Yesterday morning, Matt and Laura Galloway, our collaborators from UVA, joined us at Signal Tree, one of our field sites to see us in action. All our mornings were made when Sara and Elizabeth showed up to Rubbermaid with Dunkin Donuts coffees for all of us and a dozen donuts. Dr. Galloway gave us all valuable suggestions to improve our projects and was overall impressed with how all of our projects are coming along.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the evening, we had a barbecue at Dr. Ison’s house with Matt, Laura and Dr. Loveless, a retired professor from the College of Wooster. Dr. Loveless didn’t come empty handed, she brought a delicious, homemade blueberry pie that had fresh blueberries she had picked herself and fresh madeleines made from blue cornmeal. Jack started up the grill and cooked some bratwursts while Dr. Loveless told us about the book she’s writing about the Amish and how much they interact with science in their everyday lives. Dr. Ison also made some great side dishes that included pasta salad, chickpea sauce salad, polenta, and Ratatouille.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a brief silence, while we were eating, Zachary decided he wanted to play ball and he would thoughtfully pick one of us to throw it to. He later realized that he didn’t need any of us to play and could just throw the ball against the wall and get the same results. Elizabeth had a fun time playing with Dr. Ison’s two dogs and since we had another full day of field work the next day, we decided to call it a night.

 

-Ashley