Emerald Bay and rockin the intertidal...

Over the weekend I went down to Catalina to visit my new job and it is so amazing. Really, I'm in love with the place and I've spent a grand total of 48 hours there. Here's a picture of the visitors center as seen from the front porch of my house (yes, I get to live in a house down there). It's quite a gorgeous place. I'm going to be living there year round for the next couple of years so moving is going to be intense but I'm looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to living so close to the beach, even though it's in California (which I'm still denying by the way).

Here's the view from my front porch including the giant eucalyptus tree which is right by the house. You really can't ask for a prettier view than this one. The house has great big front windows that face the water which is exactly the way I want it. The house comes with a washing machine and drying, good thing so I don't have to wash stuff by hand. I also get my own entrance to the house and my own bathroom! That makes me happy since I'll be living with a pair of twin brothers. They're really cool by the way.

This morning I started the field work for my research project on urchins, only to find that the calipers I've been using decided to go all crazy on me so I can't take any good measurements with them. This is a picture of little urchin pool with all my equipment next to it. I'm using the tape measure to take volume measurements, and then scale and the calipers to measure some urchins from each pool. That is if everything works properly. I also set up an urchin removal experiment to see if other urchins will move into newly vacated holes. It's a bit of common knowledge that urchins stay in the same hole throughout their lives and don't move, but I just want to see if that's true or not. I guess to be more accurate I would have to watch the holes for a longer period of time, but I only have a week so that will have to do.

I was thinking this morning how nice of a day it was in the intertidal. California may have more sun, but I wouldn't trade any of the foggy Oregon mornings I've had out here on the coast. I'm so lucky to be able to do what I'm doing that I feel like I've earned it because of the hard work and personal sacrifices that I've put in. I really do love this place and will sorely miss it when I leave in a month.

Dune Day!

Today was awesome! We've been covering coastal ecology the last few weeks and today we talked about dune ecology which included a trip down to the Coos Bay dune sheet to run around. The thing about the Oregon dune sheet is that it's the largest in North America and it's super sweet. But you probably already knew that. People from all over like to come to the dunes and ride ATV's and all kinds of crazy stuff.

We set off across the dunes to check out what it's like to live in such a crazy place, and not much lives there by the way. We hiked for two miles over the dunes before getting to the beach where the whole class shed our clothes down to our bathing suits and frolicked in the ocean. Keep in mind that our ocean is around 10 degrees C, about 54F, which is really freaking cold. It was a great bonding experience though.

On the way home across the dunes we had a good time jumping off the little cliffs and getting some air. This is a pretty sweet picture of me in mid-air after taking a jump. Then it was a long drive home with a stop for pizza before our long Dune Day concluded. Yay!

holy crap

Remember the train of life that I said I was ready to step on to as it screamed through the station? Well my friends I'm pretty sure I jumped on and it's an insane ride! There's so much to do in the next couple of weeks...

But back to class! We're in the midst of our ecology section which has been really fun so far. We're headed down to the dunes around the south coast today which makes me happy. I love the south coast. It's so different from north coast. Last week for the rocky intertidal ecology part we spent a lot of time doing surveys which meant bending over the rocks for hours counting baby barnacles and anything else in the plots. Luckily Gayle and I were a superstar team hell bent on counting up right! Here's a photo of me taking data while Gayle counts. Yay!

goodbye?

So, for those who don't know, I got a new job which means I'm moving to Catalina Island very shortly to start working at a camp running a marine science education program. It's an insanely awesome job. More details to come...

But I changed my facebook profile today to include my new job and changed my PISCO job to read March 2005- March 2007. It just feels crazy to put a cap on my time with PISCO. It really was an amazing two years. Especially considering all the super fun things I got to do. Like drive up and down the coast in the vans, coastal transect, moon sets and sun rises over the intertidal, algae angels with Mae, nudi hunts, Pisaster torture, Rocky Point olympics...well, I could go on, but really I shouldn't. It's making me kind of sad.

not fubar!!!

Ok, so last week at Boiler Bay I dropped my camera into a tidepool. A few days later I put the battery back in and tried to turn it on only to have the screen flash crazy at me and then shut off completely. So since then I've considered my camera to be a total loss. Except for today I put the battery back in and it worked! I was so excited. The viewing screen is a little bit off now (and by off I mean totally crazy) but it still transfers photos just fine which is all right with me.

So, in celebration here are some photos from our field trip last to Boiler Bay, right before I dropped my camera. :-)

We only have the best Tools of Science here at Hatfield. Like tiny nets for catching tiny fish...














Trista and I doing some quality learning...



















Team Baby Tardigrade hits the intertidal...













Getting acquainted with the boiler at Boiler Bay...funny how that name works out...

Home again, home again...

Since I had a long weekend free from studying and homework I decided to make the trip over the river and through the woods back to the valley. I left Friday and enjoyed a great night dancing with Channa and co. I really needed to go dancing again, my feet were getting a little itchy (and not that kind of itchy) so it was great to get out and move again. I also saw Homer! Anyone who knows me knows that I miss my kitty like crazy so it was good to stop in and visit him for a little bit.

Went up to Salem for a bit and visited with my folks. Always good to see them and hang out. Then came back to Corvallis for lunch with Jenn and then heading back to the coast. It was a good trip away from Hatfield but I am glad to be back. The photo is a shot of the tree corridor we get to see all the way from Newport to Corvallis.

Goodbye fishy friends...

Tomorrow we have another exam, this time the end of our fish unit. Next week we start our marine conservation and policy unit which is very exciting since Jane Lubchenco will be our teacher for that one. Many of you probably know that Jane terrifies me despite the fact that she's only as tall as I am. Jane is one of those people that command attention. And it's a little scary especially when she knows your name because you work in her lab. As is the case with me. Scary!!!! But I think it will be a good chance for me to step it up.

Bah, I'm in the library tonight for a bit of a long haul to get some studying done and also finish writing a biodiversity paper for fish. Fun fun! Here's a picture of me during or fish dissection lab that our teacher took.

The hazards of working in the field...

Ok, this isn't quite what it seems, however we did have some mishaps today at Boiler Bay. No, I did not get attacked by a Japanese Spider Crab. This photo was taken by Gayle during our first visit to the aquarium with Sally during inverts. Either I'm really small (which is true) or this crab is FREAKIN GIGANTIC (also true).

Back to Boiler Bay though. I was hoping from one rock to another after having my picture taken next to the Boiler when my camera fell out of my pocket and into a tide pool. Trista dove after it in her hip waders and plucked it from the sea. I gave it a rinse and hopefully it's fine. It's water resistant, but I'm still crossing my fingers on this one. So forgive me if posts are a bit more sporadic with pictures since my camera is currently on sick leave until it dries...

A little bit of lindy never hurt anyone..

Watching this video makes me wish I was back in the valley where I could do some decent dancing. As it is, I'm left with Robbie who only salsas. But he's good so it's ok. PS- It's Kevin and Carla in Barcelona