Keepers of the Wild 2009!

A few weeks ago I went to a small Wildlife Sanctuary outside our town with my Aunt and Grandmother. The place was called Keepers of the Wild. I did a brief review of my first visit there in my  2008 New Years post last year. Theres the link! ;) Anyway, I really enjoy going to Keepers, because it is soooooooooooooo neat to see all these animals that were rescued from evil people. Anyway, here are pictures and videos :) Enjoy

 

Heres some videos!!!!

Listen to these wolves howling it's amazing!!

This tiger was the owners first rescue tiger, she is talking because she likes company ;)

If you have any questions about the videos just ask!

LoveJulia

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Me and My "Animal-istic" life

Well as the title says I have a very "animal-listic" life *Or so I think I do* Lately i seem to find animals (not just cats and dogs) everywhere. Bunnies running through our backyard, coyotes howling in the distance, chasing lizards, pulling snakes off the road, and climbing cliffs to -once again- catch a lizard. I start off with the first story.

April '08

My aunt and Uncle came to town and whilst on their vaca we visited the Indian drawings up on the mountains surrounding the valley. While we were hiking around abit my aunt was standing below me on a rock when she shouted 'Look at that thing" I could not see what she was pointing at so we all scurried down the giant rock we had climbed. I jumped down and landed in a small cactus shrub and saw where my aunt was pointing. Sitting in the shade attached to a bush was a HUGE Desert Iguana. It was about a foot long *nose to tail* and was thick as mud!!!!!!!!!!!! The following picture does it no justice in size but you get the idea.

I was sooooooooooo excited that I ran for it and skimmed past another cactus. The lizard took off like lightning. For a fat thing it moved fast!  It skimmied up that rock next to the bush and into a crack then up behind the rock  and onto a boulder and sat atop looking down at me and my cousins, who were standing near me shouting "Get it Julia!" , the thing was mocking us. I just knew it was thinking 'You can't get me since I can climb sheer cliffs and you can't" . It looked me in the eye and winked... I SWEAR IT WINKED AT ME! *Ok maybe it was my imagination* Me and my cousins did our best to climbed that boulder, and for proof, here you go.


Oh and after my cousin failed to get to the top I tried *the picture turned out really bad so I will not post it* But I almost got to the top and ALMOST had the little bugger within my grasp when he moved several inches over. After I fell off the rock i looked up at the bugger and there he sat. On his throne. Mocking me.
Oh and in case your wondering my leg was scraped up pretty bad and my hands were all scratched. But it was fun!!!!!!!!!!

May 08

My Mom, Brandon, and I were coming back from one of my college classes when my mom said 'There's a snake in the road!". She spun the car around and pulled slightly off the road. I jumped out of the car so fast I got in trouble (Little did I know a car was behind us) Anyways -Moving on- Mom pulled off the road completely and I ran and got Brandon. I pulled the snake off the road and Brandon helped. Unfortunately the snake was dead by the time we got there. Off in the distance was a road runner, I can only imagine it was getting a lunch snack when the snake went for the road and was hit by a car. But anyways, brandon was able to touch it and hold the tail of the snake. Oh in case your curious it was a harmless Red Racer, very common around here. In fact that is the kind of snake we had on our back deck about 3 years ago, and it was the same kind of snake that my friend Mackenzie's aunt had in her house. Here are some pictures



Brandon enojyed the one on one encounter and now he no longer has a fear of non-venomous snakes. He still doesn't appreciate all kinds of snakes ;) Oh and yes Brandon is bare foot. Thats how we do it in Arizona.

June 08 (Hahaha this month)

Well actually more of yesterday I was staring at our little "desert herb garden" when mom spotted another type of desert Iguana by our plants. Brandon came running over and we watched it for a while, and it spotted us and dove back against the house below the window, I looked out the other window and spotted the same type but a bigger version of the lizard. I realized there was two of them!!!!!!! I was so excited. Mom grabbed the camera and I rushed outside *In my pajama's!* (It was a lazy day) and snapped a few pictures.
Here's the female.
And there's the male (the bigger version ;) )

Of course I made my attempt to snatch the critter but he fooled me and just disappeared. All that was left was a puff of dust when he hit the dirt running. Man, I am always amazed at how fast these lizards are. It amazes me. Anyway, I tried again but no success.

So this is my Animalistic life! More stories to come in the future!

Julia

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Horse Rescue/ Back Home/ Sept. 11th

Horse Rescue

While I was up in Washington one thing I got to do was go to a horse rescue center. I was amazed at the number of horses that were there. The place was called Pacific Equestrian Center or PEC  as I call it. :)
My grandfather took me and my five year old brother, Brandon to it as just quality time with grandpa :) I had lots of fun. We bought carrots and fed them and petted them. Some we couldn't get to because of the electric fence, which I don't agree with so don't misunderstand me, but we still got to pet alot of them :)  My grandpa and I took turns taki ng pictures. I am going to put up a slide show cause there is alot of them. I apologize to dixiefiddler and dixiebeauty if they cannot see the slide show.  I promise I will ease up on posting slide shows and do just the picture post. Here are some picture posts for them.

OK so there are some pictures. I have to have space on this post or else I would post all the pictures. Yes that is me attempting to kiss the horse. I do that to all horses! :) and I succeded. Shortly after that he accidentally head butted me. It hurt but I sucked it up and lived :) Here is the slide show! There are also pictures of my brother Brandon and his friends so yeah :)

Home


Ok so we left on Thursday Sept 6th to head back home to Arizona. By car not by plane :( We brought along my grandmother and lots of junk that we collected while in Washington :) We normally travel through the bottom of WA out through the corner of Oregon and head to Twin Falls,Idaho, in the first day. The second day we usually leave Twin falls and drive right through the middle of Utah,then back in a corner of AZ,then into Las Vegas and then two hours home :)

Well we went to see my Great-Grandmother in Oregon,and so we traveled south of Portland and then back up and through Portland and traveled along the border of WA and Oregon. We stopped in Ontario,OR,on the first night. The next morning we got up at 330 am and traveled all the way to Beaver,Utah, and had to stay the night again. The next day, which was Saturday, we made it home around 3 pm. It was a long trip and now we are back home safe and sound. Oh I forgot to mention we are all still very tired.

Sept 11.

Coming up is Sept. 11th. and since I only post on Monday's and Thursday, or I try to, I will post about Sept 11th today. I remember it very clearly. I was still going to public school and was in the 5th grade at Sunrise Elementary. I woke up at 630 or so and had my daily routine of getting dressed and having breakfast. After breakfast it was time to go but me mum went MIA. I found her sitting in her bedroom staring at the TV and she was crying. I remember asking her whats going on and then I looked to the TV. All I saw was onegiagantic building on fire and everyone below hysteric and staring straight up at them. I saw the headline scroll 'Terrorist hijack plane and crash it into the World Trade center." I kept watching and I SAW the second plane come in and hit the second building. I think at that point I was in shock for actually witnessing the plane hit  (through the TV of course) and the people below screaming.  I believe I started crying at that point.

Shortly afterwards me mum took me to school and the whole way there we were listening to the radio and hearing the commotion about the two buildings collapsing. Once I got to school,I was one of the first kids in my class arrive, I ran to my classroom and started knocking on the door. My teacher opened the door and let me and a few other students in. Once inside I looked to him and said "The World trade Center's have been hit by planes. They both have fallen." He instantly called the principal and asked what was going on. She told him and he turned on his radio. After school started he went into an explanation about the hijacking and the attack.

Later that day I remember turning on the TV and all I saw were stroies about what happened earlier that morning. Then the showed videos over and over and over again or the building collapsing. United 93 crashing and then I found out about the pentagon. It left me very emotional throughout the rest of that week. This is our time as American's to pray for those family's left behind on the fateful day.

-Julia

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Sheep/ Mnt Rainier/ and Steve Irwin

OK........ so........ Some peopl have been having a hard time viewing the pictures I put up from Slide and I was wondering who else is having problems?? I hope it's not slide messing up and it's just their computers.. No offense people :) I'm just worried that I have been putting up slideshows and NO ONE is able to view them.. Sigh..

Last  Wednesday we went up to Leavenworth, WA , which is a German based town up in the mountains of  Washington. My grandfather lives up there in 'German style' cottage. It's nice and always fun going there.  Anyway,I will put up pictures of Leavenworth soon. Right now I want to talk about what happened as we left :) There is a small town of Liberty,which is a historic trading post town. So we decided to check it out. We drove through and I saw some sheep down the hill in a sort of valley area. We continued through the town and turned around and came back. We snapped pictures of the small town and were only there for 15 minutes. But when we were driving back through,once we got on the other side the road was COVERED in Sheep. Everywhere. Crossing the road,going into the hills. But it was hilarious as how they just swarmed the road. Here are some pictures:

I'm sorry the pictures are kind of big. I forgot to resize them. Ok so yeah there ya go :)

On to the Next subject!!!!!!!!!!! On Thursday we spent the day up at Mnt. Rainier which is the highest mountain in WA. Stationed at 14,441 FT, Mnt Rainier is the "training Mountain" for climbers heading on to Everest. My dream is to summit Mt. Everest and so I also plan on climbing Mnt. Rainier someday. I know some friends of mine who have summitted and they said it was amazing a beautiful! I can not wait until I start training!!! Here is a slide show of Mt. Rainier,and a Picture for those who can't view slideshow :)

Okay so last but CERTAINLY NOT LEAST!!!! Yesterday, Sept 2nd, was me mate Steve Irwin's 1 year anniversary of his tragic death. For those of you who don't remember how he died let me tell you. He was swimming of the Great Barrier Reef in Aussie ocean when he swam over the top of a stingray and the stingray reacted by shooting it's ver venomous barb wire tail into his chest. It killed him instantly. I am very sad to report I completely forgot it was a day behind in Australia and I didn't post anything yesterday. Technically America found out on Sept 3rd,2006, and so that is one year to the day. His legacy will remain in our hearts forever and we will never forget him. His conservation work spread accross the world and it will continue. Australia Zoo, his beautiful home, will forever prosper because of him. I cry everytime I think about him and I know some of you do as well. We all miss him dearly. So all I can say is Rest in Peace Mate.



-Julia

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Rainforest Cafe/ Volunteer Job update

First in this post :) We recently went to the not so nationwide Rainforest cafe. I loved it there..If you don't know what the Rainforest Cafe is you can go here or if you don't want to open a new window just read the rest of this post! :) Well the cafe is basically a Rainforest, with all the electronic animals and such that live in the rainforest. They had monkeys, gorillas, elephants, unique looking butterflys, nile crocodiles and so much more! In the middle of the cafe was a HUGE fish tank with fish that were so unique looking the looked unreal. Also they have "the night sky" on the ceiling with the occasional shooting stars and the aurora borealis.

The tables and chairs were made out of logs and tree's bordering the cafe and near the tables. I sat right up against a tree that had a huge butterfly on it. Vine's were "swooping" every which way. So it made you feel like you were in the rainforest. My brother Brandon, who is 5, had alot of fun and he was asking a ton of questions about the animals. I enjoyed explaining alot to him and I believe his fave part were the gorilla's hooting and hollering every 15 mins. The elephants trumpted every 15 mins to.

I took some pictures but they weren't as bright as I had hoped but please look carefully anyway.

Yes I did take pictures of Bathroom doors.. :) I though the animals on front were cute :)

Second in this post is about the Volunteer job I applied for. Well basically I cannot volunteer there without a Parent or Guardian volunteering with me because I am only 16. Sigh.. How sad... My aunt Deena was thinking of volunteering there and so she is considered a guardian,right? :) Maybe I will get to volunteer there. They would let me feed the big cats after I went through an intense 30 hour evaluation. I don't know what they would be evaluating but that's their rules. Lol.

Once I get back to AZ I hope to get a job somewhere working with animals or not. I have no money and I need some for my future trip to Europe and also to start my life out now :)

-Julia

 

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