May 10: The great sharpy fiasco

I'm writing this post from Mud Pond, both thankful and annoyed at my relatively good Internet connection. It's quite serene, with the sun just now dipping below the treeline to birdsong lullaby. today I added reference flagging numbers to a bunch of sites: all of row 11 and part of row 12. We use reference flagging for two reasons: it makes it easier to find the site in thick forest and allows us to replace the stake at the center if it goes missing. While it's not necessary for any research, it ensures robustness, and is hugely helpful to the researchers. many a time has the bright orange flagging signaled that a site was hiding behind a rock or tree nearby. However, the day did not start smoothly. I got into the forest at 9:03, and was up at my first site at about 9:30. Angle and distance to the stake were as routine as could be, only when I went to write them down on the flagging, my sharpy left no mark. At about 10:20, I was back at the site after a very disgruntled blitz to campus. That afternoon, I once again joined forces with Laura and Isabel, and we took data on another two sites, I10 and J10. J10 was a swamp, and I was very greatful for my waterproof sneakers, as well as the puns of my companions. Thank you for reading, and if you have questions feel free to reach out to my email: muellerma22@proctoracademy.org. Pictures will come tommorow, with better internet.