Wetland Workshop preparation

Today my adviser called me in intern! I didn't think she thought of me like that, but I guess she wants to keep me around for the summer. I have been emailing her back and forth over the spring semester telling her I'm interested in helping her with what she needs over the summer, but I never thought she'd label me as her intern. I'm honored honestly. Go researching soil science!

My first day as her helper consisted of strapping on some waterproof boots, hosing myself down with some bug spray, and sloshing through the wetland areas around the Amherst area. It wasn't exactly the mosquitoes
I was most concerned with surprisingly enough. It was the scorching, half-protected by the ozone layer sunlight. Man, my poor shoulders are angry with me now. So back to the to do list.

Deb, my adviser, wished for me to identify and check off plants pertaining specifically to the wetland areas. It was more like she did the identifying and I did the checking off, but still I enjoyed it all the same! I already started learning the different plants in the area. Partridge berry. Wintergreen. Ash tree. Red Maple. Water Hemlock. Blue Flag Iris. Soft Rush. And many more! Rachel, the other intern, and I placed the bundles of specimens into a reusable shopping bag and crossed our fingers that the silly plants wouldn't wilt too much before we revived them with delicious and refreshing bucket water "chilling" back in the Jeep.

After collecting her long list of wetland plants, the journey back to the lab was a beautiful one. A deserted horse field covered in Buttercups mesmerized me as Deb, Rachel, and I shared stories and views on ghostly spirits. (Which I do believe in) The scenery around Amherst always keeps me entertained and my plant loving cravings fed every time I look out almost any window in a car.

In the lab, sorting of the bundled and tagged plants began after a little numnuming of our lunches that awaited our arrive in the plant cooler. I sat down with my peanut butter sandwich I barely scrounged up from the limited supply of food pickings in the apartment, dried cherries from some random container I brought over from my dorm, and an Super Protein Odwalla bar purchased from the UMass fine dining place called BlueWall when I splurged on spending my extra swipes left on my Ucard. Deb and Rachel chowed down on the standard PB&J and some chips. It was a good break before diving back into the plant world.

So many plants needed sorting! Not weeds.... plants! They are valuable creatures and deserve to be respected. There must have been 100 plants. All of the bundles were placed in the half filled water bottles Deb collected over her times of specimen collecting. So many water bottles! Plastic...I frown on it sometimes. Especially water bottles. Just get a reusable geez. But I digress. In and out of the cooler I went, after numbers were called and matched with cards, and I had a grasp on what a long day of hard work felt like once again. I sat down on one of the black tables and Deb had us double check an ID. It was Wool Grass, which has little clustered fuzzies as flowers in a umbel arrangement hence the name "Wool Grass."

Deb set us free. I took my first ride on the 31 bus back to "home." Some grinders, donuts and Slurpees were consumed by my sis and I. She left to visit her ex-girlfriend and I ventured back to 7 Eleven for another slurpee. But this time I bought one of these bad boys! (Yes that is Beaker, my favorite Muppet, in the background! I call him Meep sometimes though) Thor, the best Avenger!

There still some of this super hero Mango Slurpee left in the fridge for the morning rush out the door at 7:30am. Another update. The bracelet I made last summer during a farming experience in June...well it just broke. That probably means I no longer need to be reminded of all the good memories it held since this summer starts a whole new memory recording.