Crazy days

So, I leave tomorrow for 2 month in eastern Europe. As you might imagine, I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off (I know this is an annoying cliche, but darn it, the chicken thing feels particularly apt recently - I am totally fried!). It is 100 degrees and I am slaving away in the sun in order to get my big experiment set up before I leave.

Consolations: 1. I work on a wetland plant. that means: water! While Stephanie is a mischievous little brat, I have to admit, the water sprayed on me whenever I forgot where she was sure felt good. and these tubs are like mini swimming pools, especially when you need to adjust something at the bottom.2. I have had amazing helpers! Stephanie in particular has worked her butt of right along beside me.

It has been a crazy 3 weeks of planting plants, moving them around multiple times, and lots of sunshine. We weighed one of the pots yesterday, out of curiosity. Semi wet, it weighed ~40 lbs. when I stop feeling exhausted, man am I going to be buff! And tan, don't forget tan.It doesn't look like much in this picture, but there are 18 of the white tubs you can see. Each has 12 varieties of my plant, from all over the Americas. I am subjecting them to 3 different levels of salinity, and 2 different levels of nutrients. This is just the beginning. Soon, those tubs will be full of plants, and the fun will begin. The plants off to the left are the ones I collected on my big trip last year, but wont be using in this particular experiment.

I now need to go home and pack, did I mention that I leave tomorrow? Yikes!