Up and Down...stairs, ceilings and other jobs

This past week I've been up and down to Rotterdam like a yoyo, yet somehow I've managed to get a few things done besides the normal paid job.

I don't know if any of you remember, but this time last year, I wrote a post reflecting on my watery life, in which I described how I would just gaze around my barge looking for all the ways I could improve it. Funnily enough, it's become my most-read-post ever and still gets a steady trickle of views as the months goes by.

Anyway, in that post, one of the jobs I said I wanted to do was to neaten up the panelling above my bed and re-paint it. There was a gap in the middle where one of my offspring had removed a section but not replaced it, and following a shuffle round with the wall that covered the water tanks, the electricity cable was left running across the middle of the ceiling where previously, it had been behind said wall.

Rather a noisy photo, but the gap is now filled

It's taken me all these months since then to decide how to sort it out, but I've finally done it. Over the past few weeks, I've moved the cable to the edge of the ceiling, repaired the gap in the ceiling with a nice piece of trimmed wood, filled in the plethora of screw holes and painted everything a creamy colour instead of the green it used to be. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, like most things boaty, it took a lot longer than I thought it would, and was much more work and much less efficiently done than my  imagination had...erm...imagined? Even now, I might say it's finished, but it isn't really. I would still like to have a conduit or housing for the electricity cable, but I haven't yet found one big enough. I might need to improvise, though, as I did in fact buy one, but it wasn't deep enough for the cable which is quite thick, and I haven't seen another one with the right dimensions.

Everything is now painted a creamy white instead of green

Another job I've managed to do is to put a shelf in the top part of my hanging cupboard. I realised fifteen years down the line (I don't rush these things, do I?) there was some wasted space in there as I don't wear long coats and dresses. It occurred to me (better late than never) that an extra shelf would come in really handy. So, after lowering the hanging rail, it was a quick matter to find a piece of left over wood in my store and make this shelf. And guess what? It's already fully occupied and it's only been there a couple of days. What's that they say about always filling your environment to capacity? As a footnote to this, I've also repaired one of my stair treads which had virtually collapsed under a long ago visitor's weight. For several months, I've been harping on a bit like the London Underground's 'Mind the Gap' man with my own version of the mantra called 'Mind the Step'.  I even thought of recording it and setting it to play any time anyone opened the hatch, but I didn't get round to that either. As a result the hammer and nails were out in full force this week and not before time.

Last but not least, I was inordinately excited to receive a package in this week's post containing a very small, but hopefully powerful fumigation 'bomb' to finally put the mockers on the woodworm in my little back cabin. It probably sounds a bit sad to be so excited about something so utilitarian, but believe me, this is a problem that's been occupying my mind and energy for so much time, I'm hugely relieved to have what I hope is a real solution to the problem. Even better, I activated it this morning with much ceremony, aplomb and coughing. After a couple of hours of letting it all penetrate every part of the cupboards and ceiling (during which time I beat a hasty retreat),  I now feel I can get on with replacing the floor and putting the room back in use. Before that happens, however, I think I'll have to give everything a detox first. I've used so much woodworm killer in it I'm risking ending up like a doomed bug myself...on my back with my legs in the air! I actually hate using persticides, but it was really necessary in this case as I have already completely lost the floor to the little burrowers and was in danger of losing the original cupboards and panels as well. This will, I'm praying, be the end of it.

So...are you all now totally enthralled with my Mrs Fixit activities? Yes? Haha, I know the real answer to that. Suffice to say, it all fits in with my aim to make sure I do something for the barge every week. In a way, I'm glad it's never finished, and never will be really. Planning, preparing and doing all these small jobs is my relief from work. While I'm teaching, I rarely have time to write, so these DIY efforts are my relaxation and also my reward. And did I mention that I love my barge? I do, and with something approaching fanaticism, but I try not to be too noisy about it.

Just to finish off by looking back to my last year's post, I now wonder what I'll have done by this time next year? I have so many plans it'll be interesting to see how many of them make it to reality!

Have a good week everyone!

Reaching out for the Rhinos

This last week, I have been reading another compelling and heart wrenching book by Lawrence Anthony, the great South African conservationist otherwise known as the Elephant Whisperer. I have read the book that gave him his nickname, and also Babylon's Ark, the amazing account of his courageous mission to save the animals in Baghdad's beleaguered zoo shortly after the US invasion when the city was in total disarray. However, The Last Rhinos is, if anything, even more compelling. Throughout this remarkable account of his campaign to save the last of the Northern White Rhinos in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the underlying and desperate fear that these wonderful and ancient animals will soon be extinct if we cannot stop the poaching and slaughter being carried out. For what? For just their horns. And for what reason? So that an oriental belief that they have some kind of medicinal value for fevers (see this link) can be satisfied. Their horns have a massive black market value (some say more than gold), and conservationists throughout Africa and Asia are literally fighting to the death to protect the remaining rhinos from extinction.

Now, I am not a scientist and I don't know whether their powdered horns have any real medicinal worth or not, but given that there are so many other means of alleviating fevers and similar ailments, it is iniquitous that any animal's life should be placed at risk of a cruel and savage death for this purpose, let alone an animal that is on the brink of extinction. What is fact is that their horns are simple keratin. As Lawrence Anthony says, we might as well send them our finger nail and toenail clippings. The substance is the same.

You have to ask what on earth those who poach them will do when all the rhinos are gone? In pragmatic terms, why kill these animals to the point where there are absolutely none left. Anywhere. Animals that have been on this earth for thousands of years. It beggars belief. Talk about killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

The terrible truth, however, is that despite Lawrence Anthony and truly brave conservation fighters like him who are increasing public awareness worldwide, the poaching figures are growing.

Lawrence Anthony died last year. I was first alerted to his work when a South African friend on FB  'shared'  the touching story of how his elephants mourned his death. Since then, I have been spellbound by his books and awed by his endless fund of courage. He gained the trust of governments and rebel armies alike, being probably the only civilian to have formed a working relationship with the notorious LRA in Uganda and the DRC. The bravery he showed simply in an effort to stop the poaching and save the Rhinos is almost beyond human, but he did not do it alone, thank goodness. His family and close friends were there with him on several of these missions and I can only be thankful that these great souls, and many many others like them, are still alive and still fighting for our animal kingdom.

I haven't finished the book yet and am not really sure I want to know the outcome as I fear it will not be  a happy one. What has happened since he died certainly isn't optimistic. The figures are horrific and according to the Helping Rhinos Facebook page, two rhinos have been found dead with their horns removed in just the last couple of days.

This sort of situation makes me feel quite desperate. This is not about saving animals over people. Rhino horn doesn't feed people, nor does it save people's lives. The dead rhinos are left to rot. It is exploitation at its most mercenary and ugly.

A few weeks ago, I read an academic paper about the importance of preserving our 'ecosystem services'. The conservation of all our ecosystems, animal and plant, is important to our own survival. We have to work with our natural world and not destroy it simply to gratify a short term desire or perceived need. If we do that, we will ultimately destroy ourselves as the world that we rely on to nourish us will no longer be able to serve us.

The Last Rhinos is a compelling, exciting book, but it is also a very serious one. This kind of exploitation has to stop. It is neither the fault of those who live among the rhinos, nor those who are persuaded into believing their horns have medicinal value. It is the fault of the poaching cartels who are cashing in on a get rich quick opportunity. This kind of short-sighted greed has to end. It is as shameful as it is devastating.