Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Another trip to the watershed
Well, pretty cool, got out to CPCRW on a nice day yesterday. Nice sunny weather (never mind the temperature was just a bit above 0). Got to change the NADP bucket (a bit of nostalgia) and then Brian and I changed out the batteries on the longwave radiometers. Like most things they're in a hard to reach spot. Here's a picture of me pulling them off the 10 foot tall tower:
So, part 1 of the operation includes taking the sensors off the tower. The second part is just as lame. There's a little battery about as thick as 4 or 5 watch batteries all stacked together in the bottom of the radiometers protected by a water tight lid held in place by 6 teeny screws. So, after you pull the lid off (which is on the bottom of the radiometer so the whole thing has to come off the tower) you've got to keep track of these little screws while changing the battery. The battery's about as hazardous as you'll find anywhere, a lead-mercury number. Anway, the battery usually give me trouble when I try to pull it off because it's embedded deep in the radiometer casing. So, as I'm telling Brian how hard they are to pull out he gets his out easily. I continue on complaining just as my battery launches in a nice shot straight up into the air, a nice parabola up and down. You pretty much know the rest. It gets buried in a snow bank and we spend a forever digging through the snow. Nice day to be out though.
The other task for the day was grabbing some water samples at this period of low flow from the creeks. They'd been told to expect artesian water (under so much pressure that water goes up above the ice surface) however that was hardly the case. The water was way at the bottom of the hole so with no pump to get the water we rigged this classic deal out of rebar and duct tape:
So, part 1 of the operation includes taking the sensors off the tower. The second part is just as lame. There's a little battery about as thick as 4 or 5 watch batteries all stacked together in the bottom of the radiometers protected by a water tight lid held in place by 6 teeny screws. So, after you pull the lid off (which is on the bottom of the radiometer so the whole thing has to come off the tower) you've got to keep track of these little screws while changing the battery. The battery's about as hazardous as you'll find anywhere, a lead-mercury number. Anway, the battery usually give me trouble when I try to pull it off because it's embedded deep in the radiometer casing. So, as I'm telling Brian how hard they are to pull out he gets his out easily. I continue on complaining just as my battery launches in a nice shot straight up into the air, a nice parabola up and down. You pretty much know the rest. It gets buried in a snow bank and we spend a forever digging through the snow. Nice day to be out though.
The other task for the day was grabbing some water samples at this period of low flow from the creeks. They'd been told to expect artesian water (under so much pressure that water goes up above the ice surface) however that was hardly the case. The water was way at the bottom of the hole so with no pump to get the water we rigged this classic deal out of rebar and duct tape:
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Seems to me, being such a brainy, engineering, MacGyvery type you'd have improved on the annoying little screws that hold the battery. Come on slacker, are you so busy watching water melt that you can't redesign a watertight container? What are they paying you for anyway? They must keep you on for your pies. : )
I think you're looking at it the wrong way. All those extra screws make it okay to accidentally drop one or two of them into the tussocks without breaking the $$ sensor... But, until all but a couple screws have been lost there's a lot of screwing and unscrewing to do...
Oh yeah, you know it. God bless the internet... now we can know just how many thousands of calories are going into our bodies.
This one (from last Thanksgiving) clocks in at 570 calories per slice, 12 slices per pie (but when has one of my pies ever been cut into 12 slices...):
Peanut Butter Pie
...and that's before I double the cream, polish off a jar of peanut butter (instead of this 12 oz business... tsk.), and bump up the cream cheese to a full pound.
The cool part is when we were in Sitka we saw one of Mary Ellen's friends and she told me how I could add a thin layer of chocolate to break up the peanut buttery wall of goodness.
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This one (from last Thanksgiving) clocks in at 570 calories per slice, 12 slices per pie (but when has one of my pies ever been cut into 12 slices...):
Peanut Butter Pie
...and that's before I double the cream, polish off a jar of peanut butter (instead of this 12 oz business... tsk.), and bump up the cream cheese to a full pound.
The cool part is when we were in Sitka we saw one of Mary Ellen's friends and she told me how I could add a thin layer of chocolate to break up the peanut buttery wall of goodness.
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