Wind and Rain

It’s been blowing… Trees derooting… everything…. This is especially severe when you are dealing with wild animals… Electrical fences with trees on top tend to reject working So we have been busy for the last few days trying to fix everything the wind destroys…That includes trees, wooden walls, and especially those poles that hold the electrical wires. Well… the big question in your head is probably: What am I doing all day long? Well I wake up… the first thing.. I recognise the weather… windy, rainy, sunny, cloudy… in the city this is all quite trivial…. over here it has severe consequences… Are the fences working? Am I able to work with cement? Is it save to pump water or will the river take the pump with it? Next thing are daily tasks… checking my pack for injuries or diseases such as ringworms, bruises, open wounds or changes in behaviour (i.e. disorientation), checking the electric fences and pumping water. And of course I am busy preparing the lookout point… I have done most of the tasks… getting the main holding poles to the site was a bitch!!!
Now I am waiting for the weather to clear up so I can start building.

We currently have another volunteer on the farm. A photographer… his camera takes so much nicer pictures than mine does… combined with a 300 mm lens I will be able to show you nice close-up shots of wolves….

I learned how make proper South African pies yesterday… that was fun… So if everything goes smoothly you’ll all be eating “Heiko’s Homemade Pies” in a while

Anyway… here are the pictures that I wanted to post last time….

Sanctuary

Dead Horses can smile!

Mani (left) and Sheila (right) on the lookout

Thor is the naughty one...

Pocahontas is a very human-friendly wolf...

Fire

Forest fire by night... (granted... poor picture size...the original is better)

Small mountain fire

The helicopters where pretty close

Wildlife

Awesome butterfly or moth or whatever that thing was...

A so-called "dassie"... some sort of funky guinea pig

Cape penguins at Boulder's Beach

Some dangerous sea creature... known to locals as "Sebastian"

Others

Man, I love capetownian sunsets

Cape Town by night is always a sight (that rhymes)

Well, that settles it... Beck's pwns

Fire, Water, Burn

It’s been some time now… and I am truly sorry about that. It was pretty hectic in the last months. Additionally, my camera was in for repairs so I wasn’t able to take some nice pictures. There was a huge forest fire on the other side of the mountain only a few hundred metres away. After it had burnt for like two weeks the fire department finally took action and then it was helicopters all day, every day. Flying people and supplies up. Some of them hand those funny water buckets… At one point it was really bad. But hey I was in cape town by the time. Sebastian was here and we had an awesome time… I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. In comparison to our little farm here in the middle of nowhere Cape Town is a pretty busy city. But you have a lot of advantages… like pizza
And music stores…. bought a couple of cool South African rock and metal cds. Btw: My Afrikaans is getting pretty good

Originally I wanted to write an entry about the wildlife (besides the wolves) in South Africa. Have you ever heard of the Knysna Elephants? There are wild elephants living in the forest around Knysna that nobody has ever seen. The just find droppings and tracks… cool, ne What else.. .oh yeah… At one point I found about 10 different moth types in our bathroom and on one occasion I saw a scorpion that was carrying approximately 20 little baby scorpions on its back… funky stuff.

I still haven’t built my lookout point yet… but today we prepared the poles. We just have to transport them …. those big bastards… I have no idea how we are going to do that.

Over the last few month I have slaughtered about a million calves, hundreds of cows and the occasional horses. Here a nice picture:

A few days back I witnessed a initiation ceremony for a Sangoma, a South African Witch Doctor. We sacrificed a chicken… I am just waiting for the goat ceremony… that’s gonna be messy

The ticks are keeping me seriously busy: We moved the cubs into their own enclosure and I am busy all the time checking their gums and their eyes. If they go white… put him in the vet cage and boost them with vitamins and the parasite killing medicine. I have 6 cubs left and I am getting really paranoid about it. Well I found a 6 leaf-ed clover…That ought to bring me luck…

So long…
Heiko

P.S.: My new mobile number is: +27 79 7179682

Edit: I was going to upload some pictures but I am getting so frustrated with this bloody internet connexion. 45 minutes and 1.8 MB transfer…. I can’t do it. Next time I am in town I will upload the pictures.

Internet!

I finally managed to get the GPRS modem to work… Yeah! I AM ONLINE… On the other side of the world.. but online! I’ll be in ICQ most of the days between 22 and 23 o’clock local time so atm 21-22 o’clock CET. I am also able to check emails frequently so let them come *G*

Stuff

It’s been a long time since I wrote an entry and a lot of stuff has happened. Let’s start with christmas: The South Africans celebrate christmas on the 25th. Mine turned out to be a christmas breakfast. We had a nice duck and some chicken and basically a lot of different nicys. I almost missed New Years, because I didn’t know which day was. Fireworks are forbidden in SA so not much going on there. And we went to bed shortly after midnight because we wanted to get up early for the beach.

Sky on fire

What else is new: We moved our watertank. I am afraid that the stand we built won’t be able to hold it. And TADA!! we have a washing mashine. Awesome.. clean clothes well.. almost clean

My puppies are growing fast and they are digging a lot.

Shilah... listening

So I am busy fixing the holes they make. But since they do not have to be fed twice a day I can relax a little bit more. I am currently sitting in Plettenberg Bay. Or Plet for short. Nice city. Nice waterfront/beach which I will go to now.

My surfboard.. isn't she a beauty.

What else… Oh yeah I bought a surfboard and yesterday I slaughtered a snake. I will eat snake meat tonight… They say it tastes like…. Guess what… CHICKEN!! ..muahaha
@Micha: I finally got your package. There was a delay in the post office. Thank you so much. I will contact you soon for more drugs.

The newest addition to the farm: Little Piglets.

Routine (Entry Six)

November 28th
I am currently alone in the main section of the farm. So I have to perform duties like chopping firewood and starting the donkey (the huge kettle for the warm bath water). I set a new personal record for slaughtering today: 8 calves. They were on the trailer with two big cows so I decided to throw them on the ground, so that I do not have to climb on the trailer to fetch every single calf. So I threw the calves down and I was feeling a bit sad of how I treat the animals that were alive a few hours ago. The calves come here in old food bags. One head was outside of the bag and I looked into its eyes… damn sometimes they look so alive. So I took this one because it looked fresh, and a fresh calf is easier to slaughter than a calf that has been dead for a while. I take the bag and drag it over to the slaughter area and Robin says to me: “It’s still alive.” I look down and it is moving and was obviously in real pain. Robin told me to fetch a hammer and she killed it by hammering it on the head a few times. As she turned away its legs were shaking and moving so Robin went ahead and slit its throat. After that experience I needed Snus.

Me... slaughtering...

December 2nd
I got so drunk last night that I could not walk up straight. Cider. Wine. And half a bottle of Tequila did the trick Anyway. Happy Birthday Rici. Robin and Samantha’s brother came to the farm and he is going to stay for a few month. What else: Puppies are progressing well, so far no more casualties. We went to a near by sawmill to get some sawdust for the pathways around the farm. It actually looks quite nice now. It was a lot of work loading the trailer full of sawdust with only shovels… but hey, it was worth the trouble. I saw my first snake today. Poisonous little bastard.

Wolves in veterinary cages to spray them with anti-tick stuff

December 3rd
We fixed the water pump today. The pipe got disconnected and turned so that the water could not run through. I tripped and almost fell of a cliff… A little adrenalin is always nice.

Here we pump water

And the word you are looking for is "Wow"

Challenges (Week Five)

November 14th
Still raining. Some of the electric fences weren’t working so we had to go around and into the enclosures to check all the connections and wires. You cannot go in the enclosures on your own, because the packs will kill you, if you do. So three of us armed with cleavers against a whole wolf-pack. It was a very nice experience. But in one enclosure the Omega came so very close that you could almost touch her. She was looking for protection from the other three wolves in the enclosure. A little odd when you think about it. So we repaired the wires and chopped of the trees that were lying on the fences. So basically gardening in really bad weather. I tore my new plastic anti-rain trousers on one of the trees.

November 15th
5 days of rain are finally over. Everything is wet. Thank god I bought the gum boots. It was a very busy day today. Cleaned the veterinary cages, reached a new highscore in slaughtering: 7 calves. I also managed to bath the cubs and let them out to play on the grass. I made my first big mistake today: My pack is made up of two kinds of wolves. Two very wild and shy ones. The rest is quite tame. So in my attempt to bath them I needed to grab them and put ‘em into a bucket of water… take the shampoo and soap them. Anyway, I did the tame ones first. No problem. The first wild one is a very big male. He wasn’t to fond of it… but hey. Well other wild one is a bit of a problem. She is very shy. A few weeks ago it was ok… but this time I had to touch her. I made the mistake that I thought of her as a puppy. A dog. Well they are wolves. She bit me pretty hard in the hand… I cannot bend some of my fingers. I try to imagine what the grown-ups are capable of doing with their fangs and claws.

November 17th
I am very tired. Mostly because I was awake most of the night trying to care for a sick puppy. Loki. He didn’t make it through the night. It was horrible. In the end he had seizures and cramps all the time. He was with me in my bed. Crapping himself because he was to weak to get up. Spit was running out of his mouth and I could do nothing. I wanted to release him from the agony but I was to weak to put him down. I buried him with his brother Lyk and his sister Spirit. I placed coins on his eyes in the old Germanic burial procedure. Well his name was Loki after all.

Barney posing

November 21st
We went to the beach today. My first day off in a month. We went to Jeffrey’s Bay… or J-Bay… one of the finest surfing spots in SA. On my way there I saw some monkeys on the side of the road. You don’t see that every day. Anyway, while I was surfing I had a really nice moment: a couple of dolphins were swimming right next to me. I looked at them and thought that they looked like dolphins… yet I wasn’t completely sure, so I left the water. Better to run from a dolphin then to swim with a shark.

J-Bay Promenade

Landscape between Tsitsikamma and J-Bay

November 22nd
F*ck I burnt myself yesterday pretty badly. Should have used a wet suit. I cannot my back is completely pink and I have blisters on my shoulders. Second degree sunburn.

November 23rd
Gave my first tour to a German couple. Told them everything I learnt about wolves and what we are doing here. Hey… I spoke German today… In the meantime I try to pick up some Afrikaans. I now know a few swearwords and a couple of sentences. Don’t know the spelling, though. Some of them have ringworms. It’s a worm that crawls under the skin and grows there. Completely treatable. I have to put ointment on it every day now. Also I gave them a deworm-treatment today. It was banana flavored, so they kinda liked it .

Thor sleepy

Visa Application (Week Four)

November, 4th
We burnt one enclosure today (the one reserved for the 11-Pack in order to clean their current enclosure) in order to make space (a lot of dead trees and shrubs) and to kill all the ticks in it. The wolves are very sensitive when it comes to the local ticks. The ticks here don’t carry the FSME virus but something that the locals call “Tick-Fever”. The wolves die of tick fever because they stop drinking and eating.

Hungry, Hungry Cubs

November, 5th
I almost vomited today. I bet none of you has ever pulled a dead calf out of a dead cow.

November, 6th
I went to PE (Port Elizabeth, about 200 km away) today to extend or better renew my visa at the Apartment of Home Affairs. Unfortunately we didn’t bring the stamp of the Wolf Sanctuary, so we have to return there soon. At least they gave me the form. Going to PE was actually a nice change. Went shopping (bought a new camping chair and a ridiculous green shirt), saw other people, and got to see some of the very cities and bays along the way. When I came back I had to prepare the meat for my cubs. The two bowls I use were outside so I went to fetch them and I saw a bit of meat in one of the bowls. It looked like liver so I turned it around to see if it was still good. (It was dark and I had the head-lamp on my head) I looked at the piece of liver and saw that it had legs. The next second that bug (or scorpion or whatever) moved so quickly. It gave me such a freakin’ fright. I sometimes forget that I am in the middle of nowhere.

November, 12 th
A lot has happened the last few days. I’ll just give you the hard facts: Lost a cub to the tick fever. So I am down to 7. I named them all now. Portrait pictures follow. Had nice braais and I am getting to know the people on the farm. I try to sleep every second I can. I still have to feed the cubs every few hours, although I try to give them bones now, so they have something to chew and play with. Weather got bad. It’s raining constantly. Bought gum boots and a rain suit. I am currently on my way to PE to get the visa extension.

Blood and Death (Week Three)

I have left my old home in the big house and am currently sleeping in “The Office”. Well, in a room immediately adjacent to The Office.

The Office

The Office is the place were everybody meets in the morning to discuss the work that has to be during the day. So, I wake up, go outside and I am at work…

My bed(new room)

My little cubs (I learnt that wolf puppies are actually called cubs) moved with me after a rather long discussion with the volunteer who took care of them in the first place but is leaving in about a month. The 9 cubs are now living in the veterinary cages which are very close to The Office.

A cub sleeping on my lap

Little Barney

When I get up at night to feed my pack I have to pass an enclosure full of wolves that were raised only by women; they do not like men. So, at night I have to walk with a bowl full of meat by an enclosure with 11 men-hating wolves in it, who growl like mad every time I walk by. If they could, they’d kill me.

I have come to like some of the fences.

I have been very working very hard for the last couple of days. There is so much to be done:

There is the cubs, of course. Cleaning, feeding, stimulating (playing, disciplining etc. so that the food can digest) Then we have to build a chicken pen, so the chickens in one enclosure can be chased out to make temporary space for the wolves so we can clean the enclosures. Every second day, we have to pump water from the river (1 km walk downhill with a 25 kg pump).

Road next to the Sanctuary

Chopping  firewood is also almost a daily task: there is actually no warm water here, so we have to warm it up.  And of course there is slaughtering almost every day now. I cannot wash all the blood from my hands. It’s stuck in the skin. It doesn’t matter how hard I scrub them, the blood, shit and dirt won’t come off. Well these are just the every day tasks, there is more to be done in the nearer future like building a lookout point, gardening (so when the main season starts, the bus loads of people are not disappointed)

October, 31.

One of my cubs died today. I feel really like shit. She had been very weak for a couple of days, but she started eating again, so I thought she’d recover. Well, that just didn’t happen. The others are evolving quickly and starting to discipline each other and fighting for ranks.

Food!

So in order to keep my Alpha-Status I have to discipline them myself. Biting them, holding them down, taking the food away…stuff like that. I try to watch the other Alpha couples of the different packs so I can learn from them. It is amazing how they keep everything under their command. They also are always the most beautiful, because they don’t get bitched around like the Omegas for example. The other wolves of the pack brawl for the attention of the Alphas.

11-Pack Alpha

Slaughter (Week Two)

I finally arrived at the Wolf Sanctuary, after a ten hour bus ride. You can surely imagine how I felt. I  was picked up by Nadine and Stuart, who also live at the Sanctuary. They used to be regular customers and now they are integrated in the staff somehow. I live together with them and Tania, another Volunteer, in this house:

The Big House

My room in the Big House

Looks quite rustic doesn’t it. Well, it mainly is one thing: Arschkalt! Especially at night when the temperatures drop rapidly. Stuart took me on a little tour around the premises all across the different dens. The smallest pack contains of two and the largest of eleven wolves. On the whole, there are about 60 wolves here. 13 of them are puppies, which I got to feed right after the tour. The get a diet of meat (enhanced with vitamins and bone meal) and milk (at least in the first weeks).

Feeding Frenzy

Feeding Frenzy 2

Most of them don’t even have names yet. But I made sure that one of them is now named Barney. The puppies have to be fed every 4 hours, thus I don’t get much sleep.
Anyway, the Wolf Sanctuary is not only about feeding the puppies; the big packs are also very… very hungry. Their diet is meat, meat, and meat. You cannot feed about 45 wolves with the stuff you get from the supermarket. The meat comes usually in cow-form and is donated by the local farmers if the cow is sick or died under suspicious circumstances (they actually don’t like pork so much) and has to be slaughtered on the premises. Let’s cut to the chase: I slaughtered (not killed) a calf.
1.Take a sharp half-moon shaped blade.
2.Cut a hole in the two rear legs.
3.Hang the cow upside down (you actually hang her the other way around, but for the beginning it was easier for me)
4.Cut around the ankles and skin the whole thing.
5.Cut off the tail.
6.Open it between the ribs.
7.Take the intestines out. (The wolves love ‘em, because in a calf there is only milk in from the mother cow. So its quite healthy. too)
8. Take out a Butcher’s Cleaver (AAAAAH.. FRESH MEAT)….
9.and start chopping apart the limbs, ribs, head… basically everything.
10.Put all in a big bag and either feed it directly or cut off the meat for the puppies.

Cow Autopsy

So, on my second day I slaughtered a calf. One tip: you must not look into its eyes and just ignore the blood running out of its nose and the disgusting smell, when the stomach is opened… and you will be fine. Actually, the only thing I was worried about was touching the shit that was still in the calf’s ass. Weird, ey?

I am sorry that I cannot show you one of the most beautiful sounds in the world: a wolf’s howling. In the Sanctuary, it always starts at the bottom, the farthest away from the houses, where the wildest wolves live. And it builds up until every wolf is howling. It is an amazing feeling to fall asleep to that sound… Pity, that I have to get up in 3 hours to feed the pups.

Internet

Hello everybody,

I have no internet access. I am working on that. I have a GPRS modem for my SIM card which I just cannot get to work properly. Anyway, I have prepared two nice weekly reports for you and I have taken a lot of nice pictures which I can`t upload right now because it would take forever. As far as contact is concerned…send me SMS. I have got an South African phone number: +27 730688926. So feel free to phone or text me.

As soon as I find an internet cafe within 10 km range I will upload all of it. Until then.. I will write. I will take pictures, but I won`t upload them. (GPRS in the middle of nowhere… no thank you.) Actually, that is the only thing I miss. The freedom of the internet. BROADBAND!!!!!!

Cheers,

Heiko