Murka and The Daivd Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Last year I learned about a wonderful organization called The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. I started following their efforts and knew that I wanted to help. After many months of reviewing all of the baby elephants and rhinos that Madam Daphne and her helpers have rescued I figured out which one I wanted to sponsor as a foster parent. Last August I decided to foster a baby elephant that had been very badly wounded, Murka.

Murka was found abandoned with a spear lodged in her head. It is suspected her mother was poached. The story and pictures broke my heart and as I read her profile I couldn't stop myself from crying over her suffering. At that point I knew she was the one that I had to sponsor. So for the next 10 years I will get monthly email updates about Murka and all of the other baby orphans at this wonderful place.

When my dad and I go to Kenya and Tanzania next year, one of our stops will be in Nairobi to see the orphans and so that I can meet Murka.

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and orphans have been captured in the newest IMAX 3D movie called Born to Be Wild. I hope to check this IMAX out the next time I'm in the states but to see some additional footage click the link below.

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/big-love-elephant-orphanage-13305999

Spring in Scotland

I spent a wonderful day with Alicia and baby Darien seeing some of the local sites in search for spring flowers, snow drops, daffodils, crocus, etc. Our first stop was at Castle Fraser. There are lovely walking trails around the grounds of most of the castles in Scotland. We enjoyed a crisp sunny walk filled with creeks, flowers and no one in sight.

Our next stop was at an ancient stone circle called East Aquhorthies Stone Circle. It was a bit windy but we did manage to have a very pleasant picnic, that is until Darien woke up.. poor little guy just wanted to be held, so I stepped up and took him for a walk around the stone circle so that Alicia could finish her lunch. I don't think she gets many meals eaten at a single sitting so I thought it would be a nice change for her. Plus it gave me a little experience for when my new nephew joins us.

Our last stop brought us back to Crathes Castle, a site I had visited with my dad over Christmas. What a difference a few months and no snow makes. Some flowers were in bloom but there is evidence that in the next few weeks there will be hundreds of daffodils in bloom on the grounds. A sight I will have to go back to see.

For more pictures visit my Picasa site:

https://picasaweb.google.com/mtwildflower/SpringInScotland?feat=directlink

2011 Trip home to Montana and Texas

Right after coming back to Aberdeen from skiing in France and Italy, I should have had a few more weeks of work and drilling. Big surprise, more delays... in order to make sure that I was in Aberdeen for the most important part of drilling it was decided that I would move my first trip back to the states up 2 weeks. This was decided the Friday before I actually flew out.. I had just a few days to rearrange everything... but I got it done and had a great trip home.
I was able to go to Montana to see mom, Ali and Kady. Unfortunately the night I arrived I came down with the "Scottish" flu. Not sure you can truly call it the Scottish flu but that's what Dr. Steve my MT chiropractor called it since I not only gave it to him but mom and Ali as well. I ended up sick 6 of the 7 days I was in Montana but if you are ever going to get sick, where better to do it than at home where your mom can take care of you!
I had a few more days in Houston before having to head back to Scotland. The most important event to attend in Houston was my friends Anna and Mauricio's wedding. It was a great event and chance to see all my Houston friends. I have missed them so.
Here are a few pictures from this trip and of course more can be found on my Picasa site.

https://picasaweb.google.com/mtwildflower/2011TripToMontanaAndTexas?feat=directlink

2011 Skiing Chamonix France

In the beginning of February, it was hit or miss with the drilling schedule and I wasn't sure that I would actually get to go on the company ski trip. The skiing gods battled it out with the drilling gods and it was decided that I needed a break from work and a ski trip. I couldn't have been more happy when the drilling schedule got moved back and I went home to pack for France.
I had 3.5 great days of skiing in France and Italy despite the fact that it hadn't snowed in over a month. The conditions were not the best but the terrain made up for it. Skiing in the Alps is like nothing I have ever skied before. Here are a few shots to show what I am talking about. More can be found on my Picasa site.

https://picasaweb.google.com/mtwildflower/2011SkiingChamonixFrance?feat=directlink

Huntly Castle

The last stop of the day was to Huntly Castle. Unfortunetly the Lonely Planet guide bood was wrong and we were too late for open hours of the Castle. Our only view was from the entrance but it looks like a cool castle. I'll have to go back at some point when it's open.


Architecturally the L plan castle consists of a well-preserved five-story tower with an adjoining great hall and supporting buildings. Areas of the original ornate facade and interior stonework remain. A mound in the grounds of the castle is all that remains of an earlier 12th century motte. Originally named Strathbogie, the castle was granted to Sir Adam Gordon of Huntly in the 14th century. King Robert the Bruce was a guest of the castle in 1307 prior to his defeat of the Earl of Buchan.

It was fired in 1452 by the Earl of Moray then extensively rebuilt by the first Earl of Huntly. In 1449 the king was at war with the powerful Earls of Douglas. The Gordons stood on the king’s side and, with their men involved in the south of the country, the Earl of Moray, a relation and ally of the Douglases, took the opportunity to sack the Gordon lands, setting Huntly Castle ablaze. The Gordons returned and quickly destroyed their enemies. Although the castle was burned to the ground, a grander castle was built in its place. In 1496, the pretender to the English throne Perkin Warbeck was married to Catherine Gordon at Huntly Castle, an act witnessed by King James IV of Scotland.

Wings were added to the castle in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1640 it was occupied by the Scottish Covenantor army under Major-General Robert Monro (d. 1680). The parson of Rothiemay tells us how the house ‘was preserved from being rifled or defaced, except some emblems and imagery, which looked somewhat popish and superstitious lycke; and therefore, by the industry of one captain James Wallace (one of Munro’s foote captaines) were hewd and brocke doune off the frontispiece of the house; but all the rest of the frontispiece containing Huntly’s scutcheon, etc, was left untouched, as it stands to this daye’.

Captured in October 1644, the castle was briefly held by James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose against the Duke of Argyll. In 1647 it was gallantly defended against General David Leslie by Lord Charles Gordon, but its 'Irish' garrison was starved into surrender. Savage treatment was meted out, for the men were hanged and their officers beheaded. In December of the same year Huntly himself was captured and on his way to execution at Edinburgh was detained, by a refinement of cruelty, in his own mansion. His escort were shot against its walls. In 1650 Charles II visited briefly on his way to the Battle of Worcester, defeat and exile. The Civil War brought an end to the Gordon of Huntly family's long occupation of the castle.

In the early eighteenth century it was already in decay and providing material for predatory house builders in the village. In 1746, during the Jacobite Risings, it was occupied by British Government troops. Thereafter, it became a common quarry until a groundswell of antiquarian sentiment in the 19th Century came to the rescue of the noble pile.

Huntly Castle remained under the ownership of the Clan Gordon until 1923. Today, the remains of the castle are cared for by Historic Scotland.


http://picasaweb.google.com/mtwildflower/HuntlyCastle