Mayfest at Smithville, NJ, May 15 & 16, 2010

This weekend I'll be showing my art at The Mayfest, in Smithville, NJ. I'll have new work from Africa, "Ukutula", The White Lion Conservation Reserve!
Stop by & say hello! My booth # is 114.
I hope to see you there!

Leaving Africa....

As I sit and watch the sunset over Johannesburg, memories of my experiences at Ukutula play through my mind. It's almost gone now...I watch the last minute...it's over.
Although it has only been 2 1/2 weeks, it seems so much longer. I already miss the cubs, Emma, (the 18 month old cheetah), the tiger cubs, and the roaring of the lions throughout the days and nights. The sores on my hands will linger on for a short time longer, but the bottle feedings from which they came will live on in my heart forever. I will miss being in the bush for I am a bushgirl in my heart, my soul and from within my every being. There is truly nothing else like it. The peaceful, zen like atmosphere can not be duplicated. The sounds of the wild, the air that you breath, the smell of the earth in its purest form. It will all be sadly missed.
Although it rained often, even if it was very unusual, it was a blessing, even though it sometimes kept us from what we would rather have been doing.
I have learned so much here.
I have met many new friends from many different countries and hopefully our paths shall cross again someday.
Yes, I am in love with Africa, but not as much with what calls me home, but I shall return again, and again and again.

New Baby Lion Cubs!

We retrieved the new baby lion cubs from their enclosures today. The rangers had moved their Moms to another area before we got down there. Upon their return, they may only look around for a few moments, then go on about their business as usual. This is what would happen in nature as well.
When we returned to the lodge with the cubs, we weighed them, bathed them, held them some more and named them. I wanted to name one after Richard, but with all the controversy between the volunteers, it got voted out. Still not positive what the final outcome of names were except 1, Michelle. She was the only white one and a female who was named after one of the volunteers that was here for several months and had left this afternoon.
There was 1 other female and 3 males. There had been one more, but earlier in the week there had been a disturbance between the lions and the cub had been killed in the middle of it all.
It was absolutely incredible to see them, hold them and photograph them especially at such a young age. (Less than 2 weeks old!) Although this was unusual to take them as soon as we did, this is usually done at 3 weeks old.

Lion cubs growing up...

I was on cub team today. The cubs are now too big to feed with a bottle anymore. Today will have to be the last day. They are too aggressive while feeding them and scratch and bite us. For now on they will be having only meat. In the morning we will be taking the new cubs away from their Mothers and putting them in with the other cubs. These are the cubs that were born when we arrived. It'll take them 2-3 days before they begin to suck on the bottle. It should be interesting to watch from the very beginning!
We had lots of guests today including a school from Brits. I really enjoyed working with them and Vince, the lion I had was extremely good!
We leave on Monday and it's so hard to believe it's been almost 2 weeks. I will miss this place a lot. It has been quite an education and the interaction with the lions has been amazing! Gill and Willie keep this place in such incredible shape, not an easy task, but they work very hard at it and it shows. The whole family works at it together. It'S a beautiful thing to watch. It's a wonderful experience for anyone who comes here.

Lion cubs get a bath!

Park was awesome yesterday! We had seen rhino, jackal, elephants, hippos, giraffes, zebras, blue wilderbeast, impalas, warthog, brown hyeana, springbok, kudu, and a full moon! We had a picnic lunch by a lake and a really great time!
We arrived back at Ukutula at 7:30/19:30 just in time for dinner.
Went to bed after that.
Today I decided to hang out close to the cubs.
First we fed the cubs and then we bathed them. It was actually harder feeding them their bottles than giving them their baths! It went a whole lot better than I ever could have expected!
We got confirmation on the cause of death of the tiger yesterday as it was an pnemonia.
After lunch we will have to clean the gremlin pen again. I just hope we don't let them all out again. I can't imagine having to collect them all as now it's just Richard, Laura and I.
Seems hard to believe we'll be leaving in 4 more days.

Sun shines again in Africa!!

Can't believe the rain has finally stopped! It's sooooo nice to finally see the sun again!
Today Gill is taking us to Pilanesberg, a game reserve that is supposed to be like kruger Park.
Yesterday, rained most of the day of course, we had a cow delivered that had died in a ravine giving birth. We fed it directly to the adult lions.
After that we went to the vets place and picked up the dead tiger out of their freezer. The plan is to have it stuffed for the wall. For now it has just been placed in our freezer.
We also picked up the dead chickens.
Late lunch after that. With the rain, there's not a lot going on, so off to edit some more n then a short nap.
Woke up n everyone was at the bar, joined them n then had a late dinner.
We watched "Green Zone" after dinner.

Tiger passes away

I had cub duty today. This included making bottles, an 11:00am proper feeding, and then feedings when guests came which was 4 times today + the one I missed because of consoling the owner of the large tiger who died. (This was the meat feeding)
It was really quite sad. We're not really sure yet what the cause was, but at first was told it was a snake bite. The vet is now performing an autopsy. They really need to know as to not endanger the lions.
It's still raining. Not EVERY minute, but MOST of them. It has rained every day since we've been here but one.
It was finally wash day and thank God cause I have no clean clothes. I didn't bring enough warm clothes, they just didn't make the cut in the end. And then, I brought more shorts that I may never get to wear. Isn't that how it goes?
I think I forgot to tell you that our 5th travel person from our group finally made it out of the UK and arrived here yesterday. Arrangements have been made and he will be able to stay the extra week that he missed.
Richard had interesting day of killing the cow that they went to go fetch, collecting dead chickens, cleaning up old construction material, go to the bakery in Brits and having coffee at a neighbors farm. Busy day in the rain and I think it's wearing on him. We try to take care of him as much as we can.
Laura, my room mate, busies her self with her music and drink concoctions and is preparing for the punch at the bar this evening that the owners son made this afternoon. She really does have a lot of great music!