August 4, 2017
Morning activity was grocery shopping in Seward at the Fred Meyer. After lunch we drove to the Musk Ox Farm where we had a tour narrated by a nice Alaskan girl that works there. They have about an 80 animal herd of musk ox and they are grown for the hair, called qiviut, that is used to make warm, soft clothing by native Alaskans for sale. (https://www.muskoxfarm.org) We were surprised how short the animals are even though the females weigh 6-700 pounds while the males can get up to 1,000 pounds. They had five calves this spring which is a very good crop according to our guide and all the animals are domesticated to the extent that they will change fields, go to the barn monthly for weighing and stand still for combing. We did see a large bull charge the fence trying to get to a young bull. Fortunately the fence held.
From here we went back to the Unity for a short nap and then at 5:00 PM it was a cook-out with hamburgers, hot dogs and reindeer sausage with all the fixings. A very pleasant evening with the whole group on the tour. We tried to watch some TV but sleep overtook us.
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