Chickens and Caves

Two weeks gone since vacation! Only a few weeks left, and I am taking at least one, maybe two off!

Week after vacation I spent some time writing a paper on sustainable development and environmental impact assessment (EIA). Not particularly exciting, mostly synthesizing arguments made in the late 90’s by the UN and Canada for a more integrated approach to environmental management, but I think that’s what the prof wanted.

Also wrote a paper on water quality of some nearby river.

I don’t think I have commented on the mosquito situation in my room yet. My old room, the one with a view, never had mosquito problems. I had ants, but still have ants. They crawl over my screen, keyboard, bed, sheets, face, arms, clothes- all in search of food and without ever biting. I like the ants. Mosquitoes are not welcome. The first few nights in my room I suffered through constant buzzing in the ears and waking up with welts all over my body. Then I got smart and before going to bed went on a mosquito search. Found about 10 of the little bastards and killed them, only leaving behind a few bug/blood marks on the walls. I continued sleeping and killing just before bed for about a week. I was still tormented by buzzing in the years, and although the number of welts incurred per night decreased, each morning I still was finding new welts. One night I got smarter and went on a rampage. I clapped, squished and smashed every mosquito I could find in my room. I shook every item, curtain, book, shirt, sheet in order to flush out the little buggers, then went back around the room and flushed again to get the ones that had re-hid. I totaled over 50 for the night, and with bloody hands and even bloodier walls I slept soundly. Since that night it has now been nearly 3 months. Before bed every night I still go about my ritual killing. It is quite an efficient process now, I know the best hiding places- just flush and clap. I average 3 per night.

Went to a rugby game this weekend. That was good, but short, and the stadium was too big to see much. Also went spelunking, cave exploring. Checked out three sandstone caves, no limestone here. Managed to scrap up my knees in some tight squeezes, and get in some really good stealth hide-and-scare operations complete with growling noises or unexpected hair touches. There were also cave crickets.

I saw an awesome movie about food production this week. We Feed the World, half was on soya in Brazil and half was on chickens in Austria. The chicken footage was unbelievable, especially the shots of the young chicks and the slaughterhouse. Aesthetically great, full of repetition, texture, and shape. The movie was actually an informative piece, to bring the reality of mass or commercial farming/ poultry into focus. The birds were raised like crops and slaughtered.

In the next two weeks, I might actually get to go catch some dassies, believe it or not. The naming competition may yet happen. Next thurs I leave for Lesotho for a week.

April Vacation

April vacation or easter vacation or fall break or the equivalent of spring break came in two parts.

First part started Friday afternoon as a field camp for ecology class. We drove north about two hours to arrive at the Windstone Backpackers Riding and Adventure Centre. A crazy dusty place in the middle of the desert. A small oasis that will serve as home for the next several days. We actually didn’t come for riding or adventure. We came to play in the nearby salt water lagoon, but someone forgot to book the place on the lagoon, so we got to stay at windstone with the horses.

Each day was a new activity. One day spent sieving mud for little creatures then identifying and counting. One day spent counting and identifying creatures on rocky shores. One days spent collecting plants and measuring leaves, chemicals in leaves, and spines. And one day spent fishing with beach seine nets. Beach fishing was the best. We caught sting rays, but they didn’t kill us, we just let them go carefully, avoiding barb through the heart situation. We caught way too many little fish each time and let most go..we took way too many with us, and since they were dead already we had to count and identify them all. Touching thousands(in total maybe 7000) of little fish is kind of fun and its scales all over you. Eventually you get bored silly and start making the fish walk and talk, or carefully positioning fish in surprising locations next to unaware people.

My group, or at least the back seat. Meg, Jess, Gena, Stef. middle seat-luke, my hat, rob.

After work, evenings were spent eating meat and starch and sitting around the fire. Izaac drinks fire

I came up with a great april fools prank, but was unable to garner support staff to pull it off. The plan was to get up early in the morning and tie a certain person (willingly) to the front of one of the cars. The idea was that the profs would find him and feel bad for him and go questing to find the culprits which didn’t exist. Can you imagine coming out to your car at sunrise to find a poor little boy that has been tied to your car overnight? Hilarious.

We came back on Wednesday and then left thrusday for a roadtrip up the east coast.

Day one, 30min in the car dies. It was a friends car with problems. Open up the hood, have a look around, find a strange substance resembling cappacino in color oozing from the carburetor. Not sure how it got there, but pretty sure it is a nice oil water froth. = bad for car, and roadtrip. Tow car to nearby garage, say we will deal with it in a week. Rent car and keep going, with 4 hour delay. Rental car is not station wagon like friends car.. Arrive at hostel and camp on grass. We have one 3 person tent for five people. The original plan was to have two sleep in the back of the wagon with seats down. I sleep outside until it rains. Then I sleep in the camry. Luckily only one night of rain for the whole trip. Next day look for rain ponchos with no luck, drive some more to tutseecomma(spelled wrong) national park where we will stay for the next two days.

Caravan village ho! The np actually resembles a township in that there are numerous small odd shaped dwellings tightly packed with lots of idle people milling around. The np is full of caravans, and tents, or tent mansions. Some of these tents are 500sq feet in total. There is the master tent, the kids tent, the dining canopy, and the cooking canopy. They have all been assigned to squares in the grass and each extends to the edge of its allotment. Strange and not all that appealing. We setup our meager 3 person tent with no atrium, entry way, separate rooms, electricity, home office, kitchenette, storage room, spare bedroom and park our car next to it. Izaac and I sleep outside and some guy comes to tell us it is against the rules and we shouldn’t because there are leopards roaming about and it is against the rules. I say thank you for the warn and he mumbles and wanders off.

Proving I am alive

A strange lady walks through our site, a few feet from me one morning on her way to the bathroom. I say strange because she then on returning came back through our camp and stopped to talk. She did this both days. They were here for a week with the kids. Living in capetown now, but lived in texas for a few years. Strange. She could not figure out how it was possible to sleep outside and freeze to death, it was probably 60F at night.

I spent lots of time reading, thinking, watching waves and the sky. On the way back we stopped at a farmstall and got some dried fruit and grapes. Vacation over. Now 8 weeks or so of UCT then summer/winter break. Who knows what that will hold.

Yummy mushrooms

shiny grasshopper cricket thing deposition eggs




proving my existance again



jumbo cricket, or king cricket
some dead bees i found in an abonded house after i snuck in the window and scared the rest of my group away be pretending to be a wild animal

Casey is the winner

It was predator 2. i dont know how rocketeer or rocketman comes from a slaughterhouse on fire with the predator in it.

good job casey. i dont know what people are thinking, nobody here got it. it is obvious.