Sampling Trip Success

Wow, the days go by fast when you have lots of work to do.

I had a good week of sample collecting in Phoenix with my professor. It seems like a week but actually was only 3 days, or about 54 hours. Anyway. It actually rained while we were there but that didn't affect the sample collecting. We collected samples from 9 sites. And now I have 27 bottles of samples to analyze. That is a pretty lengthly process. Here are the first few stages that I am beginning to do now that I am back in town...

I am separating the water from the dirt by centrifuging the samples. This gets most of the water out, it is still mud but drier. After that I acidify the water so that it will not grow anything (add acid until it is pH of 1.5ish). That sounds simple but we collected sample in large bottles because I need a lot for all the different experiments that I am going to do and so I have to move them from large to small bottles. This gets more complicated because I have to use new gloves, spoon and everything else each time I move because I want no cross contamination. This leads to more dish doing and preparation to just do this first step of my sample preparation. Well anyway it is fun and after two days of work (about 9 hours, because I still have school work to do as well) I now have 1/3 of the samples drying.

Anyway things are looking good for the Lab work to be getting down around the time our second child is born. That is going to be a big deal in a small package that I hope to give full attention to.

All the while Zachariah is now developing a picky eating habit. This is the 18 month old that went from eating 2 cups of oatmeal a day as well as a few eggs for breakfast down to half a peanut butter sandwich a few bites of enchiladas and half an egg for the whole day. I guess he will eat when he is hungry.

Well that is about all that is running to mind today, I am going to shove off and head home for my favorite part of the day, the walk. That is sure relaxing to get out and walk and talk to my lover and kid.

Have fun and enjoy,

Chris

Pre Sampling Jitters

Well I am about to head out on my sampling trip for my research project. I have been trying to get schedules and permits set up for 9 months and now we are about to head out. I am actually quite excited. Anyway things are well. I will get to spend some real quality time with my adviser all the way to Phoenix.

The trip is pretty simple. We are going to go and collect dirt samples which I will learn to love a lot before I finally graduate. This is a big step in me getting done and actually being able to graduate on time next May.

I will update on how things are going when I can in the next few days.

Anyhow, now is the time for me to go and load up the truck for us to leave on time...

Well what a day. I am surprised that time goes by so fast. So much for once a week on the posting. I have quickly gone to a month. Argh.

This picture represents alot of what I did all summer long to get the opportunity to easily photograph all summer long in such a wonderful and beautiful place.

This picture is what else I did besides work. I camped alot. It was alot of fun. This is one campout that Jenny (my sister) and I did to a lake called Island Lake in the Ruby Valley Mountains in Northern Nevada. It was amazing to be able to camp on a weekend all alone 2 miles from the road. Wow.

This is a picture that was a story in itself. Alison and I were taking pictures of a rock band and relaxing one evening because we had a babysitter for the evening. Just after the sun had set and things were getting "soft" for the evening a Bighorn Sheep jumped up on to the rock right next to Alison. This picture was taken with a wide angle lense. She was only actually about 7 feet from the sheep. It just walked up checked us out for a minute and then strolled away. Wow. This may have been our real big jaw dropper for the summer. Wow.

This is just our child when he was so much smaller. Wow. This was taken on the first week of August at about 9 months for him. Yes this is another adventure that we were on. This time it was Dad and Son and Mom was sleeping in. Great times...