Fantasy Caravan Day 43, part 1 - Palmer -- Musk Ox Farm

We had a busy day in Palmer on Saturday.

In the morning, Fantasy had arranged a tour of a Musk Ox Farm for us...

Arriving at the Musk Ox Farm (https://www.muskoxfarm.org/)

They split our group into three parts -- our part started out inside the stage (our guide, Dani is standing at the front of the stage area). Another part of our group is gathered on the yard in front. There was a third part of our group still in the building with the gift shop -- and there was yet another group (and maybe two) of folks who happened to come today too! Dani is the education director at the farm, and said that she rarely does tours but she was Ox-cellent (Musk Ox humor).

We walked out in the paths between the paddocks as Dani introduced us to different new "friends".

Dani with one of our new friends!

This was a bull. Dani had cautioned us that while their herd is "domesticated" they are not "tame" and that it is rut season, so the bulls are potentially unpredictable. We were to stand up tall, stay in a group (as a single individual could look vulnerable), we were not to reach through the fences.

Dani had told us that musk oxen are not generally musky (the fellow who first named them came across them during rut and the males can have a musky smell at that time), and they are not particularly closely related to oxen (more closely related to goats). This bull had a definite musky smell, so we could understand how the person who named them had the impression that was a species characteristic.

We had walked past him and were looking at musk oxen in another field, but he came to the metal gate and head butted it -- we didn't tarry -- no need to annoy him further.

Our group walking in the pathway between pastures.

Beautiful green pastures, red buildings, mountains beyond, with a couple of musk oxen in the foreground.

These are some of the females who are not being bred this year -- you might notice one in the back by the red barn - she figured out how to break in to get to hay -- they have plenty of green grass, but no, she wants hay!

These are the 4 youngsters who were born in 2024 (April, I think) -- 3 females and one male. Each year, they pick a "theme" for naming the babies -- this year was eggs -- so the male is Benedict (Ben), and the girls are Sunny, Frittata, and Quiche. Dani said that, for some reason, the Musk Ox Farm tends to always have more females born each year than males, although normal is 50/50.

It is probably a little hard to tell that they are smaller -- though they are only about knee-high to Dani in the picture. They were just separated from their mothers on Thursday (2 days before) though the mothers had weaned each of their calves prior to that time. They were in pastures right next to each other, and the youngest one (Sunny) made frequent comments expressing her dissatisfaction with the situation!

I think these are Sunny and Quiche.

There was a nice gift shop where they sold items made with qiviot (https://www.muskoxfarm.org/qiviut) -- the underhairs that they comb out from the musk oxen in the springtime. It is super soft and warm -- these headbands made from qiviot were $249.

Our wagonmasters told us that this is a relatively new activity that Fantasy is including on their tours, and we sure enjoyed it!