Thursday, May 30
May. 31st, 2024 03:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Beautiful weather, if a bit windy.
I talked to D from pottery (she isn't coming to pottery any more this summer because she will be busy), and we are hoping to get together on Monday maybe to go for a walk together with her puppy that I haven't met yet.
When I went out to do chores, Wonder had one very sore hoof, which is very likely an abscess. She foundered years ago, leaving her feet prone to getting them, especially after a period of rain because of the mud.
So, I cleaned and soaked her foot and put on her protective boot. There really isn't much more you can do. If it is an abscess, as I am reasonably sure it is, it works it's way out on it's own. The soaking is to encourage it to drain.
It's still awful to see her in pain, though.
My Sweetie picked up some extra supplies on his way home from work for her.
I spent more time pulling the grass/weeds, and now we're on to the next step: spreading compost from our pile.
When my Sweetie got home, we worked on that (more him than me by then).
The garter snakes were back in the compost pile. They were there last year. We never used to see them around, but apparently they LOVE compost piles if you put a tarp over them. We only started putting a tarp over it last year, and...instant garter snakes.
When we pulled back the tarp to get at the finished compost, there must have been ten of them sitting on top. They are harmless, and very lovely. They didn't even really run away, they just went under the part of the tarp covering the rest of the compost.
I also found a salamander when I was digging out grass. I don't think I hurt it, but it was strange to find it in a fairly hard packed area where we walked all the time. It was buried in the soil a few inches down, and I'm actually very glad I found it before we tilled.
I also found a tiny frog in the compost.
We got a lot done today.
Then we came in and watched "Boardwalk Empire".
Djibouti is a pretty small African country, right on the Horn, with coast to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
"In antiquity, the territory, together with Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somaliland, was part of the Land of Punt. Nearby Zeila, now in Somaliland, was the seat of the medieval Adal and Ifat Sultanates. In the late 19th century, the colony of French Somaliland was established after the ruling Dir Somali sultans signed treaties with the French,[11][12][13] and its railroad to Dire Dawa (and later Addis Ababa) allowed it to quickly supersede Zeila as the port for southern Ethiopia and the Ogaden.[14] It was renamed the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas in 1967. A decade later, the Djiboutian people voted for independence. This officially marked the establishment of the Republic of Djibouti, named after its capital city. The new state joined the United Nations in its first year.[15][16] In the early 1990s, tensions over government representation led to armed conflict, which ended in a power-sharing agreement in 2000 between the ruling party and the opposition.[1]"
Most of the roughly 920,000 people adhere to Muslim religion, and the official languages are Arabic and French. There are many different ethnic groups here, and many other languages are spoken.
Since it has good access to the Red Sea and has good ports, shipping is a big industry there, as well as having foreign military bases. The military bases are very important to the economy, as those countries pay to rent the land their bases are on. Those incomes make up about 5% of the GDP.
The value of their ports increased greatly with the building of the Suez Canal, and the French wanted those ports for refueling (coal) their steam ships, which is why they established trade/colonized it.
"Djibouti is a unitary presidential republic, with executive power resting in the presidency, which is by turn dominant over the cabinet, and legislative power in both the government and the National Assembly."
Djibouti is "not free", with many issues with human rights "
unlawful or arbitrary killings by government agents; arbitrary detention by government agents; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists; criminal libel; substantial interference with the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of association; significant acts of corruption; and violence against women and girls with inadequate government action for prosecution and accountability, including female genital mutilation/cutting. It states also that impunity was a problem, with the government seldom taking steps to identify and punish officials who committed abuses, whether in the security services or elsewhere in the government.[93]"
Geography: located right on top of the Great Rift Valley has created the lowest elevation in Africa, where the lake of Assal pools. The landscape consists of plains, plateau, and high lands, and is for the most part hot and arid.
As mentioned, most of the economy is based on the shipping of goods from the ports to inland countries, and other services related to the ports and shipping. Agriculture is not a big part of the economy, and a lot of food is imported.
There is some development of salt as a resource, as well as geothermal energy.
Tourism is a growing industry, but is still mainly made up of the family of people who work at the military bases.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djibouti
https://youtu.be/PbglpfzR6eA?si=5a6uQEIVTWuOH-RJ
Beautiful weather, if a bit windy.
I talked to D from pottery (she isn't coming to pottery any more this summer because she will be busy), and we are hoping to get together on Monday maybe to go for a walk together with her puppy that I haven't met yet.
When I went out to do chores, Wonder had one very sore hoof, which is very likely an abscess. She foundered years ago, leaving her feet prone to getting them, especially after a period of rain because of the mud.
So, I cleaned and soaked her foot and put on her protective boot. There really isn't much more you can do. If it is an abscess, as I am reasonably sure it is, it works it's way out on it's own. The soaking is to encourage it to drain.
It's still awful to see her in pain, though.
My Sweetie picked up some extra supplies on his way home from work for her.
I spent more time pulling the grass/weeds, and now we're on to the next step: spreading compost from our pile.
When my Sweetie got home, we worked on that (more him than me by then).
The garter snakes were back in the compost pile. They were there last year. We never used to see them around, but apparently they LOVE compost piles if you put a tarp over them. We only started putting a tarp over it last year, and...instant garter snakes.
When we pulled back the tarp to get at the finished compost, there must have been ten of them sitting on top. They are harmless, and very lovely. They didn't even really run away, they just went under the part of the tarp covering the rest of the compost.
I also found a salamander when I was digging out grass. I don't think I hurt it, but it was strange to find it in a fairly hard packed area where we walked all the time. It was buried in the soil a few inches down, and I'm actually very glad I found it before we tilled.
I also found a tiny frog in the compost.
We got a lot done today.
Then we came in and watched "Boardwalk Empire".
Djibouti is a pretty small African country, right on the Horn, with coast to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
"In antiquity, the territory, together with Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somaliland, was part of the Land of Punt. Nearby Zeila, now in Somaliland, was the seat of the medieval Adal and Ifat Sultanates. In the late 19th century, the colony of French Somaliland was established after the ruling Dir Somali sultans signed treaties with the French,[11][12][13] and its railroad to Dire Dawa (and later Addis Ababa) allowed it to quickly supersede Zeila as the port for southern Ethiopia and the Ogaden.[14] It was renamed the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas in 1967. A decade later, the Djiboutian people voted for independence. This officially marked the establishment of the Republic of Djibouti, named after its capital city. The new state joined the United Nations in its first year.[15][16] In the early 1990s, tensions over government representation led to armed conflict, which ended in a power-sharing agreement in 2000 between the ruling party and the opposition.[1]"
Most of the roughly 920,000 people adhere to Muslim religion, and the official languages are Arabic and French. There are many different ethnic groups here, and many other languages are spoken.
Since it has good access to the Red Sea and has good ports, shipping is a big industry there, as well as having foreign military bases. The military bases are very important to the economy, as those countries pay to rent the land their bases are on. Those incomes make up about 5% of the GDP.
The value of their ports increased greatly with the building of the Suez Canal, and the French wanted those ports for refueling (coal) their steam ships, which is why they established trade/colonized it.
"Djibouti is a unitary presidential republic, with executive power resting in the presidency, which is by turn dominant over the cabinet, and legislative power in both the government and the National Assembly."
Djibouti is "not free", with many issues with human rights "
unlawful or arbitrary killings by government agents; arbitrary detention by government agents; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists; criminal libel; substantial interference with the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of association; significant acts of corruption; and violence against women and girls with inadequate government action for prosecution and accountability, including female genital mutilation/cutting. It states also that impunity was a problem, with the government seldom taking steps to identify and punish officials who committed abuses, whether in the security services or elsewhere in the government.[93]"
Geography: located right on top of the Great Rift Valley has created the lowest elevation in Africa, where the lake of Assal pools. The landscape consists of plains, plateau, and high lands, and is for the most part hot and arid.
As mentioned, most of the economy is based on the shipping of goods from the ports to inland countries, and other services related to the ports and shipping. Agriculture is not a big part of the economy, and a lot of food is imported.
There is some development of salt as a resource, as well as geothermal energy.
Tourism is a growing industry, but is still mainly made up of the family of people who work at the military bases.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djibouti
https://youtu.be/PbglpfzR6eA?si=5a6uQEIVTWuOH-RJ
