Kids say the darndest things

I hope to have a lot of these as my time here keeps going but here are a few of my favorites so far.
My co-worker Anna was talking to some students about our Red Wolves and how fast they can run because they have long, muscular legs. And a little girl said "They can run fast because of their long legs. Not like pigs, they have short legs." Yes, yes they do. We found out she hadn't been to a farm recently or seen pigs in the recent past - that was just what she thought about - wolves have long legs they can run fast - pigs have short legs not as fast. Love that line of thought.
While doing a pond prowl where the kids have to dig in the mud and muck of the pond for interesting insects one kid was looking at a giant water bug and said "Now that's what I call amazing." I think it's amazing too. Those quotes are why I'm doing what I'm doing.
We had a camp of children in from Nashville and while we were hiking trails they would keep talking about how they were "going into the wilderness." I really enjoy giving these kids a chance to get outside and really feel how fun it is to hike or camp.
And I've had more than one kid tell me I have the best job ever. To which I reply - yeah, I pretty much do.

Kentucky Party

I got to go to a real Kentucky party hosted by people that actually live in Kentucky. And it was awesome. We were invited by some co-workers that live across the lake in a really fun neighborhood. It's mostly retirees and they know how to have some fun! We got to be picked up from the LBL side of the lake and brought over to the party by boat. I'm pretty sure this is the first party I've ever arrived to by boat. The first thing we noticed was the abundance of really fancy golf carts or mules as I've learned to call them. Check them out:

And they had food. Lots and lots of food. Made by lots and lots of grandmas who really like to have young people try their food. It was fantastic.

And there were a lot of people there. They even had a band.

And everyone was so very nice. Really genuinely nice. I even talked to one guy from Chicago for awhile about food we missed (good Italian, hot dogs, and sausages being at the top of our lists). But, he ended by saying how nice everyone here is and how he has great neighbors. It was one of my favorite parties. Especially because I got to ride on a boat.

Chicken Necks

We have quite a few birds of prey at the Nature Station. In the wild they'll eat small rodents, insects, other birds, and even skunks. It's hard to recreate that in captivity so we give them dead mice and chicken necks.

Yup, chicken necks. We get a big bag of frozen chicken necks and have to let them thaw out. Apparently our birds are picky and their digestive systems don't really like the fat and skin from the chicken necks (I guess they wouldn't be catching too many chickens out in the wild). So we get to "process them". And that really just means going through all the slimy, gooey chicken necks and pulling the skin and fat off of them. Sometimes you even get a chicken head. I wasn't that lucky. Thankfully, I had Anna to help me.

While we were working on this we were listening to NPR. It was a food show and they were talking about tube steaks. Yum.

Shopping

While shopping for groceries the other day I heard someone say "Oh, her daddy used to be a coon hunter, that's right"

Only in Kentucky...

Fish

We have a bald eagle at the Nature Station. She's 24 years old or maybe a bit more. Eagles eat a lot of fish in the wild so she gets fish to eat at Nature Station. Sometimes I get to feed her some pieces of recently thawed fish - I'm talking about 2" thick bisections of fish that smell, well, fishy. I often wonder where the fish comes from. Our rats/mice that we feed some of the animals come from some company that only raises rodents to feed animals like ours (who knew these things existed?). But, what about the fish?

The other day one of my co-workers asked me if I could help him and to grab a few trash bags. That's always a sign of fun to be had working here - "grab some trash bags". I went out front and there were these two guys standing next to a pick-up truck. A pick-up truck with the back full of giant, dead fish. And I don't think they were that fresh. My co-worker says he'll take whatever's under 2'. One of the men pulls out this huge metal hook and starts tossing fish around in the back of the truck, looking for the smaller ones and helping the smell rise into the air. I'm staring at the size of the fish amazed at how big they are and that they're from our lakes. Apparently we have carp fishing competitions and no one keeps the fish - so it's these guys jobs to get rid of them. Nice. All the while the guy in the pick-up truck is talking about stuff like the weather with his southern drawl and hoisting fish up into the air and into our garbage bags. Completely normal. Nothing to it. Maybe after I'm done putting the fish into the freezers full of dead animals I'll go boil some bird heads. You know, whatever.