A couple of weeks ago I had the camera as Jody was walking towards the pool full of snow. Before reaching her destination, she stopped to try to close the mouth of this alligator. It wasn’t realistic enough to warrant fear of a predator (as in the Predator in our Midst post from two years ago), but Jody still didn’t like the looks of that gaping jaw.
Cle Elum
the good, the bad and the snow
Thanks to Candy’s initiative on our Holiday Wishes post, it looks like we have $120 pledged towards the new MacBook. Having a new Mac really is essential for our blog, so we appreciate the pledges from Candy, Kathy B., Theresa and Catherine Mollyneaux! Please comment here or email me if you’d like to join in the pledges.
Sorry for the lack of posts for the last few days. On Thursday we had a crew out from a national magazine doing a story on Sarah. You’ll have to wait until February to find out which mag (if you know, don’t tell!)
On Friday and Saturday we were having technical difficulties with the old Mac as well as memory cards for the camera. Jackie and I were worried it was the beginning of the end for my old MacBook. It’s okay for the time being, but who knows how long it’s going to hold on. We do really immediately need a new 4 to 8 GB memory card. There’s one on our Amazon wishlist, if you want to snatch it up for us. We also got a foot of snow yesterday and I had to take off early from the chimp house to attempt to plow the driveway with the tractor (yikes!).
In other exciting news, our Board of Directors will be purchasing the new Cannon camera for us!! We are so excited! It’s going to make videos of the chimps on Young’s Hill possible and will add to our collection of great photos. We have the best board! Being on a board is serious business. Basically, they are responsible for the organization, which is a particularly big deal when talking about a sanctuary or other non-profit that cares for living beings. Having a strong board with lots of professional expertise is essential. And boy do we have it – just check them out on our Board of Directors page.
I promise we will post some photos or video later today.
Dinner time
Elizabeth went a little paparazzi on me last night and while spot cleaning the playroom, she secretly filmed this video of me serving dinner through one of the windows.
Sweet Faces
We’ve come a long way, baby!
In November 2008, volunteer Dakotta, of the High Mountain Sustainable Project, and myself came out to build the sanctuary compost boxes in preparation for a garden in the future.
The ground around the perimeter fence is nothing but fill dirt. But, in spring of 2009, we got serious and 96 wheelbarrow loads of compost, manure and top soil later…
And man o’ man, was last year’s garden successful!
But it just keeps getting better! This year, we’ve built up the trails around the beds so that the soil stays nice and warm. We are also in the process of tearing down the straw compost boxes and replacing them with wooden ones.
We’ve also added more beds around the south side of the building so that the chimps can get a closer view of what’s growing in their garden!
Royal City’s Cloudview Ecofarms have donated tons of starts for this years garden, including broccoli, kale, cabbage, onions, and lettuce.
Because of all of our hard work this year, I am now officially calling myself, Dakotta, JB, and volunteer Denice the “Garden Committee”. With the help of all these individuals, we’ve landscaped the area around the chimps’ outdoor area, which will soon also include more garden beds of fast-growing veggies, like carrots, lettuce, kale, etc…
Can’t wait to show you all the finished product! We’ve come a LONG, LONG way, baby!! Thanks so much Dakotta, JB, Denice, the awesome folks at Cloudview Ecofarms, and everyone one else that has contributed. You guys are awesome and are helping us provide the chimps with fresh (and enriching) food!
Playful bunch of chimps!
Foxie and Jamie have had some pretty epic play sessions lately, but they’re not the only ones in good moods…
Windows
Wondering what windows we will replace if we reach our ultimate fundraising goal? Thanks to LUSH and generous blog readers, we have the funds to replace three windows. We want to replace six total.
Here is the “garden-side” of the playroom. On this side, we would replace two on top and one on the bottom.
This will allow Negra to have a much clearer view. Wondering what the view looks like? See below. There’s actually a lot going on out there between the horses and cattle in the pasture, the road, and the train occasionally going by:
And here is the outdoor area side of the playroom, upstairs. Right now, these three windows have caging plus a glass window and then plexiglass on the other side of the glass window, which obscures a lot of light and makes it very difficult to see through. Replacing these with chimp-proof glass would let a lot more light into the playroom and would allow chimpanzees or caregivers in the playroom to interact with chimpanzees who are in the outdoor area. It would be really cool, in other words.
In case you need any more convincing, here’s what a window looks like with the caging:
and here’s what it looks like without:
We can do this! Keep checking the fundraising progress and thanks so much for everyone who is working hard to help us reach the ultimate goal!