So, I have had a pretty varied and fun summer this year! Instead of going back to Belize to work with the falcons again I decided to enjoy a beautiful Washington summer. I went hiking, kayaking, ate fresh berries from the garden, and relished the sun not setting until 10:00 PM ( Read more... )

Happy International Vulture Awareness Day! These birds get a lot of flak for their bald heads and association with rotting flesh, but they deserve our appreciation. By eating dead things vultures help maintain a healthy ecosystem and greatly reduce the spread of disease. They do have some gross habits such as pooping on their legs to keep cool and ( Read more... )

I finished reading the book The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone, and Sky by Ellen Malloy. I started reading the book hoping to learn more about the history of the color as it is in the natural world and utilized by humans throughout history. This information was included in the book exploring the stone turquoise across ( Read more... )

I finished reading A Clash of Kings the second book in George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series. This book was just as gripping as the first. It picks up right where Game of Thrones leaves off following the same cast of characters. Sometimes the book would be frustrating because the chapters would end on cliff hangers and then shift to ( Read more... )

I finished reading the book Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin the other day. HBO made a television series based on the books that aired last year. The show has gotten wildly popular. The second season just finished and they are working on the third. I watched the first five or so episodes of the show and really liked it. Many people recommended ( Read more... )

I finished reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern the other day. I initially picked up the book because it was written for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). It took an additional three years of writing and editing to get the book to its published form, but the bones were written during NaNoWriMo. For NaNoWriMo during the month of ( Read more... )

I am participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month www.nanowrimo.org) again this November. This is my third year challenging myself to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. So far, I have yet to succeed, but the third time's the charm right ( Read more... )

I woke up to a downpour at 6:00 this morning. Although I had planned on sleeping more I decided to get up to head out to the hack site early for fear of flooding roads. Last time we got this much rain from a tropical storm the bridge just past the gate flooded over and was a bit of a scary crossing. I hoped to avoid that today. So I grabbed the ( Read more... )

Tropical Storm Mathew is moving in on Belize. It brought more rain to the hack site today. Luckily it was not as wet as yesterday and no lightning. The full force of the storm is expected to pass over southern Belize on Sunday or Monday. Hopefully it will not effect mine or Marta's flight. Apparently when storms like this move in the Hidden Valley ( Read more... )

As I started up the ATV the skies were clear. The air was cool so I wore my red raincoat covering myself and my backpack. I drove into fog, then into light rain, then into heaver rain, then into a downpour before easing into lighter rain again, and finally clear skies at the hack site. The raindrops felt like little pin pricks on my face as I raced ( Read more... )