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.  

4 comments:

RonandGwen said...

Amazing! Love this update.

Katie said...

I love reading your updates, I'm glad the universe is keeping y'all busy.

Shannon said...

Ahh, field work... This post inspired me to come up with a similar list of my own, the highlights of which were: mud wrestling a 2 ft snapping turtle, out-swimming a cottonmouth (and then lightening!), playing nurse maid to two baby otters, and unintentionally teaching my GPS how to swim.

We still ain't right! And, if we're lucky, we'll never be :)

Cynthia said...

You guys are so hard core!! I love it! Glad to see you've managed to keep JJ alive!! Keep up the good work in Africa!