When the going gets tough...

...I go to the beach.

So my first of three essays is due tomorrow, and I can't help but let my mind wander to 48 hours in the future--when I'll be in Sardinia, Italy.

A few days ago, I realized that I have a long break (Thursday-the next Friday) between my tutorials, so I decided to try to plan a longer trip. Well, most of Europe's herpetofauna are really similar and really lacking in diversity, BUT one group in particular has had my eye.

Warning: salamander taxonomy ahead

Plethodontid salamanders--which are mainly unique in their lunglessness--make up > 70% of the world's salamander diversity, but almost all of them are found in the Americas. However, there are a handful of representatives in Europe and one (very recently discovered) in South Korea. These things are, by far, my favorite herps, so how could I pass up the opportunity to see the few species that live in Europe?

(end of warning)

Most (all?) of the species are found in Italy, and 5 of the 8 in Italy can be found on the beautiful island of Sardinia. So Sardinia it is.

I was willing to travel alone, but I would feel more comfortable with a companion. So I Googled "Sardinia beaches" (I would suggest you do the same...Poetto Beach is where we're staying), and my friend Matt was hooked. Little does he know we'll be in caves catching salamanders the whole time...muahaha.

Anyway, I'm less than two days away from being on a mountainous, cave-ridden, undeveloped, salamander-diverse island with picture-perfect beaches, Italian cuisine, and vino. Fuck. Modernist. Literature.

SO MUCH

Can't really update as there is a butt-expletive-ton of work to do. We're working on two big projects simultaneously, one on designing a sustainable village for 2000+ people in Liberia, and the other on redeveloping a big chunk of the city of Prescott(!). Since I'll never leave you guys photo-less, here's one of me on a 'research break' in the apartment. Look how excited I am to see you! Note the beanie and warm button-up...a cold front surprised us recently, highs in the mid-50s or 60s. But it'll be back up in the 80s soon enough.

A promise of more details and photos soon.

<3

x-posted rompalime.blogspot.com

Permaculture, Yurets, Granite Dells

Last Friday was a jam-packed day dedicated to permaculture. For those of you who aren't exactly sure what permaculture is, (like me before Friday), the best way for me to sum it up is -- the movement of designing a space while holistically taking into account all the natural and human elements to most efficiently make use of the nutrients/energy/water in the location before passing it on to the next site. The idea is to mimic the flexible, cyclical relationships found in natural ecosystems. Quite fascinating. We spent the morning in lectures and presentations by Jesse, a lively raven-dreadlocked woman who is part Native American. Then we took a lunch break at the Courthouse.

This my friends, is not what it seems. This woman and her husband were pushing a stroller each, with a PUPPY in each stroller. Ridiculous.

I'm not sure if this is a way to tell your friends you're pregnant (through bubblegum)

AMAZING VEGGIE SANDWICH @ Eddies. Sandwich place by day, night club by night? 

After lunch, we took the afternoon going to three different permaculture sites. Each was very different and had its own feel.

Jesse in front of the first permaculture site, which had an absolutely beautiful and cosy house.

The "atrium" area

Dan Quinn, the owner/builder, used earthen materials for the entire structure

His home was a perfect blend of organic, artistic, and welcoming aspects

In the backyard (chicken coop in the left background)

Our second site was very different, with a focus on community living on a larger piece of land. 

In order to avoid getting building permits for having multiple people living in different buildings, Jesse (a different one) imported Mongolian yurets where his tenants live though they officially reside in the main house.

Jesse's goal is to live completely off the grid and completely on nature. He's devised a water filtration system that removes the arsenic from the ground water. No municipal water for him!

Inside one of the yurets:

Some green corn they grew on site:

The third house was a display of more conventional permaculture, and started as a Prescott College independent study project. Christine now lives in this house. We're in one of the backyard gardens. 

(Love the bike wheels)

LOST anyone? 

We ended our class day by performing a site assessment of the third house. We mapped things like where the sun and storms would be in summer and winter, direction of prevailing winds, water runoff, pleasant views, wildlife, etc. The assessment is a tool to best determine how to design your site. One of the big elements of permaculture is site specificity, for sure. 

It's interesting, back at UGA and in most cities we hear so much about LEED standards. But here in Prescott, LEED is almost never mentioned. The green building movement feels much more holistic, much more progressive. Instead of "sustainable" buildings, there's a focus on "regenerative" buildings that benefit the environment instead of being "less bad". (Which is cool because I've thought the exact same thing, I just didn't know what to call it). All the building materials we've been exposed to here are made from some alternative building material, usually of earthen base. Permaculture is HUGE in Prescott, it seems everybody at Prescott College (PC) has taken permaculture classes. 

That night Dawnielle, Nancy, and I made our first dinner from the CSA produce! In case you haven't been paying attention, CSA means Communities Supporting Agriculture. You pick up a weekly batch of fresh produce from the area. This week we got green tomatoes, cactus (!), kale, squash, grapefruits, spring greens. I made fried green tomatoes for the first time! 

Here's our meal, salad with tomatoes on fried eggs on muenster on toasted kalamata olive rosemary bread:

Saturday we were finally able to sleep in. We had such a hectic and exhausting week we gladly embraced it and spent the day lounging inside. But we emerged out of our apartment to catch the sunrise at the Granite Dells, about 15 min outside of Prescott.

The dells! They seemed photoshopped, they were so beautiful.

LOTR Re-enactment:

Oh, and our last classmate Monica arrived Saturday and joined us at the dells!

We jumped around the rocks like little mountain goats.

In a pit. You know how I do.

We're definitely coming back to explore more. Apparently there are bike trails and a dock to go kayaking!

This is the only sign of snakes I've seen so far in my time here:

A horseshoe court?

What a brilliant idea! Not trying to convince people to buy more gas, but what a brilliant idea!

In an hour and a half I will be catching up with the rest of the East coast and watching THE LOST FINAL FINALE at a friend of Drew's house. Should be interesting to meet Arizonian Losties and OMG LOST


x-posted on loungerats2010.blogspot.com

So let me tell you about Athens...

SORRY FOR THE PICS IF THEY ARE CONFUSING... I'M HAVING ISSUES WITH PIC PLACEMENT AND ITS ANNOYING

This post is about being in Athens the past week. (I'll be speaking on behalf of those other people still here who haven't posted in a while too).

I've started my training at the Science Library. Librarians are super sweet but they do things on their own time.... I'm not sure I'm used to such a slow paced job (although there IS still a lot to know) but I know I'll be happy that its a slow job when Fall comes around and I get to do my studying on the job :) The one thing that I do know is that I will be able to find any article or book or anything I (or you) ever would need for research.

Sun fish

(Main) Library

I am doing research still in the Byers lab and today caught about 20 little sun fish (and maybe a baby bass?) in my minnow traps. I really like being able to go out "into the field".

Ecology people who are here right now include Alex, Mark, Charlie, Devin.... and I can't remember who else. All in all Athens has been really fun this past week. We've been hanging out chill Athens style. Some of us went to Copper Creek on Tuesday. I saw a ton of people that I know there. I really love how I can go to Copper Creek with just a couple friends and then see about ten other people that I know. (It's probably because that's where all of the cool kids hang out).

On Wednesday Fern and Devin set an AMAZING hash out at Whitehall forest complete with river crossings, climbing, and high up train trail crossings over the river. I feel like I've gotten to make a ton of new friends by hashing. It was really pretty and fun! We then had a cook out at Alex's house where Devin and Mark did not fail to bring a ton of dumpster food. yummy

Also we (Devin, Mark, Malin, Jess, Ben and a couple other people) are going on a canoe trip this weekend. We are going down the Oconee and are going to camp near the river tomorrow night. (We were supposed to start today but bad weather postponed our trip.)

So basically we around here are just enjoying each others company and trying to earn a little money here and there. The way Athens should be during the summer :)

PS -- Don't forget to let me know when any of you are here this summer.

Sleep?

So the workload has really piled up dramatically here at Oxford (I had 1500 pages to read last night), so it makes a lot more sense to cut my losses and at least have a good time among this disaster of a class.

Thus, I emailed a guy I had been in contact with previously to go out for some newt surveys. On Wednesday, he picked me up at 7 pm at a train station in Oxford to head out and survey some ponds for a few species of newts.

Basically, this guy (Rod D'Ayala) is an ecological consultant. One of Britain's three native species of newts (the Great Crested Newt, Triturus cristatus) is heavily protected, and any development plans that intend on disrupting their habitat have to jump through a bunch of hoops before proceeding. Rod's job is making sure that they maintain the health of newt (and other species) populations despite the alterations of the land. In this particular case, a middle-aged couple wanted to redirect a stream in their yard that was causing flooding during heavy rains. Unfortunately, the stream fed into a healthy pond for Great Crested Newts. Rod to the rescue.

It's amazing how well these species can hang on in urban areas. Below is the pond in the yard of this couple. Notice the mowed grass, lack of vegetative cover, and lack of much woodland surrounding it (these newts, unlike ours, migrate out of the pond after every reproductive bout).

As soon as the sun set, we hit the edges of the ponds with our torch lights (British phrase for powerful flashlights). Dozens of Great Crested Newts and Smooth Newts (Lissotriton vulgaris)--another, smaller species of newt--were seen swimming in the shallows. In fact, one Great Crested Newt was actually observed laying her eggs on a leaf, which they then proceed to fold over to protect the egg.

After doing a torch-survey, we set out "bottle-traps". These function the same way (but less effectively) as our minnow traps, funneling animals in. However, Britain hasn't seemed to have caught on to our superior methods, yet. Still, they work decently.

I arrived home around midnight, worked for four hours on Modernist Lit, slept for an hour, and then met Rod back at the train station. A forty-minute ride later and we were back at the pond, ready to check our traps. Much to my delight, they contained many Great Crested Newts--males, females, and juveniles.

[Interestingly, this species is quite common throughout much of England (especially Oxfordshire), and I'm not sure why it receives heavier protection than the other species of newts.]

Several of the European species of newts are famous for the intricate tail and back crests that the males boast during the reproductive season. Presumably, these are used to waft pheromones towards females. Unfortunately, the crests flop down on land, and they're rather unimpressive. Google "Triturus cristatus" and you're see better aquarium photographs.

A large male Great Crested Newt

Beautiful belly

Oddly, although we saw dozens during our night-time search, no Smooth Newts showed up in the bottle-traps. I wasn't leaving without a photograph, though, and I dipnetted around until I came up with a pretty male (note the floppy crest, as well).

All in all, it was a wonderful (and much needed break) from my class, and I enjoyed seeing both species (2/3 of all of GB's salamander species!). I was frustrated by the shitty photographic conditions, but I'll be back, hopefully. To make life even sweeter, my class (despite not having read most of the books) is going well, and I think I'll survive.

Coral Snake!!!

So... today... when I was in the field... I saw a coral snake when I was checking some agouti cameras/recorder... want to hear the better news?!?!
I didn't have my personal camera so I couldn't take a picture of it sooooooooo nooooooot cooooooool.
And my computer can't connect to la internet yet so... no pictures.
wouldn't matter anyways because i always forget my camera.
ok. it is not that i forget it but... i am going out in the forest to do work, i hardly think about taking scenic pictures.
remind me to take my camera next time guys ^_^
love,
epic bush

Ah! Pictures! My own computer - mwuh!

! i love this picture...
This is where I stay at the facility
Um... some plant haha but it's purrdy!

This is a poison dart frog of some sort...

I caught a cat-eyed snake yesterday with this herper, Beck. Saw some frogs doin' the dirty deed, helped catch 3 iguanas... wonderfulness.

OMG saw my first tarantula! i most definitely have to take my camera everywhere now, yeah?

And BAM suddenly I'm very busy

It's only been two days since I last posted, but it's felt like an entire month has gone by. What a whirlwind the last 48 hours has been! As always, since I have a faulty memory, I'll retrace the past few days with time-stamped pictures that never lie.

Our second day at Ecosa started off with a team effort to produce something functional from shredded paper waste, flour, and water. Here is my group's product -- a compostable compost bin that you can throw directly into the compost in once piece! It's supposed to be taller and have a smaller mouth, but we had issues with weight-bearing and getting our paper-mache to dry, but at least it's a prototype.

Our conceptual idea for mass production, basically your recycling facility picks up your shredded paper waste in addition to your regular recycling, and in return you get a stack of these self-assemble compostable compost bins. 

Lunch break at the courthouse:

Plaid party!

The courthouse is one of the few open greenspaces where people can hang out. At the center of downtown, it's close to our studio and "Whiskey Row" (a block downtown with a lot of bars and saloons! Actual saloons! Apparently that's where the biker gangs go to drink.)

Candy legos at a popular candy store on Whiskey Row with SO MUCH CANDY

When we got back, we were told to scrounge around Prescott to find places with leftover/waste/recycled materials that we could use to construct our first project, a sturdy yet lightweight 18x24 portfolio case and a three ring binder. So we spent the entire afternoon driving around and hitting up Kuhle's Scrap Yard and an array of thrift stores. 

A (minute) sample of what you can find at the scrap yard:

At the DAV (Disabled American Veterans) thrift store: 

Outside the DAV. Reminds me of my favorite scene here

A one dollar thrift store find! It has houndstooth, paisley, and horses. Did I mention it was a dollar? And yes, I am on a bike in the apartment with a helmet (safety first!), in front of a map of Arizona that eerily matches my new shirt. 

One thing about Prescott: though it is mostly a Republican town, Prescott College brings in a mix of very liberal, progressive students. There seem to be a ton of great community projects in the area, all of which are fascinating. For example, Karma Farms was started by a student (now alumnus) where volunteers farm unused property with consent of the landowner, growing food for sustenance for volunteers, and leftovers are given to the impoverished. How sweet is that? 

------------------------------------

And now, for your viewing pleasure, are some photos of the studio so you get a sense of where I spend most of my time everyday here. 

A model I fell in love with

Dawnielle, one of my roomies, in the studio.

The A/V room, where we watch movies and presentations

The next 24 hours is where my sense of time is completely altered. After our lunch break, we got more details on our portfolio project and then were sent out in the wild to find our materials. The due date: the next DAY at 3 pm. And vroooooom we were off!

We dumpster dove/checked out countless empty dumpsters (seriously, like every single dumpster in town), went back to the scrap yard (such a cool place), asked for scraps at some frame store, dove some more dumpsters (Loungerats -- this was my first time being completely inside a dumpster! Be proud.) and then already exhausted, headed to our classmate Matt's house to get some serious work done, and inevitably a good amount of bonding.

Christine, another classmate, scoping out a dumpster behind a Home Depot

Matt is the one that consistently goes to Burning Man and has pretty much anything you would need to create something using metal or plastic and anything else, basically. And I mean anything. Welding, nailing, screwing, bolting, drilling, sawing, cutting, molding, riveting, etc. could all be done at casa de Matt. Without a doubt, our class' portfolios would have been a lot shabbier without Matt's expertise and wide range of tools and skills. We worked until 9 pm, then exhausted, trudged back home to continue working well into the night, which actually got quite chilly. (Though the afternoon in the next day was intensely sunny and hot. Yay desert weather)

Christine, Drew, and Matt in the backyard. Check out Matt's kinetic machine in the left midground!

Exhausted and many stressful hours later, after many many 'experiments' (i.e. failed designs), our class was finished and headed to the studio by 3 for critique. Running around town looking for materials trying to get our ideas to work was VERY Project Runway. But no Heidi or Tim :(. Here are some snapshots of the finished products: 

Notebook velcros to Matt's portfolio

Christine took a "DO NOT ENTER" sign to make the notebook. Siiiiick.

Dawnielle's has pant pockets inside

My portfolio (paint swatches overlaid with transparencies from the Ecosa office, and the handles are made from old spark plugs)

The interior and notebook

The scrap yard didn't have any metal 'Z's, so I flipped an 'S' instead

After the critiques, we got out of class early. Since we hadn't eaten anything in a while, Drew took the out-of-staters to a local Mexican restaurant for linner. SO DELICIOUS. And Drew is good buddies with the owners, who were super friendly. Nothing like Hispanic food in the Southwest. (Except Austinian Tex-mex according to Dawnielle)

Then the four of us went back to matt's to clean up the horrendous mess we left. Project space always ends up looking like a tornado busted through. 

One of the work tables

One of Matt's sculptures in his front yard

We were finally free to go home and rest. I caught up on LOST. OMG RIGHT?!?! Desmond is a badass. FINALE SUNDAAAAAAAY. You'll probably hear from me before then, some of us are planning on hitting up the Granite Dells this weekend and I promise lots and lots (and too many) photos!

Thanks for reading <333

x-posted rompalime.blogspot.com