Christmas on the Walton Smith

The holiday season has been lots of fun around the RSMAS campus.  We were invited aboard the RV Walton Smith for a little holiday cheer.  Unfortunately, it poured all day long and we didn't want the wet weather to ruin the fun.  So, being the prepared scientists that we are, we wore the appropriate apparel. 

Our preparation was short lived however when the skies cleared and the rain stopped which made a lot of party goers ask why we were wearing wetsuits. 

Brittany, Kristen, Mandy and I represent the Walton Smith!

Once the rain stopped, we got to enjoy a beautiful sunset over Biscayne Bay!

Nursery Collections

With the nursery blocks in place, it's time to start populating them with knubbins which we collect from neighboring reefs. This will be the most important step in the process and it's takes quite a bit of time to search the reefs for healthy corals. 

We have sets of GPS coordinates where colonies of Acropora cervicornis have been surveyed in the past couple of years.  We take measurements of the parent colony and take lots of pictures.  Then we break off a couple of branches which then get fragmented for the nursery.

I have to admit it was pretty satisfying to see the first fragments epoxied into the new nursery!

And I'm happy to see that the tradition of epoxy pals continues!

Christmas time in Florida

For the first time in 4 years, I went and bought a Christmas tree!  I'm spending the holidays at home in Miami this year, and I figured I would dust off all of my ornaments and decorations and make my home feel a little more like Christmas.

I was a little nervous about tying a tree onto the top of my car, but I figured that since my bumper was tied on, a tree could make it too!

I put on a couple of Christmas themed movies (Love Acutally is one of my favorites, actually) and made some hot chocolate (it's not quite the same while it's 85 degrees outside).  I really enjoyed decorating the tree and getting sentimental about family Christmas memories from the past!

Trouble, however, did not enjoy wearing her Santa hat!

Bad things happen....

I have to admit, I'm getting a little frustrated with life's little mishaps.  Although I really like my cute cottage in the grove, the oven is busted, the fridge stopped working Thanksgiving weekend, the roof leaks, and it is infested with carpenter ants.  It's been a slow and time consuming process to get everything inspected and repaired and it's hard to get everything unpacked and stored while I have to move things around so they don't get dripped on. 

In addition, I was involved in an accident Saturday night.  I wasn't injured, but I can't say the same for my car.  I'm currently sporting the ghetto fabulous look with my bumper tied on to the rest of the car.  I was making a turn with a green arrow when a car ran the red light and drove right in front of me.  Luckily, I wasn't going fast enough for the airbags to deploy, but the icing on the cake is that the other driver didn't stop.  Thank goodness for the excessive cost of uninsured motorist coverage in the state of Florida!

So, Trouble and I have been finding ways to relax and relieve the stress of life (here she is taking a mini-vacation to Hawaii on a towel I laid out to soak up the water that has leaked on the floor!).

New Nursery Photos

We set up the new nursery yesterday! 

There are twenty blocks in a straight row which house the initial parent generation for the new and improved Biscayne Bay Coral Nursery Program.

We have made a few changes to the design of the blocks from the last nursery.  The cement cones on top have a wider and deeper depression to securely hold the coral fragments in place.  The PVC pedestals should help decrease fouling by macroalgae and make keeping the blocks clean of encrusting organisms easier.  Each block is secured to the sandy bottom by two staples made from rebar to reduce damage caused by storms.  I think the blocks are cute- they almost look like little Smurf villages!

Here are Caitlin and Brittany reattaching some of the pedestals that got damaged during deployment.  Only three fell off!

Maybe fewer would have been damaged if I had not been hugging them!  I couldn't help it- I'm so proud of the new nursery (and all the people who have helped build it)!

We had a welcome party waiting for us back at the marina. 

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!