Winter Ecology...days: 22, 23, 24, 25, 26

DAY 22 (Monday, January 25):

these last few days are going to be a bit monotonous, so prepare yourself. all day on monday we worked on our research papers. literally, all day, haha! the rough draft was due on the next day (tuesday) but i pushed our group to complete it and send it to him early-monday night. we were successful! yaaaaaay! that night, i chillaxed. it was bliss.

DAY 23 (Tuesday, January 26):

...we lazed around all day and slowly worked on completing our powerpoint presentation allllllllll day. the rest of the groups were rushing to complete their paper before the 5 pm deadline! our professor reviewed our papers to make sure they were ok and had all the right elements in them/facts/etc.. anywho, my research partner and i watched movies all day, too: "disney earth," "curious case of benjamin button"...and, we started watching "grumpy old men"...but, that movie's kind of weird, so we stopped.

DAY 24 (Wednesday/today!):

my day began at 9:30 am. a crisp, 0ºF day...slight breeze...snow falling...cloudy sky. we did beaver surveying again and observed the beauty of the fresh snowfall in the gorgeous itasca forest! we walked 2 miles on the trail, past pretty lakes and trees, we saw wolf tracks, A PORCUPINE!, slush...and then we trekked through knee deep snow for 0.5 miles until we reached a bog and climbed over a beaver dam...fell into a patch of snow on the other side of the beaver dam that was up to our armpits, swam out of that, and found the beaver lodge. we then used the gps to waypoint the lodge location, found that it was inactive, and walked back home. when we got back around 1 pm, we showered, i ate a really big omelet, drank orange juice out of the container (yup. i'm a rebel. don't worry, i don't do that at home.), and wrapped up our powerpoint presentation. then i watched the latest episode of "better off ted" and laughed really hard, ate some asparagus and pineapple for dinner (the omelet from lunch had filled me up lots!), and rehearsed our presentation with the group. now i'm typing this.

DAY 25 (tomorrow/Thursday):

i'm waking up at 7:30 to shower, then we're getting together at 9 am to rehearse our presentation one last time. then at 10, we're going to try to be the first to give our presentation...and then we get to meet Native Americans from White Earth Community College! professor said we're supposed to entertain them...but, i don't know what we're going to do. he said something about auguring a hole on the lake and looking at diatoms and zooplankton. that would be cool. anywho, THEN daddy is picking me up around 6 pm! I'M SUPER EXCITED! i'm leaving a day early...well...because i can. and the group is planning on having one last "fun" hoorah and i would rather spend time with dad. :)

DAY 26 (day after tomorrow <--yup, movie reference. hopefully the world won't try to end, though...):

we're driving home! but, on the way, we're picking up chris! and he's going to spend a couple of days with the family! it will be super duper fun! we're going to see "avatar" and eat lots of delicious food (i.e. mom's AMAZING broccoli casserole on saturday night, chris' perfect hot chocolate, marshmallow fluff <--my sugar addiction..., and HOPEFULLY sweet potatoes :P). chrispy, we're also going sledding! on the sleds my dad bought me that are meant for 4-yr. olds! yay! yup. i'm so excited to go home :) mom and dad and cooper'booger: i am SO excited to see you! SO EXCITED!!

So, that's it! This is probably my last blog post. If you would like a copy of the research paper I/my group wrote, email me: brennanc@stolaf.edu and I'll send you a copy! Thanks so much for reading this month! And for sending all the letters (everybody PLUS Mr. and Mrs. Corbett (I got your letter yesterday! Thank you so much!! <3) and JuniorMints (thanks Molly, Steve, Snickers, and Lucy!) :) I love you!

days: 19, 20, and 21

sorry about missing so many days! yikesabee!

DAY 19 (Friday, January 22):

we went lake surveying on 25 lakes (split into 3 groups)! i was with prof. umbanhowar and a visiting professor's group and we measured the ice depth, snow depth and lake depth (power auger, not hand auger...yesssss!). purpose: until the end of the world, itasca is going to monitor the effects of climate change on the area by keeping track of the lake measurements! cool, eh?! it was really exciting, too--on the way back, we found a (dead) barred owl on the side of the road...perfectly intact!! the professors threw it into the trunk of the car/right on top of my backpack (yup, momma, we'll be washin' it when i get home, haha!)! it's SO beautiful! i got video footage of the whole thing--pick-up and everything. AND pictures of the owl itself. then, that night, we ate homemade chili (courtesy of yours truly and bush's chili beans) and i did laundry and chilled with my research and computer while everybody else had "fun." i love relaxing nights :)

DAY 20:

set my alarm for 9:30...rolled out of bed around 11 :) then i went over to lab and did some more research/writing of the massive research paper (made tons of progress! yay!). NOTE: let me know if you would like me to email you a copy of the research paper after i'm done--i'd be more than happy to :) anyway, then last night we made stir-fry for dinner. the vegetarian stir-fry had onions in it...i still feel like i smell like onions. ohmygoodness. it's a smell that never goes away! i also discovered i have a talent: i don't cry when i cut onions! then we watched the movie "chocolat" and the guys played the game "settlers of catan." <--they are obsessed with that game. they left around 10 pm, we finished our movie around 11 pm. THEN the mischief started: we decided to construct a beaver lodge outside of the guy's cabin! we collected all of the sticks and waited til they went to sleep/all the cabin lights were off (NOTE: they didn't go to sleep until around 1 am (we saw them playing ANOTHER game of "settlers" through their window)...so, we went back to the cabin in the meantime/after collecting our building materials). we built the lodge by creating a massive base layer of snow, and then piling (discarded in a pile on the side of the road) large sapling trees in a teepee structure! and then we piled more snow on top so that it looked like a semi-active lodge. then we made a cache, took pictures, and ran away!! i fell asleep by 2:30 am. there's something so wonderful about (seemingly) being the only one(s) awake that early in the morning. it's so quiet, and just...magically peaceful. i love it. :)

DAY 21:

that's TODAY! set my alarm for 9:30...rolled out of bed around 11:20! ate an omelet and banana (yup, i ate a banana...*sigh*), showered, and got to lab by noon and worked on researching/writing my paper until 4:30! SO MUCH PROGRESS! i love writing papers that i like the topic of. it's like philosophy papers--i love writing them!! great conversation papers...not so much, but i can deal with writing them if i convince myself that the book/topic i'm writing about is the "greatest thing ever!"...it sometimes works. tonight is "fend for ourselves" dinner because 3 of the guys and 3 of the girls are traveling in a 5-seater Rav-4 to Bemidji to watch the vikings game (safe, huh?). i'm going to FINALLY upload my REALLY COOL photos and video from the past week and work some more on the research paper and maybs watch a movie :) tomorrow we're supposed to be at lab between 10 and 11 am--professor wants to see where we're at on our papers (we're pretty far--rough draft is due on tuesday; i/we'll be good). anywho! can't wait to come home! and, thank you mr. and mrs. easterling for the letter! OH! and thanks mandi, chuck, george, and charlie for the letter and picture (SO ADORABLE!! i can't wait to see the babies on march 28!!) :) love to all!

ALSO! I added 4 new photos--here's the link again: http://picasaweb.google.com/brennan.chloe/BloggerPictures#5430503947536893106

day: 18

helllooooooooooo!

chrispy!: we ended up not having to change our zooplankton sampling technique! yay! i can't remember if i posted our method for getting the plankters, but here it is:

Field:
-Before dawn, ski out to a pre-determined destination.
-Measure snow depth with a meter stick.
-Auger a hole in the ice.
-Measure the ice depth by placing the meter stick in the hole before the water floods up.
-Use the YSI probe to get measurements at the surface, 3 m, and 6 m.
-Using the Kemmerer, get a water sample from 3 m and place in one of the Liter sized bottles.
-Repeat process with Kemmerer at 6 m.
-Repeat all steps again at dusk.

Lab:
-Filter 125 mL of lake water sample through a 36 µm plankton net in a funnel, discarding the 125 mL of water.
-Evert the 36 µm plankton net in the funnel.
-Using 25 mL of diluted 95% ethanol, cleanse the filter into a 25-mL glass vial.
-Label the vial accordingly; place in container.
-Repeat 8 times per depth sample (3 m and 6 m), per time of day (dawn and dusk). For a day of sampling, one should have 32 25-mL glass vials filled. Total, there are 96 vials to count zooplankters in.

So far, we've found a significant number of plankters in the headwaters, then the west arm, and then the island. There's also a "reverse migration in wintertime" theory we're working on :)

ANYWHO, today i woke up at 8:50 am, ate breakfast (corn pops, strawberry jellied toast, and orange juice), and went over to lab ALL day to do research! seriously, SO MUCH FUN! i love researching. THEN we did our pm zooplankton sampling at the headwaters and showered and made spaghetti for dinner! then we sat around socializing and now i'm typing this. i'm fried. tomorrow we're going lake surveying (ice depth and snow depth at pre-determined gps locations--professor is keeping track of the changes at each location). we'll be done with that by 1 pm and then we can do some more researching on zooplankton. OH! AND it's FRIDAY tomorrow! i love friday. why? because it means i can focus on my project! OH! and i'm going to do laundry because i'm running out of underwear. LOVE! <(") <--penguin!!!

days: 16 & 17

DAY 16:
tuesday/yesterday was our tree quiz day! i think i did alright. i had lots of fun! i love memorizing things. it's also nice to not have it hanging over our heads--now we can focus on those silly little zooplankton buggers! last night we had "fend for yourself" dinner and then i showered and went back to lab to start research for the written portion of our final paper. then i went to a bonfire! and ate marshmallows! then i came back to the cabin and called mom and dad (stood outside for 45 minutes! brrrrrr! love you, mom and dad!) and some rando guy with 1 ski pole walked by (went in the cabin while THAT happened) and then went to sleep after making the "combined" grocery list for all 11 of us (the guys are making their last run to Bemidji tomorrow). yup.

DAY 17:
that's TODAY/wednesday! woke up at 5 am, was at lab by 5:30 am and we skied over to the middle of the west arm of itasca in the pitch black. we literally ended up in the middle of the west arm...with barely any light! the guy in our group is amazing at not using a gps and somehow ending up exactly where he needs to be. that takes talent. we got our samples and skiied back...my guiding abilities were once again proven when i insisted a peninsula was an island and that the lab couldn't possibly be in front of the island--i was certain it had to be the other light about 0.5 mile away. my group mates then told me to turn around--the island i was talking about was behind me. whoops. dad, i hope it's not a lost cause, but i could use some boy scout lessons in tracking and direction. after getting the samples, we filtered them and then went to sleep until around 11 am, ate lunch (omelet, toast with strawberry jelly, orange juice), and went back to lab around 12:30 pm to start counting our little zooplankters in each of the 96 20-mL bottles! then around 4:15 pm we took our pm samples at the west arm and then i took a shower and we fed the umbanhowars and some ice coring specialist pot roast, veggies, and cake. it was DELICIOUS! i made myself macaroni and cheese...for obvious reasons, haha! and now we're all sitting in a circle and the guys are telling us about the waitress they didn't tip and making farting noises with their hands. HA! it's funny. anyway, yup. that's all for now! love to all! :)

days: 14 & 15

DAY 14:
woke up at 5 am, did sampling on the lake by the headwaters, then came back and went to sleep til' 12:54 pm. after that, studied trees for a while, then went on a nature walk to identify trees in the field, then looked at our zooplankton samples underneath a microscope (turns out...there are no zooplankton in lake itasca). we talked to the prof about it and he is going to help us modify our experiment so that we can find some of the little buggers. then we watched "away we go" and ate marshmallows. great movie, highly recommend it. indie, but good :) yup. that was sunday.

DAY 15:
today. wow. yay beaver surveys? i think i've walked through enough forests and slushy bogs to last me a lifetime. we walked 9 miles today! to the end of the trail from douglas lodge due west to nicollet creek. my asthma was really bad, which was problematic and i struggled a lot, but we took it easy once we got to the surveying spots. after we got back around 4:30 pm, i showered, ordered pizza for everybody (except for me and one other girl--we're not going to pay $7 for our share of a 14" pizza--a large, 14" pizza from this place/the only pizza place allllll around, costs $14). so, instead i had 1/2 can of baked vegetarian bush's beans, bowl of potato broccoli soup, a piece of bread, milk, and pineapple :) oh, and then a couple of airheads. i love airheads. i've almost worked my way through the entire 60-pk i bought! see, told ya' i'd eat all of 'em, momma! :)

anyway, later gater! gotta study for my tree quiz!

OH! and i sent out letters today! expect to get them by the end of the week :)

day: 13

super lazy and wonderful day! i woke up at 10:19 am, rolled out of bed around 10:32, made myself some scrambled eggs and toast with strawberry jelly. then i studied trees for a little bit, put on clothes that weren't pajamas, went over to lab to quiz myself on identifications, then took a really cool picture of a dripping icicle with the sun in the background--the sun looks like a starburst!!, then came back to the cabin. then i took a shower because i felt grimy. then i made myself stir fry for dinner (yum, yum!), and now i'm reading crime and punishment! i will be in bed early because we are getting up at 5 am to do our zooplankton sampling at the mississippi headwaters. anywho, yup! ohhhhhh, and way to be weird, mommy! haha! "awesome sauce" is simply an expression to express something awesome. used in context:

speaker #1: "oh my goodness! i got a didgeridoo for my birthday!"
speaker #2: "awesome sauce!"

anywho. i'm going to keep reading. i'll send out letters by monday/i'll finish writing them tomorrow :)

LOVE!
(ps: can you tell i've discovered the paragraph formatting ability of this blog thingy?! i tried it on the first blog, but it squished everything together, so i never tried it again. but now i'm doing it and it's working!

awesome sauce.

days: 11 & 12

it's been a crazy busy couple of days.

DAY 11:
we did beaver surveys again! i was SO exhausted. by the end, we were (pretty much literally) crawling the last mile of the trail back. of course, that was after traveling through knee deep snow in bogs, forest, up and down hills, across lakes...etc. tough stuff. but fun, in retrospect. we found two really interesting beaver sites! the first we affectionately deemed: king firetooth. why? because he had the biggest lodge and the entire forest around his lake was burned tree. the second had a really visible cache--the ice was broken and you could see the wet footprints from the beaver. this particular beaver had also placed an entire sapling tree at the very tip of his lodge--almost like a flag sticking out of the point. super duper cool! haley'bug, to answer your question about how to tell if a lodge is active (in the winter): the cache/branches are in front of it and a somewhat heavy rock will fall through the ice between the cache and lodge--soft ice=active feeding); it smells horrendous through the ice chimney (condensation from their breathing forms a tube of ice out the top...hence, ice chimney); and, the trees nearby have been freshly gnawed by the beaver. as for why the beaver's are dying: since they have been on the downswing for the past decade, the itasca scientists theorize that it may be because of resource depletion, predation, disease, and harshness of winter. it's odd, though. while i believe the beaver population is going down, as evidenced by the majority of our lodges surveyed being inactive, i find it odd that the scientists have not mentioned examining any beaver bodies for disease, etc. i suppose it may be because i haven't asked that question specifically...i should do that. anyway, we did that all day yesterday, then we made spaghetti dinner! it was delicious. then we all chilled for a while, not really doing anything because we were so tired...and then we slept.

DAY: 12
woke up at 5:45 am to ski out to schoolcraft island (.25 miles) and retrieve zooplankton water samples. first we measured the snow depth (22.84 cm) and then hand augered a hole through 40 cm of ice. we then used a YSI Probe to measure water temperature, conductivity, % dissolved oxygen, mg/L of dissolved oxygen, and pH. then we used the kemmerer to sample water at depths of 3 m and 6 m. put those in bottles...then trekked back to the lab. we filtered later in the afternoon...but, here's the process: we filtered the water samples (125 mL at a time) and put each 125 mL filtered zooplankton in a 70% ethanol solution. after that, we went back to our cabins and ate a small breakfast (i wasn't too hungry--i just ate a couple pieces of toast with strawberry jelly). THEN we went to class at 9 am, where i felt like death, and learned about hibernation (nothing new...other than learning that: 1) red squirrels don't hibernate, and 2) according to our winter ecology book, many scientists have been injured trying to find the temperature of hibernating bears (awwwwwwwwwkward). OH! we also found the thermal conductivity of our socks (dad, my grey socks--i did not include the silk under'layer)--while dry and wet. my dry socks have the thermal conductivity of a piece of wood and my wet socks have the thermal conductivity of liquid petroleum gas. after we got back around noon, i made myself some stir fry (broccoli, water chestnuts, carrots, yellow pepper, and 1/2 cup of white rice), drank a delicious cup of 2% milk, and watched the latest episode of better off ted (LOVE that show!). around this time it was 12:50 pm...so then i decided to take a nap before we went back to the lab at 3:30 pm to do the filtering of our samples. then around 4:15 pm, we trekked back out to schoolcraft island to get our evening zooplankton samples (same process). the sun was scheduled to go down at 4:56 pm...we had our samples done with by 4:45 (awwwwwweeeessssoooommmmeeeee sauce). then we filtered, went back to our cabins, showered, i ate leftover/cold macaroni and cheese, and now i'm writing this blog entry! a group of people went to see a 4:30 pm showing of Avatar 3D in bemidji...when they get back, they'll all probably have "fun" while i'm watching a movie and typing up our results for the day. not a bad thing, necessarily: i can also start reading crime and punishment for great con next semester, haha. i've been SO procrastinating on that book. anyway! nothing exciting planned for tomorrow--other than we decided that tomorrow afternoon we're going to go to the west arm and headwaters drill our holes ahead of time. reason being: early in the morning, it is not fun to auger a hole AND by the time we go back sunday morning to get samples, there will be an 8 cm layer of ice. that is a lot easier to smash through than 40 cm of ice. as for the light penetration influencing our results: we already know zooplankton patterns correlate with day/night. we're not too worried about the difference in light--we asked the professor and he said it would be a very small difference in our results, and something not really worth noting. alright! off to type up results, read crime and punishment, watch my own movie, and write some letters :) love to all!

day: 10

woke up this morning...and got TONS of mail!!! i'll write more about what happens today later...but, WOWZA! in addition to thanking here, i'll write letters in return! but, for now, thank you: gramma and fred, mom and dad, mr. & mrs. easterling, great gramma, mandi & chuck & george & charlie, and miss meagan :) i feel all warm and fuzzy inside! thank you so much!! haha, thanks for sending more stamps, momma!

a link to photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/brennan.chloe/BloggerPictures?authkey=Gv1sRgCJmYra_x5tWY4QE&feat=directlink#.

day: 9

...wow. ok, so you know the maps with the 1 mile x 1 mile squares, usually describing large forested areas? yup. today we did beaver surveys! it was super duper awesome, but like...oh my gosh. i am soooooo tired! we (and by we, i mean 3 groups of 3 and 1 group of 2) were assigned two of those plots each to walk through and find beaver lodges on all of the little lakes in the boxes. we were also told it would be nice to have skis (false: we were walking through the most densely packed underbrush forest). of the 11 lodges we saw, only two were active. this is due to...unfortunately...a crash in the beaver population in the whole of itasca--all the beavers are dying :( anyway, we realized we were lost when we looked at the gps and it was telling us weird things...like, that we were traveling at 108 mph and that we had traveled 138 miles at that point. HA! it was old. anyway, today was definitely a 10 out of 10. despite my back hurting and being so exhausted i can barely function, i had a FANTASTICALLY WONDERFUL DAY of ADVENTURE!!! :) oh, this morning i also made myself 3 eggs scrambled, a piece of banana bread, and orange juice (a nice big breakfast because we had planned to be in the forest from 9 am to 4:30 pm!). yes, mom--i packed myself a lunch to eat while being an explorer :) anyway, i'm super sleepy. tomorrow is our time to work on our group projects. we can't start our research yet because we have to sharpen the blade on the hand-auger, learn how to use a kemmerer (water sampler), and gather all of our supplies. our sampling schedule is going to be 3 days in a row, before dawn and slightly after dusk. then the rest is lab work and writing up our results. tomorrow i'm sleeping in a little bit. i'll head over there around 10 am rather than 9 am sharp. alright, that's all i can say tonight. chloe is verrrrrrry sleepy. ciao4now!

day: 8

woke up a little later/i pressed snooze too many times, showered, ate corn pops and 2 pieces of toast with strawberry jelly. yumm-O! then went to class at 9...went on a really long nature walk, identified a bunch of trees, trekked through a bunch of snow...then worked on the research proposal for a while after lunch...then made tree identification flashcards that are really cool (they have flippy thingiess with the key features of the trees!)...then studied some more...and then made a DELICIOUS stir-fry dinner with everybody! tonight was our night to host the professor and his family for dinner! i'm a pro at stir fry. just sayin'. sooooo good. it was like, wolfgang puck level of awesome deliciousness. yup. then we played mafia. for the first time EVER...i won!!! i was soooo good. the one guy who always suspects me didn't suspect me! but then, that same guy took advantage of my gullibility the next round...and won by convincing me that he was the sheriff. he also played off of my suspicion that someone who was not the mafia was acting suspicious. make sense? he's super deceptive--not exactly a good characteristic for life, but a good characteristic for the game. it's scary how good he is. then i took a shower and now i am going to go to sleep because we have a beaver survey ALL day tomorrow (bag lunch time!) and i want to sleep in an extra 40 minutes instead of showering. hope all is well! love! :)

day: 7

super duper lazy day! woke up at 9 am, stared at a picture til 10 am, showered and ate 2 scrambled eggs and 2 pieces of toast with strawberry jelly. yummmmmmmy! yup. then i decided to study trees for a while, then i drew a picture, worked on my research proposal, and napped for a little bit. i did not go on the 8 mile nature walk because i decided it was a bad idea with my asthma. sad face. maybe some other time, eh? anyway, then we made 27 grilled cheese sandwiches, a huge apple-orange fruit bowl, and tomato soup for dinner. then we played a game called "99" and then played mafia a couple of times. apparently i'm easy to read--surprise, surprise :P and now i'm going to sleep. class at 9 am tomorrow--we're learning about gps systems and what plants do in winter. i miss my homes. see you in 18 days! <3

day: 6

the first saturday. slept in til 10 am, showered, ate banana bread, an apple, and orange juice for breakfast. YUMM-O! then studied tree identification until around 3 pm, when one of the girls and i went on a nature walk! we saw lots of snow and had fun trying to identify the trees we saw! there's something so strange about itasca--as cool as it is: actually SEEING the wildlife is an extremely rare occurrence. i see more deer at home, and MANY more birds. i've only seen (maybe) 5 birds the entire time i've been here. the only indicators of life in this park: poop and tracks. our professor found wolf poop outside his cabin! he put it in the lab freezer. he also found a dead grouse...he put that in his cabin freezer (UGH, SICK! GROSS! things that DON'T belong in a home freezer!). anyway, then we came back and had pizza with the girls and one of the guys--the other guys took a day trip farther north to go ice fishing (one of the guys has a car and another guy has a relative whose house they are taking over for the night). then i studied some more, worked on the zooplankton research proposal (i'm still stuck on how to preserve the zooplankton. i can't use a formalin/glucose solution because apparently formalin is a carcinogen...hmm...), watched 'snow white' while i studied tree identifications, read the three letters i got (thanks mom! thanks chrispy! thanks michael!), drank some water, and organized my stuff. tomorrow we're hiking to bohall lake (not everyone has skis, so i'll probably wear snowshoes)--it's about 4 miles there, 4 miles back. so...intense. apparently it's gorgeous, though! yup. that's it. sleep time! ps: thanks for posting a comment, mom and dad! AND gramma! i hope scrabble slam was awesome! OH! and thanks to mandi and mrs. easterling, too :) love you!!

days: 4 & 5

sorry about missing a blog'post! YESTERDAY: i woke up and went to class. we learned about how trees prep for winter--there are 3 stages. stage 1 (tolerated -5 to -10 celcius) is when the tree stops growing and the lipids in the cells change to become more unsaturated (which means they become more flexible at lower temperatures). stage 2 (tolerated -20 to -30 celcius) is triggered by the 1st frost. the cells become dehydrated and solute concentrations (C6H12O6, glycerol, proteins) in the cells increase. solute concentration increases are important because then the water in the cell freezes at a lower temperature (less water, lower freezing temp; more water, higher freezing temp). stage 3 (triggered at -30 to -50 celcius and tolerated down to -80 celcius) is when the tree vitrificates--the glycerols pretty much turn to glass. not all trees can do this, for obvious reasons...but, mostly because if ice penetrates like this, the cells become dehydrated and the proteins denature. fun fact: the worst day for a conifer is a sunny, calm day. why? because there is a high H2O loss--transpiration is high because there is higher radiation on the leaves as the hydrogen bonds between water molecules break. after we learned about trees, we went to the lab and began to identify twigs. the twig quiz is the 19th--60% outside/field identification; 40% inside identification. after that, i did some research on my zooplankton project! lots and lots of good papers. i'm still working on a plan, and then i'll talk to my group about my idea. then we had dinner--the guys made of spaghetti! it was delicious. i love noodles. and bread. and then for dessert some of us had ice cream with chocolate syrup and some had bananas foster. i had ice cream; the bananas foster tasted too much like rum (gross). then we played some games and another girl and i came back to our cabin around 9 pm and chillaxed. TODAY: woke up, went to class at 9. we started out with an experiment. snowflakes form with supercooled water that has been frozen. so, what we did was put distilled water in test tubes and sit outside until they got to -8 celcius'ish. when they got around that point, the water either flash froze right there in the tube or we "tickled" it (imitating a nucleation point...like a piece of dust) with a pine needle or another snowflake and it froze! ten we went inside and talked about how with lakes, once the water reaches a certain uniform temperature, the freezing is instantaneous! then we talked about how with salt water there is no salt in the ice itself, and because of that the salt content of the water underneath the ice increases. that super dense ocean water is then dumped into the atlantic via currents...and boom: super duper salty winter stuff. key point: if you're thirsty and you're in the arctic, eat ice. or, melt it in a house or something. then we learned about types of lakes, stratification and how layers are key indicators of the harshness of previous winters, the type of freezing that will occur in the future, etc. OH! the bottom of a lake is usually 4 celcius. there are also 2 types of ice: black and white. the types of ice are determined by the light transmittance. black ice has the most light transmittance because it is invisible to solar light; white ice is a linear-downward slope; white ice is white because it is frozen-saturated-snow--the snow is hit with moisture, the air bubbles freeze...KABOOM! white ice. ps: ice is a really bad insulator. snow is a really good insulator. after class today, i studied twigs some more, did some more zooplankton research, and talked to the professor about adding another research project to my repertoire because i want to learn lots and lots (looks like that one is going to be analyzing the temperature difference between the outside and inside of trees via temperature probes in the bark--ultimately, seeing which stage of "winterization" some trees are in...and whether or not they will survive to the spring with the brutal temperatures we've been having!)...and then i ate lunch (teriyaki rice, peas, pineapple, bread, milk) and we all went on a nature hike and practiced identifying trees in the field! it was soooooo pretty! i love nature. yup. tonight the guys are making: pork loin (...), mashed potatoes (i donated mine), veggies, and...apparently some sort of chocolate torte? guys are so ambitious. then they're all going to have "fun" late into the night...and i'm going to watch a movie, make banana bread, and study twig names with the other girl who isn't much into that sort of..."fun." i mailed letters today, too! i'll write more. i daresay i have time. anywho, LOVE! ps: mommy, in your next letter to me (thanks for the one yesterday, too!!) can you send me some more stamps??

day: 3

woke up, ate corn pops (i accidentally poured orange juice in the first bowl, so i had to get another bowl...oopsie), and went to class at 9. i've also given up on my bangs--officially, they are the victim of bobby pins. it's nice to be able to see clearly now (cue: song by johnny nash). today in class we talked snow and how snowflakes form! here's their creation story: "once upon a time, there was a mass of warm, moist air. it was lonely, floating up in the big blue sky with no one to talk to, so it decided to collide with a cool, dry mass of air (get it? it collided with something "cool" so now it's "cool"?! ok. bad joke.). anyway, the combined masses cooled as they rose into the strato/troposphere. after cooling sufficiently, they were attacked by a mass of supercooled air that caused the clouds in the warm-cool mass to condense into water droplets! now, these water droplets weren't satisfied with simply being hydrogen bonded to each other--they wanted to move up in the world and become snowflakes, and associate with stuff on the ground! each water droplet then went on a mad search for (star)dust particles to use as a sort of 'nucleus', or foundation for crystal formation. all of the sudden, around -6 degrees celcius, they decided...to eat a norwegian bubble chocolate (i totally just had one--it was really delicious!). after devouring the chocolate, the droplet froze with sixfold-hexagonal symmetry around the (star)dust particle. the vapor around the frozen droplet then began to develop into beautiful patterns using faceting (condenses the flake edge into a plate) and branching (diffuses the vapor at the edge to make intricate point patterns)! because the super-cooled mass had different humidity levels--low and high--each snowflake formed at a different pace. the droplets in low humidity grew slowly and had simple prisms, and the droplets in high humidity grew the fastest and had complex prisms. after each snowflake thought itself to be adequately beautiful, they all floated down from the sky in a beautiful blizzard, shrouding earth and the island of misfit toys (shout-out to haley'bug! yay clay'mation rudolph!) in its glittery beauty, providing for pristine-looking landscapes and insulation (low thermal conductivity) for small and large animals--like, ermines and unicorns. the end." yup. so, that's the story of snowflakes. moving on. after learning about the properties of snow, etc., we did something with thermometers (i'm not really sure what...), ate lunch, and went skiing to the headwaters of the mississippi! we took the trail TO the headwaters (it was cool...small...like a 15 ft. spilling of water over a small 2 ft. high bump of ice. what it represents is what makes it super special awesome)...but, on the way BACK...we skiied across lake itasca. we followed a snowmobile track out to a little hut (about 100 ft. from shore) and then hit...SLUSH! SCARY! we all kind of panicked, but then barreled through some untouched snow (prodding it ahead of our skis with our poles to make sure it was ok) and approx. 2 miles later, after blazing our own trail, arrived back at the lab. EXHAUSTION. then, chilled for a while/drank some water before heading to class at 2 pm to do some work with measuring snow density. before dinner we played risk and then had 11 pizzas for dinner. then we played uno and mafia a couple of times, and then a couple of us read while the others finished risk/watched pokemon. tomorrow is supposed to be really windy and cold, so we're going to be inside learning about what animals do in the winter and tree identification with twig samples. for now, ciao! ps: thanks for commenting!! :)

day: 2

woke up, ate corn pops, went to class at 9 am. we talked about the history of itasca! the name itasca originates from the latin: verITAS CAput, which means "true head," in reference to the headwaters of the mississippi. the park is 32,000 acres, and is located at the edge of a coniferous, boreal, and deciduous forest--the park itself has been pwned by oaks. oh, fun fact: there's also a bison kill site which indicates that 8,000 years ago, there were in fact people inhabiting the area. AND in 1922, there was a wave of intense forest fires that burned all of the organic matter/"slash" residue left after logging (when the organic matter is burned, it is very challenging for the environment to recover--think of it as the ground trying to create another "biotic juice" to grow life...except there's no foundation to make juicy life...make sense?). the park was glaciated til 10,000-11,000 years ago by the wadena lobe (the des moines lobe covered northfield). park rapids was the "delta" of the glacier and the hills around itasca/minnesota/any glacial underground is due to the till (mass of silt, dirt, sand) dropping off of a giant ice cube and the ice cube melting and leaving a giant hole in the ground. enough about itasca. we then went over the reading about black carbon/albedo/dust. asia has the highest industrial emissions (surprise, surprise). there's other stuff about black carbon, but i don't want to write about it. anyway, we went on to do an experiment to measure albedo on the top 2 cm of snow on the lake ice! we walked on water! yaaaaaay! and sometimes the ice made a booming sound, like thunder! except, it didn't really crack. well, maybe it did. i don't really know. i don't have x-ray vision, so it's impossible to see underneath the snow. it wouldn't matter if it did in the area we were because it would freeze shut instantly (that's what prof. told us, at least...). the process of our experiment: 1) make 26 1 m x 1 m plots in the snow (we used my compass to make sure the lines were straight!); 2) sift black carbon and dust over the plots--in varying amounts on plots 1-4; 3) scoop the affected snow into a baggie with a 2 cm (1/2 beaker); 4) while in the baggies, melt the snow; 5) tare the scale and measure the mass of each sample; 6) use deionized water to clean out the rest of the carbon or dust, if needed, and then put the water through a vacuum-pump-filter-thingy; 6) after letting the filter papers dry, put in the spectrophotometer and measure the turbidity of the filtered-solution with imitated solar radiation waves. it sounds more exciting than it actually was...but, it was still SUPER cool! :) then we ate 7 boxes of kraft mac&cheese, 3 bags of frozen veggies, 3 cans of chunked pineapple, 30 tennis-ball/golf-ball diameter chocolate chip cookies, and water. i just finished my reading about snow/snowflake and frost formation...and will probably be asleep by 11. class at 9 tomorrow--studying snowflakes as they are falling and snowpack characteristics. i think after class we're also going to ski up to the headwaters! and then tomorrow night i'll work on my zooplankton project (yesssss!). ciao4now <3

day: 1

woke up around 8 am after a deliciously wonderful sleep, ate two bowls of corn pops (mm mm good!), chilled in front of the fire, and read the reading for today. THEN i went skiing with a couple of girls! skiing's fun. lots and lots of fun. after we got back (around 1:15 pm), i drank some water and...i think i ate something...hmm, can't remember. anyway, then we went to class at 2 pm. it's awesome: the classroom/lab station is right on the lake, not even a 5-minute walk from our cabin. we talked about the reading, about what winter ecology is, the research we're going to be doing on black carbon dust and albedo (the proportion of the incident light or radiation that is reflected by a surface; more black carbon, less reflection from the snow and more absorption of energy). then my partner and i looked up books to use for our research on zooplankton, did the reading for tomorrow, and made a fantabulous taco dinner! between 11 of us, we ate 3 boxes of uncle ben's mexican fiesta rice, 3 turkey thingies, 2 bags of shredded cheese, 1 large can of refried beans, 5 chopped apples, 3/4 of a gallon of milk, 1/2 tub of large sour cream, 1/2 large jar of salsa, and 3 packs of betty crocker brownies/mix. yup. pretty intense. guys cleaned dishes, and then we figured out meals for the week. then we played mafia (mystery game; duties designated via which card you draw; narrator tells the "who dunnit" story) and presidents (another card game). now i'm going to fall asleep! class is 9-noon/break 1 hour for lunch/black carbon research/mac&cheese for dinner. oh, and before i forget: cell reception is horrible up here; i'm pretty much ignoring my phone except for using it as an alarm in the morning. mom, dad, and cooper'booger: you win the award (world record honor, actually) of sending a letter to a student so quickly. thank you :) i'll send you one...as soon as i figure out...how. haha! alright, sleep sweet, world! ciao4now :)

day: arrival

i'm here! i'm here! i'm here! the cabin is brand new. smells like...i don't know what kind of wood it is, but it smells delicious! the kitchen is fully equipped with frigidaire stainless steel appliances, the bathroom is luxurious, the couch is super duper comfy, and the bed...well, i haven't slept yet, so i don't know (it looks cozy, though!). basically, it's a really nice, 2-story log cabin, except with light-colored wood, not dark-dangerous looking wood, with a back-screened-in-porch...overlooking the frozen lake :) tonight is dinner at professor and his family's house...and then...who knows. two girls have yet to arrive and the other three that are here are napping at the moment. oh, and if there were an ice-storm-hurricane-tornado-flood-blizzard-arctic-dinosaur-invasion, we would be perfectly ok on the food front: sooooo much food. yum. (ps: thanks again, dad, for driving me all the way there! hope it's warmer at home :P and, thanks again, mommy, for organizing all my stuff. i would have no clothes or food had it not been for you (and your outrageously groovy organizing skills). alright, ciao4now!

bemidji

-30 degrees fahrenheit. whoa!