Day 7 August 11, 2009

This morning I worked in the lab with Peri Mason (female with a familiar name only the male version), PhD student from Wesleyan University CT under the direction of Mike Singer, biologist. She showed me how to process specimens that are stored in baggies. You have to dump out the contents of the baggie onto a beat sheet (how we collect them when we beat the bushes) and look for the number of cat. marked on the bag. Then you have to identify the plant if it's not already written on the bag.

Data is entered into an Excel spreadsheet with the specimen number, date collected in the field, location of collection or Plot number, plant species, common plant name, cat. species, and instar (which is the stage of its molt). Then you rebag the specimens and place them aside so Lee can take individuals pictures of each caterpillar. Then the bag gets taken into another lab where it is hung on the racks (see picture of John in red shirt taking a specimen off the rack).

Since I don't know Arizona plants, this was a challenge. But Peri is a very patient person and positive in her appreciation of my assistance. She always gives me congrats when I find a very cryptic cat. (Do you remember the definition of this word???). Tim eventually joined us. He received his master's degree under Mike Singer and will eventually start his Phd program. He just said he's tired of being a student at this time and will work in a lab in Colorado. Anyway, having 3 people process specimens makes this challenging job go faster and more efficient.

During the morning, I kept my laptop on and sent emails to Dave our Tech Specialist, and Ann our Media Specialist, at Westgate Elementary, to call me on Skype. My computer "rang" about 11 am and I was SO EXCITED to hear and see a familiar face! As we talked, I picked up my computer so the webcam would show around the lab and they saw Tim, Peri, and Lee in the background processing specimens. This is a wonderful piece of technology that I hope to use again in the future. Everyone should have a webcam so they can communicate with family and friends (for free!).

Lee gave everyone the afternoon "off" of work, so we split into 2 groups according to choice of activity. After Lee drove us back to Cave Creek Ranch, some decided to walk to the Portal Store which is about 1.2 miles towards the east. The rest of us: Kathy, Judy, Junko, Suwoko (got her correct spelling tonight), Jenny, and I chose to walk on a trail towards Silver Peak. The trailhead is about 1 mile or so west of Cave Creek. When we arrived at the trailhead, the sign said it was 4 1/2 miles. We knew from our previous walk and given the time of day (3:00 pm) that we probably would not walk the entire way. I brought my GPS this time and marked waypoints at Cave Creek so we would know the elevation. I am still learning how to work it and I didn't know how to mark the distance we walked. I will upload some beautiful vistas on the blog so you can see the height we walked. We were only hiking about 2 hours when we arrived back to Cave Creek. As always, it was good to be "home sweet home" because my feet were tired.

Everyone had plans to go into town after dinner to the town of Rodeo for "entertainment". So we ate dinner in a hurry and while walking back to the van, Lee saw someone he knew that said our place of entertainment was only open Wednesday through Saturday. Jared especially was very sadden by this news. So we made alternative plans and drove to the Portal Store (see pictures) and went back to the ranch house at Cave Creek. Since there were 14 of us, the conversations were lively and engaging.......ranging from family news, exchanging addresses with Junko and Suwoko, to "shop talk" about school beginning.

As the evening wore on, people slowing started going outside to get ready for the meteor shower. There were many clouds which made it very difficult to see all of the night sky. Natalie saw the first shooting stars which got everyone in the mood, but the cloud cover and slow meteor action were disappointing. So we had to make do of the time by keeping conversations going. We had been asked to keep the noise level down while outside and considering we are all teachers who "talk for a living", this was one difficult task. John kept telling everyone to keep their voices to a "2" which meant on a scale of 1 - 10, very quiet. That sure didn't work for most of us. But I was able to remain quiet if any of you can believe that!?!?!?

Tonight's blog will be short because of our meteor shower event and the fact I did not have much time to journal today's events until later this evening. Please write comments! I appreciate your notes, even if they are just a "hello".
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