summer summary

As a college student again, I get these long summers that stretch from the tail end of April to late August. Without classes, it’s the time to catch up and make headway on research projects. Many of my classmates in the School of Forestry are away at exotic locations doing the brunt of their fieldwork. Our lab is more local, working mostly in springs, forested watersheds, and Big Cypress. To do our research, there’s a fair bit of construction and working on electronics down at the compound.

Many days, folks are down at the compound, so the carrels are quiet, especially in the morning. Without classes chopping up the day, I get large chunks of time to write. Ultimately I’m working on my proposal, but really, I’ve been doing a literature review. My dissertation topic – riverine respiration dynamics – is not something I’m explicitly studying in any of my classes, so I’m learning on my own. The one synthesis book that I have found about aquatic respiration has chapters about oceans, estuaries, and lakes, but not rivers. I depend, instead, on journal papers, most of them published within the last decade. Each paper is narrow in its focus, so I don’t often have the context. I look up the paper’s citations, scan those papers, which may lead me to other papers that I don’t understand, so again I look up citations, etc. Days later, I realize I’ve wandered far down this path of a related concept, but I’ve got to wander back to my dissertation topic. Now that I’m back to my topic, where do I go next? What are the gaps in my understanding? What kinds of information would be relevant? There’s no textbook when you’re pushing the boundary of knowledge: In fact, you’re the one having to synthesize and evaluate information, which ironically is the opposite of what school has been thus far. [Note: This is only the literature review. I still have to lay out what I’m going to do in my own research project and defend it.]

So the proposal has been my main project this summer. I’ve been helping to get a nutrient enrichment project online at the springs. I also put together my own sensor suite and did a little exploring with it on Silver River. I feel like I’ve been working hard when I’ve been here, but this doesn’t sound like much. I probably need to be collecting more data and should be further along on my proposal. I also can’t put off any longer planning for the Environmental Science Lab I’m teaching this fall.

Perhaps all the working through the weekend doesn’t make up for the breaks, though. Oh well, because I wouldn’t give up these visits to see family and friends and to maintain those connections.

In late May, I celebrated Chen-Yee’s graduation from Harvard Business School with her family and mine. Led by history buff Grant, we walked the entire Freedom Trail. I enjoyed getting to know Chen-Yee’s parents and older sister, who had flown over from Malaysia. After they left for more sight-seeing in the big cities, Mommy, Grant, and I toured Harvard and MIT. I never did a tour of colleges back when I was applying, so this was my chance. I extended my stay further to visit Norin and Fahim and meet the twins. Every morning I was greeted by two happy babies sitting in baskets clamped to the kitchen island, milk and soggy Cheerios everywhere. There’s lots of love in their brick townhouse.

During the first weekend of June, our lab spent three days/ two nights paddling the lower Santa Fe and Suwannee Rivers. Nelson and Paul planned it, but almost our entire lab joined in, plus Matt and Uwharrie. On our first day, Nelson insisted that we visit every major spring, never mind the throng of humanity screaming, splashing, and milling around each one. We were dumped on by two thunderstorms, which quickly cleared out the springs and gave us a chance to enjoy them by ourselves. On the second day, Jing discovered rope swings. They made great breaks to the long paddling miles. We camped at Turtle Spring that night and made calzones. I noticed that we’re all quieter people, but we like each other, work well together, and share interests. It’s a great lab to be part of.

The next weekend, Jesse and I caught a ride with his mom down to South Florida. We visited Christen and Rodney and their three extroverted kids. (Another rubber band: We’re all back in Florida.) Christen cheerfully drives everyone around in the mini-van, and her kids can’t wait for the next adventure. They also love the pool. And since they so sweetly greet the neighbor, she brings by ripe mangoes from her tree for all of us to enjoy.

In early July, I took a week off to take the Hydric Soils short course with Tracey and Paul. (Speaking of, I still need to complete my exam…) It’s probably the only time I’ll have the commute advantage to class since it took place out at the teaching forest. The afternoon field sessions were rough in the summer heat and humidity, but they were really valuable. I liked soils so much I borrowed an auger from legendary Wade Hurt to take with me up to NC.

Stripped matrix is a hydric soils indicator.

The latest vacation was a roadtrip to North Carolina and Virginia in mid-July, and I’ll send you over to Matt’s blog for photos. In addition to the adventures and wonderful friends he writes about, I was able to see Frindy and Maureen and Jim, however briefly.

The impetus for this roadtrip was that Matt was speaking at the ATC biennial conference in Winchester, VA. He was able to publish his book Fast, Light and Free in time for the talk, which is no small feat. (While Matt wrote his book, I wrote my proposal, and Uwharrie bemoaned the fact that both of us were glued to our respective “silver boxes”.) Matt read excerpts from his book and spoke passionately at the conference about his self-supported record hike, and the audience gave him a hearty, extended applause. When he has a goal, Matt is on fire and he achieves great things. I am so proud of my husband.

It’s good to be home for the rest of summer. After relaxing today, I’m enthused to go back to work on Monday.

CO2 as a solute

This is a three-minute presentation I did for Wetland Hydrology class last semester, which happened to be taped. I was told outsiders couldn't access the class link, so I've gone ahead and uploaded my bit. It gives you the flavor of my dissertation work so far.

a politician I respect

I thought I'd get Dad on a roll by asking him about the 2016 presidential candidates. I'm wary of our current choices, and turns out I don't really want to talk about them. A shame because there's such a potential to inspire if politicians would only lead and serve, which are one and the same. 

watching children develop

Cora and I built Silver River because I was describing my job to her. She added saw palmetto and a magnolia tree, remembering what Uncle Matt told her about Florida. Since I worked in nature, she consulted her Bernstein Bears Book of Nature and decided we should have a waterfall, too -- hence the blue mountain in the center. I enjoyed watching Cora make connections and use resources to find information. Plus, she was willing to tackle building something that was someone else's idea, and she really got into it.

Penny, meanwhile, has been all about "self" (doing it herself), and the only times I saw her cry were when there wasn't enough time to "self". After watching her get into her car seat and buckle up by herself, I cinched up my small pack and challenged Penny to put on a backpack by herself. She was able to, so I suggested that we go on a hike in the front yard. Penny wanted to bring Baby (her doll) in the backpack, just like her mom carried her for hikes. She climbed the mulch mountain by herself and crossed the pebbled river, and when we stopped to rest, she let Baby down and into her lap, just like her mom does.

There are just glimpses into children growing up. Like 2013, it looks like there will be another round of babies in 2015.

birthday boy

Grant enjoys sleeping in on the weekends. This particular Sunday, however, his sister and brother-in-law are visiting -- and they're on east coast time. They've been up since six thirty, using his internet, and scheming. As he rises from the latest REM cycle, he has no inkling what awaits him on the other side of the bedroom door….

The challenge was that Grant and I - using public transportation - were going to race Matt - running - from Grant's apartment in the city to the Mountain Home Inn in Marin County. Then we'd hike together to the top of Mt. Tam, which overlooks the San Francisco Bay.

One of the many great things about Grant is that we can lay out this plan to him while he's still in the fog of waking up, and he's game!

Matt is out the door in no time at all. Grant and I are not too far behind, confident in our gas-powered advantage. We decide to enjoy the city and walk to the Golden Gate Bridge on this beautiful morning. I stop to take photos and smell eucalyptus groves, Grant admires solar panels and sailboats, and we pick up freebies at a promotional fair. The Golden Gate Bridge is always in our line of sight, but at this lax pace, it's hardly growing larger.

Suddenly, my phone rings. Matt has reached Muir Woods, only a handful of trail miles below the Mountain Home Inn. We might lose?!

Grant picks up the pace, and soon we pop out on the bridge. Once we figure out the location of the bus stop, our bus arrives within a minute. We ride it to Marin City, where the next bus arrives within ten minutes. We hop on and wind up the Panoramic Highway. The bus drops us off at the inn's doorstep, a mere two minutes before Matt runs up. Grant and I barely have enough time to snap the victory photo above.

Before hiking up, all three of us leisurely eat lunch on the inn's deck. It is warm, but dry, quiet, and feels far from the city. The bay is beautiful from the top of Mt. Tam and also quiet. Grant leads the way in running down the other side of the mountain, through manzanita shrubs and dark redwood groves. We catch the infrequent bus heading back towards the bay, and all are grateful to sit and ride. We joke that Grant had taken Monday off to recover.

Once again, our layover in Marin City is only a minute or two. Those of us that ride buses know how rare that is. The fact that our timing has been so good during this entire adventure is an auspicious sign for the year ahead.

It was wonderful to spend your birthday with you, Grant!

a week of birthday

Anticipating an upcoming birthday, I asked the older wise man - aka Matt - what it feels like to be 33. "A cross between 32 and 34," he replied sagely. "You'll see."

I've enjoyed turning 33 with my older, wiser playmate. He's also quicker at posting, so scroll through his blog for more sailing and underground spring photos.

rubber band

Gainesville is a large small town, an anomaly in its part of the state, and wouldn't be on most people's radar except for the university. It took me until my senior year to see the town that is separate from UF, and I came close to staying. Sara came to Gainesville for college and stayed. I left, but by some fluke, I'm back, unintentionally but happy to be here. On my first Wednesday back, I wandered through the downtown farmer's market and recognized Amy selling produce in one of the stands. Months later, I'm picking through garlic at Wards, and Ryan approaches to see if I'm the old friend he recognizes. Jesse, too, has pulled his whole workshop down here and is using Gainesville as a home base. He says Joe is around for a little while longer, but I'd have to go to the pool at six in the morning to catch him. We come back, it seems.

After eleven years, Liz returns to Gainesville, too, for a short visit. We try to explain to our husbands why we're so fond of this town, not just the university, but I'm afraid it looks quite plain in their eyes.