After Thanksgiving festivities

It was such a beautiful day on Friday, so Claus, Michelle, Woody and I decided to take a boardwalk hike at Peck Lake State Park.  The boardwalk takes you from the hardwood forest with loblolly bay, Florida slash pine and live oak trees, through the mangrove swamp, to the intracoastal waterway.

What a great day to be outside!

Me, Claus and Michelle (not pictured, Woody)

A typical "forest" in South Florida

American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)- very pretty bright purple berries.  These berries serve as an important food source for birds in the winter, but they will not be eaten until all other food sources are depleted.  They are also used to make wine and jellies and is a natural mosquito and tick repellent.

A black racer (Coluber constrictor)- a non-venomous snake found throughout the US east of the Rocky Mountains.  Their diet usually consists of rodents, frogs, lizards and insects.  Despite being called a constrictor, they do not constrict and suffocate their prey.  Instead, they will simply subdue their prey by pinning it with one or two coils of its body while swallowing.

Claus, Michelle and Woody

The boardwalk with wild daisies.

Hibiscus

The intracoastal waterway- we saw lots of people out on their boats enjoying the great weather.

Palm trees

Hobe Sound Beach- the waves looked like fun (especially for the people brave enough to get in the water)!

What a good dog!

After enjoying the outdoors, we devoured some Skyline Chili dip and White Russians, played some cards and an awesome new game called Apples to Apples, and had a blast being DJ and picking out all of our favorite songs! 

There is always room on the dance floor at Club Brown-Hansen!

We even took a dip in the pool!  Good times!

Thanksgiving 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday!  I was invited to spend the day with the Brown-Hansen family in Hobe Sound.

The guest list included Michelle, Claus, Claus' dad, Tye, and Claus' stepmom, Joann.  I hadn't seen Claus' family since Christmas 2006, so it was great to spend time with them and catch up! 

What a beautiful Thanksgiving table!

Claus carves up his first turkey!  Claus and Michelle prepared a fantastic menu with everything from basted turkey, cornbread stuffing, sweet potato souffle, mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli casserole, apple cider, rolls, butternut squash soup and red wine!  It was all so delicious- I didn't even have room for seconds!  But I did have room for Cold Stone Ice Cream Cake!

Claus and Woody

After dinner, we all got to sit around and chat by the pool.  The weather really cooled down during the day, so it was awesome to sit outside with a little chill in the air- made it feel like the holidays!

I spent the night and was treated to fantastic left-overs the next day for lunch!  I was just as good the second time around!  Thanks so much for the invite guys!

Check out BANature

I drove up to West Palm Beach on Sunday to check out Art in the Gardens.  My friend, Brent, is a nature photographer and had a booth displaying his awesome work (check it out at http://www.banature.com/)!  He focuses mainly on landscapes and wildlife photography around South Florida- mainly the Kissimmee River.  Got to see Michelle and Claus for a little bit (they were in town doing some T day shopping).  Afterwards, we met up with Nicky and went out for some delicious organic pizza- I didn't know organic could taste so good! 

Steph the "Not so Handyman"

I finally got around to doing a few little home improvements.  Like hanging a towel rack.....

Trouble helped. 

And some shelves for my kokeshi dolls.  This was my first experience with wall anchors.  And to whoever determined the installation time of 15 minutes...you lied.

It's getting cold in Florida!

Considering that it's November, you have to figure that the temperature is going to start cooling off.  Didn't know the water was going to get so cold, so fast though!  We went out in the field on Tuesday and the skies were a little gray.  Mr. Pelican met us at the boat launch to see us off though.

The water had cleared up some due to a strong north swell that's been happening.  Here's what the typical "patch reefs" look like.  Mostly little areas of hard limestone with algae, sponges and small corals.

Found a very nice sea biscuit and a very curious little wrasse.  I'd forgotten how forward they are!

Quick Paula.....name this juvenile fish who has happily settled amoungst our fragments!  So tiny and so cute!

We tackled the daunting task of identifying and measuring every single fragment/colony in our existing nursery.  It took four of us three 1.5 hour dives each to finish the job (yep- that's a long time!).  This is Chelsey, one of our graduate students, helping out with the measurements.

It was a long day in the water.....do my lips look blue?

Happy Birthday Shelly Michelle!

I got to help celebrate my cousin, Michelle's, birthday this past Saturday.  We met up at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino for dinner at the Cafe and then we went to the Council Oak Lounge to see The Dale Powers Band.  Very cool Chicago-style jazz and blues!  So good we just had to get up and dance!  And the Molten Lava Cake rivals some of the best desserts I've ever had- yummy!  Unfortunately, I didn't win big at the slots, but I had a great time hanging out with Michelle and Claus and their friends Pat and Becca.

Muy Humble Abode

I've been in my cottage now for almost 2.5 weeks now and I just got internet installed today!  That means I should be able to post a little more frequently!  I only have a few boxes left to unpack and Trouble seems to be enjoying her new home (she enjoys having the empty boxes around to hide in!). 

Anyway, here's a picture of the outside of the cottage- I know it doesn't look like much, but I like it!  And it's on an awesome quiet shady street which is hard to find in Miami! 

Work is going well and continues to prove that it's going to keep me busy.  I've been out in the field quite a bit lately to finish up measurements on the old nursery.  Over the past two weeks, the water has gotten cold too!  I spent almost four hours in the water yesterday shivering the whole time.  Looks like it's time to buy a new 5mm wetsuit!

Cottage in the Grove

I know there is still a lot of work to do and I sitll have a lot of stuff to put away, but I wanted to show everyone some "preliminary" pictures of my new cottage in the Grove.

This is the kitchen (and the stainless steel appliances which won't hold magnets!). 

Here is the back side of the living room- I plan on putting some new shelves in the corner to hold books and DVDs.

This is the front side of the living room- I love how the entire length of the room has windows.  Trouble has plenty of spots to lounge and look out the windows over her domain!  I'm thinking of making the front end into an "office/craft area". 

View of the front door and dinette area.

The bedroom is directly to the left of the front door- nice open room plan (otherwise known as a studio!).  It's cozy though.....I like that.

Bathroom with large closest- I think there's room for me to buy more shoes!

Shower- I didn't get a bathtub like I wanted, but the other perks are definitely making up for it!

I'll post new pictures once I get everything in order and I'll take some outside shots if I ever get home from work before it gets dark!

Nursery Picutres

The weather finally began to cooperate and we were able to get into the field for two days last week. We are trying to complete measurements on the current nursery and then we will begin building the new nursery on a big sand patch nearby.

This is a view of the RSMAS campus from the water.  The Walton Smith Catamaran (UM's boat) is currently docked there and the sound of needle gunning reminds me of being at sea on the Sette and HI!

Here's the beautiful Miami skyline.

Our Study Site- just off Adams Key.  There's not a lot to look at from the surface, but nice calm days like the one in the photo makes working here pretty good!

Each cinder block has cement pedestals and cones which hold 10 coral fragments (aka knubbins). All fragments originated from parent colonies found on the surrounding reefs. Once the fragments grow to an acceptable size, these colonies are all measured for growth rates and then branches are fragmented again to start the second generation. In total, we currently have 310 fragments growing in the nursery.

Here I am hard at work.  I've assumed the standard "there's a little bit of current trying to put me off balance, so I'm going to just kneel here in hopes of not falling over and crushing the coral" position. 

The visibility is not fantastic at the site- mostly because we had just finished arranging some of the cinder block rows.  The nursery has 6 rows of 5 blocks.

Some of the fragments have grown quite large and the "reefs" are becoming the new homes of little angel fish, blennies, arrow crabs and even some lobsters.

Stiltsville- located just south of Key Biscayne, these houses were built on stilts as early as 1922 during the days of prohibition.  These houses were often turned into clubs and gambling halls since they set a mile off the coast where alcohol and gambling were legal.  Throughout the years, the houses actually became permanent residences, but laws were passed which prohibit repairs being made to the structures.

Mangrove islands near Adams Key.  Mangroves are an important part of South Florida's ecosystem.  Mangroves provide important habitat for juvenile fishes and produce low lying islands due to the protection of sediments from wave action.  Once established, many of these islands become hatcheries for sea birds such as egrets and roseate spoonbills.

This is me after I've been underwater for 4 hours. Since our site is only 15 feet deep, the only thing that limits how long we can stay under is how much air we have!

One of our boats and Jimmy mixing up some epoxy that we use to cement the coral fragments to the cones

Things I've noticed lately......

1) Jellyfish still sting, fire coral still hurts and no-see-ums are still vile little creatures made of teeth.
2) Stainless steel appliances aren't any fun because magnets don't stick to them.
3) It always feels a little cooler when air conditioning is an option.
4) At 3 am, your cat will always find the one plastic bag you left on the floor (one of these days, I will learn).

Halloween 2009

Happy Halloween everyone!

I know my costume isn't all that original, but when you own a mu'u mu'u, you only get some many chances to wear it!

I had a great Halloween. I drove up to Megan, Ryan and Ava's for a costume party/BBQ. There were corn hole tournaments and fresh lobster courtesy of Scott (it's good to be back in the land of the lobster!). Got to see a lot of good friends and catch up (and I'm happy that I've been getting to do a lot of that lately!).