Schedule this week

Wings & Water Wildlife Arts Festival ~Wetlands Institute (see below for location details)
Thursday, July 12, 2012 & Friday, July 13, 2012
Time:10am till 4pm ~ both days
Location : Avalon Community Hall
30th Street at the beach, Avalon, NJ  (exit 13, Garden State Parkway)

Beachfest I Arts & Crafts Festival
Saturday, July 14^th, 2012 
Location: Bicentennial Park
Engleside Ave, Beach Haven , LBI, NJ
Time: 9:00AM to 4:00PM

On another note...Ashley is now going to have her own collection of notecards! She had been added last year to my notecard collection & has been selling really well! So, I've decided we would do more of her. A suggestion has been made to have her even do a signing (!) I kinda thought it would be a great idea! I'll have a ink pad, put her paw in it & then stamp her cards!!! (lol!)...We'll see!

This week it's going to cool down a bit & people will be getting out & about! Be sure to stop by & say hello in your travels!

As always, be safe, be happy & stay well!

Peace 





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.

Sunday with the lions....

Yesterday was an off day. It was nice not to have to be anywhere, although I was on kitchen duty again. I don't mind as everyone here really pitches in n helps out, so it not that much work.
I did go for another lion walk, only this time with 9 toddlers! There were 3 of us that went. It was amazing! I LOVE walking with lions! It's just so freeing!!!
Played with the tigers some and they are calming down a lot too.
Ate too much food as it gets better n better n we also had tea n cake because it was Sunday, in the afternoon.
Hung out in the room editing the rest of my free time n in the evening.
Got a rash on my chest during the night on Saturday night and one on my face Sunday night. Changed all bedding today and sprayed under bed. They think it could be a spider bite.
Richard is feeling better now as he had a slight cold it seems. He scored Ginger wine while in town on Saturday n it seems tpo have worked!

Rain Day

(Saturday, 24, April, 2010)
It has been raining since yesterday afternoon so they decided to let us have the day off pretty much. I'm on kitchen n ranger duty today. I don't mind the kitchen duty at all, but thank God we didn't have to go fetch any dead animals. I would have done it, but riding in the back of the pickup truck n getting across some of the cow pens in the rain would have been rough, not to mention dragging those dead cows by hand in all that mud.
Richard, our relentless 72 year old man from Australia and has more energy than a lot of people I know, had cub duty again, so he had to tend to the cubs n I think he had 2 cub interactions with guests.
This morning after breakfast, when it was decided it wouldn't be a work day, 12 of us piled into the Land Rover n caught a ride to town (Brits). Just a lil' one horse town, but it was nice to go there. We were there for about an hour n then returned.
Had an awesome lunch, (as the food keeps getting better n better as each day passes!) Then returned to our room with a hot cup of tea n took a nap. Sweet!
I woke up, edited a lil' as this is going to be completely overwhelming, then went n played with the cubs as I do with most spare time. I've become quite attached to these animals.
Dinner, then back here to do this to keep you all updated on this amazing adventure I've been on!

Lion Cub Duty

Friday our team was on cub duty. This work entails making baby bottles in the morning n hand feeding the lil' cubs. It, like every other was an amazing experience! We then missed breakfast, but we didn't go completley hungry though as Melissa n Laura made us toast + we had a few other scraps that were left. All in all, it was worth it as we won't be bottle feeding that same schedule anymore because they are getting too big. The only bottle feeding now will be 8:00am n when we have guests for cub interaction. Lunch was pretty good actually n good thing we ate before our next chore of taking the meat n dead chickens out of the freezer to thaw for the next feedings. Fowl is foul. In the afternoon we had guests to monitor. I love the looks on their faces! Even though I can't understand what they're saying, their expressions say it all.
We cleaned the gremlins pen, which at one point about 20 lions got loose, (not my fault, by the way)but, shortly after, surprisingly, they all came back. These are medium size lions.
At 16:00 hours Jill, one of the owners, took us to see the newest additions to the cub club! They were born the day before n the day of our arrival. They were so small n cute! Mommy of one of them almost came through the enclosure at me. A lil' scary at times, but, I tried not to let on(!)
Then off to feed the chickens n meat to the cheetahs n bigger lion cubs, n we also introduced larger pieces of meat to the littlest cubs. They took to it very well.
Then dinner n called it an early night.
Oh, and lots of rain.

A Day at Ukutula

Cell wouldn't work last night so...Yesterday...we began the day fetching another dead cow, then on to the dead chickens. Those cow are extremely heavy, but those chickens smell so foul that I'll take a dead cow over the chickens any day. The ride in the back of the truck wasn't so bad yesterday as it was dry at least, even if it does smell bad from cleaning out the lions cages. Played with the tigers again till lunch. Laura went to town with other volunteers, n brought us back some supplies for our room for when we miss our next meal. Richard went n delivered the cow we fetched to the lions.
We had lunch, which was not bad n our team had kitchen duty yesterday so we haD to clean up n set up for dinner. We played the waiting game for a bit n around 17:00 we went for a walk with lions in the bush down to the watering hole so they could go for a swim. It was a beautiful thing!
Back for dinner after that n then onto the bar for a proper send off for the Germans that just left about an hour ago. We played the Adams Family Game, (can,t tell you how though, it's a secret.) n then they had wanted me to see the Genie.(Long story)
Retired after that n actually had a good nights sleep.

Lion Cubs!

I can't begin to explain the feeling of being with these baby lions and cheetahs.
This is truly one of the most fascinating moments of my life! Even with the lil' babies attacking you, you can't help but to love them. Tomorrow we work with the rangers. There were 3 new cubs born between yesterday and today, 2 brown cubs and 1 white one. Another surprise was the delivery of 2 7 week old bengal tigers! I must sat they're a lil' more rough than the lions though.

Africa in 17 Days!

17 more days till I leave for Africa. I can hardly wait! I've updated my shots, I only needed a polio booster as my shots were still current from the last trip to Africa 3 years ago & of course I am taking a supply of antibiotics, just in case, & malaria prevention medication.
I keep in touch with the other people I've met online that will be going as well & I look forward to meeting them in person. We will be connecting before the project begins as some of us will be there at least a day early.
With weekends off, I plan on utilizing my time in Africa as best as I can with exploring the surrounding area, going on game drives, photographing wildlife & taking in a culture village experience.
I have another blackberry with internet & email & hopefully, it will work this time as many of you may recall the issues I had the last time I was there.
The only other thing that would make this trip complete would be if I met with Jane Goodall herself while there!!

Adventure in Africa

On April 17th, 2010, I will be going back to Africa. I'll be staying in Brits on a white lion conservation reserve taking care of baby white lions, lions, cheetahs & other animals on the reserve.
I can't wait!
I'll be blogging while there, although, the internet is not the same as it is here. It actually takes longer than dial up. So, I'll do my best to keep up as often as possible.
I will be returning on May 5th, 2010.
I will be going alone. There will be someone picking me up from the airport, from there, I'll stay at a backpackers hostil till the following day when someone comes to collect me. We will do an orientation & then on to the reserve where I will be staying for the next 2 weeks.
My aim is to learn all that I can about the animals that I photograph, about conservation & any other useful information I can learn while there.