Kodak Moments
April 29, 2009 Posted by: ERIN

It's been parents' month around here! After hosting Tom's mom two weeks ago, my parents were here for a visit this past week. There was hiking and conch shell hunting and even kite flying. I plan to post specifically about several of our excursions soon, but I wanted to share these pictures before too much time passed.

(Oh, and just as a word of explanation for this first shot ... anyone who knows my mom knows that she is a fan of all things Catholic. The grave is the burial site of one Father Shreiner, a Catholic priest who had a mission and school on the island in the early 1900s. Gotta keep the tourists happy!)

I Love Lupe
April 18, 2009 Posted by: TOM

My mother recently came down for a visit. Those of you that know my mom, know that you never know what is going to come out of her mouth. Here are a couple of my favorites from this visit:

First, we took my mom on several hikes while she was here. A few of these were inland to ruins of old British loyalist plantations. We also took her on a few treks through the bush to some of the inland lakes. On one of these hikes my mother was leading the way down the trail and made some comment along the lines of "why am I leading the way?" Erin, with reference to the feral cows on the island, replied, "Being in front maybe you'll see the cows, but then again, we wouldn't want you to get gored", to which my lovely mother replied "I'm not bored, I love this shit!" Soooo, yeah. I guess she enjoyed communing with nature while visiting.

The second occured when we took my mother down to a party on the beach. There are nightly homecoming parties for the three or four days leading up to Easter, with food, drinks, and music. One night we stopped by to see what food was available, had a drink or two, and walked around a bit before heading home. On the way to the car, my mom noticed the smell of "smoke" drifting over from the fringe of the party. Now my mom likes the smell of campfires and the like, and she mades the seemingly innocent comment, "Smell that fire....that fire smells good!!!" Erin, knowing that this is not "campfire smoke" and not wanting her to further elaborate on her enjoyment of this particular fire whispered back, "Lupe, that's marijuana."

All in all, I think my mom had a good visit. She enjoyed herself and we were able to show her some things on the island that she had not seen on previous trips. We hiked to a cave, watched a parade, ate conch fritters, and taught her to play scat. And she even got in the sea! For a lady who doesn't swim, it was quite an accomplishment. Next year we'll have her snorkeling with sharks.

Miss San Salvador
April 7, 2009 Posted by: ERIN

I obviously lead a glamourous life. Between the feral cows and junk-hunting on the beach, it doesn't get much more glamourous than this. Or does it?

Last weekend I was one of five judges for the Miss San Salvador Beauty Pageant. This might come as a shock to some, considering I'm not exactly a "beauty pageant kind of girl". My sister once wrote me a letter in which she affectionately likened me to Archie Bunker. But while I would never enter a pageant myself, I don't have anything against them in general (except for children's pageant's ... those things are awful). In fact, I have fond memories of watching Miss America with my Grandma Atkinson. We'd pick a state and cheer her on. And with the underlying goals of scholarships and community service, I don't consider a swimsuit competition to be pure evil, but I do much prefer and appreciate the talent competition and interviews.

But in reality, my willingness to participate as a judge was less about the pageant itself, and more about being a part of the community. San Sal is a small place, where everyone has known everyone pretty much since they were born. It can be a little intimidating to integrate oneself into such a tight-knit community, so I was quite honored and eager be involved when they asked me to participate.

So there you have it, I'm a former tomboy turned pageant judge, which actually might not surprise some. In that same letter my sister called me a paradox, pointing out that I loved both my Super Soaker water gun and my pink flannel nightgown, and I never wanted to take a bath, but loved when she would give me a "facial". I guess she had me pegged back when I was nine.

Jobbie Jobberson
April 6, 2009 Posted by: ERIN

This weekend my dear sister, Liz, sent me an update and photos of our favorite brown Potcake ... Joba! (Of course, Zipper being everyone's favorite black Potcake.)

In keeping with his native culture, as a puppy Joba hated the rain. Seriously, Bahamaians won't go out in the rain. Even in the slightest drizzle, all activity ceases and everyone, from children to full grown men, immediately bolts for cover. We've been told that the rain will give us the flu, but anyway, as a youngster, Joba was the exact some way. However, it sounds like he is becoming more Americanized in regards to precipitation. Here's what Liz had to say:

"Joba is doing well.  Yesterday and today are very rainy, cold days though and we weren't able to really go for any walks at all yesterday because it was so wet.  He doesn't mind walking in the rain anymore, in fact he gets a little frisky, but he gets very messy."

Early on Joba also had trouble letting Liz and Adam sleep until a reasonable hour in the morning. But since he has been allowed to get into bed with them, that has changed too:

"He is also getting better about letting us sleep in a little and being more patient.  As long as he can get under the covers he stays pretty calm.  Really, he'll go back to sleep if he's under the covers, with his feet by my face and his head by my feet, with his nose sticking out for air."

"It's almost the anniversary of Jobbie's 'Coming to America'!  He was just a little shmoopie this time last year!"

Liz is right ... look at what a shmoopie Joba was a year ago and how much he has changed since then. Of course he is undoubtedly still a schmoopie, just a much more strapping one.

My little foster puppy is all grown up!

Garden in a Bottle
April 3, 2009 Posted by: ERIN

I've been particularly lax about sharing garden updates lately. I wouldn't want you to think that means not much has been going on out there. I actually have lots of vegetable related news and photos to share, but first I wanted to tell you about the raised bottle garden beds that we built. As I've mentioned in the past, due to the poor soil development on the island, all of our gardening is done in containers ranging from buckets to old row boats and industrial refrigerators. But at some point we ran out of boats but still wanted to expand the garden, so building raised beds became necessary. Of course, constructing them from glass bottles is a bit nontraditional, but it has worked out really well for us.

We were inspired by the famous bottle house located in the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada, which we visited on a geology trip way back in spring of 2004. The bottle house was built in 1904 by settlers with a lack of bricks and an abundance of empty glass bottles. The result was a sturdy and uniquely pretty structure that is by today's standards also environmentally conscious. It's all about reusing materials and making due with what you have on hand, especially on an island like ours where folks love their rum and Kalik, recycling opportunities are severely limited, and glass bottles regularly wash up on the beach too.

So not only did the bottle beds increase our growing capacity, allowing us to provide some fresh veggies to the field station cafeteria, but they also prevented heaps of glass from entering our small local landfill and/or littering the beach. Not to mention, using the bottles saved us the cost of shipping in bricks or wood!

Once we had enough bottles collected, building the beds was fairly straight forward. Tom and Lloyd built a frame, stacked the bottles inside, and used cement to hold it all together.

The mouths of the bottles were pointed inward to that we would get the neat pattern of glass cirles on the exterior. The guys got a little overzealous with the cement in some sections, obscuring the ends of the bottles, but despite not being quite as aesthetically pleasing it didn't do anything to hamper overall bed function.

Once the entire bed was complete, Tom filled it in with sandly soil and compost and I popped in the tomato seedlings that I had ready and waiting. That was back in November, and since then the tomotoes have flourished. There was a bout of blossom-end rot, which can result from a lack of nutirents in the soil, but adding more compost seems to have taken care of that so far.

Now regular visitors are amazed to see bright red, juicy tomatoes in cafeteria salads and sandwich fixings, compared to the barely pink, mealy ones that get shipped in on the boat. And they actually have flavor too! Their grateful praise and encouragment are much appreciated, and by next year I hope to have another two bottle beds. More tasty tomatoes for all!

Sit Zipper, Sit
April 2, 2009 Posted by: ERIN

Some people let their dogs walk all over them. I let mine sit all over me.

Although sometimes he is content just to sit next to me.

(P.S. I'm not sure what was going on with my hair in that second picture. Where did my right ear go?)