diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index 2849894..50aba6b 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ rescue LoadError
   puts "Jeweler, or one of its dependencies, is not available. Install it with: sudo gem install jeweler -s http://gems.github.com"
 end
 
+begin
 require 'rake'
 require 'spec/rake/spectask'
 
@@ -33,3 +34,6 @@ Spec::Rake::SpecTask.new('spec') do |t|
   t.spec_files = FileList['spec/']
   t.spec_opts << '--options' << 'spec/spec.opts'
 end
\ No newline at end of file
+rescue LoadError
+  puts "RSpec, or one of its dependencies, is not available. Install it with: sudo gem install rspec"
+end
diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
index b68e348..952531a 100644
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -3,5 +3,13 @@ $LOAD_PATH.unshift File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../lib')
 
 require 'rubygems'
 require 'yajl'
-require 'active_support/core_ext/kernel/reporting'
 require 'date'
+
+module Kernel
+  def silence_warnings
+    old_verbose, $VERBOSE = $VERBOSE, nil
+    yield
+  ensure
+    $VERBOSE = old_verbose
+  end
+end