Rocks

I want to go here (Prekestolen, Norway)...

here (Boulders, New Zealand)...

and here (Bemaraha Nat. Park, Madagascar).

Liz

My dear sister Liz moved back down to Provo this fall to conquer business school. And I love it. She is always calling us up to see if we want to go climbing, ride bikes, explore a new trail she found, help her eat peanut M&Ms, and other delightful things. She tells me that I am cute, fun, and smart (I can never have to many sources of those kinds of comments). Every time we meet up she makes me feel like I am the greatest thing that walked into her life that day.

Case and point: Last Thursday was Liz's birthday, for which a party was thrown at her apartment. Liz planned the menu complete with sugar-snap peas, peppers, hummus, and peanut M&Ms. She invited over 50 friends. The place was filled with people whom I had never met, but who all thought Liz was one awesome lady (I agree). When they found out that I was her sister they would tell me how much they liked her. They told me that she was nice, fun, and adventurous. But mostly they told me that she was great.

And for the record, I completely agree.

Hazards of Field Studies

Field studies aren't always as neat and tidy as studies in the lab. There are a lot of things you just can't control; weather, animals, UFO landings, etc. For example, another master's student in my major had a plot out in the west desert for over a year. His degree rested upon the data that plot would generate. It was happily generating data for him until it was burnt up in a wild fire one afternoon this summer.

Needless to say, I have had passing panic attacks that something tragic would happen to my study plots. It came last week in the form of a badger. The rascal dug up a few of my plots in Washington. Note the faint pink string to the right of the holes. If he had been just slightly to the other side of that string, no damage would have been done. This is going to throw a wrench in my statistics.

We Are Nerds

Keith and I are taking a class together this semester called Plant Pathology. One of the main assignments in this class is to make a collection of 15 plant diseases we collect and identify. I thought I might share a little of the excitement with the rest of ya'll. (Feel free to stop reading now.)

While hiking, walking around campus, admiring friends house plants, etc., we are always on the look out for possible diseases. Leaf spots, lovely.
This white fir in the Uintas was growing this huge mass. Fungi galore!
Oh yes, the kitchen! The fruit bowl and potato sacks are fantastic places to look. This guy had three fungal diseases on him. Nice.
I thought this corn smut fungus was impressive. (Please refer to the post title).
And here is the cute nerdy couple. Lab coats and all.

This was one of the fungi from the peach.
This is a bacteria. Just remember: fungi are fuzzy, bacteria are slimy. That is your take home lesson for the day.
Another fungi from the same peach.
Little bacteria. But you knew that.
Fungi spores under a microscope. Now that makes me feel very sciency.
Umm, this is a little frog. He has nothing to do with plant diseases, except that we found him while looking for them.

For those of you that didn't stop with the petri-dish pictures, save your funky looking plants for us!

Grandma Merrill

While we were engaged, Keith took me to visit his Grandma and Grandpa Merrill here in town. I was nervous. For some reason meeting the grandparents was more nerve-racking than meeting the parents. That feeling only lasted until we entered their home. Family pictures, roses, and lovely figurines decorated the house. Doilies laid on end tables and chairs. I don't know what it is about doilies that make me feel at ease. They remind me of my Grandma Earl and the feeling of quiet happiness and comfort in her home. Another thing caught my eye as the four of us sat down to in the front room; an afghan. I commented on its beauty to Grandma Merrill and mentioned my long time desire to learn to crotchet. That sweet lady immediately offered to teach me.

Thankfully I took her up on her offer. She taught me how to make dish rags, then we moved on to a baby afghan and I even tried a baby bootie. She told me that once I finished the main portion of the afghan, she would help me with the edge. Several times throughout the summer Keith and I would visit Grandma and Grandpa Merrill. I would show her may latest efforts and she would give me pointers. After that she would beat Keith at a few rounds of Wii bowling and Grandpa Merrill would come in and chat. A few hours later we would leave smiling, giggling, and sorry to go. I had adopted another set of grandparents, and I couldn't have been happier.

Grandma Merrill passed away this morning. I, along with many, am grateful for the time I had to get to know her. I have a baby afghan with it's edge missing in the corner of the living room. I am not sure where to go with it from here. The summer was too short. I want to go over for another visit.

Each Grandma is precious. They see in us the beautiful things that we didn't know were there. They love us, spoil us, teach us, and uplift us. I am thankful that Grandma Merrill took me in and was a grandma to me. Even if just for a summer.

Where We've Been

Is it really autumn already! Yikes. As usual, my absence from this here blog is a sign that life has been movin' forward like crazy lately. Here are highlights from the last couple of months...

We went to Colorado! Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Merrill that gave us a week of their timeshare. We spent the week in Pagosa Springs in a condo bigger than our apartment. We hiked...

...saw lots of wildflowers (it wouldn't be a real Katie post if there wasn't a picture of wildflowers)......summited Pagosa Peak to get a view of the southern Rockies...

...brushed up on our fly-fishing skills...
...checked out a bunch of antique stores...
...went to a quilt museum (this was super neat and Keith is a super good sport)...

...went to the local farmers market and county fair......where I ate a foot-long corndog (oh my)...
...spent two days touring Mesa Verde Nat. Park (I love that place)...
...and saw a wildfire. It was a quick, but still relaxing, wonderful trip.
Over Labor Day we took Keith's younger brother and parents backpacking up to Betsy Lake in the Uintas. It was his parent's first backpacking trip and after much preparation and worry it turned out wonderful. Gorgeous, peaceful, fun.
It was the last backpacking trip of the season and I enjoyed every moment.

Along with the summer my hummingbirds have left as well. I already miss them.
My garden is slowly shrinking as well. But my tomato plants are now HUGE!

With summer over the real work began. The major goal of this semester is to successfully put in my master's research study. I have two plots, one in the west desert and one in Washington near Spokane. We put in the west desert one Friday. The last 5 months have been spent getting ready for this so it is exciting to be getting it in the ground.By the way, I love being co-workers with my hubby.


This is Susan, our boss, helping to plant the seeds into the study plots. The seeds (about 10,000 total) were individually glued onto toothpicks over the course of the last few months. This took forever but it will allow us to track the fate of each individual seed, making the study stronger.


Toothpicks in the ground!Part of the study is a water/no-water comparison. Because we can't make it rain when we want we water with "water pillows." Just gallon zip-lock bags that we pock holes in and put on racks over the plots to make it "rain."

Still here

I'm here. Really. Between a conference at Snowbird and a week-long vacation in Colorado (lovely, fun, lovely) I have been very detached from this here blog. But now life has slowed down a bit. Work this week is mostly consisting of glueing approximately 10,000 seeds to approximately 10,000 flat-tipped bamboo toothpicks (yes research has it's dull moments too). That means my brain power can be used for something else. I have found that glueing seeds to toothpicks is one activity that doesn't actually require use of the brain.

Anyway, pictures of Colorado are coming. Just wanted to let whomever reads this that I am still here. Though I am considering returning to Colorado.