All organised for life and , positive and ready to make 2013 my year!
I am as excited as this small dog, who according to the website I saw him on was placed between the cushions and is laughing, not growling. If you ask me this is the scariest image I ever did see!
“This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change.” ― Taylor Swift
“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” ― Marcus Aurelius
So far, so good.
My birthday continued through birth-week with a cheese and wine night, which was nice and chilled.
"Once we hit forty, women only have about four taste buds left: one for vodka, one for wine, one for cheese, and one for chocolate." - Gina Barreca
[ok make that 32 in ages and 2 in taste buds - I'll take the cheese and wine!]
My weekend off saw a trip to town where we found a few more shops and a new area of town.
"Never be afraid to try something new because life gets boring when you stay within the limits of what you already know." - anon
The rest of we the weekend was spent relaxing, watching films and walking / biking in the veldt.
Early January might be the holiday season, but here everything still needs to carry on, we have animals to feed, enclosures to check and volunteers to look after, so we keep going.
In order to teach our wild dog puppies about real prey and make things as natural for them as possible we fed them a whole warthog carcass this week, its amazing to see just how effective they are, the whole thing was gone in around 7 minutes.
“If we act like prey, they’ll act like predators” ― Alyxandra Harvey
One of them takes his food away to get a fair chance at eating it.
Mia, the jackal was due her final rabies jab, but was not to keen on the idea, she was quite easy to pick up, but as soon as she saw the box coming she wriggled free of my grasp - twice! I can promise you jackal pee in the eye is not a great feeling, nor a great smell! And two minutes later she is back for cuddles (but no jab).
One morning we arrived at the morning meeting to a full on TV crew, we are getting so used to this no one even commented. The directors spent the day filming with them and at around 4.30pm I was called in for a bit of zebra and donkey wrangling, this involved taking them on a walk into the bush away from all the houses and keeping them there- using apples as as a secret weapon.
"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." - Martin Luther
All was going well until they started to film and Donsie headed straight out of the veldt and for me, I ran and hid behind the car, but she had seen me - too late. I got them back into the veldt and hid from them behind a bush, this time Frankie found me, and also stood hiding behind the bush - slowly Buddy came to join us, only curious Donsie remained. I tried with all my might to shove Frankie from behind the bush, but he was not interested, he grazed and hid. Such a funny little boy! Apparently everyone that wasn't directly filming could see this farce behind the bush and found it hilarious!
And all the while, I am thinking - you call this work?! I love my job!
"Find a job you like and you add five days to every week. " - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
As you can see, Donsie is still in the middle of shedding her baby coat here and on her way to become a beautiful little lady donkey.
The end of the second week of January turned out to be hectic, with moving out of the place I have been house, dog, cat, jackal, fish and guinea pig sitting. Over the same couple of days I had an old friend visit and another old friend come and join the team here for a few months and had to wave off of one of our lovely volunteers who spends almost as much time here with us as in her own country!
"I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar. " - Robert Brault
The bush bar was opened a couple of times, so lots of drinks and hellos, goodbyes and catch ups were in order.
I quickly threw everything into bags to move out and then half of that into a bag to pack for my trip south to one of our research sites. I haven't seen this site before and am responsible for marketing it, so it will be useful to take a look and experience what there is to see there. During the trip we also had a film crew there to film our cheetahs for SA TV and I was also filming for our records and social media.
I am as excited as this small dog, who according to the website I saw him on was placed between the cushions and is laughing, not growling. If you ask me this is the scariest image I ever did see!
“This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change.” ― Taylor Swift
“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” ― Marcus Aurelius
So far, so good.
My birthday continued through birth-week with a cheese and wine night, which was nice and chilled.
"Once we hit forty, women only have about four taste buds left: one for vodka, one for wine, one for cheese, and one for chocolate." - Gina Barreca
[ok make that 32 in ages and 2 in taste buds - I'll take the cheese and wine!]
My weekend off saw a trip to town where we found a few more shops and a new area of town.
"Never be afraid to try something new because life gets boring when you stay within the limits of what you already know." - anon
The rest of we the weekend was spent relaxing, watching films and walking / biking in the veldt.
Early January might be the holiday season, but here everything still needs to carry on, we have animals to feed, enclosures to check and volunteers to look after, so we keep going.
In order to teach our wild dog puppies about real prey and make things as natural for them as possible we fed them a whole warthog carcass this week, its amazing to see just how effective they are, the whole thing was gone in around 7 minutes.
“If we act like prey, they’ll act like predators” ― Alyxandra Harvey
The easiest way to get a warthog into the camp to feed them
The puppies just love their food!
One of them takes his food away to get a fair chance at eating it.
Mia, the jackal was due her final rabies jab, but was not to keen on the idea, she was quite easy to pick up, but as soon as she saw the box coming she wriggled free of my grasp - twice! I can promise you jackal pee in the eye is not a great feeling, nor a great smell! And two minutes later she is back for cuddles (but no jab).
"Failure or success seem to have been allotted to men by their stars. But they retain the power of wriggling, fighting with their star or against it and in the whole universe the only really interesting movement is this wriggle" - EM Foster
One morning we arrived at the morning meeting to a full on TV crew, we are getting so used to this no one even commented. The directors spent the day filming with them and at around 4.30pm I was called in for a bit of zebra and donkey wrangling, this involved taking them on a walk into the bush away from all the houses and keeping them there- using apples as as a secret weapon.
"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." - Martin Luther
All was going well until they started to film and Donsie headed straight out of the veldt and for me, I ran and hid behind the car, but she had seen me - too late. I got them back into the veldt and hid from them behind a bush, this time Frankie found me, and also stood hiding behind the bush - slowly Buddy came to join us, only curious Donsie remained. I tried with all my might to shove Frankie from behind the bush, but he was not interested, he grazed and hid. Such a funny little boy! Apparently everyone that wasn't directly filming could see this farce behind the bush and found it hilarious!
And all the while, I am thinking - you call this work?! I love my job!
"Find a job you like and you add five days to every week. " - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
As you can see, Donsie is still in the middle of shedding her baby coat here and on her way to become a beautiful little lady donkey.
The end of the second week of January turned out to be hectic, with moving out of the place I have been house, dog, cat, jackal, fish and guinea pig sitting. Over the same couple of days I had an old friend visit and another old friend come and join the team here for a few months and had to wave off of one of our lovely volunteers who spends almost as much time here with us as in her own country!
"I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar. " - Robert Brault
The bush bar was opened a couple of times, so lots of drinks and hellos, goodbyes and catch ups were in order.
I quickly threw everything into bags to move out and then half of that into a bag to pack for my trip south to one of our research sites. I haven't seen this site before and am responsible for marketing it, so it will be useful to take a look and experience what there is to see there. During the trip we also had a film crew there to film our cheetahs for SA TV and I was also filming for our records and social media.
I picked up a couple of people in town and after a three hour drive we arrived at one of our southern research sites, the landscape in the area is stunning, huge mountains and real wilderness.
gardens
We arrived about 8pm, relaxed and had some dinner and headed to bed. The next day started with a game drive with some guests where we got to track the cheetah kept in the boma here and learn their stories.
It was great to see Spartacus again, when he was on the farm he was very aggressive and used to practically climb the fence during feeding - he was formidable. Now he quite literally is a big pussy cat!
Just chilling and having a wash.
Later on the first day our directors and the film crew arrived and we headed out to check one of the cheetahs legs as he had started getting prone to scrapping with the others and had minor injuries.
"I remember one time that I was filming a scene in which my character rides through Troy on a chariot. I just looked around at this incredible set thinking 'This is the life'. " - Orlando Bloom
We headed out about 6pm and found the cheetahs, pretty much where we had left them. We filmed the preparing the darting drugs, the darting and then the work on the cheetah - luckily just some blue spray as if we had stitched it he may have pulled out the stitches and created more of a mess. We then woke him up as the other cheetah was calling for him, so sweet. He staggered awake and looked like a Lancaster student coming out of the Carleton at 4am.
"An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men. "- Charles Darwin
He slowly regained his legs and was off to find his buddy just as the sun was setting.
After dinner I found out that via the film crew I am now one handshake away from Nelson Mandela- which is very cool.
Also that evening with all the the windows open I got to sleep under the stars, very nice and one night even managed to get rained on a little whilst in bed- most refreshing!
"I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night."- Sarah Williams
"The stars hang bright above, silent, as if they watched the sleeping earth."- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars."- Serbian proverb
The rest of the weekend was spent chatting to the guys on the site about marketing, taking images and learning what the volunteers do there so we can promote the site and the area to tourists and volunteers.
This included a trip to the dunes with a climb up Big Daddy which is either the highest or one of the highest dunes in the world - and boy did we know it.
We came down the side of the dune into dead vlei
burned out feet on the sand on the way out before a whistle stop tour of Seisrium canyon
and off back to the farm.
Finished up all the last bits of work I wanted to get done, gave our staff the photos I had taken and the next day jumped in the car to head back to the sanctuary.
Since my return things have been pretty much the same as usual, animals everywhere and something new happening each day. A new baby baboon and a contact rash from a mongoose marking my foot. On one of my lovely walks round the sanctuary over the weekend I must have spooked a hartebeest, who, in turn spooked the zebra herd - all of them went running of through the bush followed by my three who were with them, I called out, but they kept running. A real mixed emotion moment - so proud of the little beggars to have become so wild, bonded with the wild herd and to have listened to their instincts (makes me feel more secure if big leopard is around). But also a very sad moment that they didn't stop for a tickle on the way. My sadness was appeased by the end of the walk though as I bumped into them on another path about an hour later and we had lots of cuddles. Now Buddy has decided she trusts me she doesn't want to let the others near!
“I think that the best thing we can do for our children is to allow them to do things for themselves, allow them to be strong, allow them to experience life on their own terms, allow them to take the subway...let them be better people, let them believe more in themselves.” ― C. JoyBell C.
“He nods, as if to acknowledge that endings are almost always a little sad, even when there is something to look forward to on the other side.” ― Emily Giffin
During my southern trip I got the news that a member of staff was needed to accomany two of our San Bushmen (who do photogaphy work for a famous photographer) to Antarctica on their latest venture, I put my hat in the ring and was asked to go - it's the one place I have always wanted to go in the world and thought that price would make it prohibative, so am very lucky to be heading there for most of Feb and the start of March!
That's all for now, I should have an interesting update for you in a months time....
Being one of our research centres we were clearly never too far from animals of some description...
weavers in the bush
Sammy - not so dissimilar to Picasso, but with a less 'varied' vocabulary. He also mimics screeches, tweets and a smokers cough, but has stopped short of some of Picasso's more choice phrases. Like all parrots, totally schizophrenic with about 20 personalities in there who all talk to one another.
"The parrot's so funny. He imitates me and I don't even realize he's doing it. I'm walking around the house talking to myself and whistling and the next day he's said something I've said....it's scary you know" - Mich Ralphs
"Yeah, for some reason parrots have to bite me. That's their job.I don't know why that is. They've nearly torn my nose off. I've had some really bad parrot bites" - Steve Irwin
Butch and Jackie
Spike, looks like a right brusier, but is a softy and really snores!
Tigger, the half domestic, half African wild cat I have fallen in love with! He is so lazy and barely moves, yet tickle him and he is pure muscle!
pool
pool two and bar
We arrived about 8pm, relaxed and had some dinner and headed to bed. The next day started with a game drive with some guests where we got to track the cheetah kept in the boma here and learn their stories.
finding the cats
Later on the first day our directors and the film crew arrived and we headed out to check one of the cheetahs legs as he had started getting prone to scrapping with the others and had minor injuries.
"I remember one time that I was filming a scene in which my character rides through Troy on a chariot. I just looked around at this incredible set thinking 'This is the life'. " - Orlando Bloom
We headed out about 6pm and found the cheetahs, pretty much where we had left them. We filmed the preparing the darting drugs, the darting and then the work on the cheetah - luckily just some blue spray as if we had stitched it he may have pulled out the stitches and created more of a mess. We then woke him up as the other cheetah was calling for him, so sweet. He staggered awake and looked like a Lancaster student coming out of the Carleton at 4am.
"An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men. "- Charles Darwin
He slowly regained his legs and was off to find his buddy just as the sun was setting.
After dinner I found out that via the film crew I am now one handshake away from Nelson Mandela- which is very cool.
Also that evening with all the the windows open I got to sleep under the stars, very nice and one night even managed to get rained on a little whilst in bed- most refreshing!
"I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night."- Sarah Williams
"The stars hang bright above, silent, as if they watched the sleeping earth."- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars."- Serbian proverb
The rest of the weekend was spent chatting to the guys on the site about marketing, taking images and learning what the volunteers do there so we can promote the site and the area to tourists and volunteers.
This included a trip to the dunes with a climb up Big Daddy which is either the highest or one of the highest dunes in the world - and boy did we know it.
We came down the side of the dune into dead vlei
burned out feet on the sand on the way out before a whistle stop tour of Seisrium canyon
and off back to the farm.
Finished up all the last bits of work I wanted to get done, gave our staff the photos I had taken and the next day jumped in the car to head back to the sanctuary.
Since my return things have been pretty much the same as usual, animals everywhere and something new happening each day. A new baby baboon and a contact rash from a mongoose marking my foot. On one of my lovely walks round the sanctuary over the weekend I must have spooked a hartebeest, who, in turn spooked the zebra herd - all of them went running of through the bush followed by my three who were with them, I called out, but they kept running. A real mixed emotion moment - so proud of the little beggars to have become so wild, bonded with the wild herd and to have listened to their instincts (makes me feel more secure if big leopard is around). But also a very sad moment that they didn't stop for a tickle on the way. My sadness was appeased by the end of the walk though as I bumped into them on another path about an hour later and we had lots of cuddles. Now Buddy has decided she trusts me she doesn't want to let the others near!
“I think that the best thing we can do for our children is to allow them to do things for themselves, allow them to be strong, allow them to experience life on their own terms, allow them to take the subway...let them be better people, let them believe more in themselves.” ― C. JoyBell C.
“He nods, as if to acknowledge that endings are almost always a little sad, even when there is something to look forward to on the other side.” ― Emily Giffin
During my southern trip I got the news that a member of staff was needed to accomany two of our San Bushmen (who do photogaphy work for a famous photographer) to Antarctica on their latest venture, I put my hat in the ring and was asked to go - it's the one place I have always wanted to go in the world and thought that price would make it prohibative, so am very lucky to be heading there for most of Feb and the start of March!
That's all for now, I should have an interesting update for you in a months time....
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