07 May 2017 - Stuck in the Mud
Almost up to date!
Yesterday was day 73 with escitalopram.
Mood: 6.
'Twas another day in the field for me. I woke up before my alarm, eased into consciousness around 5:36am, and the initial annoyance evaporated when I realized that this gave me ample time to eat an unhurried breakfast, which consisted of a veggie sandwich and...something else. I can't recall.
Anyway, I met with some other team members a little after 7, and finally made it to the research site around 7:45 after getting a bit lost and turned around a couple times. We kind of just pulled off onto the side of the road and trekked into a field - a very wet, very, VERY muddy field. After a while, I stopped attempting to avoid puddles, as my feet were completely soaked through anyway. The more irritating thing was the dew coating everything - after about five minutes of walking through the grasses and agricultural weeds, the fronts of my jeans were soaked from knee to ankle.
To speed things up some, my team of four split into two smaller groups, with each pair doing one field. My partner and I set out pan traps on our field - sixty total, with two ~50m transects of 15 traps each on each half of the field - and then waited for the other pair to finish, since their site was a good three quarter miles away.
All four of us set out traps on the roadside connecting the two sites, which was tons of fun. It was literally a roadside on 148 and there were cars whipping by, there was tons of vetch and rose, which made trying to walk a thorny adventure (getting smacked in the crotch by multiflora rose is NOT fun, unless you're into that kind of thing; no judgement from me if you are) and there were good-sized clumps of either giant hogweed or wild parsnip everywhere. I can tolerate the threat of getting hit by a car and the annoyance of prickly, ankle-grabby vines, but plants that exude sap that can cause scarring wasn't on my list of things to deal with yesterday. I tried to be extraordinarily careful to avoid all of it.
My partner and I spent the next hour or so hand netting that field while the other two did vegetative surveys, which was great because there was literally nothing out bee wise. All I ended up catching was some small leps and a wasp, which was incredibly disappointing. A healthy four or five mosquitoes found me, though, which was good fun. On the bright side, I saw a frog in the field, and it was chill enough to not immediately run when I got near enough to pick it up and snap a couple photos.
Lunch and netting of the roadside followed. Even though there were a lot of flowers - Erigeron, red clover, corn salad, some big Shasta daisy-looking things - I didn't see a single bee, which was odd.
All four of us drove over two the second field (eventually, I'm going to take note of their numbers so that I can stop calling them all "the field") to repeat the process. It was much more active - I caught quite a few things, including a cuckoo bee! - but also much wetter, with the center of the field being almost a swamp. Any reservations I had about getting dirty evaporated once I got there, splashing a bit more mud onto my jeans with each step. The sun and heat were beginning to get to me, though - I never bring enough water, and ended up being forced to trek back to the pickup and sit in the shade, or risk passing out and never being found by my team. There were some small amphibians hopping around, and I chased one into my net for closer inspection, as I tend to. The toad that I caught was rather small, and very angry about my holding it, struggling and pushing at me the whole time, though not peeping at all.
Our attempt to leave the site was where things got really fun. While attempting to turn around, my professor (did I mention that my professor was on this team?) got us dug into some mud. And when I say "dug in", I mean that one back tire was buried almost to the axle. In mud that you could probably throw into a nice vase on a potter's wheel. So, I did what I could to contribute to the rescue operation, got out of the truck, and started pushing. The three of us all pushing the back of this truck did absolutely nothing to help, though - it only seemed to make the problem worse. Chris, the only guy on this team, attempted to manually dig out the tires some with a thick branch, but to no avail.
Eventually, the decision was made that it would be best if my partner from the morning and I walked back over to the first field so that we could finish it while help arrived to get the vehicle unstuck. Normally, that wouldn't bother me, but it was heating up, and I was already dehydrated; however, I wasn't about to slow the team down. A little garter snake surprised us on the walk, and it did its best to scare me off, hissing and shaking the tip of its little tail. Naturally, I picked it up, and more naturally, I carried it around for about 45 minutes. The little guy eventually relaxed enough to explore my sleeves, which was an interesting feeling to say the least - have you ever had a wild snake probing near your armpit?
After what felt like forever, we all regrouped, pickup freed from its muddy prison, and met up with the other team that was out. Equipment was counted and checked, and we parted ways, with me riding with my professor and the postdoc I'm fond of. I got dropped off at the library.
Every bone in my body wanted to lay down, but I had a gift to deliver, as yesterday was Favorite Person's birthday, and I come from a gift-giving family. She liked her fluffy stuffed cow, and truth be told, I was a bit sad to give it away. It was a very cute cow, and I really like stuffed animals.
Nothing particularly interesting happened the rest of the day - I took a hot shower, checked myself over (no ticks, but plenty of mosquito bites), ate too much for dinner, studied, and went to bed too late.
It's looking like each day's post is just gonna have to go up the day after. I'm too tired to try to get myself 100% caught up tonight.
Until then.
08 May 2017
Yesterday was day 73 with escitalopram.
Mood: 6.
'Twas another day in the field for me. I woke up before my alarm, eased into consciousness around 5:36am, and the initial annoyance evaporated when I realized that this gave me ample time to eat an unhurried breakfast, which consisted of a veggie sandwich and...something else. I can't recall.
Anyway, I met with some other team members a little after 7, and finally made it to the research site around 7:45 after getting a bit lost and turned around a couple times. We kind of just pulled off onto the side of the road and trekked into a field - a very wet, very, VERY muddy field. After a while, I stopped attempting to avoid puddles, as my feet were completely soaked through anyway. The more irritating thing was the dew coating everything - after about five minutes of walking through the grasses and agricultural weeds, the fronts of my jeans were soaked from knee to ankle.
To speed things up some, my team of four split into two smaller groups, with each pair doing one field. My partner and I set out pan traps on our field - sixty total, with two ~50m transects of 15 traps each on each half of the field - and then waited for the other pair to finish, since their site was a good three quarter miles away.
All four of us set out traps on the roadside connecting the two sites, which was tons of fun. It was literally a roadside on 148 and there were cars whipping by, there was tons of vetch and rose, which made trying to walk a thorny adventure (getting smacked in the crotch by multiflora rose is NOT fun, unless you're into that kind of thing; no judgement from me if you are) and there were good-sized clumps of either giant hogweed or wild parsnip everywhere. I can tolerate the threat of getting hit by a car and the annoyance of prickly, ankle-grabby vines, but plants that exude sap that can cause scarring wasn't on my list of things to deal with yesterday. I tried to be extraordinarily careful to avoid all of it.
My partner and I spent the next hour or so hand netting that field while the other two did vegetative surveys, which was great because there was literally nothing out bee wise. All I ended up catching was some small leps and a wasp, which was incredibly disappointing. A healthy four or five mosquitoes found me, though, which was good fun. On the bright side, I saw a frog in the field, and it was chill enough to not immediately run when I got near enough to pick it up and snap a couple photos.
Lunch and netting of the roadside followed. Even though there were a lot of flowers - Erigeron, red clover, corn salad, some big Shasta daisy-looking things - I didn't see a single bee, which was odd.
All four of us drove over two the second field (eventually, I'm going to take note of their numbers so that I can stop calling them all "the field") to repeat the process. It was much more active - I caught quite a few things, including a cuckoo bee! - but also much wetter, with the center of the field being almost a swamp. Any reservations I had about getting dirty evaporated once I got there, splashing a bit more mud onto my jeans with each step. The sun and heat were beginning to get to me, though - I never bring enough water, and ended up being forced to trek back to the pickup and sit in the shade, or risk passing out and never being found by my team. There were some small amphibians hopping around, and I chased one into my net for closer inspection, as I tend to. The toad that I caught was rather small, and very angry about my holding it, struggling and pushing at me the whole time, though not peeping at all.
Our attempt to leave the site was where things got really fun. While attempting to turn around, my professor (did I mention that my professor was on this team?) got us dug into some mud. And when I say "dug in", I mean that one back tire was buried almost to the axle. In mud that you could probably throw into a nice vase on a potter's wheel. So, I did what I could to contribute to the rescue operation, got out of the truck, and started pushing. The three of us all pushing the back of this truck did absolutely nothing to help, though - it only seemed to make the problem worse. Chris, the only guy on this team, attempted to manually dig out the tires some with a thick branch, but to no avail.
Eventually, the decision was made that it would be best if my partner from the morning and I walked back over to the first field so that we could finish it while help arrived to get the vehicle unstuck. Normally, that wouldn't bother me, but it was heating up, and I was already dehydrated; however, I wasn't about to slow the team down. A little garter snake surprised us on the walk, and it did its best to scare me off, hissing and shaking the tip of its little tail. Naturally, I picked it up, and more naturally, I carried it around for about 45 minutes. The little guy eventually relaxed enough to explore my sleeves, which was an interesting feeling to say the least - have you ever had a wild snake probing near your armpit?
After what felt like forever, we all regrouped, pickup freed from its muddy prison, and met up with the other team that was out. Equipment was counted and checked, and we parted ways, with me riding with my professor and the postdoc I'm fond of. I got dropped off at the library.
Every bone in my body wanted to lay down, but I had a gift to deliver, as yesterday was Favorite Person's birthday, and I come from a gift-giving family. She liked her fluffy stuffed cow, and truth be told, I was a bit sad to give it away. It was a very cute cow, and I really like stuffed animals.
Nothing particularly interesting happened the rest of the day - I took a hot shower, checked myself over (no ticks, but plenty of mosquito bites), ate too much for dinner, studied, and went to bed too late.
It's looking like each day's post is just gonna have to go up the day after. I'm too tired to try to get myself 100% caught up tonight.
Until then.
08 May 2017
Comments
Post a Comment