Totally deflated that I had to postpone my Appalachian Trail hike last summer to this fall. I went in search of a "Band-Aid" if you will. Any thing that might keep my mind from dwelling on what I might be missing out there on the trail. What I found wasn't just a job, it was food for my soul.

I had landed a position as an horticulturalist, at the Nashville Grassmere Zoo in Tennessee. My duties included planting, grooming and caring for all plant life throughout the park. But this I soon discovered was no ordinary Zoo. For many reason like it being a non-profit but for much more interesting reasons like it having two graveyards. One with 20 unidentified bodies found during a construction dig just a few years earlier. I also might add their impressive track record for successfully breeding endangered species, so many others have failed at.

NOTE:I will be breaking this blog into a few post, there are just too many great stories, photos and videos I want to share.

I became official March 2, not 100% sure on what to expect my first day I did know my job was strictly an outside and exactly what I wanted.

We would start early when temperatures were well below freezing, while the sun was still shooing away the stars. I started out bundled in oversized men's clothes until my own uniform would arrive. (it took a month) In the mean time I wore a giant Carthart Coat that I'm sure I looked ridiculous with my girly jeans and the Salomon's I had bought for my Appalachian hike... but I didn't care. The extra fabric was welcomed against the cold and my coffee kept me alive till the sun came up those first few weeks I'm sure of it.

Being the newbie...or maybe because I was the only girl on the crew I often worked alone, but I liked it that way. It gave me the opportunity and excuse to strike up conversations with other park employees including the zookeepers, which eventually spoiled me rotten with animal encounters I'll get into.

You can hear the Gibons talking in the background.

Behind the scenes the Zoo has a matrix of roads which we traveled via Gator (they're like 4 wheelers) none fancy with heat or doors I might add. I spent a lot of my morning watering our two nurseries while the sun came up. I'd gather huge blackberries off the bushes for the bears and save clippings of honeysuckle and other edible plants to later spoil the giraffes and kangaroos with. I knew where all the wild birds nest were and would peek daily to see if any had hatched.

Because I'm a kid at heart I had to make sure everyone knew I was there as you will see below. Giggle, and there was that one time a lawn guy told me not to touch his mower randomly (because why?) sooo... I found a mud puddle and touched it.

Cardinal Eggs

()

Smurf Eggs...lol I kid these are Robin Eggs

Eventually I began working on bigger, more important projects like landscaping around the soon to open Spider Monkey exhibit. An enclosure with no animals in it yet, but a step closer. It was there I got to meet my first furry local however. Nearly run over by a bulldozer one of my co-workers snatched up this baby mouse. I ended up volunteering to take it home and nurse it till it could be on its own.

My daughter learned some valuable lessons with this little roommate.

It was around this time I was also assigned to maintain the 2 Graveyards...once word got around so did all the ghost stories to me. But I'll save all that for the next blog...then things really get interesting when I started to meet the big animals, no better way to start your day then with Rhino snot all down your shirt; no but really...lol

Thanks for reading this little opener to my time at the Zoo plenty more to come, along with art and more hiking posts.

-Cheers!