First Day at Lone Pine!!!!!

First day of work and I was ready to go!  I had everything organized and ready the night before.  I felt so organized and pumped for the day’s events and I was even more excited that I could do it with Jess.  We waited at the bus stop patiently; arriving 30 minutes early was not a good idea.  When the bus was 3 minutes late we started to have a small freak out but we called down when it came into view.

Excited at the bus stop!!

We slept the whole way on the bus.

All the volunteers were waiting at the stop at the sanctuary, work started at 8:30 so again we waited 30 minutes until a keeper came to get us.  My first day I was assigned to aviary, all birds and all hard work!

For the first 3 hours I cleaned bird enclosures… you wouldn’t believe how difficult it actually is.  It involves being super careful when entering and leaving the enclosures so not to let the birds escape, it doesn’t help that the doors are two sizes too small for normal sized people.  I ended up hitting my knee within the first 20 minutes of working and it bled fairly badly but who needs Band-Aids... not me!  

This is one of the lovely birds I got to be with!

These two are red-tailed cockatoos and never stop talking at me.

The tawny frogmouth is my favourite!

After our morning tea break, that is less than a half-hour long, Maddy and I worked as a team to empty the bird food and clean ALL the trays and dishes.  I also had to do what’s called re-mulching; you have to pick up every single piece of mulch from the enclosures… not one piece can be left behind or Sandy the keeper gets upset.  After that’s done you usually have to do a few loads down to the green waste pile to empty the wheelbarrow, then it’s to the new mulch pile to fill up.  Keep in mind this is all in the blazing heat and I’m wearing a dark purple t-shirt and heavy boots.  After piling the mulch into a wheelbarrow and getting half in my boots I headed back to my enclosure to unload everything.  I have to make more than a dozen trips in and out to unload the first pile of mulch… there needs to be a second load.  I was so tired by the end of this but Sandy wasn’t done with us before lunch, she handed us a pickaxe, shovels and two wheelbarrows.  She needed us to dig between the enclosures to make room for a safety room; two doors instead of one, its more safe for the birds.  Maddy and I dug in separate areas, which made things no less easy.  From a first look it seemed like dirt but when you started digging you soon realized it was all rock and roots, my half was the worst.  

At 1 o’clock I was finally allowed to take my lunch break, I ordered veggie paddies and a salad with apple juice, all that food was needed and maybe even more!  Jess and I were both super tired at the tables; she had been raking all morning in the roo fields.  No one wanted to leave even though we got an hour for lunch.  Only an hour of work was left before we got to go home but Maddy and I weren’t looking forward to it.

Selfies with the emu at lunch!

We trod back to our spots and continued to hack away at the roots and lift rocks away.  The sun had finally left the spot I was digging in but it was still freakishly hot out!  After only 30 minutes of work Sandy said we were done for the day, Maddy and I rejoiced and headed for our lockers to collect our things and go.  Funny enough Jess ended soon after I did and we were able to catch an earlier bus home.  Of course we both slept the whole way there.

So tired after one day.

Sleeping Jess.

Jess needed to pick up her gym membership so we headed to Queen Street where it was only a 15-minute walk away.  On our way we treated ourselves to strawberry banana smoothies… a treat we both thought we deserved after a hard days work.  I also got my bus pass, which is suppose to save me money even though it cost me $100 for less than 3 weeks of rides.  I hate buses here!!!!

Not to get into too much detail about the gym cause well… it’s a gym.  I just waited for Jess to get her tour and went to the bathroom.

We lounged at the pool on the roof of my hostel until we both felt to gross to continue.

I was so happy to get to my room and have a shower!  I blasted my music and enjoyed washing away sweat and dirt from my body to reveal myself… I almost disappeared until the filth!

Jess and I went to the BWS to get some goon for dinner before we headed back to make stir-fry!  She moved all her groceries into my fridge and will now pretty much live at my hostel, except for the sleep part.  We ran out of oil at the end of cooking and needed some badly, we simply asked the girl across from us if we could barrow some and no doubt she said yes.  Dinner was delicious and I was pleased not to be eating it by myself.  As we ate the girl that gave us the oil sat by herself, Jess said we should invite her over so I got up and asked.  It is so easy to make friends at hostels and our new friend Chloe stayed and ate with us until 10:30.  Chloe is from Brighton, England and we all liked each other instantly!  Chloe was having trouble opening her beer because there are no bottle openers anywhere!  I told her this was her chance to make a new friend, there was a boy sitting behind us and I picked him out as our bottle-opener.  Soon enough he was sitting at our table talking, his name is Carl and he is from Canada, Winnipeg to be exact!  I attempted to open a bottle that night and my first try ended with me getting a blooding knuckle but the second attempt with a spoon proved success!  Chloe ended up bringing out 4 large chocolate bars before I went to bed… bad idea because I ate most of them and knew my skin would fight me with pimples in the morning.

We drank wine, ate chocolate and talked all night long.