So tired...

How we're all feeling by the end of our fast-paced field season...

El asado y el gaucho

Ben has now attended 2 asados, and will have a 3rd under his belt before we leave for home. He seemed a little perplexed by the first one, but discovered that the fire was super fun to watch.

Short ribs (carne de asado) and tri-tip (colita de quadril) were included in the meal.

We, of course, also had salads and the delicious provolone cheese, melted in a skillet on the grill.

Ben's second asado was better - he arrived in full gaucho costume (Sonia's gift to Ben).

He found the fire right away.

Apparently he loves being a gaucho.

I'm glad he loves Uruguay, too.

Our friends in the field

We had a nice surprise at our field site this morning - a herd of horses were nearby, enjoying the morning sunshine and the wet grass.

Instead of running off like they usually do, they circled our plot as I set it up, and watched us get to work.

They continued to watch, and then circle around us, and watch some more. It was amazing to have them so close, and to listen to their hooves stomp in the wet grass.

They stayed there most of the morning while we worked in the grazed grassland.

Apparently we became pretty dull, because a lot of them decided to lay down and take it easy for awhile.

Having their company and entertainment was really welcome, because our vegetation plot in the exclosure was something we've been dreading. And our dread is completely attributed to this hellish plant:

Each leaf is adorned with incredibly sharp spines, and at each node, there are spines that go in multiple directions, so they are pretty much guaranteed to poke you no matter what direction from which you approach it.

And these spines go right through field pants...and t-shirts...and field vests. Trying to lay meter tapes in straight lines through groves of this was slightly less than fun.

The saving grace of this site is that the diversity is really low, so our sampling goes fairly quickly once we have the plot set up.

And we bid this site adieu, until the next field season...