Saturday, Oct. 20

Slept late, until around 8 a.m., but did stair stepping, resistance band, and weights exercises after breakfast.

While I got ready for the day, Hubbie washed a bunch of sweet potatoes, and put them in the oven to bake, and then accompanied Mother to our house.

Mother seemed sort of in the dumps this morning, so I asked if she was up for an outing, since it was such a beautiful day, and she said she was. So we went to the museum to attend a Family Fun Day.

The event included animal exhibits...birds of prey, a pair of wolves, and a snake. The birds, of course, are ones that for one reason or another cannot be released into the wild, so they are used for educational purposes.

The wolves are domesticated, and they live with the man who exhibits them, and provides educational programs about them. I took several snapshots of the wolves, and their owner. The owner has asked me to e-mail some of the shots to him, so he can include them at his website: www.facebook.com/howlifyoulikewolves.

The wolves are very friendly, and were perfectly content to allow people to pet them. The animals particularly like children. The owner said the pair...one a full wolf, and the other a hybrid, are life mates, although they are unable to reproduce, because of some problem the female has. The owner says the pair would love to reproduce, and they mate as if this were possible. So I wonder if this is why they are so attracted to children.

The male, though, does not appreciate squealing children, and when one youngster let out an ear-splitting scream, the male backed away and put his ears back. So the owner, who had the animals on leashes, attached them to a chain, away from the audience, as a precaution. I think the male just didn't like the noise. He didn't appear to be threatening.

The male was very regal and commanding, though...a true alpha male, who went about marking his territory by scratching the ground, and urinating on the building.

The female wolf seemed to like Mother, and she approached her and licked her face. When I asked her if she'd ever been kissed by a wolf before, she said, "Yes, but it was a long time ago, when I was a lot younger." Obviously, she was referring to the two-legged kind.

Inside the museum, an Extension Services agent exhibited a king snake, which Mother and I touched. Contrary to what people think, the snake was warm and smooth, rather than cold and slimy.

The event included a dutch oven cooking demonstration outside of the museum, where a state park interpreter baked biscuits using an iron kettle suspended over hot coals, with more hot coals topping the kettle lid. We sampled the biscuits, slathered with homemade butter. They were very good.

There were also various fur pelts for kids to handle, as well as crafts tables for them to enjoy.

A bake sale was going on, but we passed on that. Hungry folks could buy barbecue sandwiches for lunch, but by this time, we were ready to return home, where we had leftover Chinese soup.

After lunch, we watched this week's "Dancing With the Stars" episodes. Well, Mother watched the first episode for a while, and then she was ready to head to the couch for a nap. I finished watching both of them, though, and then went upstairs to gather and iron clothes for the week.

Did this and that for the rest of the afternoon, and then heated leftover stirfry for supper. Fixed a fresh batch of rice to go with it. Afterward, I accompanied Mother to her house, where I sorted her clothes, and then waited for her to take a shower, before I returned home.

Hubbie and I spent the rest of the evening watching TV.