On our first field trip of the year, and our second annual visit to that beautiful piece of land just west of Bear Creek known as Balderdash, we were greeted warmly with giant doggie hugs. Okay, in truth, most of the hugs were saved for Gavin, who was clearly Laggie’s favorite.
After a quick snack, we got to work collecting water quality samples from the same locations as last year.
Before we can estimate pH, nitrate and phosphorus levels, we first have to shake shake shake!
Then there’s color matching, which is subjective enough to inspire persuasive arguments with the hope of consensus.
Sometimes we agree, and sometimes I take a rough average of everyone’s opinion.
Luckily, we use a Vernier sensor to measure dissolved oxygen and temperature, which provides a clear digital result. But that’s where the results were most surprising: water temperature 11 deg C this year versus 6 degrees last year on almost the same day. It’s been a very warm fall- could that explain it?
We found Smeagol right where we left him, and he shared a year’s worth of temperature data with us in a few quick Bluetooth seconds. I wish we could compare the temperatures from last fall, but that data starts when we hung the HOBO data logger last December.
After lunch, the kids made a wonderful discovery: a bent-over alder tree that could act like a spring. Juniper was recruited to test it out since she’s the lightest. After a few good jumps, she confirmed that it was indeed fun.
After that, everyone took a turn.
Even me! It was SO fun. Like jumping with springs under your feet!
After lunch we headed further upstream to collect water quality samples near the holding tank. The terrain was steep and slippery but most were brave enough to take part in collection.
The picture below is of our mobile science kit- I’m pretty sure Bella took this picture and I’m glad she did. Ben and I have been working to improve the kit (an old Makita case) so that it holds most of the equipment we use regularly. It’s been a serious upgrade from the cloth shopping bag that I used to carry stuff around in, especially for the way it protects everything inside.
Another benefit that was highlighted on this trip: we have equipment even if we didn’t know we’d need it. I didn’t think about brining the diameter tape measures, because it wasn’t on our data collection to-do list. But, they live in the science kit, so we had them, and I’m so glad we did! As a side note, the diameter tapes live in a tiny backpack that Simon is modeling below.
With water quality measured, and still enough time to explore, we hiked through the woods further uphill to BLM land where we met the most magnificent of creatures: the grandmother tree.
Trees of this size feel otherworldly and it’s magestic just to linger below them. But, of course, we also wanted to measure it! It took three tape measures and many hands to wrap this tree in numbers. Can you guess the diameter?
After a little addition and division we came up with 7.8 feet in diameter. That’s a big tree! I do wish we would have been able to measure the height, too.
The research phones came home with some cool pictures this week. I love this one of Juniper and grandmother tree.
Puff ball mushrooms growing on a big leaf maple??
Our data sheet.
A refresher on how we measure dissolved oxygen and water temp.
It’s anyone’s guess why they took this last picture…
