the go into the fences and chase Ginger back into the pen. She jumped right over the fence! I think that adding a couple of feet to it may be in the future...
Wow...that got pretty long...
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