We don’t carry the camera as much and new bird species that stay still long enough to take their picture are getting harder to find but we still are here and looking around. There are five new bird specie pictures on the Bird Gallery page. New types of Hornbill, Dove, Barbet and Chat graced our deck since I started putting out bird millet (Is that cheating?) as well as a new type of Plover we spied near the road.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way” Charles Dickens, A tale of two cities

In my case, I was going to the Farmers Choice Abattoir and then to the Keekonyokie Abattoir. (Nothing implied here about which is heaven or hell or best or worst.) Both have the same functionality: Cattle arrive at one end and beef exits the other. The basic processes are the same utilizing knives, saws, washtubs, hooks and hoses. However, there are many differences. Farmers Choice is more automated. It has much higher levels of sanitation and it serves a more upscale market. But what was most interesting to me was the different organizational structures.

To maximize utility and minimize the cost of beef to the consumer, an abattoir must operate at capacity, work efficiently and every part of the animal must be used. Farmers Choice and Keekonyokie attain these goals in vastly different ways.

Farmers Choice abattoir

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October 21, my seven-week vacation in the USA was over. I climbed aboard Delta flight 258 at 2:30 pm. After enduring seven and a half hours in the air, five hours sitting in Schiphol airport, eight more hours traversing Europe, the Mediterranean and northern Africa, waiting through customs and immigration where they took my temperature to make sure I wasn’t importing Ebola, I was back in Kenya. The trip was one I have done many times and is quite routine by now, but something felt different. This sense of routine gone awry continued.

I met Sammy, my usual driver. He drove me to the Pan Afric hotel where I was greeted warmly, had a chicken sandwich and beer for dinner, woke the next morning to the Pan Afric breakfast buffet, showed my hotel receipt to the security guard so he would let me out of the hotel and once again met Sammy for the trip to Lewa.

Lewa waiting for the rains.

For all you bird lovers out there, we added about 25 new birds. We also corrected some spelling and numbering errors.

Thanks to Doug and Chris Matson for some of the new pictures and their expertise in identifying them.

By Marion Usselman

Pam and I arrived on August 4th for a twelve day visit to Lewa. She and I had not planned anything past actually getting here, since that part seemed daunting enough and we’re both perfectly capable of happily hanging out and going with the flow. Anne, being now the veteran of many visits by friends and family and also being Anne, had a substantial list of possible activities planned. One was a trip to “the Bead Market”.

I knew about the beaded products created by the local pastoral women and had ordered a bunch of coasters and Christmas tree ornaments from Anne last fall. And since I religiously read the Ten Centuries blog, I knew about the labor disputes in the spring and had seen plenty of pictures of the traditional Masaai and Samburu women. By the time of this outing, we had also experienced a number of different Kenyan marketplaces. We had driven though the Kenyan countryside buying fruits and potatoes from roadside stands…

Buying 24 mangos

Roadside potatoes

Last Friday, Phil Curtis (Anne’s brother), his wife Leslie, stepdaughter Katie and I drove through Lewa to the West Gate and onto Borana, a privately owned conservancy abutting Lewa. Owned by the Dyer family since the ’20’s, the 32,000 acres are home to much the same wildlife as Lewa. Ranching, several lodges and private residences support Borana’s conservation activities.

Entering Borana we forded a river and wound our way over hills and through gullies, climbing around 1,000 feet, until we reached the Borana escarpment. For Lion King fans, we passed an enormous rock on the way up which was the inspiration for Pride Rock.

Pride Rock

For those interested, we have posted a few new bird photos on the Bird gallery.

A Genet Cat in our kitchen.

And when Anne walked into the kitchen this morning there was a Genet Cat there to greet her.

Simon, the owner of Timaflor, and Mary Siboe, CFO of Lewa Conservancy looking at the roses grown on the farm.

Actually, they probably came from Colombia. But if you were in Europe there is a good chance that they were grown in Kenya. Kenya exported 123,511 tons of flowers in 2012. Most of them were roses sent to Amsterdam to be wrapped and passed on to florists all over Europe. Flowers are a major industry here. Starting at about 11,000 tons in 1988, it has grown considerably.

Tons of flowers exported from Kenya 1988 – 2012.

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Well, after the last serious posting, I thought that I’d make things a bit more upbeat. Driving home from work yesterday we saw, perhaps, the littlest elephant we’ve seen yet.

And then this afternoon Elvis chose to grace us with his presence. This picture was taken from Anne’s desk. It was strange but Sophie, our human resources director, had her going away party today. She’s leaving for, hopefully, greener pastures. And Elvis after wandering around the quadrangle walked into just one office, Sophie’s. I guess he came to say goodbye.

Elvis wandering around.

Everyday is a wonder is some respect.