9 July 2012 A Day of Planning and Building

Journal

Moose on the side of the road — While we were running, this moose came out to greet us.

Catherine and Elizabeth on the run — It was a great day for a long slow run!

It was a crisp and clear morning when Elizabeth, Catherine, and I began our run. Both of the girls are training for marathons later this year, so they invited me to come along. Catherine needed to run 15 miles and Elizabeth 20 miles. We even came across a moose on the road that came toward us for a few moments, which made us stop and back up. There were no problems as he turned off and was happy to walk back in to the forest.

After we returned from the run the crew had gone out to the field site to begin point framing on the plots. I will explain how that works next week, as soon as I can get some experience with the process. As it turned out the wind was too strong to get the work done, so everyone returned to the cabin to talk and make adjustments in the plan.

Simon and Kirsten built metal frames for plant collection.

This was a great lesson on communication and cooperation. The wind presented several potential problems. The plants cannot be moving while the point framing is going on because you need to record the number of plants that touch a stick that has been lowered in to the plot. Also, there will be plants that are removed from some areas and the wind tends to scatter the smaller mosses and pieces. The team discussed what each one saw as an obstacle and everyone gave suggestions as to how the issue may be solved, with the materials on hand. Plus we needed to have a second frame built to increase productivity.

Ted and Elizabeth went over the winter data and talked about the CO2 sensors being used.

Catherine stringing the frame — Catherine is hard at work getting the lines ready to put into the frames.

Verity is drilling the frame — Verity was drilling out the frame so that the lines could be run across it.

They quickly divided up the duties and everyone was busy in a flash. Kirsten and Simon began measuring, cutting, and building metal frames for the plant collections. Elizabeth and Ted were involved with going over some winter data and looking at the CO2 sensors. Catherine was stringing a frame that Verity had drilled out and now she was building funnel holders for her nitrogen experiments. It was very exciting to see all of the work that was being accomplished after such a good planning session. Later the entire team sat together and went over the protocols and information that will be needed to complete the point framing work.

The amount of cooperation between everyone was wonderful to watch, and so much more could be done because of the sharing of ideas and knowledge that each member was bring to the conversation. I think this was a good lesson in learning and working together.

Then the three runners went to take showers in town!

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