Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

 That is the sound of an African Striped Weasel.(Poecilogale albinucha) Another animal I saved from the clutches of the local witches. They say this animal is very rare, and can make very powerful JU JU's.

   This weasel is a very strong preditor, it can be identified by its long slender body with a white and black stripe down its back. The smell is similar to a skunk and when mad, it makes a GRRRRRRRRR sound.

   It has a sleek, black color with a white tail and four white stripes running down its back. It is 50 centimeters in length on average, including its tail of 20 centimeters.

   The African striped weasel lives in forests, wetlands and grasslands. It is a nocturnal hunter of small mammals, birds, and reptiles. Mainly rats! The weasel kills its prey by whipping its own body and kicking, making use of its thin, lithe, muscular body to stun and tear the prey item. I have watched it many times killing a rat and it goes straight for the back of the neck. Once the back bone is located it simply cracks it.  It sometimes stores its prey in its burrow instead of eating it immediately. Like skunks and polecats, the weasel emits a noxious fluid from its anal glands when it feels threatened. The weasel is generally solitary, but individuals have been found sharing burrows. 

    This is the 3rd weasel that has come to the orphanage, one was caught by my dog during a rain storm, another was rescued but after a short few days it died in captivity, and now this one was caught examined for problems then after a few days it was released back to the wild.  A success!

After the first day of this one being in quarantine the weasel gave off a smell that repelled all who came close to the cage. The smell last for months at a time.

  This weasel was over 2 feet long and had a beautiful coat. A full size one at that.

One thing that I am still a great fan of is the HEXGUARD gloves that I have for handling different animals with. This weasel kept on biting and trying to rip off my fingers over and over again. I could see his frustration as he tried different angles and sides, until he just gave up. It must have been his first time to be handled instead of him handling someone else.

  This animal would be virtually impossible to handle without protected gear. And the teeth on this guy is razor sharp, especially made to rip!

  Better luck next time you old weasel. He is now safe in the woods doing what he does. Eating rats!  

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Turtle Times

Just got this Turtle in from a villager passing by. Paid $2 for it which I think was reasonable for the condition it was in.

  I showed the orphans the turtle and let it walk around, surprisingly it was moving quite fast and I was just about to tell them how slow they are. HA!

  I tried to look up the species but had no luck. Maybe just a mud turtle. There is not much webbing next to the claws so he might be a land turtle, but in the mean time I will put it with the Muscovy ducks I have. There he can decide if he wants to go swimming or not. With the 100 degree weather we are having I think he needs water.

More Snake stuff!

This is my snake enclosure that I have built to hold my Gaboon Adders in. It is 7 feet by 5 feet. Plus a roof height of 6 feet.
  I have a total of 5 Gaboons that are of full length. They have a watering bath and 2 caves.
  The entrance is located at the top. Which is opened and closed daily.
   This structure was inspired by another snake zoo, called Kalimba farms. I did change a few things like the entrance is on the top not on the side. It just seems much safer that way.
  When not showing others the snakes, I have placed a extra protection of chicken wire frame that will keep the snakes in if for any reason the glass is broken. This chicken wire frame can be removed easily when we have a visitor.
 The plan is to have 5 more of these structures to house other types of snakes.

  I also have been collecting different types of snakes that we find on the property or close by and preserve them in ethanol for further studies and education. I have a collection of 11 different species of snakes which are also identified.
  This is only for the smaller snakes, as large cobras, adders, or pythons will not fit in the jars I am using.
  Every few months I am finding new snakes to collect. This is very exciting and fun as a hobby.

The Sun Oven

Living in the bush is not easy in the way of cooking. Our electricity is unreliable at times, with different voltages and power cuts, which made our electric stove not work properly. After many discussions we got rid of it. We then switched to bottled gas that we store in tall cylinders. These are transported up from Lusaka 500 miles away each time we run out. But at times our transport guy is also unreliable and charges an arm and a leg. We have tried charcoal which all the villagers use, but it is very messy and difficult for my wife to cook with, especially if she has to cook with several of them at a time. So we did the research on solar ovens and found the best one for us. It is the Sun Oven! www.sunoven.com. We bought three and had them shipped to a team of volunteers coming from Texas to Zambia. They arrived intact with no problems.

  This is my daughter, Jasmine who will open the box and set the oven up. As you can see, it is a very strong sturdy box good enough to ship.

The oven is padded with Styrofoam. The metal you see is the mirrors which are on hinges, so don't try to pull them out. The whole thing must come out at once with the help of an assistant.

Here you can see the whole thing now out and the Styrofoam discarded.

  When you unsnap the latch, open the mirrors to reveal the inside of the oven. As you can see, there are other things inside which we have additionally purchased. We bought two pots and two bread pans. They were wrapped and packed nicely inside. 

What is inside is a DVD presentation that explains some details about the oven. Note: I knew there were more things on the DVD, so when I explored it, I found some reading material that was a help. Also there was a manual and registration card. You now can see the pots and bread pans.

Now the unpleasant thing is to peel away a blue plastic covering on the mirrors. This came off in a million pieces. 

Once all that blue plastic has been peeled off, you now have a beautiful looking oven.

This is the end result as it looks from the side. We cleaned the inside and left it in the sun for several hours to burn off any residue from the manufacturing. We have been cooking with our three Sun Ovens everyday and kicking ourselves that we didn't get more. We need two to three more for our orphanage. So far, it has reduced our energy bill massively and we are completely satisfied with our purchase. For individuals it costs $300 each. But for charities I paid  $180 not including shipping. Also any pots etc. are extra. This blog was done for free no money was given.