Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

shed

Thanks Jim and Brian

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Jim Spencer and Brian Osborne have spent the last couple Saturdays putting the finishing touches on our new shed. The money for the materials was raised at the last Out of the Box auction and the labor was generously donated by Jim, Brian, and Doug Bucklin.

The shed will house all of our equipment and supplies for events like the auction, the Sippin’ for the Seven wine tasting, and the Race for the Apes 5K. Diana has already moved in, but many of our supplies are now packed up for tomorrow’s Rosyln Olympics. Hope to see you there!

Chimpanzees’ choice: enrichment or food?

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Today is GORGEOUS! So gorgeous that we set out a party on Young’s Hill complete with new gifts from special friends and fun food. It was an early celebration of Love a Chimpanzee Day (April 23rd), a holiday invented by supporter Monica Best and a day that she sponsors each year.

Jamie passed the food and went right for her new red boots brought by Monica’s friend Sophy. After securing her new red boots, Jamie did manage to get a huge armful of bok choy (not pictured).

Jamie with new red boots

Jamie stand with new red boots

 

Guess what Burrito chose? That’s right – food! Here he is eating cabbage by the treat rock:

Burrito eating cabbage

 

Jody first went for the food (she’s eating watermelon in the photo below):

Jody eating on climbing structure

 

But later she grabbed some clown glasses and a new doll. The photo below is a little blurry because Jody was on the move!

jody with enrichment

 

There were three new Dora dolls on the hill, thanks to caregiver Jackie’s thrift store shopping. Foxie quickly gathered them all up:

Foxie with dora dolls

Foxie with dora dolls 2

 

And later spent some quality time with them:

Foxie in greenhouse with dora dolls

All in all, it was a delightful early celebration of Love a Chimpanzee Day. Thank you, Monica! And thank you to all supporters who sponsor days and otherwise support the sanctuary.

 

Today was a special day for me too! Jim, Audrey and Brian worked on the outreach & events stuff shed. Isn’t it beautiful?? I want to move in.

shed glistening in the sun

 

Shed in the Rain

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Today is caregiver Jackie’s birthday and you can wish her a happy birthday on Facebook. While Jackie was celebrating her day, I really felt like it was my birthday at the sanctuary because construction on “my” shed has begun!

At the Out of the Box 2011 auction in October, 16 people (in some cases, couples) donated towards my “adoption” and what I was really wanting, in my heart of hearts, was a shed to store all of the event set-up and tabling materials, merchandise and other various sanctuary stuff that has crept into the garage and the part of the house that J.B. and I rent from the sanctuary. I was dreaming kind of big, but Keith LaChappelle, Audrey & Jim Spencer, Jack & Sue Mulcahy, Max Carriveau, Jeani Goodrich, Julie Harding, Anika Lehde, Pam Lehnert & Marc Warner, Jessica Martinson & Lisa Cossette, Helen Payton, Dot & Allan Rothfus, Felicity Wood, Cathy Parker, Connie Robertson & Bill Lamm, and Barbara Boekholt gave towards my “adoption” and Jim Spencer even offered up his time and skills to build the shed.

And now it’s becoming a reality! Jim, who traveled all the way from Whidbey Island, Doug Bucklin and J.B. have spent the last two muddy and rainy days outside all day making my storage dreams start to come true. It has been especially heartwarming to see this happening and remembering Barbara Boekholt’s donation in particular. Barbara was Julie’s mom and she recently passed away. She was not well enough to attend the auction last year, but she sent Julie with a check just for my “adoption.”

This shed is no small-deal. We have a lot to store! It’s almost 200 square feet and it will have two windows (we’re using the windows that we removed from the chimp house (minus the caging) when we replaced them with chimp proof glass).

In the first photo below, you’ll noticed some very large logs. J.B. was also “adopted” at the auction and his project was to build new structures on Young’s Hill. Guess what those logs are for?!

 

Jim leading the crew with J.B. and Doug following instruction:

logs in front of shed construction

 

J.B. waiting for the word to start using power tools, Doug and Jim making sure things are level:

shed first wall

 

J.B. standing in front of the shed at the end of today:

JB in front of shedJ

Behold the shed

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Convenient storage (for blankets, enrichment, etc) is at a serious premium at the sanctuary. So, we are really, really excited about the donated shed being built today! Jim (who donated all of the materials and carpentry skills) and Brian are spending the day working on constructing it right outside the kitchen of the sanctuary building. They couldn’t have picked a nicer day to work outside.

I doubt the chimpanzees were excited about the shed, but they sure were in good moods today – I’ll post some photos of them playing after I serve dinner 🙂

Jim and Brian constructing new shed
Jim and Brian constructing new shed