FOR 480 Web Journal
Week of February 18-22, 2008
By: Adrian Hudson
This
week in the field we were proud to have Dr. Chris Barton from the
Matt and Allan taking DBH measurements
Our goal for this week was to get as many points finished as possible because time is the limiting factor that is working against us. We have many more points to finish and are making time outside of class to get back to Cleft’s Rock to collect our data.
The biggest challenge of the week for all of us was to get as many points finished as possible. It has been stressful and overwhelming.
Dr. Cushing and Dr. Lhotka enjoying the outdoors
Dr. Cushing and Dr. Lhotka were providing help for my group this week and were keeping us entertained.
We are working hard every time we step in the woods and it’s hard to believe that we have had terrible weather every Tuesday. If its not raining then an ice storm or a snowstorm is coming. This is the first week yet where we have had weather with no precipitation. We were thankful for dry weather although it was still cold and windy. Wind was pushing 20 to 30 miles per hour on this day.
The forces of nature versus man
As you can see Allan looks happy in this picture but he wasn’t happy when our group heard a roar coming from the steep mule’s face slope below us. It was Allan who hit a green briar patch and tore his nose open as well as his jaw. He claimed this was the most embarrassing moment he had ever experienced in the woods. He dug out two briars from his left nostril and we even had to break out the first aid kit for the bleeding.
Everyone learned from this experience. We avoided steep slopes containing green briar the rest of the day. One thing we are going to change for next week is to start packing a machete in our backpacks.
The best part of the week was the comedy and knowing that we had accomplished getting more work done.