Reptiles at Risk

Van Troubles Again...

Posted by Jeff Hathaway on September 18, 2008 at 5:48 PM

After our evening program in Shaunavon we decided to drive to Climax where there was a campground which would be closer to our morning program the next day. As we turned off the main highway and into Climax we slowed down to see where the campground was. The van shuddered a couple of times as we were idling and then stopped completely. Jeff and I both knew immediately what was wrong, as this has happened before. Our fuel gauge for the front fuel tank doesn't work and sometimes we run out. This normally isn't a problem as we have a second fuel tank and just have to flip the switch over to the other tank as we feel the van shudder. This time however, both Jeff and I were pretty tired and didn't clue in to what was happening fast enough. We flipped the switch over to the second tank and tried to start the van again. A couple of minutes later we still hadn't gotten it started and were starting to get worried. We were stopped in the middle of the main street in town and there was no one around to help. Also, by this time we had run the batteries down trying to start the van. Fortunately, a really nice guy drove by at the other end of town; he saw us and came to our rescue. He tried to boost us with no success, so instead he got out a rope and towed our van and trailer to the campground which was just around the corner.

In the morning Jeff woke up early to start fixing things. I woke up shortly after to try to help. Running a diesel engine out of fuel is a bit worse than a gas engine- Jeff had to remove the fuel filter and manually fill it with diesel fuel. We had left the battery charger on all night, so he then tried to start it, but nothing happened. It turns out we had burnt out our starter the night before, trying to get it going. We called our morning school and the principal came to pick me and the animals up to go do the show while Jeff stayed to get our van fixed. The Climax Garage was very helpful- Roger towed us over and checked a few things to confirm our diagnosis. We were worried that they would not have a replacement part, and that we would need to stay in Climax for a few days while they got it. Amazingly, at the same time, the only guy in town who has the same engine as us happened to come in with a spare starter motor to get it rebuilt. Even though there are three different possible starters for a 1987 Ford van, it was an exact match! What are the odds of that? Roger took our starter off and tested it, and somehow between both he was able to get us repaired and back on the road within a couple of hours. Even better, he only charged us $75- Climax sure is a friendly place! By the time I had finished the show, Jeff came to pick me up and we headed to val Marie for our next program. We are really thankful to the wonderful people in Climax, Saskatchewan who helped us out!

Heather

Traveling East!

Posted by Jeff Hathaway on September 18, 2008 at 5:47 PM

After Jenny left we had a few more days without programs, however the trek east had started and Jeff and I went from Vancouver to Kelowna then Kelowna to Jasper. We spent a day in Kelowna writing more funding application stuff and catching up on various tasks. We then got to spend a day in Jasper looking around. It is another beautiful town with mountains surrounding it and glacial streams. We went mountain biking, saw elk and bighorn sheep, and even got to go see a glacier and play in an ice cave! We owe a big thanks to Dana for being our tour guide- Jeff met Dana last summer at Kejimikujik National Park in Nova Scotia when the project toured the east coast. Dana is working in Jasper now, and offered us a place to stay. After Jasper we headed to Edmonton where we got to see Jeff's friend Stu and, of course, the West Edmonton Mall. The Mall itself wasn't quite as big as I was expecting, however the attractions in it were pretty great. From Edmonton we headed to Calgary and had our first show of the eastbound trip. That show was at the Calgary Library and it went really well. We also did a show at the Medicine Hat Mall before heading on to Saskatchewan. Right now we're 2 days in to a 3 day stint here before making the long drive back to Ontario. For our 3 days in Saskatchewan we've been doing a morning and afternoon school program in different small communities, then an evening program where children who have seen our show during the day can invite their parents or any other community members. They have been very successful so far and I'm looking forward to our three shows today.

Heather

Days Off

Posted by Jeff Hathaway on September 18, 2008 at 5:46 PM

We completed a few programs on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands before taking a bit of a break from programs in order to clean, feed and make some decisions. The first couple of days we spent cleaning and tidying the trailer and van. Quite a lot of clutter had accumulated over the last number of weeks. Jenny then flew out from Ontario to meet with us. We won't be home before a major funding application deadline - NSERC PromoScience, one of our project's biggest supporters. We had to decide whether or not to apply for another three years of funding to keep this project going. This seems like an easy decision, however the project takes a tremendous amount of effort and planning so the possibility of another three years warranted serious consideration and all three of us needed to discuss it. One big challenge is the uncertainty from year to year about funding from some sources, so in the end we decided to apply for a fairly significant amount for three years and see what happens. We hope that we'll be approved and that the project will continue. We also gave the animals a big feeding, since this was our only major break in our program schedule. With these important tasks out of the way, we took a few well-earned days off! For our holiday we explored Vancouver Island and enjoyed being tourists.

We had many memorable experiences including renting sea kayaks and going out onto the Pacific Ocean. We kayaked up to a pull out rock for seals and got to watch them swim around our kayaks. We went to Nanaimo and ate Nanaimo bars as well as a place called Coombs which has lots of touristy stores, one of which has a grass roof with goats on it. The best part of our week was when we traveled to Tofino on the West Coast of the Island. Tofino is pretty touristy as well, however we didn't stay long in the actual city. We took a Whale watching tour to Hot Springs cove and spent the night there. The hot springs are really neat, they are not built up at all like some of the others that we've seen. The water cascades down through a bunch of natural rock pools until it hits the ocean about 25 meters away. You can stand in the really hot waterfall at the top, or choose a pool you're comfortable in. As the water travels down it cools off a little until it hits the last pool. The last pool is right by the ocean and cold waves wash into it every once in a while. It is really neat to sit in the hot bath and then have a nice cold wave wash in to cool everything down for a bit.

We finished off our holiday with an evening on Long Beach. We flew Jenny's kite then sat and watched the sun set over the ocean. It was a great finish to a great but brief vacation. Jenny took the opportunity to drive our van back across the island, she really enjoyed the mountain roads. We got back to Jeff's cousin's house quite late but were up again before dawn to get to the Duke Point ferry which took us back to the mainland. Before taking Jenny to the airport we had a little time to tour around the fishing harbor at Steveston - it was really neat to see a harbour dominated by working fishing boats instead of recreational craft. Too bad our limited freezer space prevented us from buying a lot of fresh seafood!

Heather and Jeff

Food

Posted by Jeff Hathaway on September 8, 2008 at 6:18 PM

Our funding for Reptiles at Risk on the Road includes a food budget of $10 per person per day. That doesn't seem like much, especially to people who are used to corporate budgets of $50 or more a day, however by following a few simple rules you'd be surprised what we can do with our gas stove and oven and a barbecue. There are just two rules: 1. Buy ingredients for meals rather than prepared foods; and 2. Buy what's on sale. Simple.

We've eaten exceptionally well on this trip. Everyone has contributed to cooking, chopping, shopping, or cleaning up after meals so that no one person is doing it all. A typical day starts with toasted bagels with cream cheese or cereal, then for lunch we have sandwiches or wraps or crackers and cheese, and for dinner whatever meat was on sale with a veggie and rice or mashed potatoes. These typical days don't actually happen all that often though, here's some of the other things we've had:

Breakfasts:
Bacon - yummy bacon! We even had Canadian Bacon, otherwise known as Back Bacon a couple of times.
Eggs - we've had scrambled and fried eggs. Jeff downloaded a recipe for eggs Benedict, my favorite type of eggs, which apparently we're going to try to make one morning.
French Toast and Pancakes - great receptacles for the raspberry syrup and birch syrup that we bought to try out. Birch syrup was interesting, but probably not something that any of us would buy again.

Lunches:
Smoked Salmon!! - We've eaten a lot of salmon and seafood since we've gotten to the west coast. Smoked salmon, or candied smoked salmon or lox style smoked salmon tastes great on crackers.
Tuna - not canned tuna - sushi grade tuna which we found at a couple fish shops on the coast, eaten raw.
Cheeses - We don't just stick to cheddar. We buy a lot of Havarti, but we also went to a cheese farm and bought some goat cheeses.
Macaroni and Cheese - Ok, I know it doesn't sound special, but when you add cut up hot dogs as we did, it becomes a super special reminder of what my Mom used to make me when I was young. We haven't eaten it much, in fact we found some bulk packages on sale a few times and ended up with 36 packages of Kraft Dinner, I think we still have about 33 of them left...

Dinners: Here's where it gets more exciting...
Seafood - we've had homemade stuffed fresh salmon, mussels picked off a beach, scallops, shrimp, and even fresh oysters (which we cooked).
Meat - the best tasting steaks ever - bison steaks cooked rare on our barbecue; plus Duck a L'Orange which James made with Orange Marmalade.
Escargot - Jeff made stuffed mushroom caps with escargot which were really good. Sounds expensive, but a can of escargots is pretty inexpensive.

Overall it's been a great summer of yummy food. There's a lot of canned food left in the trailer for our trip back which Jeff and I will try to eat, however I'm sure we'll have a hard time resisting the sales and great food we come across. We'll probably be coming home with a lot of those left over dry goods ... plus of course, a couple of pounds on our bodies to keep us warm over the winter.

Heather