PT (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} annapt) wrote,@ 2006-07-14 06:23:00 |
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california is pretty fantastic.
i have never seen so many stars as i did last night. the pictures on the website do hastings no justice at all. it's glorious here. it gets up to 100 in the daytime but down to 60 at night, with no humidity at all (therefore sweating is actually functional).
yesterday we drove down here from davis. it was a long drive, but it was quite pretty. the last leg of it, from carmel valley village to the reserve, is only 13 miles but it's so winding and frightening that it takes about 40 minutes. it's breathtaking.
we did our first field work on wednesday, at a ranch near petaluma. we drove through wine country to get there. everything is grapes there and every street has a sign for a tasting room or restaurant. it's very weird. the field work was very tiring, but i got relatively good at finding the nest inside a wood rat stick house, with my arm in up to the shoulder and a big air filtration mask on and gloves and lots of clothing to avoid poison oak, which is EVERYWHERE. i managed to evade it and as of yet i have no poison oak dermatitis. the procedure on coming in from the field involves a shower with tecnu soap.
we're going to head out into the field around 7 today, which is really too late, because by 11:30 it will be too hot to work outside. we would be leaving at 5 or earlier, but we were up late last night grocery shopping. my room here is really cozy and homelike, but it was difficult to sleep last night, mainly because of the night sounds of the woods and the fact that i woke up at 2 shivering. i should have brought a bigger blanket, or closed my window before i went to sleep. of course, i could have put on more clothing, but i'm on a rather precarious top bunk and getting down was too much of an undertaking for 2 am. i would have slept on the bottom bunk, but the bottoms are double beds and the sheets i brought sadly don't fit them. ah well.
i'm off to make myself breakfast (a bowl of wheaties, most likely). i'll probably post more after we return from the field and shower and eat.
i have never seen so many stars as i did last night. the pictures on the website do hastings no justice at all. it's glorious here. it gets up to 100 in the daytime but down to 60 at night, with no humidity at all (therefore sweating is actually functional).
yesterday we drove down here from davis. it was a long drive, but it was quite pretty. the last leg of it, from carmel valley village to the reserve, is only 13 miles but it's so winding and frightening that it takes about 40 minutes. it's breathtaking.
we did our first field work on wednesday, at a ranch near petaluma. we drove through wine country to get there. everything is grapes there and every street has a sign for a tasting room or restaurant. it's very weird. the field work was very tiring, but i got relatively good at finding the nest inside a wood rat stick house, with my arm in up to the shoulder and a big air filtration mask on and gloves and lots of clothing to avoid poison oak, which is EVERYWHERE. i managed to evade it and as of yet i have no poison oak dermatitis. the procedure on coming in from the field involves a shower with tecnu soap.
we're going to head out into the field around 7 today, which is really too late, because by 11:30 it will be too hot to work outside. we would be leaving at 5 or earlier, but we were up late last night grocery shopping. my room here is really cozy and homelike, but it was difficult to sleep last night, mainly because of the night sounds of the woods and the fact that i woke up at 2 shivering. i should have brought a bigger blanket, or closed my window before i went to sleep. of course, i could have put on more clothing, but i'm on a rather precarious top bunk and getting down was too much of an undertaking for 2 am. i would have slept on the bottom bunk, but the bottoms are double beds and the sheets i brought sadly don't fit them. ah well.
i'm off to make myself breakfast (a bowl of wheaties, most likely). i'll probably post more after we return from the field and shower and eat.
