There's a lot of life in this house!

I'm writing this on October 17th, and the kittens are 8 days old. Sara and I were obsessively watching them today and I noticed that one had one eye open!! Which was sooo creepy. We were talking about how weird it is that we see all animal’s eyes, and yet we are absurdly interested in seeing the kitten’s eyes. I kinda want to call that kitten Mad Eye Moody, because the eye had a fake or glass eye quality to it and it was super weird. And then Sara was saying Mad Eye to it, which sounded like Maddie, and we laughed and I think its name must be settled now. I also think based on what little we can see of their parts, that Mad Eye is a girl, so I think we have 2 girls and 2 boys :)

Most of my degus show signs of giving birth! Now I start the night telemetry part of my project, where we track the degus to where they are sleeping. They have a radiocollar on that emits a specific frequency, and I can tune my receiver to pick it up with an attached antennae. Unfortunately, this means that now Sara and I have to go to the park again at 8:30pm and usually get back to the house around 10:30pm. Then, we have to wake up at 5:30am the next morning for trapping. Not the best schedule ever. Zorro doesn’t like that we leave twice a day, either.

A caterpillar decided to make its cocoon right inside our front door. Not sure if that’s a good spot, but hopefully we’ll be able to see it emerge before we leave in about a month!

There are lots of bird nests around, including nests of the giant hummingbird, jal and platero.I am always amazed at their ability to construct a nest! Seriously, they are so perfectly formed and so sturdy and so intricate. We had a big storm the other day, that may have rivaled the “great flood” of August, and I was sure the nests would have been wiped out. Especially for the platero bird which nests on the ground. How could that not get washed away? Somehow they all survived! In fact, the day after the rain we checked the platero nest and there were very very new fledglings in it!  Non human animals are amazing. We are wimps.

Sara noticed another colony of coruros by our processing station that I like to watch. The problem is that the biting flies are so bad that it doesn’t allow for me to stand still very well, so when I involuntarily shriek in pain from a bite, or move to slap a fly as it’s biting me (I swear I don’t even consciously make the decision to move my arm I just go for it when I feel the pain), the coruros make their alarm sound and go back underground.

I’m trying to appreciate all the time I have left here (which is not much). After spending almost 5 months in Chile this season (11 months total) feeling like my time here would never end, it’s weird to think that it will soon. I may act like I want to get back home, which I do when I think about my life there. Family, friends, my dog Snickers, happy hour (which often includes, friends, family and my dog), going to movies, bar trivia, the fact that I miss out on my family’s beach trip every time I’m  here!! Those are just the fun things I miss. I miss the practical things like unlimited water, hot water, central air conditioning, real showers, internet, TV, washer and dryer.

But there are a lot of things here that I do not have in the US. These include, goat cheese and churrascas from my neighbors, which are maybe my favorite thing in Chile. Juan, the mammal guys, tiny tangerines in my front yard, Zorro, Potato and her kittens, all the delicious new foods Juan cooks us, cheap veggies and fruit at the Feria, peace and quiet and the ability to disconnect (no internet), lots of time to read books I wouldn’t read when I’m at home, and I'm more committed to working out and doing yoga when I'm here.

Sara is Venezuelan and wanted to make a common food called arepas for me and Juan. Juan said he would cook luche (sea lettuce) with potatoes for us. I had luche last year and wrote about it in the blog. It is one of my favorite things ever. Arepas are a kind of corn bread which you cut to make two pieces like two pieces of bread, and put whatever you want in it, like a sandwich. We had the amazing goat cheese from our neighbor, carne de soya, and eggs with veggies. It was an amazing lunch.

I've also included some photos of the Feria we go to every week to get fruits, veggies, nuts, raisins, oats for my degus, dog food, etc. 

One of MANY goat cheese vendors at the Feria

One aisle of the Feria, this place is HUGE

Chirimoya or custard apple, it tastes like froyo

Super needy Zorro

Zorro is always looking for attention now that we have kittens

Nestlings!

Papas con luche!

Best lunch ever!!!

Got to read about the debate, and then Sara and I read the whole transcript

Momma likes to take a break from her babies

Coruro

Cocoon

Another big spider was in our house!

Dar la luz

My next few posts will have a lot about kittens, degu pups, baby birds, etc. In Spanish the phrase “to give birth” is “dar la luz”, which literally means “to give light”. Isn’t that such a beautiful phrase??

10/9/15 11:58am

We have a kitten!!! I was on my laptop in our front room when I saw the cat book it into Sara’s room. That was unusual behavior for her, she usually saunters in and looks around, drinks some water and tries to get us to give her food. She might beeline for my room where Zorro’s food bowl is, but besides that, she is usually very calm. I thought maybe she was looking for somewhere to start labor, maybe in a few days. Next thing I know, Zorro and I perk up when we hear squeaking. I peeked into Sara’s room and there was a kitten with her!!! I yelled to Sara, “There’s a kitten on your bed. I’m not kidding”.  We had kinda joked that she would do it in Sara’s room, on her bed or something since she sleeps there, but we still couldn’t really believe it. 

12:52pm Now, we have 4!!! About 15 minutes ago we checked on her and the number went from 1 to 3 kittens, and we could tell she was pushing. We witnessed the actual birth of kitten number 4 and it was amazing. She is such a good mom and is so sweet to us. We are careful to keep Zorro out, which is hard because that room doesn’t have a door. We’ve made a barricade to keep him out but we are still in shock about what to do now that there are kittens on Sara’s bed. He acts like Lady in Lady and the Tramp in the song "What is a baby?" If you don't remember it you should watch a video clip of it because that's how he acts! Except we can't let him in to see them or the mom beats him up. In about a week their eyes will be open and in a few more weeks they will be playing!!! This will certainly make for an exciting last one and a half months!

Sibling love :)

Kittens in Sara's bed!

He's like Lady in Lady and the Tramp

There are lots of babies around, since it is spring. We have seen nestlings around my site and the mammal team has found degu pups in their grids. I am still waiting for my degus to give birth, although I found a new female the other day that I suspect may have had a litter. I am hoping I will see or catch some pups around her burrow systems. 

Giant hummingbird's nest by Juan's house

Inside the nest

A birds nest on the ground at my site

Very pregnant lady with her babies bulging out her sides

Flamingos, fox chases and fetuses

Sara was finally able to experience the joy of adventures with Juan. I feel bad that I’m always talking about our great times last year, and she doesn’t get to have that because we don’t live in the park with him this year. We hadn’t seen him since the earthquake, and the September 18^th celebrations so we lunched with him after trapping on Tuesday, and he invited us to go to the coast on Wednesday, and stop at a wetland to see a pair of flamingos that he knew about. He even made sopapillas for us for a snack before so that Sara could try them. He makes them with a pumpkin/squash like thing they have here called zapallo, and they are especially delicious with his homemade pebre (kinda like pico de gallo). We stopped by our house first and Juan got to see Zorro for the first time since we rescued him! Like everyone, he fell in love with his goofiness right away and kept saying how great he looked. We showed him our pregnant cat, who Sara named Pata (potato), or Patita because she eats raw potatoes which we think is weird, and also she is very round at the moment. Juan exclaimed that she wasn’t a potato she was a ball!! She is very very pregnant. Then we were off, and along the way we saw lots of goats, sheep, cows, horses, birds, dogs, etc. When we stopped at the wetlands I could not believe it, there was a pair of flamingos!!! In the wild!!! I’m so used to seeing them at the zoo, I would walk by them every day and I remember that they were Chilean flamingos on the sign, but being here I never thought about it! It was awesome. We saw swans, ducks, cormorants, and lots of other water birds. Then we ventured onto this wooden bridge thing that had all these signs saying to be quiet, and no hunting, and other exclamations to protect the species there. Juan had heard that a rare species of bird called “7 colors” is seen there so he bird- called for awhile why we waited…and waited. He said there was a lot of activity in there but nothing was coming out.

Bad quality, but a pair of flamingos!!! One is grey and one is pink

The "seven colors" bird that we didn't get to see

We walked on this creaky bridge thing to get out over the water

Next stop was more wetlands on the coast on the way to Tongoy. I had been to Tongoy with Juan before, and stopped at these wetlands on the way back, but this time we found that right at the ocean, the road had been completely washed away by the storms and tsunamis etc. So we parked the car and walked on the beach. Sara and I couldn’t resist the ocean so we took off our shoes and ran in, getting soaked up to our butts, but we didn’t care. It was a gloomy day, but the water didn’t feel too bad! There were these buey balls with a mollusk on it and Juan flipped out, he was so excited they washed up because he knew how to cook them. Of course, being Juan he dropped them off at our landlords’ house for them to have and didn’t even keep any for himself! I think it will be a real treat for them. We waded through the water that washed through the road, and started sinking into the sand and further into the water. I didn’t mind though since I love being in the ocean any way possible. We wandered a little further before returning to the truck. On the way back we stopped in a town for goat cheese and bread as a snack. I found more cute dogs in that town.

at the beach!!

The mollusk we found!

All Juan had to say was "Maddie, don't take her home"

 We made it back to our house to change and check on Zorro, who we left playing with the construction workers and their dogs for the day. He was so excited to see us all, and I felt bad about leaving him to go back to the park with Juan. So Juan let us take him back! We had dinner and Juan fell more in love with Zorro. He says if he could he would want to keep him in the park with him so he wouldn’t be so lonely. He made the great realization that Zorro looks like Santa's Helper, Bart Simpson's dog! He is so right. They are both super funny looking. Zorro got to meet his namesake, some of the foxes that live around Juan’s cabin. They were resting peacefully outside looking so cute and probably waiting for Juan to feed them, when Zorro finally noticed they were out there. He is so protective at our house from other dogs that I should not have been surprised from him reaction. He flipped his shit and charged the fox over into the shrubs. Next thing we see is the fox sprinting down the road with Zorro right on its tail. I’m telling you I’ve never seen animals run so fast. And the sound of the scared fox was insane. It was such a crazy moment we all just burst out laughing at the table like what the hell just happened??? We went outside but they were long gone. I feel bad for the fox. Zorro came back tail wagging looking so proud of himself. Juan is a sucker for him and was feeding him goat cheese all night, he can’t resist Zorro’s begging eyes and the way he lays his head on your leg when you’re eating.

Possibly the fox that Zorro chased

Compare to Santa's Helper

Seriously this is Zorro's expression all the time

During our trip Juan was asking me if we had any truck problems. If anyone read my blog last year I think I wrote about the hell we experienced last year. I was so happy to say no, no flat tires (5 last year), no leaking tanks, no burnt out clutches. And I know how the world works, it only makes sense that the next day we got a flat tire on the way home from the field. I was confident I could change a tire after my practice last year, but I knew it would be a little difficult and I was anticipating the problems we had before with a shitty jack that couldn’t hold the truck up so it would always collapse. And last year the jack wasn’t tall enough so Juan had to find us blocks to put it on. So I was a little worried. The construction workers said they looked over and saw us under the truck getting the spare tire and knew they should help us, as gentlemen. I have to admit I was relieved to have them do it for us, and we watched carefully so we could put the other one back on once it was fixed. And as I’m writing this, we just finished putting the original back on. We celebrated the fact that we are strong independent women that can change the tires on our bad ass field truck.

I joke when people ask me how it’s going here that it changes daily, sometimes hourly. In the mornings I will be so annoyed by all the mosquitos that attack me, and then I’ll check traps and we’ll have 2 new pregnant females which is the best thing ever! And then it will warm up and I will be swarmed by dozens of biting flies and I will be miserable until trapping is done. And then I’ll be happy to go back to the house and make some coffee, but something will happen like this week when we found out we were out of water. That lasted like 4 days. Luckily we had drinking water but for everything else it was annoying. But then Juan took us on the excursion and it was such a good day. And then we got water back. But then we had a flat tire and had to go fix that which worried me a little to be driving to the field on the spare. And we are waiting for our cat to give birth, and having kittens here will be the best. 

Big ass fly trying to bite through my fleece

When I walk through my site in the morning dew the flowers bleed on me

More flowers

Also, the real highlight of this update is that this morning I felt fetuses in a pregnant degu!!!!!!!! I’ve had Sara feel some of them as they’ve been gaining weight and mostly it’s just a round tummy. Which is what it was like last year. And then today I asked her to feel this fat one and she felt it!!! So I tried and I felt the little masses!!! So I feel safe saying I officially will see pups this year, my field season won’t be a failure, and I will actually leave Chile feeling like something worked at last. Sooo happy right now.

Right after this photo we palpated her and felt fetuses!!!

 

Little baby Zorro

He joined us for the moon event at 11pm

Eeek!!! Gross tick

Round lady on the right, and a male on the left

 

If we're home, this is where Zorro and I are

Earthquake!

Today is Chile’s Fiestas Patrias, or their Independence Day and it is also my assistant Sara’s bday!! We came back from trapping to find that we had power again! I also found a new very large (hopefully pregnant) female! So it was an all around good day.

On Wednesday night around 8pm I felt some shaking. I assumed it was a temblor and would only last a few seconds. But it kept going…Sara hadn’t felt a temblor yet and I was about to call to her something about it. Bu then it got scary and she peeked her head in my room, and as the whole house began to move we ran outside. The power went out and I heard something break in the house. I have never felt anything like that before. The ground was moving like jello. It felt hollow beneath me, like it was about to collapse and I would just fall in. I couldn’t believe how much the house was moving. I think at least one tire of our truck was in the air throughout the earthquake.The scary part was that the cats that lived next door started sprinting up the hill by our house, and women started wailing and men started yelling to each other. That did not make me feel very safe. I did not know how long it lasted at the time, but the news stories say 3 minutes and I believe it. One of the construction workers came over and told us that it was just the first wave and more would come in the night, but that was the worst one. He said to leave our door open in the night because sometimes they get jammed shut if you close them and then you are trapped. When we were getting ready to go to bed, still a little shaken up, we were wondering if Zorro was still outside running around but then I went into my room and found him curled up on my bed, clearly a little nervous. I moved my bed away from the window and hunkered down for the night with Zorro. I felt some big shakes, sometimes they seemed almost as big as the first one and there were about 40 aftershocks throughout the night, including a magnitude 7 earthquake and a handful of magnitude 6's.. But I was actually able to sleep. We had decided not to trap in the morning since we didn’t know what condition the roads and the park would be in. It was very unsettling to keep hearing the house start rattling and feeling the rumbling of the Earth. The construction workers said that those aftershocks would continue for the next couple months since the plates will continue to butt up against one another. We have been feeling them throughout the day and night and sometimes it really makes my stomach flip. I swear animals can feel those things ahead of time, because the night before the earthquake there was one shudder (just a temblor) but the dogs were freaking out barking for the rest of the night. Zorro even went to the door and was incessantly barking in the middle of the night. The nights following the earthquake, Zorro would get into a really nervous mood and start shaking, or just Velcro himself to my body for long periods of time. Soon after there would be some really strong tremors. Poor guy.

I have been doing yoga every night for the last few weeks and I always start off on the ground thinking about something one of my yogi’s in Chattanooga always says: feel the Earth coming up to hold you, to support your body in your practice…”. Soooo that doesn’t have the same effect when the Earth is literally shaking under your body and you feel like it’s going to swallow you up. That’s how I feel when I do yoga in our house now!

The other day I was sitting cross legged at my site in the morning when I felt an aftershock there for the first time. That was crazy because the other times I was in my house, in the car, or standing on the ground. Sitting on the actually Earth and watching it move back and forth was super weird. And it made me wonder what the hell the degus must be thinking about these shakes! I feel bad that their babies are going to be born in these conditions!

That being said, we really don’t have anything to complain about. Nothing in our town or house was damaged, we still have clean drinking water, we only lost power for 2 days (and our neighbors said it would be at least a week!), and no threats of tsunamis. Our neighbors said that a nearby town that is closer to the ocean did experience some flooding and was 1 meter under water L That would be horrible.

Sara and I walked up this hill by our house the other day and found that there is a view of the ocean up there. Granted it is very far away, but I will take an ocean view any way I can!! I plan on spending more time up there as it gets sunnier and warmer. We are still having cold and cloudy days here, but with Spring right around the corner it should be really nice weather soon.

My next blog will probably be less dramatic, but who knows, maybe it will be about me finding degu pups!

Update: So we've been feeling a lot of aftershocks, and apparently 2 more earthquakes on Saturday, one this morning and just now in the cafe we felt a 6.5 earthquake.

Time Travel

I recently read Amy Poehler’s book Yes, Please, and in it she talks about time travel, which she has experienced a lot in her life. She describes a way in which we all time travel. It is that time when you buy some clothes and think about when you might wear them, or when you are anticipating some big event in your life, and then before you know it you are in that moment and still remember the time when you were just imagining being there. When I told Megan about this she knew exactly what that felt  like and we talked about feeling that way in elementary school and thinking about being a 5^th grader one day, or thinking about when you would finally get your driver’s license. I keep thinking about time traveling to the end of November when I am back in the US, or to the day when I have officially completed my Master’s degree. Before I know it I will realize I time traveled there. I am experiencing somewhat of the opposite right now. I can’t believe a year has passed since I started my field season last year. I feel like I have gone back in time. I experience the same emotions: wondering if the degus are actually pregnant, excitement when I see that they’re gaining a lot of weight, worrying if I have enough social groups, and thinking about all the other measurements I will need to be taking soon. When I’m out in the field I feel like I’m back in 2014. Of course, I’m in a different house (with a fridge, real bedding, an adorable dog, and electricity!) and I have a different assistant, but it is still very familiar, which sometimes bums me out since it makes me feel like nothing has changed and my degus will fail to have pups again.

Luckily, I don’t think that will be the case! We have females that are steadily gaining a lot of weight (ok, that happened last year, too), but they are definitely more pear-shaped and are even heavier (one is already 208g) than last year.

This season is very different because of all the rain from last month. I swear every day it gets greener and greener with more and more flowers (pics below). I love seeing them push up through the dirt! I’ve seen a few guanacos at my site in the last month, and this time they were moving slowly through, so no threat of getting run over J The other day a big group of donkeys came to hang out in our front yard. One night a gigantic spider came out from under a blanket that was on the floor by my bed, and I was too freaked out to even scream. Besides a tarantula it was the biggest spider I’ve seen, and last year we saw a few tarantulas here that were smaller than this spider. The picture doesn’t do it justice, it was scary. I think its diameter was around 4 inches. I put it outside and besides googling it to figure out if it was dangerous, I tried not to think about again (and I haven’t until now). Please don’t tell me if it was the Chilean recluse, I don’t want to know.  Our dog Zorro is finally getting over his social anxiety! He has made friends with other dogs and knows how to play now. We have a cat that hangs out with us when we’re home, and even though she hisses like crazy at him, he doesn’t bat an eye. I respect him for that because she can be horrible for no reason. He is ridiculous with his separation anxiety though. When Megan was still here there was a day we left to go to the field and at that time we were still leaving him outside the house. We knew he chased our truck in the mornings, but he would always be back at the house when we got home in the afternoon. One day we left really early so it was dark and we couldn’t see if he was chasing us. As per usual we had to stop at the gate to the park to get the key from its hiding spot, open and close the gate. It didn’t appear that he’d followed us. We got to my site and after a few minutes of getting equipment ready, I hear a weird noise, look over and see Zorro running at us. He had sprinted 10 miles to my site in the park! I don’t even know how he got in through the gate because there is another fence to keep wildlife out. We left him in the truck (with the windows cracked and with water) while we worked. After that we started leaving him in the house. He doesn’t do any damage and probably sleeps all day, but acts like we are leaving him forever as we pack up in the morning. Seriously, he starts shaking and tries to go out and get into the truck with us. When we come home he is just as emotional. Luckily, he seems to understand the routine now.

This Friday Chile celebrates the Fiesta Patria, which is their independence day. It is the biggest holiday they have and we’ve been invited to celebrate with our neighbors. We’ve been chatting with them a little more, and one even brought us eggs from his chickens. We’ve learned that they’ve only had electricity here for 2 years. Before that they said they just carried candles around at night. It’s interesting to speak with them about the animals we see in the park, because they have different names for them. One of our neighbors is involved in educating the public about Fray Jorge, and he says it’s hard to talk to biologists that work there because they use the scientific names and he knows the informal names (not even the common names). They call the degu the rat with the paintbrush tail (ratón cola de pincel), which is a very accurate description. 

Zoom in to see the guanaco

Zorro with his friends

 I take lots of flower pics when I'm walking around my site

It is pretty cool that I get to witness the sun rise daily

Finally taught myself how to do the 'inside out' braid!

scary spider

Zorro does this a lot.
 I always hear Mufasa  in The Lion King:
 "Look Simba, everything the light touches is our kingdom."

after his 10 mile run

The cat rules the house during the day