A trout-stocked stream and adjacent trail near the Cooper Creek campground in Northern Georgia.
Shagrin tributary
Some photos I took after leaving Holden Arboretum of a branch of the Scenic Shagrin River.
Cold, damp apids
On morning, I arrived early to Holden Arboretum and notices bees on nearly all of the plants surrounding the entrance to the Science Research Center. They were damp from condensation, and motionless from the cold, but attempting to warm themselves in the morning sun.
Fight Gone Bad
Saturday, Allison and I participated in a competition/fundraiser at our Atlanta CrossFit gym, Fitness Battalion. During the competition, heats of three competitors raced for number of reps in a workout called ‘Fight Gone Bad’, which is a reference to a tiring three rounds of a boxing fight. The workout includes five exercises, each done for one minute , with one minute of rest between three rounds of the five exercises: wall balls, sumo-deadlift-high-pulls, box jumps, push presses, and rowing. Allison trained hard the past few weeks and it paid off; she won an $85 certificate for a local catering service and the women’s competition with 329 reps. All Heart, All Day.
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Some prairie at Holden
Sunflowers at Holden Arboretum
Litter grinding
Many of the litter samples I brought to Holden Arboretum were not sufficiently ground for Elemental Analysis, so I used a coffee grinder to break up tough litter material (like cattail and Thalia), and then sub-sampled that material to grind in small red-capped vials with metal beads in them. Here are a few photographs of the process.
Total phenolics
Some standards and polar extractives used to determine total phenolic content in litter samples.
Elemental analysis
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been grinding litter samples and wrapping them into small tins for elemental analysis. The analyzer here incinerates a 4 mg sample of dried, ground litter and measures the amount of several gases that are formed during the incineration (which is at about 1000 degrees C, by the way!). The gases measured included carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas (I’m not 100% sure about the nitrogen…), and, once we know the amount of those two gases released from a sample, the percent carbon and nitrogen of the sample can be determined. Then, of course, the C:N ratio is calculated, which is what I was after – an index of commonly used in decomposition studies because of it’s relation to decomposition rate and litter quality (in terms of food for microbial decomposers and larger, usually insect, decomposers).
So this was my view for several days.
Berea Dog Splash
At Wallace Lake this past weekend, I went with Jenn, Matt, Sheri, and Betty (Jenn’s mother and grandmother) to the Dog Splash sponsored by Berea Animal Rescue Fund. Brewster and Honey, Jenn and Matt’s dogs, were adopted from this organization, and were not totally enthusiastic about enter the water. Nor was Sheri’s dog, Abbey. They did actively sniff and wag their tails with a few other dogs and were thoroughly tired upon returning home. Brewster also attempted to claim several trees and structures in the park…
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