Friday, 4-18-08

Friday was a half-work day. That was a good thing since it was raining. The idea of spending an entire day working 'in the field' while it was raining really wasn't terribly tempting.

Naturally I wore my jacket that didn't have a hood that day; everyone else had their hoods on and kept a little drier than me. I decided that the rain wasn't too bad. It was steady so it wasn't too bad; sort of like running in the rain.
We checked our 100 traps again. My first 10 traps produced 1 vole. It was a recapture--I get the feeling that this curious little mammal had learned a new source of food and shelter.
After we saw everyone's traps, we collected our 10 traps (each). We couldn't collect them while we were checking them because we had to release the animals where they were trapped. If we had moved the traps, we would have lost our frame of reference and may not have every found the vole's territory.
We then moved to our next 10 traps. I hit the jackpot. I had 4 traps full. The bad news was that I had to navigate my way through fallen trees and dense underbrush with four little cages.

While emptying the traps, we discovered we had finally caught mice!!! We had three mice. Of course the videos will be posted.

Triumphantly we returned home with our mice videos. This was the day we were going to contact our school classes.
What a disaster that was.
We had been able to contact our classes the previous day--at the very end of the day--to tell them that we would be calling some time between 12 and 1:30pm. That is all we were able to say so there was no preparation time. I had no idea what I would say.
Naturally when I called it was a novelty and they just wanted to say hi rather than listen or ask questions. I think the videos when we're out working are a much better tool for communication about what we're doing because there is less disruption in the classroom and we can continue doing our jobs in the field.

Dinner was early--Chris cooked--because we were headed out for a night of laundry and 'pubbing'. Liverpool is about a 30 minute drive from the house so off we went.
The laundromat was crowded--almost all of the dryers were full. One dryer in had a pair of boxers with red lips that said something like "hot lips" or something. We were hoping someone would show up to claim them. After 20 minutes waiting for our wash cycle, we decided that we could leave the dryers going and head off to explore the 'town'.
There really wasn't much to see--sort of like exploring Montgomery or a smaller town. We walked to a boat ramp and stared across the river. After wasting time we headed back to the laundromat/gas station/store/restaurant to check for Hot Lips (and our laundry).
Our laundry was done but no one was there to claim the boxers. We folded our clothes and as we were preparing to leave, in walked two young men in their late teens. They claimed all of the dryers (approximately 8). I suspect that they were doing laundry for the entire family. They threw all of the clothes into large trash bags and hopped into a waiting cab. So much for our mystery.

With laundry complete, it was time to hit the pub. Upon entering the bar, we discovered there was a band scheduled to play--Train Reverie or Train Reverie (check out the website--they were great, eclectic folk). The band had hired some guys to make a documentary of the tour they were doing. They were video taping and taking lots of pictures. Erin, the teacher from Arizona, dared Brie to ask about being a videographer (sp?). After some double and triple daring being exchanged, Erin headed over to the video crew (two guys) and started to talk to them. After several minutes she had the (very expensive) video camera in her hands and was filming the band!! Shortly after that she made her mark on the evening--I'm sure we completely embarrassed the quiet scientists who were with us. I was going to post Erin's surprise performance but the file was too big.

The drive home was dark and dreary--the rain had started again and everything was slick. They don't have street lights here so you drive slowly and look carefully. As we neared home we quickly came up on a young (yearling) porcupine slowly crossing the road. They have absolutely no rush in their step. As our 15 passenger van careened towards him, he continued walking his slow and methodical pace across the road. Chris braked heavily and attempted to straddle him (swerving would have either flipped us or put us in the deep ditch--neither would have produced a good outcome for us). I didn't see him and I also didn't feel a bump of us hitting him. Christina (other scientist) was worried that we had hit him; luckily Chris saw him continuing his walk as though nothing had happened.

It was late when we arrived home (after midnight) but we all got out the computers and sat at the dinner table downloading pictures. I'll see what I can post.
At the moment no videos will upload. I'll try to do another post.