magical science supply faerie

Two weeks until undergrad honours thesis are due, so students are rushing like mad to finish up the last few experiments. One arrives at my door this morning to ask that I order supplies on his behalf, holding the empty containers in his hand. When I tell him I will do it asap but that the supplies will likely arrive early next week, he does that quick-inhale-between-the-teeth-reverse-whistle thing. Like "ohh...only next week??" but in non-verbal form.

There's a life lesson here, unfortunately for him. It goes something like this:

I am not one of these.
Figure 1: Science supply fairie. Space and time bend to her almighty will. Ta-da!

Sorry kiddo. Now I have to willfully compel myself NOT to chase allover campus getting signatures right quick. Because there is still a tiny teeny part of me that feels bad for him, and would do it. If my inner bitch let her. Which she won't.

dank

With spring temperatures, there is water everywhere. Puddles in the front yard, backyard, basement. When the new septic field was put in place less than five years ago, we suspect the people may have royally screwed up the drainage plane around the house. Copious amounts of dirt were presumably rearranged in the process, and it requires a smart thinker to keep the water flowing away from the house. There is no way the house would be in such great structural shape if the amount of standing water around the house right now is historically accurate.

So guess what we found under the floor of our exisiting kitchen? If you guessed a 7 foot-by-7 foot concrete box (six feet tall) with about 3 feet of clear, standing water you would be correct. And it is fucking creepy.

Our running hypothesis all winter was that the kitchen was a later addition to the house, since it "sticks out" of the original square footprint, attached to a 6-inch wall rather then an interior 4-inch one. We figured that it had no proper foundation, just a dug dirt crawlspace. It is always much colder in that space, which would make sense if it was sitting on dirt. We hoped the floor joists were structurally intact and didn't meet the same fate as the barn boards, which are crumbling from the middle of the floor outwards. (Tangent: our barn looks almost identical to this one, but with a better roof.)

Then my husband pulled up a curious spot in the hardwood floor that looked like a hardwood patch (like those around old flue holes in the floor) that was in a funny location. It was a hatch access door to the pit.

Turns out the reason our kitchen is so cold is because it is sitting on a pool of near-freezing water. We can't figure out the purpose. Root cellar? Extra well water? Flooded bomb shelter? And more importantly, what do we do with it? Drain it, obviously. But then...cap it? Leave it & insulate the floor? Use it as a root cellar and hope it doesn't floor next spring? Pack it with vodka for the end times?

shitty timing

We found a wee treasure behind the baseboard of the old house. It is a tea company advertisement for "Beacon Tea Company" based out of Boston. I wish I could date the thing, but with the political uproar in the States right now, a quick search for "Beacon Tea" just brings up all sorts of racist, right-wing garbage (or articles mocking it, like this.)

So this is the cute placard showcasing nifty period clothing. When was tea 20 cents a pound? Now, that may be something to work with.

Wrangling

I would very much like to choke the everlivingshit out of whoever sold my email address to the ScienceSpammers. Dammit, this is what my inbox looks like:

Eight more days

Being a new grad last summer, I qualified for a government salary supplementation for my first year (-ish) of work at a "small-to-medium size company" in my field of study. At the end of the last pay cycle, my boss informed my that there was a much larger balance in the grant account then we previously believed. Basically, this funding was going to run out at the end of the month whether I claimed it or not, so if I wanted to work my ass off for 17 days in a row, I could drain the account (doubling my normal pay cheque $$), bank the hours, plow through an ever- accumulating "to-do list", apply the money to our new woodstove AND take some time off after April 1st.

So that's what I decided to do, calculating 17 successive, 9-hour days would be enough time logged to empty the left-over grant money. I am now over half way finished, and have managed to stay in relatively good spirits and health. Nine hours days, in reality, are nothing compared to the strenuous hours in other jobs. As my husband reminded me yesterday, upon delivery of some delicious potato pancakes and beer for my suppertime meal taken in the lab..."you're not an undergrad, you're not a masters student anymore. You're getting paid for your time. Chin up."

...of course, it's molecular biology. I protocol started is a protocol to be completed until an appropriate storage stage is reached. So I was here last night at 1 am transferring a Western Blot :)

The nine hour days alone are not really a problem. It is the quick spring that overtook us, highlighting the need for attention outside (ex: incomplete chicken coop, soppy garden and crumbling exterior finish) that is difficult to neglect on beautifully sunny weekend days.
Coincidentally, there were lots of planned appointments (doctor and hair) and installations or estimates for these two weeks (like the stove, planned for a Thursday installation, or the spray-foam insulation guy who is coming tomorrow afternoon). So I have been working more like four ten-hour days, and then five hours a day on the weekend.

I've also been tutoring someone while she studies mid-wifery via correspondance. Her current course is anatomy & physiology. (Thankfully, there is quite the overlap in content from my undergrad cell bio/metabolism/animal biology classes...says the girl who studied fungus, algae and plants for her scientific career). Originally a 14-week course with ~4 hours of tutoring a week, she was just informed late last week that in order to qualify for government student loans, she needs to complete the course in under seven weeks. All of a sudden, four hours a week has turned into 8. We have standing dates on Tuesday & Friday and Sunday evenings to go over the remaining material. She must complete the course by the end of April, so hopefully my banked hours this month can be used for day-long study/cram sessions before her last few exams. She also received a grant to pay for my tutoring services at a great per hour rate.

So just to re-iterate: I have job(s) I love, I'm keeping busy and I love potato pancakes with spinach and cheddar. Yum!

fun-tasking

I dyed my brown hair with a semi-permanent purple dye on the weekend while checking out the price of a honey bee starter kit ($190.00 plus tax + $10.00 registration fee).



I spent five hours updating my lab book this weekend while sitting in the sun, three hours tutoring someone in anatomy/physiology while drinking tea, seven hours cleaning the yard/stacking wood while the laundry dried on the line.




I centrifuged my midi-prep plasmid DNA in preparation of an protein over-expression protocol this morning while talking on the phone to the local Feed&Grain store about heritage/cold-hardy chicken breeds I could order.

Sunlit Swooning

I dislike aviator style sunglasses. It is my belief that they flatter nobody's face shape. To wit:



(and she has reason to where them...she actually flies planes when she isn't saving the world or "stealing" husbands.)

But...I've made one exception in my entire life. And his name is Jon Hamm.

I just...can't....handle...his untucked shirt while he stretches. Gurgle gurle gurgle. Lainey said he touched her hair and YOU KNOW WHAT? That made me seriously consider for one millisecond not cutting my long hair next week as I had planned to. On the bizilion-to-one chance Jon Hamm wants to touch MY long hair sometime when we could possibly be in the same location. Crazy Loco. Long hours in the lab may have skewed my take on reality, folks. Or it could just be Jon Hamm. He has strange powers, that man.

Don't even get me started about when he was sporting that beard last month for Oscars.

translations from a tech

What they say versus What they mean:

"Is there any more DDT?" = "The powder is right here next to the tube of empty solution, but I don't want to make it up."

"Are there any more LB plates?" = "Someone used the last plate and didn't tell anyone. Please make more so I don't have to."

"Do these tubes of media have Ampicillin?" = "I cannot read, since these tubes are clearly marked on the side AND the tops that they lack Ampicillin. It's written on the white board and in an email I received earlier. But I didn't look there."

"Do you know where to pick up the intro reports/midterms/marks?" = "It is second semester but I still haven't figured out how university works, or that I'm responsible for knowing these things before arriving to the building. You don't work for the university but are stationed at a convenient location, so I'll ask you."

ying yang yadda yadda

FTW: My science is kicking ass over and over. My lab is clean and organized, including the freezer I just thawed out. My lab book is a mess, but will be tackled in short order. I feel like a queen bee.

pwned: The Spring thaw came whipping out of Winter's ass so fast I believe we may have missed our opportunity to tap birch trees this year. While we are scrambling to find equipment that costs less than our first born child's soul, the day-time temperatures have been 5-10 C for four days straight. Maple syrup producers have gathered TONS of sap already. Usually the maple season is the end of March, but every day this week has been gloriously sunny. Literally, one week ago we battled two mighty snow storms in a row. This picture was swiped from a friend's facebook account without credit:



This would be a snow drift, waist-high, at her front door... ie normal March weather. So although I complain, I can't REALLY complain because sun lifts my spirits. Birch syrup will have to wait until next year.

treasures

The first harvest of the spring:

I had to pick them out of cold water & snow...and I'm not sure if they are edible. We'll see, I guess :)


We had beautiful sunny spring days here this weekend. It prompted us to do three things on our "to-do list":
1. figure out where to put laying hens. We decided on 4-6 chickens, either Barred Rock pullets or Chantecler pullets (a Canadian Heritage Breed) that are cold hardy and friendly enough to have around kids. We think one of the out building was once used as a big chicken coop, so we've decided to turn it back into one for a small number of chickens that will hopefully supply us with fresh eggs.

2. figure out where to put a few bee hives. Friends of ours started last year on their old farmhouse nearby, so we went to dinner on Saturday to talk shop (and yummy food!). We won't be getting any honey for the first year, but it will be good to have them around to pollinate.

3. mark off the birch trees we could tap for sap. Although maple trees are the biggest producer of sweet syrup around here, we have almost none on our 135 acres. But a girlfriend of mine goes up to the Yukon every spring to tap birch trees, and although the process if more difficult and finnicky than maple, it can be done (ie different sugar with lower content). We thought we would try it out at least once. Within a 0.5 km radius of our backyard, we found 50 birch trees bigger in diameter than my hand.

We also visited the barn again, and opened an old chest left in the back part. It was lined in newspaper, and we were lucky to find an intact remnant:


The people is this area were ship-builders and rock-quarrying people. Many prominent families had homes here and in New England (mostly Boston), and this chest must have been from one of those family members. Nifty.

Hot hot heat

Despite drama at work, "grant writing" hell (not my own, thankfully) and a to-do list longer than my left leg, I'm still chugging along with house things. Last weekend, we went woodstove shopping. Prior to stepping into any store, we discussed budget, we both agreed around $3000 would be reasonable. That was excluding any government energy-rebate benefits (around $900) we would qualify for before March 31st. Difference that we found out later was that I meant installed, and hubby meant just for the stove. No matter, once I saw the selection, I was pretty determined to get something like this (which would never happen on my previous budget so TOO BAD FOR ME):

Pacific Energy Alderlea T5 (~$2400):

or Jotul F500 "Oslo" (~$2900):

Lovely stoves, well made, well reviewed, would fit right into the decor of our old home, both medium sized stoves. We are hoping their size will yield the luxury of overnight burns. A cast iron sleeve (on the Pacific Energy) or cast iron box (for the Jotul) means a "softer heat" compared to stainless steel, that is absorbed and dispersed more slowly. I hope this translates into a comfortable warmth in our living room, instead of a "blast" of heat in one corner that can't be approached without passing out.

Our house has these wicked tall gothic dormers that were a bitch to re-shingle but also means that for code purposes, our flue has to extend a god-awful length. Way up high. Like, 28 feet from the stove. At one hundred dollars a linear foot installed, well.....I was stupid to think my $3000 budget was going to go very far with anything but a $300 HomeHardware leaky bucket. A local dealer has the T5 floor-model on clearance (end of season sale) so at least there is that. Exciting!

I don't get *dressed* so much as *costume* myself...

So here is a picture of my shirt (formerly a 3.5 m length of fabric). I gave it a boat neck with a large hood that holds tight along me face, long sleeves with thumb holes and a wrapped empire waist. The bottom edge is still raw, because I want to add darts along the bottom half to make it more A-line, as well as incorporate the empire waisted tie-backs directly into the tunic (currently they are just tied around me). I still have tons of fabric left-over, but the stretch is not as I would have liked so I don't know what I'll do with the rest (it definitely bunches in places I don't want it to bunch). Alas, when you are scrummaging through the bargain bin, you take what you can get.

In the end, I came to love the colour. I wore it to work, and my boss said I looked like someone from Lord of the Rings. It is a very earthy chartreuse colour, and compliments my dark-hair-streaked-with-red. So I think I'll keep it, incorporate the finishing touches and reinforce the seams so I can by rugged with it. Like scale a tree or try out a bow or something ;)