Project Preperation

We are working hard getting everything ready for the upcoming field season, at least when there is work to be done.  Most of it is logistical and requires lots of time to process. Its all very bureaucratic and a field assistant such as myself cannot really help with that side of things.  Filling out the paperwork doesn't really get my heart racing anyways.  The Scuba class is still moving along at a steady pace.  Lets call it a slow trot.  We should be wrapping it up quite soon and then I am officially a certified research Diver.

My comfortable housing in one corner of the lab at FIU.

I was assigned a literature review project.  Now that probably sounds more like a homework assignment than field work and in truth it is but after being away from an academic setting for almost a year I am actually quite happy to be back reading scientific papers.  My brain has felt a bit atrophied and its nice to get the nerves firing again.  My specific goal is to determine the effects of water temperature on sea turtle dive times.  At the same time I am learning a lot of background knowledge about sea turtles.  For instance Loggerhead Turtles are omnivorous and feed mainly on invertebrates while Green Sea Turtles are herbivorous and feed on sea grasses.  These two turtles will be the focus of our research in Shark Bay.

A much more exciting project that I have also been a part of is designing and assembling makeshift critter cams.  First the body is carved out of some high density syntactic foam. The carving and shaping is my favorite part.  It must be carved so that each piece fits and the entire package still maintains a specific balance between weighting and buoyancy. Then we set in and epoxy down the various elements required to record depth, temperature, time, and video.  A large part of my job will be to catch the turtles so that we can attach homemade critter cams to them and see life from a turtle eye view.  There are a few good videos of exactly that on the Shark Bay Ecosystem Research Project website.  Check it out!  The man who's lab I am working for, Dr. Michael Heithaus, was the host of National Geographic's Crittercam series.  He is quite a remarkable person. He is the type of guy that could be described as the Michael Jordan of underwater research.

I wanna be like Mike.

A crittercam prototype without the camera attachment.  Ill post pictures of the real deal when i get to Australia.

The GoPro camera that we will be using on the turtles.

The Heart of True Science

I am down in Miami now, Biscayne Bay to be more accurate, working on my new scientific SCUBA certification.  Although I am not particularly a huge fan of the Miami area in general, I have been having a fantastic time here so far.  The SCUBA class is only scheduled to meet twice a week so I am finding myself with loads of free time.  With this spare time I am getting to know the the various masters students, phd students, and post-docs in the lab at Florida International University that I am working in.  I have already learned a lot about what it means to be a masters student versus a PHD student and all of them love to chat about what they are doing, where they are heading, and what kind of experiences they have had that led them to the point they are now at.  It gives my own life and potential future decisions a little more perspective that I have not had up until this point.

I hear from those who have only just begun the process, the ones that I most directly relate to, but I also get to see what it is like to have finished your work as a student and to finally be at the point where you are exploring subjects because you want to... that you are genuinely interested in.  As I have recently learned this is not always the case with student work.  Now, that is not to say that these people are unhappy with their projects at all because that is far from the truth.  In fact, I would consider it the mark of a good scientist to be able to find the curiosity and intrigue in any subject matter, as these people seem able to do.

 Take for instance a girl I have recently met who has only just begun working toward her PHD.  She is 23 and moved to florida at the beginning of this semester with an urge to study something fun and interesting to her.  She is now working in a lab that focuses its efforts on seagrass, which is not a subject that many would find particularly enthrawling. However she has a great mentor here and a wonderful support system consisting of the rest of the students and she has discovered ways to make her project her own.  As she explained to me, you are not required to focus solely on the seagrass as your main subject.  There is a lot that we do not know about it and it might just be more important than we thought.  If you picture a mangrove swamp, lets say the Everglades and the coral reef just offshore from it there will still be one crucial element missing, and that is the seagrass which forms a boundary separating the edge of the mangroves from the coral.

With this in mind, and without delving too deeply into all the specifics, her thesis question could relate to how various animals use the seagrass border compared to the coral or mangroves.  Or her question could address the fact that the seagrass may actually help to maintain the mangroves in some way by creating a border zone.  Or what the difference in population between each ecosystem is.  Or how global warming/oil spills/hurricanes effect these fragile balanced ecosystems.  With a little more background than I have in the area you could take the general topic of seagrass and open it up to endless possibilities.  Following whatever tangent fills you with that surge of curiosity.  This might seem obvious to others but I wasn't planning on making any assumptions about the nature of graduate work.  I am certain that at other universities it may not be nearly as cooperative as this.

 All the scientists I have met here stress the open sharing of knowledge and performance of "good science" with relevant topics.  Which is the way all science should be... in an ideal world.  Unfortunately a lot of scientists work under the premise that research is a competition and they hide their results with a passion from one another until it comes time for them to publish and to put their name on it.  This is a sad state of affairs that you hear about time and time again.  We need to learn together as a species and a culture if we are to put any of the knowledge that we gain to use.

I am just a temporary field biologist, here for training before heading to Australia but every single person I have met in these labs genuinely wants to teach me all that they can and to give experience in as broad a field as possible before I leave.  It is not the first and I hope will not be the last time I say this, but I seem to be leading a rather charmed life.  I am being asked to help out in their research, perform tests, assist in lab work and none of this is even what I originally came her for.  Its all a product of wonderful people in an encouraging environment determined to grow and learn together... This is the heart of true science.

A friendly face in the lab. Can you guess what animal?

Who's that guy with the short hair?

SCUBA Down Under

After having too much fun and excitement in Alaska I am now back home in good ole Chicago.  I've been back for a few weeks now and it's been very nice to decompress for a while, play a little disc golf and catch up on some movies.  I have also been interviewing for a host of new jobs.  A few days ago I got word back from one informing me that I have a new position to fill with Florida International University. 

Now for the exciting part... I will be going to Shark Bay, Australia and working on The Shark Bay Ecosystem Research Project.  Shark Bay is around 500 miles north of Perth on the west coast of Australia. Thats the side without the great barrier reef... bummer, but it is also home to one of the most complete undisturbed seagrass ecosystems and the world's largest Dugong population.  They have been working on a comprehensive study of this ecosystem for the last 12 years and now I get to throw my two cents in with it.

My position as a field assistant will entail catching sea turtles for measurements, building underwater exclosures to experiment on the grazing effects of dugongs, and anything else they need done.  As far as I can tell this may be anything from catching sharks to performing SCUBA based observations.

Australia will be amazing, I have no doubt.  The two top places on earth that I have always wanted to go to are New Zealand and Australia.  Now someone has hired me to actually go and work with them in Australia. Even the work will be something I have dreamed of doing for years.  It doesn't get better than that.  They will also be paying for my American Academy of Underwater Sciences diver certification.  This is a class designed for biological research that requires SCUBA. It is no joke, unlike some other scuba certification classes, and I will be spending three weeks in Miami working on it before I head down under.

Right now I am still working out all the details, signing all the papers and getting my stuff together but soon enough I will be moving west, moving south and living in an eternal summer.

Great Gardens

All of the other woofers and occupants of the farm have moved on now to other endeavors while I am left to run the it solo for about a week until the owners return.  It's good work and does not require excessive upkeep besides keeping the plants and animals fed and watered.  As long as the sheep don't escape, the birds aren't attacked by animals and the plants don't wither I am doing a good job.

I've also found that I have quite a bit of free time each day in between caring for the animals.  I am always looking to fill this time with something fun or productive.  One day I made it out across the bay to Halibut Cove, the most incredible town I have ever seen within the boundaries of the United States... of course it was so spur of the moment that in my haste I forgot my camera and now that experience is recorded solely within my mind.  The last few days I have been lucky enough to be working as a landscaper for a friends mom, and making some traveling money along the way.

She has a beautiful self-designed house located on a level mid-slope terrace overlooking the town of Homer.  The view from her house is gorgeous and the garden is pristine.  I feel fortunate to have been acquainted with her and even more-so to have been able to put a little of my own work into her garden.  Every day I worked there we had frequent visits from Bald Eagles and Moose.  Best of all, I got to learn some great gardening techniques and practices from one of the best. 

Looking right down the Homer spit.  What a view!

Working hard outside for great people and with a view like this... It will be very difficult to leave Homer.  In the short time I have already spent here I have come to feel quite comfortable... quite at home.  The place itself and the environment surrounding it fills me constantly with its picturesque beauty.  I love to talk with the "Homerians" who seem to possess this concrete bond with their home.  They understand how special their home is and those I have met don't take it for granted.  These people truly have their feet rooted firmly on the ground and the fruit of such a healthy connection with their land is made evident in the way they live.  Homer will always be a destination for my return and is already on the short-list of places I feel at home... of places I could live.  

Just one of the everyday Bald Eagle sightings

Gettin Baked

For breakfast Lunch and Dinner I have had a lot of time to experiment with different recipes both easy and complicated.  I do not have too much experience as a chef and to be honest cooking is just not my forte.  However I do love to bake.  I tend to make cookies and the occasional cake but have finally had the chance to really indulge my curiosity.  Thats easy when you have access to a full kitchen and ingredients supplied by someone else.

Before

I started with some basic bread, a loaf of whole wheat bread.  It was rather dense and tough.  Next I tried to experiment more by using the same basic recipe and adding a few things to end up with a chocolate and orange zest loaf of bread.  That one turned out delicious but still not quite as fluffy I would have liked so i decided to change it up.  I made some pizza dough and baked a delicious mustard and veggie pizza (Thanks to my brother Noah for the mustard idea).  It was perfect and i received lot of compliments on that one.  Due to the success I tried another pizza, this time in the Italian style with a few eggs on top. It was good but lacked the spicy kick and added moistness of the previous mustard based one.

After

Before

This is when I decided to really go nuts.  I started making dough before I knew what I wanted to do with it.  I started cranking out loaves, garlic bread and an apple pie, my new favorite.  The entire time I was making the pie i didn't think it was going to work.  The dough looked to sticky, the apples didn't seem cooked, the filling looked too liquidy but in the end it turned out just right.  I was so excited at my successful and first attempt at a pie that I had to show it off.

What should I bake next?  Any ideas?

After

Homer Homesteader

After meeting some of the local Homerians, Matt, Andrew and I were taken on a beautiful hike down the homestead trail to see a couple long since abandoned cabins.  One was quite old, though I'm not sure how old, and the other had been abandoned sometime in the 70's or 80's.  Even the hike itself was great with Andrew and Matt rocking on the banjo and mandolin as we walked a long.  We spent a good amount of time checking out the old places, stumbling across things like old National Geographic Magazines, poetry written by the former occupant, albums, ancient cars and a host of all other items in and around the houses.

Andrew, Me and Matt

The Really Old House

The Not-Quite-So-Old House

Wish I could fix up this old thing and take it home.

It's No Small Wonder

Here are some more pictures of the Small Wonder Farm and a few projects we are working on.

Dewrise

Featherlegs perched in a warm spot. Poor rooster

As Matt, another woofer at the farm, was clearing weeds away from a nearby trail he happened upon a small and adorable little rabbit.  It had hopped out from its hiding place and sat motionless on the edge of the path.  Matt scooped it up and brought it back in hopes we might give it a safe home.  It was fun to see and to hold but we all decided that it would be best to send the little guy on his way.  Rabbits are not an endangered species and do not need help in keeping their numbers up.  This little rabbit might have the most adapted genes of his population and deserves the chance to move them along.

A new set of front steps to greet the very, very-few people that stop by.  The completed set will be flanked with rocks and pebbles on both sides

A photo of the irrigation system I worked out for our garden.  The tarp suspended on wood poles catches rainwater and directs it into the garbage can.  From there the water flows into a hose and down to a forked unit that controls the flow and diverts the water through other hoses to the various raised beds.