Animal and Environmental class is now in session!

Today A is taking over! These pictures are hers. She took them so I am going to let her tell you about them. And let her add some animal facts.

Hilo everyone and welcome to A's animals 101 and environmental awareness class! First facts...
1. Polar Bears actually have black fur! The sun reflects off the snow and onto their fur making them white.
2. When the bear gets on its belly and starts to slide in the snow, it is actually is cleaning its fur.
3. A Polar Bear likes to stomp on the ice because it is looking for buried seal pups that are in their dens under the ice.
4. When baby Polar Bears are born they are only about the size of your hand.
5. When the Polar Bear is in hibernation it looses most of its body weight sleeping.
6. There aren't many polar bears left in the wild today because the sea ice is melting.
7. You can help these creatures!
How you ask? by turning your lights off when you leave a room, don't leave your water running when you brush your teeth, changing to eco friendly light bulbs, and recycle. Little things like those can help a whole lot!
Did you know that by changing only one light bulb to an eco friendly light bulb can take out one ton of emissions out of the air.
And did you know that if you recycle your cell phones and bottles it will be reused to make other useful things. But if you just throw your stuff away it takes many years to decompose in a landfill.
Well I hope you enjoyed these facts. If you knew these facts then good for you ^-^ ! If you learned something new then I hope you are inspired to help wildlife and the environment!
I want to be a vet when I get older! Please comment and tell me some facts of your own! I would love to hear your comments please! Thank you soooooooooooooooo much for reading and if you do commenting! And class is dismissed! =^.^=

Volcano Information

This is the web site to go to to find out about Mt. Redoubt and other volcanoes in the area. http://www.avo.alaska.edu The Alaska Volcano Observatory has a wonderful web site that will give updated information as well as some awesome pictures.

Volcano World at http://volcano.oregonstate.edu gives information about all kinds of volcanoes and they have named Mount Redoubt their volcano of the month!

This is the web site for the Alaska Science Center http://alaska.usgs.gov If you click on volcano web cam it will take you back to the Alaska Volcano Observatory web site.

This is one of my favorite web sites. It is for channel 2. http://www.ktuu.com They have great video and pictures.

I like http://www.gi.alaska.edu because of the cool pictures. This is the geophysical Institute of the University of Fairbanks. my favorite site of all time...

The reason for this being my favorite site is that when you bring it up you can click on the aurora forecast. The aurora can be hard to see up here in the summer due to that whole Land of the Midnight Sun thing. We have found the best time to see the aurora is winter. I don't have pictures of it. But I can only tell you that it is one of the most beautiful sites I have ever seen!

Dall Sheep

this guy is showing us his horns.

This one just cracks me up!

These are the only views of Dall sheep I have had since moving to Anchorage. All three have been at the Alaska Zoo.

Mountain Goats

As you head south on the Seward Highway,about 10 miles out of Anchorage, you will find that the hills have rather rocky cliffs. If you are the driver.. Sorry, you won't see them until you pull over. In the summer the goats tend to bring crowds to the highway when they can be viewed from the road.

A View of Mt. Redoubt from South Anchorage

As I was driving home yesterday I noticed Mt. Redoubt. This is just one of the many volcanoes near Anchorage. I was thankful that the wind was carrying the ash and steam away from us. It is hard to believe that it is one hundred miles away from us.

I took this picture from the athletic track that is in front of Hanshew Middle School. Wish this was the view I had during P.E. (minus the active volcano!!) I might have enjoyed it more!

Happy Easter

Well.... he or she is not the Easter bunny but we did wake up one morning last month to see this little one sitting under a tree.

We wish everyone a Happy Easter

U.S. Ski Team at Alyeska

This is Alyeska. This is the ski resort where we went to see the U.S. Ski Team race the downhill championships. At another time I will show you what the hotel looks like.. It is an unbelievable place to come for the day. But I'll save that for another post.

Before this goes any farther I have something to admit... I know nothing about skiing!! This is not one of my hobbies. So if I get some one's name mixed up... SORRY!! Don't get me wrong I think it is an awesome sport. But I could never do it. There is just something about flying down a hill on two thin pieces of board with trees whizzing by that screams out of control to me.

The second picture is of one of the girls talking with the media after her run. My husband thinks it is Lindsey Vonn. He is probably right. You see he is this huge sports nut (That's putting it mildly! :)). He is fluent in all sports not just one!!!