Bruny Island

Here are a couple pictures I have from our Bruny Island trip with mom and Norm. With them having both their cameras out, I didn't take many pictures of my own.

Mom and Norm looking cute at Bruny Island "Neck". A narrow spit of land connecting the northern bit with the southern.

Cloudy Bay

Just one of the many Banksia species

On one of our sightseeing trips we visited the 3rd oldest lighthouse (1838), which is also the oldest continuously running lighthouse in Australia. If you look closely at the hill on the right you can see Cape Bruny Lighthouse.

Stepping on Red, White and Blue soil soon

Well, it's official. I'll be leaving this beautiful country on May 9th to fly home to California. I have very mixed emotions about it. We really have had a great time here in Australia. This country is full of amazing people that I am really sad to leave behind. One comfort is that some will eventually come to visit us at some point in the near future.

Lora will be staying behind for a few months to finalize some data analysis. It's much simpler for her to deal with insects and plant material here than to try and get all the necessary permits for importing them to the states. We are both not looking forward to being apart for three or four months. With my work schedule here I have been able to turn down work to travel up to her field sites every few weeks. That has meant we haven't really spent more than two or three weeks apart the entire time we've been here. This one will be hard but doable.

If anyone would be willing to pick me up from the airport (SFO) at 10:15am on Friday the 9th of May I could really use a ride. I will have some luggage but will not be bringing a bike or kayak home so I should fit in a standard car... maybe. I'll be looking to get up to Sacramento or even better up to Weaverville where my car is currently being stored.

See you all really soon.

Lastly, I thought I'd tack on a few photos of just some of our good friends over here. I don't know... I'm feeling a tad sentimental.


Swarz. A great boater and a strong mtn biker. He's scarier looking than he really is.


Sammy, one of our friends that will be in California this summer. Hopefully you'll get a chance to meet her. A real sweetheart.


Nick, Scottie, and Steve. Just some of the closest of my friends. They were always up for an adventure of some sort.


A pic of Nick running one of our favorite rivers, the Leven.


Raulf and Mark. Some paragliding friends. Mark and I have spent a lot of time up in the air together.

Bugga. Another great person and a phenomenal c-boater. That means he sits on his knees and uses a canoe paddle with one blade.


Another of Nick and I on the Overland track.

Will, Thorpie, and Tom. Some Tassie boys we went boating with while in New Zealand.

Cuddling a wombat

Now that my months are numbered here in Australia, there is a small list of things I want to do before I leave. One of these was to hold a wombat. I don't usually get desires to hold animals, but I really have been wanting to hold one since we first arrived here in Australia. I finally got my chance when Craig and I drove between field sites (from Brisbane to Cairns).

A great visit from Shirley and Norman

Well I'm back in Hobart where I've just spent the day doing substitute P.E. teaching. Yes I said P.E. substituting! It was actually more work than I anticipated but it was really fun showing kids how to take their pulse and talking with them about exercising regularly. Of course we had a few relay races and i showed them a game or two as well.

For the past two weeks Lora's mom and step-father have been over visiting from the states. We had a great time hanging out and seeing the sites. The highlight for me was the three day visit to Bruny Island. It's a quick 30 minute drive from Hobart to the ferry and then a 20 minute ferry ride. We stayed in a great little vacation bungalow and visited some of the prettiest beaches I've seen in Tasmania. I even had a quick surf in the kayak at one of them. In the evening as the sun was setting Norman and I took advantage of the fantastic squidding to be had off of the local jetty. We SLAYED EM! We caught two the first evening and then the next night Norman caught four of the five we took home. The other one was given to us by a young boy whom I lent my squid jig to. Apparently he didn't like squid. These things were HUGE! Norman caught one that would have been close to two feet in length easily. We of course cooked them up and had a feast.

We then headed up to Brisbane where Lora was able to show them one of her favorite field sites. I was bummed because the leeches seemed to be away for the hike so they missed out on one of my favorite things about Lamington Natl Park... leeches raining from the sky.

Some how Lora found a plush beach apartment for us to stay in for the few days we were there. It was nice. Lora and myself introduced the game of Zombies to Shirley and to my surprise she really seemed to enjoy it. She was very close to beating the pro zombie slayers. For those who haven't heard Lora has really turned into a gaming geek. Ok maybe I'm a bit more of a geek than she is. Get ready for some fun boardgames when we get back home to Sactown everyone.

Speaking of that I should be purchasing a ticket home in the next few days. I'm still planning on returning mid May so I'll see you all really soon. Keep your ears open for a teaching job for me. Last I heard Sacramento was laying off teachers because of more budget cuts by Arnie! I can't understand how one of the largest economies in the world can't seem to fund education.

P.S. Sorry about not having any pictures for this post. Lora has the camera up in Sydney. I'll try to post some next week when she returns home.

Tim

More Paragliding

Well since my last post I have left Manilla to hang out with Lora for a week before she drove up to Cairns, and then driven back down to Manilla with a mate from the Gold Coast to do some more flying. Mark and I spent 7 out of 8 days flying around an area of Australia that reminds me very much of the Big Sky country of Montana. I flew with countless raptors (That never gets old!), dialed in my thermaling technique, and just had a blast overall.

There was a laid back comp going on while we were there and both of us did well. One thing I need to get more comfortable with is flying in close proximity to a large number of other pilots. Usually when two pilots collide it's really bad news. Often times reserve parachutes need to be thrown. Although I had two close calls there were no collisions. Some people just have no clue. In both cases it was a newbie pilot looking up at their wing instead of looking where they were going. I of course was and because of it I was able to steer away from a mid-air disaster. One got within a meter or two of me. Not fun.

Now I'm back in Tassie working on uni assignments and doing some sea kayak guiding work. I was shocked to get off the plane and realize that the flip-flops, shorts and t-shirt I was wearing comfortably in Brisbane didn't really cut it down here in Tas. It's cold again.

Well, I better sign off and get down to the boat for some work. I'll post some pictures when Mark is able to send me some. See you guys mid May.

Tim

Lora is still in the field

This is a picture we took to help us label hemispherical photos we take of the canopy

Well it has been a long time since I have posted on the blog. I have just been busy in the field as usual. I am doing my last big lap between all my field sites right now. I really can't believe I am collecting data from my plots for the last time. It really feels final when I pull of the tags from the plants and take the stakes out that mark my plots. My time here has really flown by.

Meet my assistant Craig.

My assistant Craig has been a big help over the last 2 months. He will be helping me for a total of 3 months. I have been putting him to work. I really don't take days off so he has been stuck working too. But he loves field work and since this is my last big season I have allowed myself to have a bit of fun. While we in Lamington we took a day off to walk the Border Track. This is a great 21km one way track through all different types of rain forest, from warm subtropic to cool temperate. I loved the walk and came up with all sorts of new research ideas.

Here is Craig, Richard and Andre

We had a great crew for the hike. It was Craig, Tim and I, we also had Andre the Senior Ranger of the park and who I stay with while I am there. We also had Richard a friend from Tasmania, his parents own the hotel in Waratah, I have spent many nights drinking at their pub.

Here I am in an excellent Jamper t-shirt.

A new post from Manilla... NSW Australia

Greetings everyone. I'm sitting at a very old computer right now in Manilla, Australia. I'm about 40kms North of Tamworth, the country music capital of Australia. Lora is a few hours drive north of me at the moment doing whatelse? Fieldwork. It's going well for her. She constantly amazes me with her tenacity and drive to do good quality work.

So why Manilla? Well some of you may remember a blog I posted back in april about flying here. I'm back for more. I've been here for three day npw and have had some great flights. Launch is at 850 meters msl. The past few days I've been able to use the thermals to soar up to as high as 2000 meters! I've flown away from the hill now twice with one of the flights being 17kms away from launch. This is the furthest I've flown so far cross country and I had a ball. One problem though is that this often means you have to hitchhike back to town. Not a problem usually but here you're in the Country. Yesterday I sat on the side of a road for four hours waiting fopr a lift that never came. Luckily another pilot waiting with me was able to get intouch with someone to come and get us. I was starting to get a little nervous. We then had an absoulutely beautiful evening soaring session to top off the day. Paradise!

During the flight yesterday I was soaring with a wedge-tailed eagle. HE/she was showing me where the thermals were. These birds can be a bit scary though because they have been known to attack paragliders. Thin nylon and sharp talons do not mix. This one was just checking me out.Whew!

A few more days of this and I'll be heading back up to hang out with Lora. As allways she sends her love.I have my first uni assignment due at the end of the week so I'lll be busily shoring that up too. I only havre these last two courses and I'll be finished.

I'll keep you posted as to any exciting events. Oh, I almost forgot. Watch out Baldwin, I started windsurfing and already can beach start, have no problem pulling the sail up out of the water, and make the board go where I want it to go. Now if I could just figure out the tacking. I'm almost there.

Also, sorry for the bad spelling etc. I type two or three sentences on this computer and then wait a minute or two as each character takes two seconds to appear on the monitor.

Cool hat

Not much to talk about these days. Lora is home tomorrow and I've just been doing some relief work and helping some friends out on their reno job on their house (renovation).

I saw this really cool hat while surfing the net and figured if I add a link to the pattern one of our awesome knitters out there might feel like making one for the ultra geek that I truly am. It's an R2D2 hat.

http://carissaknits.blogspot.com/2007/06/r2d2-beanie.html


Even if it wasn't a copy of the coolest little robot out there I'd still like the colors. I can't really think of a reason anyone should bother making one for me but Easter is coming up... or 4th of July... or President's Day.

Catching up

Well, life goes on for us all. Lora is currently in the field in northern Tassie. I am back in Hobart squaring away my California teaching credential and getting all signed up for the last of my courses for my Masters degree.

Before setting out for the field I picked up Lora's new assistant, Craig, from the airport and while Lora was busy on the computer... of course... we took a quick hike up a nearby peak. You can see the ocean behind me.

A picture of me on top of Hartz Peak. Notice the really cool Jamper Industries T-shirt I'm sporting. Be sure to check it out and be one of the cool kids on the block!

Craig is an eager assistant from the states waiting to get into Grad school for ecology of course. He's a really nice guy and seems to really love doing fieldwork. It's nice to have someone traveling with Lora again so that I know she's ok in the field.

Craig on Hartz Peak. 1200 meters

Last week the three of us headed out to the Tassie field sites to set up traps. I hung out to help for two days and then I decided to go on a little bike ride. My plan was to ride back to Hobart from Devonport in the north. This was about 400kms. I set off alone dragging my gear in a really cool bike trailer.

As you can see from the roadside map it bisects the island. It is comprised of about 25% sealed roads, 35% gravel roads and double track fire roads, and 40% single track. I was really excited to be having an adventure again. Even though the sign calls it a "soft" adventure.

Well I made it two days and 115kms before I had a major malfunction of the bike. Apparently, the trailer caused my rear wheel axle to bend. I'm not talking about the skewer that holds the wheel to the frame but the actual axle. I didn't realize I had that much leg power. Who knew!

This of course caused the freewheel to stop acting as a freewheel and every time I stopped pedaling the chain would get sucked up and cause problems. Also, because of this the cassette, the 9 chain rings in the back, locking ring would unscrew itself and come loose. I rode for about 10 kms with this problem. My solution was to just treat my bike like it was a track bike. This means I would not stop pedaling to "coast". This sounds simple enough right? Well try going downhill faster than you can pedal dragging 25 kilos of weight in a trailer. I would have to brake going downhill and I was in my biggest chainring! Also, riding like this on a mountainbike trail is next to impossible when you have to time rocks and logs with your cranks so they don't knock you off the bike.

So being too far from a bike shop and it being the weekend which means nothing was open anyway. I decided to take the bus home the remaining 300 or so kilometers. I was pretty bummed. Of course like any adventure this one would have been better with a close friend. So if anyone wants to go on a ride you know where to find me.

I'll try to get Lora to write a blog soon so you can hear first hand what she's up to. It's just hard for her right now because she's in the field and very busty. I mean busy.

Tim

Sad News

Well I thought I would let everyone know that Lora had a miscarriage last week. We went in for our first ultrasound and instead of getting to see our baby for the first time we got the worst news possible. Apparently the fetus had terminated sometime a week before. Well of course this hit us very hard and we were extremely disappointed and really sad. Lora went in for a procedure the following day and recovered from that quickly. She is so strong.

We just wanted all of you to know about it and to tell you that we are moving on and have a positive outlook on getting pregnant again soon. I guess if there's one bright side to all of this it means we get to have lots of sex again!