It's a Jungle Out Here

This field job brings out far reaching emotions in me on both ends of the spectrum. Today was one of those kind of days that fell into a couple of categories because it had moments of adventure, moments of peaceful harmony with the weather and moments of exasperations that made me pause to think, "they aren't paying me enough to do this."

A few weeks ago I was outside all day and the weather was simply perfect and I felt bad for all the folks working in a stuffy office. Yesterday the temperature out here was 100 degrees with 90% humidity (or very close to it) and it was brutal to the max. Today started out cool with the smell of rain in the air that had just cleared up and our first well was stationed in nicely cut grass and in the shade. All that was needed was windchimes and Paul bringing me a glass of lemonade and it would have been vacation.

Shortly after that, the thermometer climbed and we had to head deep into the forest where a well was found that no one knew existed. It was too dense to get the Dodge truck through and so we had to pack in and pack out all our tools and equipment. Since I had found a tick crawling around on my shirt yesterday, we had to wear tyvek suits today on our treck into the undergrowth and overgrowth. This is like wearing a trashbag with arms and legs (hot and sweaty). It was not real fun, but at the same time I envisioned myself as an action hero in a comedy spoof. And although it was hot, it was novel to me that we were actually sampling a well that was lost to the environmental society for who knows how long. Was it a case where the vines just took over and hid the well for 20 years? And who put it there? Anyway, it was kinda cool/adventurous.

Later still, we had to go to a different well further into the woods but we could actually get the truck part way there as there was a road- overgrown and rough, but still a road. The bad news was that the 1/8 mile that we had to hoof it was covered in poison ivy, mosquitos in swarms of 20+ and ticks and who knows what under the ivy and foliage we were tromping through. I was whining to myself and a little to Sean too, and felt that this was a very sad predicament to be in as it was near impossible to concentrate on the data we were collecting. We decided that we could work much more efficiently if one of us took on the roll of mosquito combatter while the other sampled. It helped the progress of the task, but the hour that we were down there was still grim.

Yet we emerged triumphant and I feel like my work life is more enriched by miserable moments like these. When I look back, I never would have imagined myself sampling in such beautiful places like these forests and swamps and shores along rivers, and I can later laugh at all the mishaps and miserable moments. I feel like despite the bugs and beasts, this is a dream come true!