drop some water off

I really don't understand what is so complicated and difficult about getting water and other simple supplies into New Orleans, not tomorrow, but maybe the day before yesterday. As I understand it , they send helicopters in to airlift out selected people and get surprised when others who have no water or other simple supplies get upset at the basic stupidity of that approach.
Step 1; load a large airplane with lots of bottled water, diapers and perhaps Army MREs
Step 2 fly low over the city
Step 3 Drop supplies wherever you see a gathering of people, using a parachute so every pallet of supplies lands reasonably gently.
It is done in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, etc. so should be feasible in the Continental USA surely. After you have ensured people have basic necessities, then do all your Organising and Paperwork and Law Enforcement.

unicorns

One of the probable origins of the myth of the Unicorn, it seems to me, might be the fact that eland in the extreme South of Africa sometimes are born with a single horn. These animals were and are believed to have very strong spiritual connections, especially among the San ( Bushmen ). The word for Eland and the word for Dance are the same in several languages, which is significant since Dance is what is used to connect with the spirit world, shamans will dance into a trance to find medicines, to banish evil, or draw strength. In rock art eland are often depicted ,far more often than other animals, and quite often these images show one horn. Eland fat was the preferred type of animal fat used to mix with pigments when making paints for this art, and when making medicinal potions and ointments.
Early sea-going visitors to the Cape very probably picked up on the spiritual connections made by the San, and possibly saw one horned specimens too. When Telling the Tale back home of course, fact became a little inflated and over time changed to myth. Early Dutch records refer to the yearly migration of eland herds, and to the occasional presence of single-horned individuals among them. In the McLeod Clan chief's castle in Scotland, there is a Unicorn Horn which has been identified by biologists as an eland horn.
Mature eland are large, and defend themselves and others in their herd against lions, unlike most other African antelope, which prefer flight over fight when facing lions. Since lions were extremely difficult to defend against with small poisoned arrows, an animal which could beat lions would have been worthy of special notice. A single- horned eland, an old hand-reared camp-ground frequenter in a Swaziland Game Reserve, killed a lion a few years ago. He was then shot by the young Swazi King, (who considered this an insult to his namesake beast,the lion ) thus epitomising the ancient conflict.

lions on the prairies

Just read a news story about a conference on Ted Turner's ranch in New Mexico. Somebody proposed putting large African animals in preserves on the prairies, which would replace large animals in the Great Plains ecosystem such as the sabre-tooth, mastodon and dire-wolf, and others which haven't been there for some time now, with lions, elephant and so on. Sounds like too much of a good thing to me, why not start by allowing ordinary prairie species, such as bison, wolves and bears, to repopulate deserted farmland? There would be enough problems in human/animal interaction without going further than that. At some point these proposed free-range zoos would abut on farmland or towns, and present problems with bears and wolves would multiply. So why not keep it at that level, after all wolves, bison and bears roamed the plains in the recent past? If you have space for exotic large animals, why not for indigenous species first ? The argument that people would pay to see them is a little weak, and would directly counteract efforts in Africa to preserve these species in their native habitats, and to earn tourism income by people in the third world.
If the objective is partly to maintain the plains as grassland by introducing elephants to destroy trees, there are two answers; first off , bison grazing do a pretty good job of preserving grassland as such and secondly people do a fine job when it comes to getting rid of trees. Allowing bison and antelope to multiply on deserted farmland would soon show economic benefits , as they can use the available fodder far more efficiently than cattle, with less care and cost.

Tuesday

Been busy again, did a fair bit of writing , then quite a lot of overtime at work, which continues this week. The money is hard to refuse,so time is eaten up in extra shifts on what should be time for other things. Also have been putting down a floor in one room, that click laminate stuff, looks good , not quite as good as real wood but way better than carpet. Less allergins, dust mites and plain old dust.Quite easy to lay, the fiddly bits around cupboard doors are the hardest. Some joints showing in one corner where things werent quite lined up right, and attempts to fix it resulted in chipping of the top layer, visible. Guess where the dresser is going to be ? Work again tomorrow, just an eight hour shift, then I hopê to remove the old furnace from the house in town and bring it here. With minor alterations, it will burn propane instead of Gas and keep this place warm whenever I am away for more than a few hours. Last winter the pipes and waterpump froze and split when I was away during really cold weather and the wood stove had time to cool down to useless. Will have to build some kind of shelter for the furnace, don't want it in the living room or wherever and there is no basement here.

Friday

Friday already, a work night coming up, you probably dont know of course, but my work week is weekend nights in 12 hour shifts. So this past week I worked some overtime during the week and wrote a couple of pieces as well. Both of this week's stories are posted on my writing blog , swazz.blogspot.com . Weather is lovely , wish I were here,as they say,postcard style.
Pig and goat have been play-fighting, lots of pushing and head butting and jumping around.Pig Eric has finally ventured out of his safe house, and is now freely roaming the back field, rooting and getting muddy as a pig should. Sudden leap in confidence level, as until this week he stayed resolutely inside, ignoring the open door despite Bob the goat trotting in and out.
This years hatchlings,bantams and guineas , are now roaming in a tight flock together whenever I let them out. Which is only when I know I'll be here to shut them up again come evening. Too many raiding predators around.

earning author

Well, looks like I have reached a milestone of sorts, as yesterday I received my first ever payment for writing. A website that specialises in abstracts, called Schvoong.com, paid me $100US for abstracts I wrote for them, about 6,000 to 7,000 words altogether, or close to one and a half a cents a word.If I could get that for everything I wrote it would be on the way to making a living from writing, especially since I'm typing faster now.

Monday

Been doing a fair bit of writing lately - see "swaz"blog for some of it - and so too busy to put much into this blog. Wrote 20 abstracts for a web site that offered $5 each for abstracts,now I'm waiting to see if they will actually pay up.If not at least it was practice writing to a deadline. Also sent a couple of pieces off for publication.
Over the weekend it rained like crazy here while I was away, television news was showing pictures of flooding in nearby Exeter and you can see mud on the grass at the back left by the run-off from the cow pasture next door. The ground was too dry to let the water soak in, it just hit the ground and ran. The goose eggs that were being cared for by the brown goose are scattered all over, the water must have gone through her nest with a fair bit of velocity. There is even mud on the floor of the pheasant's shack, which is a good eight or nine inches above ground level.

summer heat

Baking hot out in the day, with a nice smog rolling over from Ohio again; definitely rather have a plague of passenger pigeons, wouldnt you ? Corn in the fields is too dry, the leaves look like sugar cane, they are narrow and partly rolled up to slow down transpiration. Hollyhocks that were 5 or 6 feet this time last year are about half that ,I dont water them, or at least I havent been til now.
Bob the goat has grown quite a bit, doesnt seem able to get through or over the fence lately, the loose single strand on top did the trick. When he rears up and tries to put weight on it, it sways and he cant get a good purchase to haul the rest of himself by. Filled up a small pond over by the row of cedars, the water is settling out, and so far no leaks. Tomorrow I'll look for some plants for it, lilies and maybe some water hyacinth, with a few irises and so on for the fringe. Officially it is for "stock watering " which means the geese, but they arent going to be spending too much time there, unless, mind you, they hatch some goslings, in which case they can use it for a nursery pond.

Busy week

Trying to enjoy summer,play golf, get a pond going , that is , dug and lined, then filled with water and so on,looking after various chicks (feathered ) and have found myself with several writing projects at once. A site that specialises in abstracts is offering money upfront for anything submitted next Tuesday, in blocks of ten, so I'm busy skimming books I've read previously and writing abstracts of them. Not that fast a process for me, probably on a dollars per hour basis not good at all, but it is money for writing, I need practice writing to a deadline too. Also have put in bids for some other writing work, lets see what happens there. If money starts to come in I can justify ( to myself ) buying a notebook or laptop -- which would mean not having to sit here and type at this desk or transcribe scrawled longhand, I could write anywhere. Well maybe I'll convince myself to buy one soon anyway. There is the Mac /PC decision too, this computer is a Mac, which is great, but doesnt have Word , which is a handicap, as a lot of others use it. Yes I know you can get Word for Mac, but I can probably get it as a bonus extra on a new portable --

poultry

Summer is here for sure, things are moving through their yearly cycle - hollyhocks starting to bloom by the edge of the lawn, elderberry bushes covered in white foam (should I try making wine again this year ? ) and the cock Lady Amherst pheasant has lost all his tail feathers, though the hen is still laying. She eats her own eggs if you dont get them very soon after they are laid, which is why the last person sold the pair of them I guess. So far only one chick hatched from the few eggs I saved, and only one gosling , the couple of times the power has been out hasnt helped there; eggs need a steady temperature . The good side of that is not having too much to feed and care for through next winter, suppose I could sell some if there were too many, but not yet anyway. Grass seed on that bare area they dug up is sprouting patchily, the heavy rain washed a lot of seed into the lower areas , leaving bare spots , have to do it again perhaps next week when I can see properly where its needed.Just about normal for stuff I plant, good thing I dont have to depend on growing things for a living.

Bob hitting the bottle

Almost war - look at swazz.blogspot for more writing by me

We were out in Lake Karimba, the north shore a ragged dark line of bush perhaps two miles away, the Rhodian shore lost in the haze to the south. Warm blue and slightly smelly with drifting clumps of water hyacinth, the lake was new enough that the crocs and hippos were still establishing their yearly routines and dead trees stood on drowned hills, perches for fish eagles . We were using a government boat to get to areas of the north shore with no easy land accesss, doing a soil survey for the Zabian Ministry of Agriculture , traveling at ease in one of those well -used boats with a chugging engine and a nice shady canvas roof - if you ever saw Hepburn and Bogie in The African Queen you have some idea of what she was like . This one was maybe 25 ft with a shallow draught and about 3 ft of hull above the water, room for 6 of us with tents and gear for a week - stopping each evening at a chosen spot and going inland taking samples early each morning before the December heat set in. I was there for the fishing, a lazy extra taken along as a favour to my stepfather , bored in the city and occupied with those teen boy perennials eating, sleeping and grumbling, convinced the world would resolve into perfect harmony if everyone did things my way. South of the lake Mr Seth and his supporters were in a stand-off with the British, wanting to maintain their hold on things without all that nasty one man one vote stuff, and sporadic land mining and burnings, imprisonments and speeches were a daily background grumble. When we drove south to visit Aunt Boom in Salbury thered be roadblocks and armed men everywhere, it was always a relief to get back north where things were definitely more casual .
Over our horizon a tiny aluminum boat appeared, outboard motor screaming and bow high, two guys crouching together in the stern. Suddenly with these sweating desparate guys casual had gone flying; both were wearing dirty camouflage and dry blood, the one handling the motor with jerky speed, the other lost in a world of pain, clutching his right arm in a soggy dark shirtsleeve. -- ” Help, my friend needs help “ -- the steerer burst out as they hauled up along side our starboard -- north -- side. “ We only have a small first aid kit with us “ answered Andy, who was running things. “ Youre better off heading straight on for Siavonga, theres a clinic with a nurse there.”
“ No no man, they’re right behind us , you know hot pursuit man. They’re gonna shoot us on the water. You have to help “
“ But what can we do? We’re just with the Ministry of Agriculture, I suppose we can tell them this is Zabia and they should go home, but they will probably do whatever they want anyway. We dont have any weapons or anything, we arent involved in your quarrel. You guys , what have you been doing anyway, how do we know you arent just murderers or something, running from the police ? Ok we’ll just talk to them and see what they have to say, they cant just shoot you, they’ll take you to prison, arrest you and take you back.” Andy was indignant, fuming at this intrusion into the morning , ten am and alrready a steamy 110 out on the water, at least another 2 hours travel to the next planned landing at a small new village of Tonga people from down in the drowned river valley.
With an authoritative roar a speeding black rubber Zodiac packed with men, all khaki shorts , bristling beards and weapons arrived to put an end to indecision. “ Hey you guys see a couple of terrorists, we’ re after the bastards for two days now , theres only a couple left from the band, we got the others yesterday, they been laying fucking mines all over” shouted one with a slightly cleaner shirt “ We are Rhodian Government anti terrorist action forces and we’ve been tracking the bastards down “
While we gaped in heat - fuddled astonishment at these new arrivals we suddenly realised that we were right in the middle of a real live shooting war. Our first guests were now ducking down below the level of our north side while their hunters were pulling up to our south , as yet unaware of just how close their quarry was.
Until there came a yell “ Back off or you’ll get it , I’ ll throw this, if you shoot me it’ll go off and blow us all away “ from the first guy, who was now brandishing something black and sinister looking in his hand - a grenade held up for all to see .
Everything froze into slow motion, the background fell out of focus, all attention centred on the weapons and their wielders, nobody moved or remembered to breathe; as the zodiac drifted up and bumped against our side. All anybody wanted to do was get out alive, the best thing to do seemed to be dont move , dont set anything off, dont start the showdown yet, let’s get out of here. With a swift sure movement Andy broke the impasse, by grabbing the AK47 from the hands of the black-bearded guy in the bow of the Zodiac. He pointed it down and ordered “ Right then, this is Zabia here and we are Zabian Government officers on Government business, you people have no right involving us in your war or even to be here. Get back to your own country and fight your bloody war there, leave us alone. You can start by throwing all those guns overboard and then leave, get out of here. Do it now or I’ll shoot a few holes in your boat and you can swim back”
Reluctantly they accepted the situation, “ What happens if we throw our weapons away, you going to take us into Zabia or hand us to the terrorists ?” asked the officer
“ You can go right back where you came from “ answered Andy “ We just want you out of here, let us go on with our business and let these guys go their way. If they go back into your country you can chase after them all you want, but this isnt your place, this is our country here . We will see these guys are safe and will just go their way. Now do as I say, get rid of all those guns.
“ Okay then , men just drop them in the drink, and lets get out of here” ordered the officer. With a sudden bustle of movement the impasse was broken as the guns splashed over the side into the lake. “ Right, now we’re leaving - lets go , hit it Jim “ he ordered. With a roar their idling outboard revved up and the bow lifted as they turned and accelerated away, bouncing over the low waves.
Our other guests were overjoyed at this turn of events and whistled and laughed as they watched their pursuers turn and run . “Go on then , run you bastards , run before I throw this “ yelled the grenade wielder redundantly , then seemingly disappointed at losing his chance at martyrdom turned to us and yelled “ Your in with them , why did you let them go, we could have given them a fair trial and shot them like they deserve. We had them and you let them go “
Exasperated Andy growled “ You didnt have anything but a standoff , with a pretty good chance of being blown away, those guys would have shot you if youd thrown that thing and they probably would have tried to get you before you could throw it. We are all very lucky to come out still breathing. Now just get rid of the bloody thing and take your friend ashore, he needs to be seen to and all we have out here are band- aids, the nurse at the Siavonga clinic there knows what shes doing.” As he spoke he swung the gun he still held and pointed it right at the grenade man “ Come on man be sensible , we arent your enemies, the Zabian government lets you guys stay here because they sympathise with your cause, but we arent in your war, we are just trying to get on with our own business .”
The wounded man reached to his friend and grabbed him by the arm , whispering something in an urgent hiss which produced first a scowl and then a shrug as his protector listened intently, eyes on us, daring anyone to try something. Then finally with a great swing of the arm the grenade went flying over the lake to produce a dull thump and a dirty roil of weeds and water as it finally exploded. “ All right then Andy” I yelled , “ You sorted that lot out -- Hey good luck you guys “ as the dinghy swung away towards the shore . Everyone on board except Andy had been lying or crouching down , trying to be as small and inconspicuous as possible, and now we all stood up and remembered to breathe again.
“ Good thing I met all those guys a couple of weeks ago in a bar in Salbury “ grunted Andy, “ They recognised me and knew I ‘m honest and neutral in this whole business, we spent hours arguing with them trying to convince me they had a just war - of course theres no such thing . The other guys know me too , I took a baby to the clinic last month , gave the mother a lift; I think the wounded one there is the father, he recognised me too. Small world hey ?” He turned and casually dropped the gun over the side “ Good riddance to that ; come on now, lets get going “

silkies

swizzTwo new silkie bantams hatched the old fashioned way , by their mother, when I got back here this afternoon. Both white and fluffy, more like the cock who is a pure silkie , than the hen , who is a silkie crossed with an Americauna; she is brown in several shades and has normal chicken feathers rather than a silkie's fluff. She lays blue eggs, a dominant trait, so eventually I will have a line of silkie bantams laying blue eggs, which will be convenient in some ways, making it easy to tell which eggs are which when using the silkies as foster mothers for other hens eggs. Many breeders use silkies this way as they are very good at hatching and caring for chicks, often pheasants, geese or other chicken breeds.

keeting up

New little keet is now happy with the other hatchlings in their brooder cage wih the heatlamp; kept it separate for a bit as it was a little wobbly, carried it in my shirt a lot of the time. They all treat one another as siblings although different species, their differences are minor at this stage. Perhaps they will stay together through til next spring, make it easier to tend to one lot in one place .
Of course the film I got developed yesterday has only a few pictures worth keeping, the spectacle of six deer leaping the road in a brown and white cascade of energy came out as brown dots barely discernible against the background, the chicks in their brooder are obscured and distorted by the red heat lamp, the Lady Amherst Pheasant cock displaying his colours is blurry, not only did he move but the camera focussed on the wire in the foreground. All arguments for going digital pretty soon, indulge myself to the tune of what , 4 or 5 hundred for something with good resolution and fast shots, so the picture comes as soon as you press the button , not press, click, whirrr, pause , c lick.

Keet

Brand new guinea fowl hatchling in the incubator this morning, properly called a "keet ", they are really small at this age, a couple of hours after coming out of the egg. Since a guinea hen's egg is about half the size of a large hen's egg, they are smaller than a chick, but not quite as helpless. They have pink legs and beaks and brown stripy down; this one has some white on its winglets and belly, which of course is quite usual with domesticated birds, in a wild bird any outstanding colours would be weeded out very soon. I'll post some photos in a couple of days, it'll take a while because my camera is old tech with film, so first have to use the whole film, get it developed , then scan the photos, then hook up the old computer to the new one ( PC to Mac ,will it work ) and from there upload to the net etc. etc. On second thoughts perhaps I'll just keep that keet in my shirt pocket and the photos in hard copy; if anyone actually reads this and wants to see pics, write a comment telling me and I'll do something about it.
On the eggshell I write the date when I put eggs into the incubator, so this one started on the 26th of May, just 4 weeks ago; chickens hatch in 3 weeks, so I spose thats why they are less developed when hatched. Finished the film in the camera so all action, off to town to get it developed and buy the usual milk bread and fruit, oh yes and grain for the geese, whatever they have , usually oats.

Summer now

Official first day of summer , no garden this year, just some plants in pots and odd spots. No corn for the racoons, no lettuce for the geese to ravage, its all grass and weeds. The geese are closed in the paddock behind their shed, so no pooping on paths or hanging out over at Henry's barn, which were their favourite occupations last year. Bob shares the paddock with them, mostly because he is difficult to keep out of trouble when free to wander. He gets out over the fence when totally bored with their company, though not yet since the latest upgrade to the now 5 ft high enclosure. If the fence is nice and rigid he can climb easily or jump to hang over the top then scramble the rest of the way, so now I'm trying it with a sort of slightly loose top wire that feels really insecure if he tries to hang onto it.We'll see how long that works.

Fowl

Right now I have 3 Silky Bantam cross Americauna chicks, one pheasant chick and one guinea fowl keet (for some reason a baby guinea hen is not a chick but a "keet ") all together in a cage with a heat lamp; they get along really well and provide each other with company and comfort. They were all hatched in a styrofoam incubator which seems to work a little erratically , too hot on warm days and too cool when the weather is bad, but is a couple of steps better than leaving the eggs to be stolen and eaten by the raccoons or in some cases , the mothers, none of which seem to be very good at sitting on eggs and hatching their own.
When they grow a bit the chicks will graduate to a secure outside cage, which I still have to construct, but for now they are in the living room. Aptly named in this house .

sharks again

In South Africa there is a campaign on to stop the practice of attracting sharks by chumming, or attracting sharks by putting fish parts and blood in the water , so tourists are sure of getting a good look and photo-op. This practice is thought to accustom sharks to people and also to associate us with food, so increasing the likelihood of an attack on divers or swimmers. Same as bears, they make great photo subjects and arent dangerous to the feeders, but may be much more dangerous to others they encounter. Makes sense to me. Look but dont interfere etc.

the goat diary

Billy goat Bob was named by my grandson in honour of his favourite , Bob The Builder, and is now perhaps 6 months old. He was bottle fed and so is very confident with people , actually pushy is more like it,as he does like to push people around with his head, doesnt actually use his horns yet as he probably doesnt know he has them. He also pushes his way into any partly open door or fence gap, places the geese have never got through he goes, and if he cant get through a fence he climbs it or jumps. He is now getting over 4ft fences where its solid enough to give him a good purchase while he hauls the rest of him after his head and shoulders. His diet is eccentric , he likes last years' leaves, this years newspapers and flyers, apple. dogwood, and elm tree leaves , spruce tree bark, chicken feed( layers mash ) deadly nightshade and carrots. He prefers banana peel to the fruit, which he leaves for his buddy the pig to eat, and quite likes onion skin and seeding grass. He really likes commercial goat ration, sweetened with molasses is the key there I think.
Last weekend he climbed the fence of his paddock, went through or over the electric fence into the field next door and joined my neighbour Henry's cows. They , well Henry, brought him back and tied him carefully to the ash tree on the lawn with water in an old pot nearby. By the time I got back here he had wound his tether around the tree and his own legs to the point of being completely immobilised. So next time I leave him alone he will be secure in his shed.

swimming pools

If you have a swimming pool and especially if you live out of town, its a good idea to hang a piece of rope or twine over the edge, so that any chipmunks that get in can find a way to climb out. It is nicer than fishing little drowned furry things out anyway.