The Infinite Soreness

So y'all likely remember my complaints about being sore and tired not but a couple of days ago. Yesterday was another one of those days. The morning we went out as a lab group to get transplants for a mesocosm (essentially. an experiment not done in the field but instead in a bucket or similar sized container) experiment. This consisted of essentially going out, finding a chunk of marsh that has the right qualities (in this case, it either had a mussel mound or didn't, and had a certain amount of grass). At this point, things get intensive.

First, you dig the edges out of this little plot, bit by bit. Then, as a team of 3 or so, you pry the block of marsh out with your shovels and flip it over onto its side. The bottom of the block is trimmed of root matter to make it sit flat in the tubs we brought with us. After that, the fiftyish pound slab is crammed into the tub, and lugged a few hundred yards off of the marsh and into a mule. Repeat 12 times for 12 plots. Fun, right?

We took each of these little mesocosms to the institute to chill out in a small pool of water. For those of y'all who have been reading for a while, they're for the drought project. The rain-outs just didn't come through for us, they ended up getting broken a lot during the storms and just didn't work out. These guys on the other hand are looking good.

Needless to say though my everything is now even more sore.

Yesterday afternoon on the other hand was data on the mini project, which I've dubbed Range. It got a bit tedious but was okay. Haven't entered it yet so I dunno what it looks like. I also had to fix a few aspects of the main project, dubbed Dispersion, so that the data will come out a bit better. Not looking forward to taking it, though. Update from today: Dispersion crabs are dying kinda a lot due to the heat, and I'm not really sure how best to take the data. It's gonna require an overhaul of some sort unfortunately.

Dunno. I think I've decided I dislike working alone. The morning was honestly kind of fun despite the intense labor. My labgroup is honestly great. A fun group of people. Working alone just gets kind of tedious, sometimes. It's hard to stay focused on 4+ hours of counting snails, or measuring their heights, or, like today, measuring the lengths of their grazing scars - radulations, they're called - on about 100+ stalks of grass. It's difficult to keep the end goal in mind. Sometimes it's even easy to lose sight entirely.

In general, though, this has been an interesting experience. In a short six weeks, I've had plenty to learn about the nature of field work and island life.

Heat is a fact of life here, and tolerance is paramount. When you're in the field, it's usually only in the upper 80's to lower 90's, but with the sun beating down on you and the superheated marsh water beneath you, it may as well be a desert. Some days I literally drink through an entire 2 liters of water on the marsh during a day's work. On a similar vein, the sun itself can be killer. It's darkened me by at least a few shades. My farmer's tan is still bad but I'm working on it! Luckily I've yet to burn myself to a crisp.

The mud, too. Mud gets everywhere and is everything. My first week I was a clean freak. Now? I don't care about it. My field shirts/pants are perpetually coated in the stuff, as is most of my body.

The work itself can vary greatly. Some projects? Data is easy. Others, like mine, it's mind numbing. The same way for the work involved to set it up. Some of it is incredibly physically taxing to assemble and break down. Mine was probably only somewhat. One of the roomies will have a very taxing project that will require all of us to chip in for coming up soon this week.

Honestly? Most of the time I don't get weekends. My work schedule is beyond irregular. Work is done when it's needed, which is most of the time, and there's no rhyme or reason to how long it takes.

It can be tough. And taxing, physically and mentally. But on the bright side? If I can do this, I can work probably just about anywhere. Oh, and I might still manage to get a publication out of it, which for an undergrad is outstanding. That's my light at the end of the tunnel.