Muck and Mud
June 22, 2013Today was a swamp-stomping day.
That’s the word I now use to describe my research project. Swamp-stomping: the act of moving through swamp or marsh land in search of potential data points, requiring a repeated stomping motion in lieu of regular walking, because it’s too hard to walk like a normal person when you’re 5 foot 2 in 3 foot tall grass and mud. So today I swamp-stomped for 5 hours, and it was simultaneously wonderful and terrible, and muddy. Very muddy.
I did a lot of the same data collection I did yesterday – measuring salinity and temperature in various streams, marshes and bodies of water throughout the wetland area. Like yesterday, there were some strange trends that occurred with salinity, and like yesterday, I’m still not exactly sure what’s causing them. Hopefully I’ll be able to get more information from the Morgan family about any kind of irrigation techniques that they may be using that are causing these salinity patterns.
The day went by quickly in that way, and by the end of it I was exhausted. Because of the way I was collecting data, I ended up with a whole lot of handwritten tables, so I had to spend the next two hours entering it all by hand. In the end, though, it was cool to see the points going up one by one, and to see on the map where I had been and what areas I had covered. There are still some missing pieces, but I think I can take care of most of those tomorrow (tomorrow will be the true swamp-stomping).
And now it’s 11, and though I’m having lots of fun chatting with Audrey while blogging (sorry if some of the sentences don’t make sense), it’s time for bed. Goodnight!