Hope everyone was able to enjoy Easter, as well as Passover Seders. I am sure time with family over the computer was not what anyone had in store for these holidays. In my family, we made a special Covid-19 Passover Haggadah, which was abbreviated, fairly non-traditional, and began with a “Prayer for A Pandemic”

As far as life at the Museum… we’re chugging along. The huge tasks this past week were to mow/weedeat the bear yard, and deal with supplies.

Grass and other green things in the bear yard had grown to over 4-feet in certain places. Janine and Rob were able to catch all four bears in the bear house. This created an empty yard and set a socially-distanced team into action.

Several hours and five of us in the yard and woo-hoo, all done! I was on mowing (Thanks to Robbie in Facilities who got the tractor/mower set up for me). Ro, from the Communications Team, and Rob, were on the weed-eaters. Janine and Mary were on scooping duty.

In terms of supplies, we had ordered loads of chow/feed unsure if deliveries would still be able to get in at the onset of the quarantining. Carolina Wildlife and a large meeting room have been used for storage. Frozen fruit and vegetables are available in case we cannot continue with enough fresh produce.

Aaron worked for two days, probably moving well over two tons of food (maybe closer to five tons) to get it all in our freezer. Why so important? Well, we’ll be sure the food won’t go bad and be available as needed. Every single animal has enough shelf-stable food for several months!

Well over a month ago we started intense planning on needed supplies (among other things) to help us get through this difficult period. Charts and notes and meetings and orders and… occurred to ensure the animals would have what was needed. Below are the first notes about animal diets I wrote out six or so weeks ago.

From the pad, to a spreadsheet, as well as large paper on a wall so to be able to quickly see and track supplies. What a huge relief for me to know that animals have food. It’s one less thing to focus on right now, which is good, because there are loads of other things that require focus.

Check back later in the week for the next update. In the meantime, you know the drill, protect yourself and others:

• stay home
• if you have to go out, maintain social distancing of at least 6 feet
• wash your hands often
• don’t touch your face– masking is now often advised.
• Do something that makes you smile: (help someone in need, do something that makes you happy, check out Dr. Laurie Santos’ work on happiness)