To Uganda and Back Nov, 16, 2013

Time got away from me again and finally I decided to sit down and update the blog.
In November, Steve and I went to Uganda! It was for chimp and gorilla 'safaris': 1 all-day chimp trekking in Kibale National Forest and 3 days of trekking to 3 different gorilla groups in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.  

Along the way we met wonderful Ugandans including Habibu our safari guide (who knew everything about Uganda!), our Entebbe guide Edward, trip coordinator Lydia, The Prices at Ndali lodge, the staff at Kyambura Game Lodge, the  2 lady basket weavers and chief's daughter at Bigodi Swamp, Barbara, Jackson and Nicholas at Gorilla Safari Camp.  I know when you travel you don't often get introduced to the 'locals' so I have to say the hospitality and genuineness of everyone we did meet made the trip very special.

Uganda is home to 1,200 different species of birds and we saw many wonderful and different birds - you can't help it, they are everywhere.
Habibu would be driving down the rutted, dirt road and while watching for potholes or bicyclists, he'd point and say " On that branch, there is a 
such-and-such bird." He'd stop the vehicle and we'd zoom in for a photo.
Over and over again I was amazed how he could drive and spot game at the same time.

Here are a few of the birds we saw ... I have to qualify and say we never made it into the Ishasha swamp to see the shoebill, but Edward took us to the Entebbe zoo to see it - sorry birders, we 'cheated'.

Maribu Stork standing 4 ft. tall !!

 Fish Eagle



    


                                                                               
            Crested Cranes, the national bird of Uganda 

Shoebill, rarely seen in nature - our zoo photo 










Pied Kingfisher 







We also had a couple of days of 'game drives': seeing  many different monkeys, elephants, Ugandan kob (like a gazelle), cape buffalo, hippos, warthogs, and lions.

Our trekking days were the hardest: you may walk up 75 degree slopes for 2 hours to get to the gorillas and then you are allowed a hour to watch and photograph....which goes by in a snap. Then you hike down. Luckily we hired 2 porters at $ 15 each to help me, bad knee ya know. The last day was the worst - tall roots and eroded slopes to climb up and over...not to mention the vicodin not agreeing with my tummy, so breakfast was left at the side of the trail. Then, it rained during the lunch break which made going down  something of a slip and slide. Again the sure-footed rubber-booted porters were life savers: one on each side of me helped lift me down, over roots and rocks and stabilizing my footing.....I couldn't complain because I was there to see the gorillas, and it was a thrill! Steve made it without falling while the ranger behind him fell a couple of times.

Here are a couple of gorilla photos - we are between 5 ft. and 15 ft. away from them as they feed and move through the underbrush.


A 6 month old curious infant

                                 

Mother and infant - she reigned him in when he became too curious at those other primates (us!)

The Silverback male is each family's leader, easily weighing in at 600 pounds!





Here we are with the gorilla trackers and rangers, our 2 porters and a new trainee...The last of our 3 days, the most rigorous and....full filling my dream to again see gorillas in Africa....being lucky to have been in Rwanda in 1988 to see them before the tribal civil wars.

I would go back in a heartbeat, struggle physically and trek again!

October 21, 2013 What Happened to Summer?

....where did summer go? I can't believe it went so fast and it wasn't like I was super-extra busy..

Knock on wood...knock knock...all The Girls are great: Gabby had a 60 broody period over the summer, but that was it.

July 4th was fun:  Our neighbors brought over their 5 kids, ages 10 months to 8 PLUS their 4 cousins, up to age 11 for a visit to the chicken coop.  Oh, too funny: 

Here is Steve helping the kids dig through the compost pile for worms to put in their little cups. 

Hey Kids, it's only compost!

Then, they would come see me inside the coop for a feeding. Well, chickens are not fans of excited little kids, and were quite reluctant to participate until Evie figured out this was her chance to scam a lot of free food and she was right there accepting worms from all hands.  

After a while, The Girls decided to hide inside the coop to get away from all the legs and hands. I popped open the lid over the nest boxes and the chickens figured out that they could safely reach out to get worms without getting close to the all the feet, so it was feeding frenzy time once more.

After the novelty of feeding chickens wore off [and I figured that 1,000 worms was enough -hahaha], we gave the kids rides on our Kawasaki mules up to the other neighbor's horses, even letting some of the kids steer on the straight part of the road. Remember those days when your dad or mom would let you hold the steering wheel on that Model T? What fun...laugh now...

Then, it was strawberry yogurt popsicles and plum picking.

Then, it was Steve and Karla collapse for the rest of the afternoon.  
It really was Fun to be Auntie for a Day!

Here are some wildlife photos from our TrailCam.

One night, Rocky Raccoon had deli-worms and garbage

Pretty kitty: at 6 pm this bobcat strolled between our 2 main gates!

A healthy Mountain Lion last year

And, a not so healthy looking Mountain Lion this year. I can't believe they would be the same cat!

Here's bold Mr. Fox taking a look at the chicken coop and INSIDE our perimeter deer fence.....at least, no one has broken into the coop itself!

June 26, 2013 Compostin'

One of the reasons we decided to have chickens was for the poop for the compost pile.

And, did you know that one chicken can ‘make’ as much as 45 lbs. of chicken do-do a year! Times 5 chooks and ya got a lot of manure for the compost pile! It doesnt’ happen in large quantities - I think I get maybe 2 lbs. total a week when I clean out the coop. I  do believe in keeping my coop clean to lessen flies and other breeding nasties, which is why Sunday is the poop-to-compost day.

This past weekend it was my self-appointed task to clean out the coop after being gone for 5 days and consolidate the compost piles.

We have a 'new' pile started behind the barn which needed to be 

integrated with the remainder of the ‘old’ pile, which we had just used most of for the tomato and pepper plantings.

Soiled straw and the poop deposits get mixed and watered into the compost pile. 

It took 3 trips with the "Mule" bed full to move it over...and, dang fine back and arm exercise. With a pitchfork in hand, bend, scoop, twist and toss. About a million times, then switch arms and do the other way another million times. The drive over to the new pile and layer it in with the fresh coop offerings and the old pile.

Our compost is also the worm factory. We started back in 2010 with an order of 2,000 red wiggler worms from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm. And, now we cycle hundreds of thousand worms through, some of which get fed by me to the chickens for a special snack; the others eat and digest all the matter than ends up in the compost pile. If all those worms are doing their job we end up with a beautiful product - moist and earthly smelling and finely ground into ....well... compost!

This new pile is now about  4 ft. tall and a base diameter of about 6 ft. It will shrink over time and to speed up the process we turn the pile a couple of times a week. It takes me about an hour. There is a special way to turn compost...oh yes!...to integrate all parts and re-distribute the eating machines [aka worms]. Top goes on the bottom, sides to the interior, interior to the outside, bottom to the top. 

As I turn, I can see the worms: sometimes there are hundreds on the straw-poop mess from the chicken coop; other times, they have wormed [haha] their way into an orange or piece of fruit.  You can’t believe how efficient a worm is. When the compost is done, there is no way to tell what you started with, everything is turned into fine, moist crusts, indistinguishable from the original vegetable, fruit, straw or leaf. Truly one of Nature’s miracles.

The cycle will continue..... we use up the finished ‘old pile’ and take part of it as the starter for a new one. This current pile is earmarked for mulching some of the olive trees ... ...

and ... for a few handfuls of worm snackies to the girls!

Worms? Did Karla say worms?

If you’d like further information, we followed one of the methods described in “ Rodale’s Book of Composting”.

Available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0878579915

Also, Uncle Jims’ Worm Farm website is www.unclejimsworfmfarm.com

May 11, 2013 Birthday Wishes

Today is the 2nd birthday of Curious, Fearless and Gabby. They are getting 'worm salad' from the compost pile
as their 'cake' .... and I KNOW it will be gone in 2 seconds! Curious will pretty much growl everyone else away from the salad, so I have to make sure I spread it in several areas so everyone gets their fair share....she's such a pig - for a chicken!

I am also celebrating Amelia's first birthday because I know she was born/hatched in May last year - just don't know what day.

                                           .............. And, why not throw in a birthday wish for Evie anyway!

So, I haven't posted since February...wow...well, it's been busy here even without blogging about it.

Among other tasks, we've been doing the spring chores: 2 rounds of weed-eating and mowing down all the new grasses and weeds; pruning and mulching the fruit trees; mulching around all the olive trees to save on water and starting all the vegetable seeds.

Last weekend we planted all the plants that Steve started: poblano peppers, padrone peppers, 3 kinds of 'paste' tomatoes, melons [it's called The Best Melon You'll Eat...and it is!], anaheim peppers, serranos, jalepenos, tomatillos, cayenne, zucs, 2 kinds of cucumbers, a special pepper from Peru called Aji.

In the summer, juicing the peppers for a 'green drink' is a wonderful thirst quencher about 11 am after the first round of maintenance duties. Can't wait for the crop to get goin'.

Right now, Gabby and Evie are both in broody mode: puffed up and sitting in nesting boxes trying to hatch imaginary eggs...They both growl at me, but I take them off the nests twice a day to make sure they poop, eat and drink. Then, they both spend a long time either dust bathing or preening feathers...it's a mad dash back to the 'eggs' after about 20 minutes....I think they sit on them even overnight!

And, unfortunately no eggs from them while broody - and it usually lasts about a month!  Darn.

Last year it was Curious broody twice; this year she hasn't gone there yet....lucky for me because she's giving eggs along with Amelia right now...Amazingly, Fearless, who isn't normally a big producer of eggs, managed to lay one 5 days in a row! That's a record for her! So of course she had to take  a break and re-group.  Amelia still does 5 or 6 a week, cute little white ones...

Evie has filled out all her feathers and has become a beautiful girl: just still skittish around me....here's a recent profile of her gorgeous feathers;