Prepping for a Presentation

I got a phone call from the Palmer Historical Society the other day asking if I would be interested in giving a presentation about all my Earthwatch travels. One of the ladies from the Library group I craft with once a month told them about me. I, of course, am more than happy to talk about Earthwatch and my travels! So, if you have nothing better to do – come see me on April 15 at the Palmer Moose Lodge!

There’s a lot to do to prepare, however. I have made myself a list (of course) to ensure that I get it all done in time. I told Shari (my contact) I’d have a rough draft done by April 1 so she could come see it and give some constructive feedback.

For the presentation itself, I will bring my photo books, a pile of brochures to give away, and perhaps my travel guides for each country I’ve been to.

To Do:

Get PowerPoint loaded onto personal computer
Re-learn how to use it

Write 1 or 2 paragraphs introduction to me
Pick our 2 or 3 photos for advertising purposes

Write intro to ME
Write into to Earthwatch
Write intro to each expedition
    Title/date
    Scientists/volunteers
    Living quarters

    tasks 

Gather all expedition photos into temp folder
Pick out 5-6 photos for each

Create power point presentation
    2 pages – me
    2 pages – Earthwatch
    3 pages – each expedition
    1 page – Iceland 

Expeditions I have been on:
    2006 = 10 days in Costa Rica studying Caterpillars and their 

                Parasites
    2007 = 16 days in Mongolia capturing wild mountain sheep, 

                putting collars and tags on them
    2009 = 16 days in Kenya working with the Medicine Men of the

                Samburu Tribe, documenting their use of medicinal plants
    2012 = 12 days on the Amazon River studying the Pink River 

                Dolphin
    2015 = 12 days on the Canary Islands working an Archeological Dig
    2018 = 10 days in Arizona studying the Forest Owls
    2020 = 12 days in Costa Rica working with the Leatherback Turtles
    2023 = 10 days in Patagonia working with Penguins

The Roller Coaster of Life

So much has been going on these past few weeks. I’ll break it down into pieces for you.

My Mother: I had hoped to be able to tell you that she was moving in to the Pioneer Home this week. Sadly, that is not true. She did all the interviews and filled out all the paperwork, but when it came right down to time to move, she decided that she didn’t want to after all. I’ll be honest, this caused a LOT of distress in the family. We were so sure she was going to go. Now, she has been taken off the list and cannot be put back on until 180 days have passed, and then she’ll be down at the bottom of the list. This means that when a room becomes available, she will no longer get first choice. She does understand this and seems to be happy enough with her predicament. Meanwhile, Bryan and I will just have to live with her another 6 months (at a minimum,  more likely another 2 years or so).

His Mother: Lita came up a few weeks ago to help out with things here in Alaska (to be expanded upon in the next paragraph). She has been staying mostly with us in our guest room but has also spent time with her daughter in Wasilla and with friends in Anchorage. Lita is a dear, and I love her like she was my own mother, but she is not well (terminal cancer) so stress levels are a bit high around here. She is doing well, but tires easily and requires a bit more help than she is comfortable admitting to.

His Daughter: Lindsey finally gave birth yesterday to his first Grandchild! She is a healthy girl, coming into the world at a hefty 10 pounds and 1 ounce! Betty will be only slightly spoiled I think, as pretty much EVERYBODY in her family held vigil in the hospital for the 24+ hours it took for her to arrive. Both mother & child are recovering, with a very proud father hovering nearby. I myself will get to meet her next week, I think.

Viktor: as you may remember from past posts, my cat Viktor has a rare blood type, so his vet was very excited about him joining the Blood Donor program. This requires him to have a yearly exam complete with x-rays and bloodwork to ensure that he is healthy enough to withstand the potential blood draw. This year, he let us know – in no uncertain terms – that he no longer wished to be in the program. He simply would not let them draw blood for testing, even after they wrapped him up in a towel and put a little kitty-muzzle on him! They rescheduled him for a week later and gave me some medication to give him to help him relax. Oh boy, did he relax! It scared me how much he relaxed - he could barely walk! And even with that in his system, he STILL would not let them. So: he is no longer a blood doner, and he is quite happy with that decision.

Naldo: several weeks ago, I noticed a wound on her belly that alarmed me. It didn’t seem to bother her too much and wasn’t painful to the touch – but it sure didn’t look good. Her regular vet did not have an opening for her, so I ended up taking her to a different vet to get it looked at. Turns out it was a bacterial infection: the doctor gave her a shot of mega-antibiotics and sent me home with some wipes to clean her belly with twice a day. Poor thing ended up having a pretty bad reaction to the wipes, so she had to go back in to the vet’s where they gave her what they call a “surgical suit” to wear.  She was NOT happy with this, let me assure you. But we had to keep her from licking her belly for a couple weeks, so she had to wear it. Thankfully it’s all cleared up now, so the suit is put away where she can’t see it.

Cardmaking: I “attended” a 4-day Card Making Summit this past weekend. Four fun-filled days of on-line classes, Guest Speakers, and Sponsor giveaways hosted by Stamp Me Some Love. I watched a few of the classes, but honestly was not all that interested in them. Most of them would have required me to buy new tools in order to create what they made during the class, and I have enough already without adding yet MORE stuff to my crafting room. There were a couple classes I really enjoyed, however, so I spent the afternoon during our Family Craft Day working on the new techniques I learned. I love the results!

Family Craft Day: this month’s craft day was a resounding success: 15 people show up this time! It was loud. It was chaotic. It was crafty. There was a ton of food. I am so happy to have everyone come over and join me each month – but I have to admit it was a bit overwhelming. I can’t wait to do it again next month!

Nails: And just because I needed something special just for ME, I’ve been playing around with painting my nails lately! Or rather, I should say, I’ve been having them painted. I’m going to The Blue Birch Salon in Wasilla where a young girl named Izella does amazing work. I’ve had anywhere from purple, blue, red, to silver – but today, I have GOLD Nails!

Back Again - After A Long Hiatus

Once again, I have let time get the best of me. I fully intended to write blog posts each month, but as you can see it’s been a long time since my last update. 

Things are going well in my life. I’m still working from home and still loving my job. People keep asking me when I plan to retire: my response is typically “As long as they keep paying me to work from home, why would I quit?”. I’m the only person I know who can honestly say that the Pandemic was good for them: I moved to working from home, I got a new employer who bought me a new phone, a new computer with two HUGE monitors, and a new desk & chair for my home office, AND I got not one but three raises!  There has been talk recently of having me come in to the office perhaps once a week in order to train the new guys – but so far that has not been implemented. We’re still working out the kinks in the plan. I do think that will only be a one-time only deal, but even if it’s two or three times – that won’t be too bad. At least it’s getting lighter now, so I won’t have to drive in the dark. 

I’ve been playing with paper this weekend. Got myself some new dies for my die-cutting machine, so had to see what I could do with them. I must say, I like the Elephant card – that turned out really well. 

This whole area up here is slowing coming together finally. His pool room is a big hit: it’s nice for him to be able to come upstairs and play a few rounds anytime he’s having a rough day at work. And his big screen TV was excellent for the Super Bowl this year! I’ve also been tidying up my craft area and going through some of the boxes of stuff that used to be in the storage room. 

Mother is still living with us, although she is working on moving to the Pioneer Home finally. It’s quite the process: first you get put “on the list” which just means you’ve filled out some paperwork saying that you want to move in “one day”. When you eventually decide that “one day” could very well be “tomorrow” then you have them move you to the Active List. When they think a room might be coming available soon (which sadly means the current resident will no longer be needing it) they schedule an Assessment appointment, where they ask a lot of very personal questions designed to let them determine the level of care you will need. This tells them what kind of room you’ll be needing. Then, when the room is open, you can move in. Mother is scheduled for her Assessment appointment this week.  

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this. First, I am so ready for her to move out. Taking care of one’s mother (who is just beginning to show signs of dementia) is not easy, to say the least. But she’s my mom, so I don’t want her to leave. But I do want to have my house back. But I feel like I’m a horrible daughter for thinking about “stuff” and sending my mother off to an Old Folks Home. But she’s chosen the Pioneer Home, and all her friends live either right there or within walking distance. But it’s a place you send your elderly off to die (I know, it’s not – but it feels like it sometimes). Ugh…

On a happier note, we are planning a big trip this year: we’re going to Iceland! It’s an Earthwatch Expedition to study the Orca – but we’ll also have about 4 days on our own to explore a bit. I’m thinking we’ll take a self-guided tour where they rent you a car and put you up at little hostels and/or farms along the route. This way, we’ll get to see as much of the country as possible in such a short time. We’ve just now started the process of getting our flights in order. We put our deposit down on the expedition a few months ago and have paperwork to fill out for them. I’m quite excited – it will be my 10^th and his 3^rd.

Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have a Pool Table!

He’s been working on his new Pool Room for quite a while now.

First, he had to remove all the totes, boxes, and whatnot, relocating them all into my craft room and/or the garage. My car got moved outside for the summer to make room for it all.

Then he had to work on the floor, getting it ready to install carpet tiles. While doing that, he decided that he wanted to paint the walls – which required a lot of prep work for that as well. And since the walls were getting a new coat of paint, that meant that all the outlet cover plates needed to be replaced so that they were white instead of the old dungy cream.

Our friend Jessica came over for the Painting Party, helping us get the job done in record time! Installing the carpet tile was a bit more involved, but he did a superb job – just like I knew he would.

All this renovating of walls and flooring made him look at the light fixtures, too (of course), so he replaced the old boxy fixtures with snazzy circular ones. These are even remote controlled with numerous different light settings.

The actual Moving of the Pool Table was a stressful event. He hired a professional mover who sent two guys out with their truck. He met them over at its original location, dismantled it, hauled it over to our house, and reassembled it – all within about a 3-hour time period.

Disassembling a pool table means that you have to put on new felt upon reassembling it. Because it is well over 40 years old, we went ahead and got new bumpers as well – if only to match the new felt. That whole process was a couple days’ worth of time, during which we also had them polish up the balls.

All that’s left to deal with now are the cue sticks! We have a pile of old ones that we can make do with for now, but eventually we will get new ones.

And of course, all those totes need to be put back in the room. We plan on going through everything and weeding out what we don’t need and consolidating what we keep into fewer totes.

Trailing Penguins in Patagonia

My 8^th Earthwatch Expedition took me all the way to Argentina in October of this year, to help scientists study the Magellanic Penguins near the little fishing village of Camarones in Chubut, Patagonia. I got to spend a short 6 days with 3 other volunteers in Cabo dos Bahías, (part of the Reserva Faunística Provincial Cabo dos Bahías). Believe me, I could have stayed a lot longer!

The colony has roughly 7,000 breeding pairs but is steadily declining – and they want to know why. Within the colony, scientists randomly identified 250 nests – tagging each bird with Passive Integrated Transponders (PIT tags). Our job as volunteers was to visit each nest each day, scan the birds to verify who was on the nests, and then check for eggs. If eggs were found, the scientists would then measure and record width and length.

Penguins spend most of their life out in the water, coming to land only to breed. September brings the males to shore so they can get the nests ready. Penguins tend to use the same nest each year, but the breeding grounds are covered in nests, both in use and vacant, so a pair might decide to relocate if they find a better spot.

Females arrive in October and somehow manage to find their mate. Penguins mate for life, although divorces do happen sometimes. Blood tests on chicks have shown a bit of hanky-panky going on as well. However, once the pair renew their bond, the first egg is laid. Roughly 4 days later, the second egg is laid – this one being slightly smaller than the first egg. Incubation for the eggs is about 40 days. Interestingly, the second egg has a shorter incubation time so as to hatch at the same time as the first egg.

Once both eggs are laid, the male then makes his way back to the ocean to feed, leaving the female to tend to the nest. The male returns to the nest after about 20-23 days and takes over the care and protection of the eggs, allowing the female to head back to the ocean to feed. The female then returns after about 17-19 days, just in time for the eggs to hatch, where she then regurgitates her food to give to the chicks. After that, they each take turns going out to get food.

By January, all the birds are back out in the water for the rest of the year.

At the same time we were visiting each nest and recording egg sizes, we were also helping out with another research project, this one focusing on predators. Numerous gulls and other seabirds regularly feed on the eggs, but there are also a few mammals to watch out for: namely armadillos, grey fox, and the Geoffroy's cat. Volunteers helped out by walking up to 8 miles a day looking for broken eggs and/or predator’s scatt. Once either of those was found, a GPS reading was recorded, and the sample was procured to be sent to the lab for testing.

Buenos Aires

My first stop in Argentina was the capitol city of Buenos Aires. This is a HUGE city (roughly 80 square miles) with well over 3.2 million people, a population density of about 34,800 people per square mile. Pictures are of the Capitol Building and the city itself as I fly over on my way to the next part of my trip.

I got to visit my good friend Marina, whom I met on one of my previous Earthwatch expeditions. She showed me all around her city, taking me to all her favorite spots and showing off the amazing architecture & history of Buenos Aires. Pictures are of Marina in the cemetery and Me at the Obelisk.

I had a great time and am so thankful she took time out of her busy schedule to entertain me!

Sunny Miami

My recent travel plans gave me a 10-hour layover in Miami, so I took the opportunity to visit my friend Sarah! You may remember that last year I got to attend her wedding down in the Florida Keys.

Sarah and her husband Dave picked me up at the airport and took me to a really cool bookstore. We browsed the shelves for a while, then sat down to a light lunch – I had the best quinoa bowl with kale and chickpeas and all kinds of good stuff.

Then they took me to a park where we walked along a beautiful trail by the ocean, ending up at a restaurant where we had some drinks to cool off.

We finished off the evening with a scrumptious dinner at an Indian restaurant they love. Unfortunately we were a bit pressed for time so had to rush through our meal to ensure that we had enough time to get me back to the airport to catch my next flight.

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I just want to point out that the Miami Airport has vending machines for CAKE!

How cool is that!!