Sunday, May 23, 2010

Aerial Casualties

While doing a preflight inspection this week I came across an aerial casualty! Stuck to the oil cooler of our IO-550 engine was a butterfly. While flying I occasionally see buzzards and white egrets. By the way, there is just something about flying at 3000 feet and looking down at a group of 10 white egrets flying over the jungle! AMAZING!


Anyways, I carefully removed it and brought it back to my toolbox for photographing. There are some places that I fly to where I see many butterflies, Tsoroja being one of those places. I would love to get a picture of the blue morpho butterfly that I sometimes see in Cashibo. Anybody know what type this one is?

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Cooking

From time to time people will ask me if I can or if I do cook. The answer is usually something along the lines of, "Sort of, but not usually". I think the main reason I don't cook very much is that it just takes so much time and does not seem like its worth it just for one person to eat. One of the missionaries down here, Minori, taught me how to make Granola. She maybe did not realize it but that has taken care of 33% of my meals right there!

However, not wanting to subsist on fruit and macaroni for the remaining 66%, I decided to try my hand at the Peruvian classic Salchi-Papa (sausage and French fries). I was quickly reminded why I don't cook very often but here is how my latest cooking experience went.



- Went to corner store on motorcycle and purchased potatoes and of course more fruit. (15 min)

- Peeled and cut potatoes (5 min)

- Went back to the store to buy hotdogs to use as Sausage substitutes (10 min)

- Heated up oil to fry potato strips (10 min)

- Cut up sausage and fried it while waiting to oil to heat up. (10 min)

- Tested oil hotness by dropping some water in the pan (a hint or more likely practical joke I had heard about somewhere). Spent next 5 minutes cleaning up oil splatter on floor and stove, decided the oil indeed was hot enough. Fried potato strips. (20 min)



- Mixed equal parts Ketchup and Mayonnaise for French fry dipping sauce. (3 min)

Finally, an hour after starting, ate meal. (15 min)

- Washed dishes (10 min)

- Considered if it were worth the effort to cook something or if just fruit and macaroni were a less time involved process. (10 min)

- Decided that Orlando's Restaurant was the best alternative for the same about of time and money. Celebrated decision by eating a Popsicle. (5 min)


Saturday, May 1, 2010

More checkout flying


Seems as though the only time I get some good pictures of flying is when there are two pilots in the airplane. A few weeks ago that was the case as I got checked out and approved to go into 4 new airstrips.


We also gave a rides to a few people as we did takeoffs and landings at each location. For the kids I am sure it was a thrill of a lifetime!