Resource guardianship week 2

Dear readers.

This week was not as packed and eventful as the first week because we received a lot of paper work and we had a day off for the voting process. We did how ever remove the bullrush that we pulled out and threw it on the compost heap. Thursday we checked the fences at the caravan park and we picked up the papers that were lying around. We also put out mineral blocks at makato 14, this is a block put out to attract animals and then people can see them.

It is also put out for them because it has a lot of minerals in that help the animals to keep strong and healthy. It is difficult to get the cardboard box off of the block because it sticks to it because of the moisture. We cleaned the sheep cage on Friday and we removed the last bullrush at the girls house. We then drove on the tractor to move a Duncan applicator.
This is a mechanism used to distribute poison on the animals for tics. It slowly drips the poison from the top whilst the animal eats the food inside the bucket.

It is my first weekend off in R.G and it is well deserved and appreciated!

Resource guardianship week 1

Dear readers.

Yes it is my last course in conservation and it's nine weeks long. It's called resource guardianship and we started off by setting ground rules as we are a group of 9 students and the boys are less then the girls. We were told we have about 35 unit standards that we have to unpack in these 9 weeks and we received some of them the first day and unpacked them.We then went to the horse stalls and they explained to us how they use wasps to control the amount of flies. These wasps sting the fly pupae and they then come out miss formed and they can not finish their life cycle.The wasps are flightless,crawling, nocturnal animals and they are put out once a month depending on the last times effectiveness. Every time they are put out they are colour coded so that if a problem occurs they can follow up on the batch colour.

Every Wednesday is EM day. This is a fluid we spray also to control flies and it is not harmful to animals nor people. This fluid stops the egg from breaking open because it hardens the egg. It smells like wine or OBS and it tastes like nothing. We use 12L back packs to carry it and spray it and it is diluted 500ml for each L of water. It is a cheap and effective method to use, it costs R5 a liter.

We also throw it down the toilet and basin drains because it breaks down the unwanted and keeps it from clogging. We have specific measurements for a basin and toilet and we measure it off out of the bottle because it's not diluted when thrown in a drain.

This is where the fun starts...We were given orders to remove the bullrush from the waterhole at the girls house because it takes over and then the animals don't want to go there anymore. This is one of the three water holes that needed cleaning and it was so much fun! We went in with gumboots and we got very wet whilst trying to remove these plants.We all had our tumble and mine was flat on my stomach! We made the best of it and worked together as a team to get the job done.

 This is a group photo of us after all the hard work and fun. We were all thinking how are we getting our clothes clean!

This is team work at its best. We cut the grass in sections and we rolled it out of the water. It was really heavy and there was spiders everywhere as well as platannas.









We also did fire drills because the fire season is almost upon us and we have to be ready if anything happens. We suited up in our kits and they explained to us in witch groups we are and what task you will be doing when it happens. The alarm goes off and you dress as quick as possible and there is a group of fire fighters that train on Sondela that will help.

This is Karen and Zanderi and they are dressed in protective clothing, a helmet, face mask and they are equip with a rubber broom to sweep the left over small flames so they die.

These are the fire fighters that train on Sondela and will be helping us if something occurs.









The weekend job is different to the site guides duties because we have to now do horse rides and donkey car rides. When we are finished we go out in the veld and check fences or fix any other problems that had occurred. We may be more girls then boys but we will prevail in our tasks and do our best! Enjoy the week.

The Working Week...

Dear readers.

We were given a week of work where we have no studies to do just help out with the guests and give excellent service. We have done that and now we get a week off, there after we have to start with our new course witch is recourse guardianship. I can;t wait to start with something new I'm just scared us girls can't do something strength wise and then we have to rely on the guys...I'm sure we will have some girl power and achieve our goals because we will be 6 girls and 3 boys.

Here we have the new lion cub at the wildlife center. Her name is Mona because she moans permanently looking for someone to sit with her. They presume she is the lion that a person lost at the Carousel plaza, the story was on Jakaranda and apparently the lion jumped out. She looks well considering the circumstances but it does look like she has omloop on her body. She is approximately 3 months of age.

 Here Moana and Porkey are playing, we took the chance and let them warm up to each other. Of course she played at first but later it got a bit rough!

 I was swapped with one of the old site guides so I worked at the wildlife center for the weekend. Mostly I stayed with Moana because she has to have someone with her at all times and it can not be the same person all the time because she will get attached to that person and then she will get sad when she does not see that person.

Who can say no to a face like that?? But you have to hit her on the nose when she bites or grabs you because she needs to learn. She was taken on her first lion walk this weekend and she did well. We took her out on the leash though because we can't trust her like we do Max and Lex.







Well that's the working week. It's off to fixing fences and cutting down sweat bush...
Until we read again!