Sunday, June 19, 2011

This week...

What did we do this week?

  • Had a minor vehicle fire...courtesy of a Radio Shack DC cigarette plug outlet.  No damage except for the plug and one other item because we got the fire out quickly.
  • Conducted two 24-hour hippo pool sampling events.
  • Had a Maasai Game Ranger remind me that nothing is easy in Africa...during one of those 24-hour hippo pool sampling events.
  • Watched Amanda running after a Vervet monkey while threatening it with a stick...he was trying to steal our lunch.
  • Learned that the hippos travel up and down the Mara River between 1900hrs and 2100hrs.
  • Changed our fuel filter.
  • Replaced the driver's side door glass....the one I accidentally broke last week.
  • Had a baboon try to steal a 10 pound propane cylinder...he dragged it about 10 meters from our tent until Filliman caught up to him (what does a baboon need with a propane cylinder?).  
  • Had our field assistant go on sick leave.  
  • Captured a storm event on one of our data loggers that drove dissolved oxygen in the river down to 20%, turbidity up past the capability of our probe (well past 6000 NTU), and that resulted in a die off of elephant fish.  
  • Processed 34 water samples.  
  • Used up half a roll of duct tape.  

Friday, June 10, 2011

Random breakdown today...

Not a true breakdown... but pretty random.  I'm rolling down the driver's window and it shatters into 100 pieces all over the ground.  ??? 


Wednesday, June 8, 2011

The hot showers just arrived!

Our incredibly gracious camp hosts just rolled in with a tanker of water to provide us with hot showers. Life is good!

Making camp... again

We just completed our first 24 hour hippo pool sampling event, and we are beat. We've also been living out of the Land Rover for about a week now, which is exciting as we travel to new places, but also a bit exhausting as we unpack and re-pack every day. However, tonight we're at a beautiful campsite, we are in for a good night of sleep and tomorrow we head back to our little home in the Mara. Plus, we have lots of really cool data on a big hippo pool that we hope will give us new insight into the impacts of hippos on river systems.

Friday, June 3, 2011