Part 1: Copilot
I got to ride copilot in the plane on my ride home from ATK the other day! I have been waiting and waiting to get the chance to do so since 2010, so when the pilot asked for volunteers I literally jumped out of my seat before he could even finish the sentence. Those fast reflexes I have really payed off. Another researcher took pictures of me, but I haven’t had the chance to get the photos from her yet. As soon as I do, I will add pictures. It was a great experience. The pilot chatted my ear off about all of those Alaska TV shows and how absolutely outrageous they are. Sorry to all of you fans out there, but he said that they make everything way more dramatic on TV than it is in real life. Anyway, after that ride my desire to get my pilots licence increased 10-fold. Someday, someday…
Part 2: Crazy Foxes
You all have heard me talk about and seen pictures of our NIMS grid project and the trolley (or “hot rod” as some like to call it… I prefer “Berta”). We went out to the sites in Barrow the other day all ready to set up and get the system running, but we were faced with a tragic surprise when we arrived. Our cable that provides power to the trolley had been chewed to pieces (literally, pieces), the cable that attaches to the motor and moves the trolley had been chewed through, the ground wire was destroyed, and many cables controlling various operations of the system were pulled out of the box with the datalogger and chewed to pieces as well. The suspect: foxes. What I don’t understand is WHY any animal would eat through that much wire?? They must really be hungry or bored during winter here in the Arctic. Now Dr. Oberbauer is faced with the daunting task of rewiring the system, and most of the supplies have to be shipped through Fairbanks… so let’s just hope they get here soon! He leaves on Saturday, and there is no way we could fix all of the issues that we have due to the attack of the crazy foxes.
Part 3: Colored Electrical Tape
Let me just start by showing you this:
What you see above is the result of combining electrical tape (a favorite of Dr. Hollister’s), color coding, my OCD, and Jenny losing her mind (just kidding Jenny… we are both losing it). We have 4 people and 4 research sites, so each person gets assigned a site for the summer. So, it works out perfectly that each site has its own color assigned to it, and thus each person has that color assigned to him/her. My site is Atqasuk Dry, which is red. So, practically everything I have that has been provided by the project is coded with a piece of red electrical tape. Also, we have different color folders for each of our different measurements that we do (phenology is orange, flower counts is blue, and growth measures is red). You may thing it is excessive, but I think that it is perfect. Tim Botting will think that we have lost our minds when he arrives. The picture above also gives you an idea of my basic tools for the summer: clipboard, paper, pencil, rulers, clickers (for counting), markers, and bug spray. Not very high tech science, but necessary nonetheless.
Sadly, that is all that has happened over the past few days. I promise to add pictures of the copilot expedition soon, and hopefully things will be more eventful once Tim Botting and Chase Baldwin arrive tomorrow! Looking forward to seeing you both.
Let's just sit back and watch the plots grow... 