Happy Birthday Chester

Today is (or might be) Chester’s 9th birthday.  The last year has been a lot of ups and downs once he started having seizures in July, but through it all, he has remained happy.

The reason I said it might be his birthday is that we don’t know for sure.  Chester was turned into a rescue when he was about 7 months old and they didn’t know.  May 1st is the birthday given to him by the rescue based on what they did know.

Chester still continues to make me laugh every day.  He is such a goofy guy and I’m sure he loves to hear me laugh, so he seems to be planning his next move all the time.  He does sleep more now than he did a few years ago, but when he’s awake, he is on the move.  We still have our walk along the Red River every day – rain or shine, hot or cold.

You have all been with Chester and me on this roller coaster ride and I really appreciate the good thoughts being sent our way.  As I mentioned yesterday, it has been 6 1/2 weeks since his last seizure and I’m getting more confident as we go that we now have the right combination of meds for him.  I hope to hear the results from the vet today.

So, here are a couple of days of pictures of Chester – the birthday boy!

Chester April 27

Chester April 27

Chester April 27

Chester April 28

Chester April 28

Chester April 28

Chester April 28

If you watch Africam with me, then you know that we are eagerly awaiting the birth of Cheetah cubs.  I believe the camera will go live once this happens or maybe once she settles on a place to have her cubs.  This will be very exciting and I hope you will join us.

I’m Still Here

Back to the present life again for a few minutes 

We are still in the midst of the warmest winter that I can remember.  Usually the warm winters we have had, came with a lot of snow and so far we are getting very little snow.  I know that can all change very quickly – but now that it is  February, winter is 1/2 over.  In another couple of months – no matter what the groundhog says today – we will be getting warmer and the days will be longer.

Yesterday we were greeted by hoarfrost covering the trees and that always looks pretty, so I took a couple of pictures when Chester and I walked along the Red River.

Feb 1 Red River Bank

Feb 1 Red River Bank

Right now it is a little chilly with a temperature of -12C and a windchill of -18C, but it is supposed to go up to 0C today and +1C and +3C the next 2 days.

Chester has been fine since his last seizure on Friday.  The blood test results came back yesterday and it is looking good, so we will continue with the meds as we have been doing.

We have had some exciting sightings on Africam lately.  Two of our cams are down due to the rains from a couple of weeks ago, but Tembe is keeping us glued to the screen.  Wild Dogs made their first appearance in front of the cam at Tembe a couple of days ago.  It was exciting to watch them and then see the Wildebeests gang up to chase them away.  I hope now that they have found this waterhole we will be seeing them again soon.  We have also seen lions and leopard as well as many more critters, including Elephants, Zebras, Warthogs, Nyala, Waterbuck, Kudu, Duikers, Giraffes, Wildebeest, Jackals, Woolly-necked Storks, Hadeda Ibis, Weavers, Egyptian Geese, African Fish Eagle and more.

Click here to go to the Streaming Cam Pics thread, where you can check out whatever days you like.

South Africa

Don’t worry – you’re hardly going to hear much from me about my upcoming trip to South Africa.  I’m sure that in the next few months leading up to the trip, I will hardly mention it – other than maybe a few hundred times. 

Anyway, the least favourite part of the trip with be the planes.  Not that flying bothers me – its the airports and transferring from planes that scares me.  The possibility that my suitcase will get transferred to the right plane every time I transfer may or may not happen, but I can’t carry everything I need for a month onto the plane, so I don’t have any option other than hoping I will find it when I finally make it there.

I might have mentioned that I have to take 4 planes, which means I will be in 5 airports over 2 days – both going and returning home.

I catch the first plane in Winnipeg at 4:00 pm and land in Toronto at 7:17 pm (losing an hour in flight).  Flying time is 2:17

At 10:10 pm I leave Toronto and land in Frankfurt, Germany at 11:55 am (losing a bunch of hours in flight). Flying time is 7:45

I have several hours to hang around in Frankfurt and leave there at 8:45 pm – landing at Johannesburg at 7:15 am.  Flying time is 10:30

At 10:00 am, I leave Johannesburg and land at Nelspruit at 10:55 am where the adventure really begins.    Flying time is apparently -1:35 but it looks like :55 to me

I assume I have to go through Customs in both Frankfurt and Johannesburg.

The return trip is pretty much the same, except that I will leave from the airport at Hoedspruit at 1:50 pm and land at Johannesburg at 2:55 pm.  Flying time 1:05

At 7:25 pm I leave Johannesburg and arrive at Frankfurt at 6:10 am.  Flying time 10:45

I leave Frankfurt at 10:00 am and arrive at Toronto at 12:15 pm  Flying time 8:15

At 4:30 pm I leave Toronto and arrive back home in Winnipeg at 5:58 pm.  Flying time 2:28

Of course, I don’t know any of these airports, including the Winnipeg one which has been under construction  and may or may not be completed.  It has been years since I have taken a plane anywhere and other than picking people up or dropping them off, I haven’t been near it and have no idea where I even go there.

I will have my little netbook with me and I assume I will be able to go online during my times in the airports, but otherwise for the rest of the trip I may not have any internet access.

I will be using the netbook to download pictures I take each day, since I’m sure I will have the card in the camera full within a few days.  I plan on keeping a list of pictures I take as well as where I took it.  Otherwise when I get home and start going through the million pictures, I will have no idea where they were taken.

On Africam so far today we have seen Waterbuck, Impala, Elephant, Giraffe, Cape Turtle Dove, Warthog, Wildebeest, Cattle Egret, Kudu, Hadeda Ibis, Saddle-billed Stork, Zebra and Serval.  Click here to see all of today’s pictures (which includes an adorable and very young Giraffe).

Just so we have a picture today, I went outside and took one of my poor little pansy under it’s second snowfall of the year.  I can’t believe it is still flowering.

Pansy in Snow Nov 14

Chester

Chester went for his blood tests yesterday.  We won’t get the results back until next week and at that time we will know if we have to make any changes to his meds.  I hope we’re on the right path and he can just continue as he is.

We had a little photo shoot in the back yard today and since he is still constantly in motion, I only ended up with one picture that isn’t blurred.  That seems to be normal for him. 

He is still happy and enjoying life as he should be.

Chester Sept 24/11

Our walk this morning was after the sun came up again, but absolutely no wildlife was seen – so no pictures taken.

On Africam today, we have seen Elephants, Waterbuck, Kudu, Hoopoe, Hadeda Ibis, Baboons, Vervet Monkeys, Warthogs, Oxpeckers, Bushbuck, Zebras, Impalas, Nyalas, Jackal and more.  Click here to see today’s pictures.

Cloud 9

I didn’t realize that there wasn’t as much air way up here on cloud 9 as there is with 2 feet firmly planted on the ground.  As of now, I’m still way up in the clouds though.    I’ll catch my breath before too long, I’m sure.

Nkorho has also been confirmed so my whole vacation next year is a complete go!!! I still have to book my flights and my car – but those will come later.

I can’t believe that I actually finally decided to just book it and worry about how it will be paid for later – much later. My goal was always to save the money first, but something always came up and I had to spend what I had saved on something else.  Yes, it was good that I had the money there to use, but my vacation fund kept disappearing on me.

I knew this trip would be more than just in my dreams, but I don’t think anyone else really believed it.

Chester is doing fine    He is such a happy dog and is playing with his toys right now – stopping every once in awhile to bring one over to me and then try to keep me from getting it.  He loves the squeaky toys!

Our walks are in the dark – well, light enough to see, but not to take pictures.  The days are getting noticeably shorter now as we head into fall.

I’ve noticed a lot of Robins lately.  I guess they are starting to get the flocks together to head down to Florida for the winter.

On Africam today, we have seen Elephants, warthogs, impalas, bushbuck, wildebeest, waterbuck, jackals, nyala, zebras, baboons, duiker and lost of birds too – saddle billed stork, starlings, guinea fowl, doves, cattle egret, wood sandpiper, pied crow and a crested barbet.   Click here to see today’s pictures.

Its official – I’m going to Africa!!!

My stay in Kruger is all booked for next year.  I am just awaiting confirmation from Nkorho for those dates, which I will hopefully receive before I have to leave for work.

I could only get 1 night at Lower Sabie and added an extra night at Olifants to even it out.

So – I am confirmed at

Berg-en-Dal for 2 nights in a bungalow

Crocodile Bridge for 2 nights in a safari tent

Lower Sabie for 1 night in a hut

Satara for 2 nights in a bungalow

Letaba for 2 nights in a safari tent

Shingwedzi for 2 nights in a hut

Olifants for 3 nights in a bungalow

Tambotti for 2 nights in a safari tent

Its official – I’m going to Africa!!!

On Africam today we have seen lions, giraffes, cape buffalo, elephants, baboons, bushbuck, reedbuck, hyaenas, wildebeest, grey heron, helmeted guineafowl, zebra and more.   Click here to see today’s pictures.

Chester is doing fine again – we will get a blood test done at the end of the week to see if adjustments to the meds are required.

Long Weekend

I am getting an early start on the long weekend by taking a 5 day weekend, starting today 

It was 17C when Chester and I went for our walk along the Red River this morning, the sun was shining and the humidity had dropped to 83%.  It is supposed to get up to 27C this afternoon, and its looking like a great day.

The only picture I have this morning is one Wood Duck.  I thought I was getting a picture of the momma duck, since this one was bigger than the other ones in the area and she seemed to be watching the young ones foraging, but once I got home and looked at the picture, I see some fuzzy feathers on the back of the neck.  I guess this is one of the older babies.  Mom was probably not too far away, but I didn’t see her.

Wood Duck July 28

On Africam today, we have seen Giraffe, Warthog, Wildebeest, Cape Buffalo, Zebra, Nyala, Baboons, Rhinos and so much more.  Gerda got a series of pictures on 2 Zebras fighting and a couple of people posted pictures of 4 different critters in one photo.  The waterholes have been very busy today.    Click here to see today’s pictures.

Bug Day

It was 19C with 98% humidity when Chester and I walked along the Red River this morning.  It is only supposed to get up to 26C this afternoon, but with that much humidity, I closed the windows and turned the air conditioner on when we got back home again.    It had rained last night, but I have no idea how much.  There were some puddles in the spots that often have puddles after a rain and I’m just hoping that it was enough so that grass and flowers start to make a comeback.

My raspberries are nicely ripening now and for the last week, I have been going out with a bowl to collect berries to add to my bowl of cereal every day.  A couple of days ago I noticed a bee (or something) on one of the berries as I was going to pick it.  He didn’t move, so I just left that berry and moved on to another one.  To my surprise he was still there on the same berry yesterday, so I came back inside and took my camera out.  There was also another one on another berry and one more hanging onto the bottom of a leaf.  They were not bothered by my being there and I even moved the berries and leaves to get a better view for pictures and they just stayed where they were.

the first bug

the first bug (again)

the 2nd bug

the 2nd bug (again)

the 3rd bug

They look like bees to me, but I don’t know what they are doing hanging onto my raspberries instead of digging into flowers.  Are they taking the juice from the berries?  I have my bird expert Barry and my plant/flower expert Sue (both from Africam) to help with those ID’s.  Now I need a bug expert.

My berries are plentiful as always, but this year I’ve found that many of them are miniature – I guess due to the very hot weather and very little moisture.  The ones that did get to the usual size are nice and juicy and delicious, but the smaller ones are not as tasty.  I notice these guys are hanging onto nice juicy ones. 

On Africam today we have seen Zebras, Impalas, Warthogs, Elephants, Kudu, Vervet Monkeys, Hyaena, Reedbuck, plenty of birds and more.  Click here to see today’s pictures.

To make viewing all the cameras at Africam at the same time, they have now launched a multi-view camera page.  Here you can watch all 3, or just start 1 or 2, but still just have the one page instead of different tabs or different windows to watch.  When you land on the page, you decide which cam(s) to start by clicking on the start button in the middle of each cam.  Click here to see it and check it out.

Stuff

I love days like this.  It is very pleasant walking in the morning with a temperature of 16C (which also lets the house cool down overnight) and then it is going up to 25C by the afternoon (not too hot like last week).  We may get some rain today, but they are just talking about a possibility of isolated showers.  Everything is so dry that we really do need a good soaking rain – overnight would be perfect. 

I saw a few ducks when Chester and I took our walk along the Red River this morning, but none of them really gave me anything to take a picture of.  Again, the beavers were nowhere to be seen.    The rowers on the river were on this side today, so they may have gone into hiding from them.  I’m hoping they haven’t moved on since its been a few days since I’ve seen them.  Chester found lots of bunnies that he would have loved to chase though.

This weekend, I plan on going to the Assiniboine Park Zoo.  Apparently they have now opened up a butterfly garden as well as having a bird free flight show (predatory birds).  I had planned on going last weekend, but Chester’s seizure put me back a couple of days and I ran out of weekend.  I really hope both exhibits are up and running completely.  The last opening was Toucan Ridge and it was only about 1/2 completed (but open) a couple of weeks after the grand opening.  Hopefully that is now finished, so I can see that when I go this weekend.

I only remember see one Toucan on that trip and I took a picture, but it didn’t come out great.  I’ll show it to you now anyway and then when I get better ones this weekend, I can show you the new and improved Toucan pictures along with butterflies and maybe some hawks and eagles in flight.

Toucan

On Africam today, we have seen rhinos, vervet monkeys, zebras, impalas, waterbuck, wildebeest, plus lots of birds and more.  Click here to see today’s pictures.

Birds and Trees

Its only 5 months till Christmas – are you ready yet?

It was 14C under a sunny sky with just a light breeze when Chester and I walked along the Red River this morning.  I did enjoy the heat of the last few weeks, but am glad things are back to normal.  It will get to the high 20′s all week, but when it cools down at night like this, it is good.  We really need a good long  soaking rain though.

Chester is still doing fine after his seizure last week and I’m hoping there will never be another one – but am prepared in case there are.

Big Tree across the river July 25

According to the City of Winnipeg, the Red River is now just 14 feet over winter ice level and this tree was not the only one that has been under water for so many months.  There are some just a few feet away, that still have their trunks in water.

trees in water July 25

young Mallard

I didn’t see many ducks this morning, but this young Mallard stood and posed for me.    No sign of the beavers this morning either, but this beautiful little Goldfinch posed for several pictures.  I took the first picture when I first saw him, moved a few feet closer and took another and moved closer again.  When he flew off, he posed for one more.    He has been eluding me all summer, and I’m really happy to get this pictures of him.

Goldfinch July 25

Goldfinch July 25

Goldfinch July 25

Goldfinch July 25

On Africam today we have seen rhinos, waterbucks, nyala, baboons, mongoose, zebras, and more plus a lot of different birds.  Click here to see today’s pictures.