Another Installation

We had another good day out in the field, and a much cooler one than yesterday. The sky threatened storms in the morning, but we never saw any rain or lightening. The clouds move across the sky so fast here, and the weather changes dramatically by the hour, it seems. It was cool and breezy this morning, and by the afternoon was hot, humid, and fairly still.


We're installing PVC pipe to use as plot corners in the treatments within each experimental site. To do this, we've got high-tech equipment like an old borer than tunnels into the ground so we can partially bury the PVC. We also used a hacksaw this morning to cut some PVC pipe in half so we'd have enough poles for today's site and learned after using it that the UY$ 69.35 price (which would be about US$ 3.50) was fairly accurate. The blade kept coming off because some wingnuts appeared to be missing, and the handle had to be held tightly together to prevent the saw from coming off because a connection piece was faulty. And it was apparently brand new.

The contractors were at this site as we were working as well, finishing the exclosure fence installation. It seemed to go fairly smoothly, and they do great work. The cows just past apparently are now very upset that they are not allowed to be in the fenced off area of the study. It's all in the name of science.
And here's another forest plot. These pines are 11 years old. They have been thinned and pruned (obviously), and the waste from those activities stays on site to break down. Perhaps since there isn't a lot of vegetation in the understory there isn't too much of a fire hazard from all the dried brush, but it still seems weird. In these forests, we are walking around on a carpet of pine needles that is a good few inches thick.