June 23,2010

5:00 woke up to make sure the plumbing functioned properly. Too early to stay up so I’ll just lay here awhile.
6:00 beep beep beep Thank you Cathy for providing an alarm clock for the room. Tweet tweet tweet Thank you Angela for not trusting Cathy’s alarm clock and providing us with a back up alarm.
6:15 out of the shower and headed for the first “don’t talk to me yet” cup of coffee
6:30 There’s a few early risers up having coffee and giggling—must be Earthwatchers because there’s a lot of laughter with this group.—especially after the caffeine kicks in.
7:00 invigorating morning session with “Patience of a Saint Pete” so he can inform us again what we are to do and what to look for. He’s actually sending us in the different sites to collect data about seedlings. (One of us must have exhibited enthusiasm about getting personally acquainted with so many in the plantation). Angela declared the Rule of the day, “No Laughing”
7:30 breakfast Why am I always so hungry here?
8:15 start layering on all the clothes that were in my suitcase before heading out.
8:20 still layering
8:25 wouldn’t you know it—have to do a quality check of the building’s plumbing
8:30 finally dressed and ready to leave for another adventure in the great north with Pete and Carley as our guides , mentors, drivers, protectors, life lines.
Shortly after 8:30-around 12:30 At the first of today’s 4 sites I knew it was going to be an interesting day when our first marker splashed as it landed. Our muck boots became our best friends at the first site (or so we thought) and our bug hats became our second best friends at the third site. Believe it or not we were able to almost complete 3 sites before lunch.
12:30 lunch Again, I am so hungry.
Sometime after lunch-(Kevin did not stress the time telling portion at his school) start putting on all those layers again and climb back into the van to finish the third site—darn we found 5 seedlings rooted in. Then it was off to what I think was the highlight of everyone’s day—the wettest, boot grabbing, treeless, seedling-less (Yes!) place this side of Tennessee—the fen! Here our boots overtook the bug gear as our best friends. We arrived back “home” before 4:30 –proof positive that we’re getting efficient at data collecting.
16:30- showering, jogging, blogging, e-mailing, down loading data and pictures, laughing (sorry, we did not fare well with that rule of the day), even laundering----we are a talented group!
18:15 dinner Hunger does not leave me. Pete told me not to forget to mention the stickleback. Oh yeah—we saw a stickleback! Actually you’d think we discovered some rare species. Remind me again why we silent seedling counters are not seeing more wildlife in these quiet woods?
After dinner—19:30--the duck talk