A Lake, a Farm, and a Garden

Good morning, my friends. We had a lazy morning yesterday. We got up early enough, but then Mike and Smitty went back to bed. While they slept a little longer, I finished of the 7th of the Raggedy and Friends blocks.

Here are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

When everyone was finished with their beauty sleep, we took off to find the Matanuska Glacier overlook. Well. That turned into just a slight fiasco. Before I tell you about what went wrong, just take another look at this mountain. Yes, it's the same one we saw when we left yesterday, but I never get tired of the mountains in Alaska.

It was maybe a half hour drive to the turn off for the Matanuska Lakes State Recreation Area. 

I misunderstood what I was reading about the overlook. I didn't realize that the SRA takes in approximately 258 acres. So, we found the place we'd entered into our nav unit, but there was no sign of any glacier here. And at 80 feet of elevation above sea level, it seemed unlikely we'd find any glacier activity here.

Oh well. It was a pretty lake.

And if I walked down this rather steep path...

I could get an even better view. There were some steps here too for anyone wanting to enter the water for a swim. Ya gotta think that water is ice cold, though.

Okay, so we figured out the place we really wanted to be was some 60 miles up the road. We'll be heading that way today. We have a short drive today, and so stopping off to see the glacier will be a way to kill time before we reach our next stop.

All right...onward! We headed off to the Musk Ox Farm, which was just about ten minutes up the road.

Well, this turned out to be loads of fun. Here's their barn.

And you know it's a musk ox farm because of the musk ox weather vane.

Below there was this metal sculpture of a musk ox. It was impressively detailed.

There was a 45-minute guided tour...$12 each for seniors. A tour had just started, and they waited for us to join them, which was nice. Now...behave yourselves. 

We were given some warnings about the musk ox. They don't like being touched. If you make yourself lower than they are, they take that as some sort of challenge and will try to head butt you. And when you see their horns, you'll definitely want to avoid any head-butting. Also, no climbing on the fence. 

So, let's take a look at these guys. Here's some information from the website: The non-profit Musk Ox Farm is dedicated to the gentle husbandry of the musk ox, an Ice Age mammal that once roamed the earth alongside saber-tooth tigers and woolly mammoths. From the Inupiaq language, “Oomingmak,” means “The Bearded One.” This once-endangered animal produces an annual harvest of qiviut (kiv'-ee-yoot), the finest wool in the world.

This one is scratching himself on his feed bin.

In the 1940’s and 50’s wild musk oxen were a disaster or two away from extinction and the villages of coastal Alaska were moving into a cash economy that had scarcely existed before. Where others saw two utterly insurmountable challenges, John Teal’s eyes sparkled and a vision was born. 

There are two here. One is lying behind the other.

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After more than a decade of research, Teal started what came to be known as the Musk Ox Project in Alaska. Supported by funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, as well as assistance from the University of Alaska and countless volunteers, the Project started Alaska’s first domestic musk ox farm in Fairbanks in 1964. Each year the herd grew. Each year their qiviut was combed and spun into exquisite yarn.

This is a calf.

These are also calves.

Here, we have a calf standing up.

This is a cow with her calf.

I was shooting through a fence for most of these shots, and so I did the best I could focusing on the animal and not the fence or gate. 

Musk ox are most closely related to sheep and goats. They have no top row of incisors, but chew using their bottom teeth and a hard palate. I made this 14-second video so you can see how their noses move as they graze. Their noses move like rabbits. You'll hear our guide speaking on this video. If you can't see the video, then click right here.

There were six cows in this next pen, and the feed truck came by while we stood there. The six who were far out in the field came closer to greet the food truck.

And who wouldn't enjoy being a musk ox in this pastoral setting?

Here's another cow.

This calf was born just two months ago.

Their little horns are pokey like a goat when they begin to grow. Our guide informed us they usually clip them to avoid any of the farm workers being injured.

The horns are like a dog’s claws in that they can only be clipped a short distance. Clip too much, and it will hurt the animal and bleed. She had a sample of the horn. This is what it looks like.

Inside their gift shop, they had a nice display about the collecting of the fur.

This farm is strictly for gathering the fur. None of the animals are slaughtered for meat. Here's the sequence of how the fur is turned into a knitted (or crocheted) garment. The fur is very soft. 

I thought I might like one of these headbands. Aren't they pretty? But ooooh...expensive! Take a look at that price tag.

Here...let me zoom in to give you a closer look. Sheesh. No way.

Okay, and here's a quotation from the founder of this farm.

From there, we moved on to the Palmer visitor center. We were most interested in the adjacent garden that showcases a wide selection of flowers and vegetables which, when seen during high summer, provides a glimpse into the growing capabilities under the midnight sun in Alaska. Originally designed to showcase the crops that were grown in Palmer in the 1930’s, the garden has expanded and now displays the best of what is and can be grown in South-central Alaska.

My phone tells me this is "Daisy Gold."

Red leaf rose:

Maltese Cross:

Perennial cornflower:

A fragrant white peony:

A type of ranunculus:

Snow-in-summer. We've seen this growing wild all over.

Painted daisies:

Hairy bellflower:

Columbine:

My phone tells me this is a "dark columbine":

Himalayan poppy:

Knapweed:

Golden clematis:

Mike really liked this next one. This is Mock Orange. It was a shrub-like plant:

There were also vegetables. A row of tomatoes here.

There's a marble-sized tomato:

Colorful lettuces:

Finally, some colorful cabbages:

There were seeds for sale in the museum. We headed inside and I picked out a few things for my DIL. Just inside the door was this pretty quilt:

We got some lunch at a local food truck, and then picked up a few groceries at the Wasilla Fred Meyer. From there we headed back to the camper. And that was our day. 

Today's final destination will be Glacier View, Alaska, which seems completely appropriate since that's what we're hoping to find today. The viewpoint is actually past where we'll stop for the night. We may stop and check-in first, or we may do that after seeing the viewpoint. It's possible to hike out onto the glacier, but that requires a guide. We'll decide today whether we want to hire a guide. The website tells us no reservations are necessary and all equipment is supplied. If we decide to do it, we'll do it tomorrow on our way to Glenallen, which will be our final stop for the night tomorrow.

We're coming to the end of our time in Alaska in about ten days. We've scheduled another cruise when we reach Valdez...our next stop after Glenallen. We watched the weather carefully, and it looks like Wednesday's weather will give us the best chance. So our tour is booked, and we'll keep our fingers crossed for a sunny day. A day without rain would be perfect, sunshine or no.

Okay then. Glaciers await. Time to get going. Dress warm today. No doubt it's cold near the glacier.

Here's a funny to finish off. Seen in Palmer yesterday. Get it?