Blog Sept Macgyver It

Blog 23 - Sept '14 - MacGyver It

September in the research camp was a hive of activity. Firstly, it was the start of my reign as camp manager. Those of you that know me know that I don’t do inefficiency or ignoring problems, I do ‘getting stuff done’. So the camp is in for a big overhaul! I have every intention of leaving the camp less decrepit and embarrassing than it was when I took over. I say embarrassing because embarrassed is how you feel when you show a research camp newbie around and have to give them a list of things to look out for which includes the following: the hot water in the bathrooms doesn’t work, neither of the men’s loos flush and neither of the ladies’ loos stop flushing, 5 of the 12 taps work on a good day, the oven shoots flames intermittently and there is raw sewage pooling in front of the kitchen. A lot of my September was spent improving some of these things and the rest of the activity surrounded moving day…

Three prefabricated units were delivered to the camp in early September to replace two of the falling down tents and an already fallen down tent. The prefabs are what many Aussies would call demountables but if you call them that here, which one Aussie did (fortunately not me), you will get a very odd look and be told that “that just sounds dirty”. So prefabs they are. They’re similar to what’s used on construction sites for offices. White structures, narrow enough to be transported by road with small windows and fluoro lights. They are a massive upgrade from the tents so I am super grateful to the Ministry staff that fought to get these since May despite a lot of pushback for varying reasons. I think another week in my tent would have resulted in one of two scenarios: 1) waking up being smothered by my tent after it had completely fallen off its frame or 2) turning over in bed only to be face-to-face with a hungry leopard! Maybe ‘super grateful’ is an understatement.

Goodbye tent… …Hello prefab… …and the inside.

We had one day to empty out two tents (including where I was living), pull the tents down and move the prefabs onto the pre-existing slabs. I thought it sounded too easy and so decided that it would be a great occasion to come down with the flu. I have all the great plans - a migraine and feinting really helped move the 40 degree day along! Another grand plan was that it was time to improve the camp while I had all hands on deck. It’s often impossible to get anyone to come and do anything at the camp. As a plumber I lack expert-ability and unfortunately most of our issues are plumbing related. By lacking expert-ability I mean I can turn a tap on and off, and that’s about it so I had to take the opportunity of having people around. I am sure I am now known as that bossy woman (except not in those words) from Australia thanks to my actual expert-ability of finding people who are hiding and putting them to work. But it worked – I had the gardener clear out the grass that was threatening to turn the camp into a bon fire, maintenance deal with the kitchen sewage puddle (in existence since April), the two tents and remnants from the old tent all taken away and had our old inoperative washing machine moved seeing as it had been taking up valuable space in our kitchen since May. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have pushed myself so far - the next three days spent unable to get out of bed was a good indicator of my 20-20 hindsight. But, we are now a junk-free, sewage-free, upgraded camp.

Next, it was time to turn my prefab into a liveable environment. The prefabs’ windows weren’t screened making the prefabs a hot bed of insect activity by night or just a hot bed if the windows were shut. In good news, I managed to increase my protein intake astronomically any time I had the lights on and windows open. It was like Sushi Train but different – maybe ‘Insect Flight Path’. I’ll work on the name before I decide to go commercial with the idea. Anyway an old mosquito net, a pair of scissors and some Velcro led to some very nifty window screens that work with the louver windows. Just call me MacGyver. I did. It was a proud moment indeed. The other issue was that the windows let in enough sunlight to turn the prefabs into ovens – to say nothing of the suitability for peeping toms – so curtains were vital. The absence of a material shop, curtain rods or the ability to put nails into the walls meant that MacGyver was back in demand. Some double-sided tape and sewing pins became a curtain ‘rod’ while scissors and a table cloth I made last year equalled curtains. I have to wonder if MacGyver had scissors this frequently, if so I think he’s a cheat.

Small spotted genet Leopard 1 : Monitor Lizard 0

Our male leopard (before camp life)

So that’s September. Sewage pool gone – check. Hot water in bathrooms - check. Upgrade to tents – check. Trash removal – check. Gardening – check. Heart test – check. Blog – check. And just in time for the end of the month. I’d call that a success.

My new home was all ready to live in. I even had my own pet and baby pets not 100m away. The storage shed right next to my prefab held quite a surprise for the poor person who went in there one day; a jackal carcass lay on the threshold as a leopard looked out menacingly. The next day when the warden went to investigate (gun in hand) the leopard was nowhere to be seen, but emanating from the back corner was the sound of kittens (or cubs, or kittens? either way). The leopards have since relocated, though whether any have left the camp remains to be seen. At least one is still around as fresh spores were found just this morning. So at last count we have two adult leopards and numerous cubs accessing camp. We say two adults as the one caught on camera, and seen a couple of times, was a young male and therefore a very unlikely mum! This of course has led to some pretty scary night-time ventures out of the prefab. One such venture had my heart rate reaching dangerous levels with the sudden appearance of a spotty animal in my torch light. As I walked to the bathroom I saw movement and on repositioning my torch, eye shine and spots were revealed. After what seemed like minutes (but was only a matter of micro seconds) I realised it was just a genet. A little, shy genet, no harm to me, except, of course, the fact that my heart almost exploded. I went back to my prefab to get my camera to try to photograph an elusive genet but for the life of me couldn’t find it again. That was until I had given up hope and headed to bed. I found it, sitting under my prefab, only a foot below where I sleep! Unfortunately trying to get a photo without a flash and with a heavy camera proved difficult, so only a proof-photo could be taken, not one of any good.

Leopard trap