young's hill

Distracted by the view

March 26, 2013 by Jackie

The weather has been absolutely perfect today- warm sunshine, blue skies, and absolutely no wind (which is rare for spring in Cle Elum). As I was taking my afternoon walk around the hill with Jamie, all seven chimps came outside. Other than Jamie, who was fixated on making sure I kept up with her, the other chimps seemed pretty happy just relaxing in the sun and checking out the view. I was having a hard time not stopping to take photos of the other chimps without making Jamie impatient, but thankfully, she let me get a couple of Burrito.

But it wasn’t long before I was summoned to keep going. Our boss certainly knows how to keep our priorities in check.

Negra hangin’ out at the cabin

March 14, 2013 by Debbie

If you saw the blog the a couple weeks ago, we got pretty excited because Negra finally went into her cabin! Yesterday Jackie captured a short video of Negra sitting in her cabin. After hanging out in there for a while, she walked around it, stopped to look at Jody through the clear lexan panel, and then sat down next to it with a really sweet and content face.

Happenings on the hill

March 5, 2013 by Sarah

We’ve had a fun day on Young’s Hill today. JB installed the sign on Negra’s Cabin, and of course Jamie had to inspect JB’s handiwork:.

Finding no problems, Jamie went on to have a great time with good friend Foxie. First they played chase all over the Hill, then they played chase through the cabin panels:

Then Jamie ushered Foxie along a stroll around the Hill:

And when it was time to come in to the greenhouse for lunch, Jamie shared her excitement with a kiss:

Messing with the GoPro

March 3, 2013 by Jackie

As Diana mentioned yesterday, the weather has (off and on) been incredible the last week or so! Yesterday it actually got up to 60 degrees (!) but then there was snow on the ground this morning. So, we really have to take advantage of good weather when we have it. J.B. and Diana set up a forage on Young’s Hill yesterday and put the GoPro camera in it’s mount. As I was reviewing the footage this morning, I discovered Foxie and Jamie had a little post-forage project – to get to the bottom of this whole GoPro thing, once and for all!

Getting Cozy in the Cabin

February 27, 2013 by Jackie

Today, Jody was caught lounging in the cabin on the hill. It’s great to see her so comfortable in there! We may have built it with Negra in mind (and nothing made me happier than seeing her in it a couple weeks ago!), but I suspect that with some more warmth, extra sunshine, straw, and a few extra blankets (or maybe a few 100 extra blankets), we’ll be seeing a lot more of Jody nesting in the cabin over the next few months!

Negra in her cabin!

February 16, 2013 by Diana

I took some photos last night and had a whole blog post about night bags ruminating in my head, but then, today, this happened…

Negra finally spent some time in Negra’s Cabin!

The thinking behind the cabin that you helped us build through our 4th anniversary fundraising, was that the chimps, particularly fair-weather-loving Negra, needed a spot on the hill where they would be protected from the wind and rain, which we had both of today.

Here’s the full story of Negra’s big venture to her cabin –

Now that the snow is gone and we’ve had some warmer days, Negra has been spending a bit of her time on the hill, especially when we spread food around for the chimps to find. Below is a photo from last night of Negra heading back towards the greenhouse after gathering some sweet potato:

Generally, Negra’s been going out long enough to gather food, then coming back inside, but today was a little different.

The weather has been weird today. One minute sunny and warm, the next windy and overcast, and the next sleeting. There was a window of good weather around the chimps’ lunchtime, so we decided to set up a forage on the hill. We’re defrosting the freezer today, so J.B. took a hammer to some frozen watermelon that had been in the freezer for who knows how long and we included that in the lunch forage.

Jody went for the frozen watermelon in the cabin, and took her stash away as Negra approached: