morocco

heres some videos i put together for class

the first is the wheat collection process in morocco



the second is the traditional rammed earth construction of a house i helped with

spielberg watch out!!

heres a look at what im doing, its not pretty. the first part is of catching the birds in the middle of the night from airboats and later its a day in the life of. enjoy!!

hello from the bayou

okay, you see where there ain't no cities thats right near where im at. im on a small wildlife refuge below grand lake and white lake in the southwestern corner

i started a new job in southwestern louisiana at rockefeller state wildlife refuge with THE university of arkansas-fayetteville. the study is investigating king rails (rallus elegans), a chicken-sized marsh bird, and their winter migration movements. little is known about the migrating populations in the mississippi flyway, other than that there are two populations, residents and migrates. my work is a preliminary study on how to attach VHF radio transmitters to rails to determine how they will adjust before we permanently attach costly satellite transmitters. we are trying two different harness methods (dywer and thigh) and materials.

dywer sits higher on the back with two straps, it crosses the esophagus which may interfere with swallowing large prey ie fiddler crabs.

thigh harness sits lower on the back with two leg straps and another around the chest.

this a dummy of the actual solar powered gizmo that will be used in the longterm study


the good docs explaination of the harness setup

to capture these boogers we take airboats into the marsh in the middle of the night and drive around with huge flashlights looking for these little cryptically colored “chickens.” when you spot one you keep the light on him and motor up and either grab them with your hands or with a small dip net then stuff them in a cage and keep looking for the next one.


recognize those sexy legs?

we caught 17 in the first two nights and spent the day attaching the harnesses and releasing them

the man himself

dr krementz with soon to be released bird

i will be tracking the birds to determine whether they are feeding and moving “normally.” hopefully after a month we will recapture the birds, remove the transmitters, check for chaffing and wear, and look for weight changes.


FREEDOM...almost

my encounter with a real Dick

this area is the mecca for duck hunting, in fact the most recent survey found 175,000 ducks in the 85,000 acre. wow, right? anyway this past sunday I was driving the usgs 15 passenger van (yeah I get a lot of second looks from the ladies) to a hunting lodge to see the hunters bring in their ducks. i was traveling at a safe but efficient clip down a 2 lane country road when i saw a police car coming in the opposite direction. instinctively i slammed on the brakes to come to a more socially acceptable operating speed and waved to the officer nonchalantly as we passed and i continued to watch for his sirens or brakes in my rear view. "whew" i thought and continued on my way down the road, when around the bend came another policeman on a motorcycle this time lights aflashing, sirens ablaring, and swerving into my lane and motioning to slow down, “oh boy” i thought “just what i need another speeding ticket.” but he continues on by me, at this point im going 35 in a 55, when i see another two bike cops coming “ok, let me think I dumped all the bodies in the marsh, cleaned up the meth lab, and no way, mr kim jung ill would have given me up for those little secrets I sold, they got nothing on me” but they also motion to slow down. “do you want me to walk” i politely mouthed through the windshield. behind them comes a motorcade with state police, black suburbans, and interestingly an ambulance. when i arrived at the lodge and asked my refuge friend, she says “it was dick cheney, he hunts here every year.” “ah ha that’s why they brought the ambulance” i thought to myself.

the moral of the story “when you see a Dick, go slow and duck!”

IT'S A GIRL!!

a new addition to the spees family



notice the hot, small, brown babe provocatively faced away like in those hot rod magazines


andrew brought her home on oct 11th, shes a healthy one ton station wagon and is she ever CUTE!! its hard being a young male and whenever i show the car to people the first words are inevitably "oh its so cute." needless to say, these are not exactly what i want to hear.

ive been holding out, keeping the idea of returning to peacecorps, but with my back not recovering ive begun to make more permanent adjustments to life in the states. you dont realize the "things" that have become "necessary" for life stateside. health/car insurance, phone bills, rent, etc... they all hit me abruptly upon return. but as ive come to grips with my situation ive started my adjustment. heres my first tangible purchase: a '98 subaru impreza sport. i bought it for $2900 with 158K miles. it is in good condition, some little problems but it gives me something to do. i had the rotors smoothed (turned) which solved the wobble in the braking. and am looking at replacing the abs sensor but its kinda expensive. hopefully i can make something back for my efforts, is that slimy or what; flipping used cars. gross.


oh yeah i got a cell phone too