Day 4: St. Patty's Day

Today was.. interesting. The day started out about the same as yesterday. Well, exactly the same. We cleared more paths and started some new ones, cut some trees, and drug some branches up a hill. After so many hours, it’s exhausting work. Dan the Man got a little unhappy with the trucks getting stuck, so us little worker ants were on our toes to not bother him. At one point, someone raked a branch against my ankle. There was a tiny piece stuck, and when I went to pluck it out, it squirted blood a lot more than I had expected, although it didn’t hurt. *sorry, graphic*

Luckily, we were prepared for lunch today and everyone was in a good mood, if not completely exhausted. I somehow managed to smash my finger in the door, which instantly turned black and blue. After lunch, we were starting to get fed up with all of the branch dragging. You can only do so much before it feels like useless busy work. We’d all begun to give up, water breaks taking longer and longer, when we heard over Evan’s (Dan’s similar bearded son) radio something about a lion enclosure.

We hopped in the truck bed and the reckless driver brought us to a new section of the reserve, next to an enclosure containing three tigers: two males and one female. The males had been castrated when they were young, so they did not have manes. They seemed HUGE. We were up close and personal, clearing out the adjacent enclosure for another hour or so.

Sooner or later, we all began to get tired and distracted again. A small group gathered around one of the keeper’s, who was explaining the serval she was standing next to. This little guy was too cute! She told us about how this reserve is hands-off. The animals at the reserve had been forced to cuddle and treated like pets when they were young, so they are brought to the reserve and treated like wild cats. I thought that was pretty awesome, even though I think it would be really hard to work so close to these cuddly cats and not be able to touch them!

We made a quick stop at Food Lion on the way back while some others got Bojangles. Meal of the night: chicken wraps. From the two leftover rotisserie chickens from yesterday, plus coleslaw and potato salad. I felt pretty proud about my alternative meal with these leftovers. After supper was cleaned up, I took a quick 2.5 mile run to release some of the stress from today. The entire group worked so hard today with little complaint, and with little reward. Oh, and some ticks.

Yes, once one tick was found, five were found. Two here, one there, two here. Everyone was going mad over these little rodent bugs. It was horrifying. Luckily, I haven’t found any on myself. Yet. *Knock on wood* Tonight we are ACTUALLY playing card games, and doing a little celebrating for St. Patty’s Day. Fingers crossed that tomorrow is a little more eventful! It is supposed to be a little cooler of weather, and we’re planning to probably grill out by the lake for supper or lunch. We’ll see!

#CTR