So after a two week hiatus, here’s the next issue of Battle of Wills from the Equilibrium Saga.  And because of the wait, it’s a bit longer.

In the last episode, we left Ashton bewildered, sitting on an annoyed and increasingly alarmed Silren in the middle of a forest.  Far from home, and still recovering from the shock caused by the creatures now surrounding him, all Ashton wants is his old life back… doesn’t he?  Well, I guess he’ll have to find a chance to figure that out.

 It’s been a busy, busy time around here.  Sorry to make everyone wait.  I had a wonderful visit from one of my best friends from high school, whom I hadn’t seen in around 18 years.  We had fallen out of touch and it was awesome to reconnect.  She is also a writer, which we just laughed over the coincidence.  She writes scifi/fantasy too, go check her out.   francespauli.com

I did manage to get one blog post out about wolf haven, which was a fun and educational field trip with my first grader.  When the wolves howled, it sounded awesome.  But the best part was the mini-vacation my family took.  We spent two days and one night at Great Wolf Lodge.  The kidlets had so much fun running around the hotel, playing Magic Quest and battling dragons and solving puzzles.  And the water park had a lot to offer, even with small children.  I think as a family though, we had the most fun in the wave pool together.  But the water slides came in a close second.  The only drawback was that the food turned out to be very unexceptional.

That gets us to Earth day.  Here in Seattle we had a beautiful Earth day, it was sunny and in the 70’s which is almost unheard of.  That is the sort of temps we get at the end of July or August.  We spent the day at the beach (and those of us who put on sunblock didn’t get sunburned, lol)  My husband is now very red but he led an attack of magnitude proportions on the sand.  He encouraged dozens of kids and parents into a monumental sandcastle work that stretched thirty-five feet on a side.  Then after hours of building it, the water came and the walls were breached as the children all hurried to hold back the tide.  To no avail.  The castle was flattened while the kids all cheered.  Awesomely fun day. 

And then I contracted bronchitis, sigh.

So all in all a very fun filled full two weeks, well except for the last few days, lol.

Anyway, here’s the next installment of Silren and Ashton’s tale.  And if you are new to their story here’s a link to the first part of the saga.  Meetings part 1.  http://www.sianawineland.com/2/post/2012/03/meetings-part-1.html 

The navigation links at the top will also take you to the Equilibrium page with the different blog posts for the story.  Instructions for navigating through the story are in the right hand information bar.

P.S.  Sorry it’s so much past 7:00.  Stupid cold.  

Today we went on a school field trip with my 6 year old.  We visited Wolf Haven, a wolf sanctuary and breeding facility.  And it was such a beautiful day too.  Sunny and warm.  There were three different parts to the facility.  We started with our picnic and walk on the prairie interprative trail.  That was a surprise.  I had no idea that western Washington had native prairie! 
Then we moved on to the wolf talk tour.  There we got a chance to see the wolves in their enclosures.  Only a portion of their population is in the display area.  Being a sanctuary, most of the individual wolves are not eligible for reintroduction to the wild.  But the facility does participate in breeding programs that allows them to build up pack nucleus' that can be released in the regions that are being repopulated.  It has been discovered that if they release only a male and female together, the two rarely bond and stay together.  But if the humans set them up in a pack with youngsters (even if they aren't the two alpha's pups) they will usually stay together to care for the younger wolves.  The facility is also part of a fostering program with red wolves.  They have two pairs of red wolves right now that they hope are pregnant.  If they are then some of the pups will be swapped out with pups from wild packs on the east coast.  That allows for a new influx of genetics for both the wild packs and the population held in captivity.

We were treated to an awesome howl as well.  Apparently, the wolves don't howl as often as you would expect.  So the guide was really excited that we got to hear one.  It was amazing.  It started at the far end of the large grouping of enclosures and traveled like a wave until it reached us, and all the wolves were howling.  Here's a snipet of what it was like.  The video truly doesn't capture how encompasing it was.  You primarily hear the two wolves right in front of us.  But it isn't bad for a cell phone camera :)

After the wolf walk, we moved to the last part of the presentation.  A classroom slide show.  There we got the chance to see and hold skull models of Grizzly bears, Black bears, Cougars, Bobcats, Wolves, and Deer.  Along with Moose, Deer, and Carriboo antlers.  It was truly amazing to see a before and after picture from Yellowstone.  When the wolves were eradicated from the wild, the herbivores went nuts.  That resulted in the expected over grazing, but it also made for lazy herd beasts.  Without the wolves keeping them on the move they just hung out in the nicest part and ate it to the ground.  Then the beavers didn't have anything to eat, so they left and so did all of the other creatures.  And the salmon quit spawning because the streams had been ruined by the lack of beaver dams, and the hooves of the elk and the shade from the plants that no longer lined the banks. The before picture was barren, but a picture taken only five years after the reintroduction of wolves was shocking.  The regrowth of plants along the stream made it almost unrecognizable.  And the beavers and fish returned almost as quickly.

I wish I understood why humans were so afraid of such amazing beasts.  We've done more harm to them than they could ever do to us.

Sorry folks, but this weeks installment of Equilibrium will be postponed.  The holiday and a visit from an old friend didn't give me enough time this week to devote to it.  And next week my family will be going on a mini vacation to Great Wolf Lodge. 

So I will get the second part of Battle of Wills done as quickly as I can and just post it off schedule.  If I can get the third part done too I will, otherwise we will get back to normal on the twenty fifth.

And if you are new here and would like to check out The Equilibrium Saga this is where you can get started.  http://www.sianawineland.com/2/post/2012/03/meetings-part-1.html  You can also find it through the page navigation at the top under the Equilibrium tab.

I hope everyone had a nice Easter?  We had a lovely afternoon at the beach.  It turned out to be sunny and warm here in the pacific northwest, perfect since the Easterbunny so kindly brought sand toys.  Here's most of the eggs that we and the kidlets decorated.  And yes that is a tie fighter egg!  Awesome huh?

The baskets were a success (as if there was any doubt.)