Thunder on Thursday, 11 Jun

I spent the day working... pretty simple. After work, I took a fast bike ride into town and back to get a little exercise. While biking, I remembered folks talking about the lake "one over" that had nesting loons. So, as soon as I got back, I took a quick stroll over and indeed found one; not sure where the other was hiding. On the way back to my apartment, the sky grew increasingly black. The whole afternoon was a series of 10-second "pineapple" showers, followed by clear skies, and I thought this was going to be another. Just as I stepped in the door, the lightening flashed, the winds picked up, and the water poured down. Great timing, eh? About 20 minutes later it was over, and some blue sky again appeared. I had a bite to eat and now I'm watching Finnish baseball. I think I about have it figured out. The only similarities are 4 bases, bats, a ball, and gloves.

Birds of the day: Nightingale, Black-throated (arctic) Loon.

Wednesday, 10 Jun

It was a really quiet day at the station. Either everyone has taken off on a holiday or are in the field. I spent the morning working on my proposed collaborative research with Juha concerning pelleted biochar, and the afternoon working on some preliminary investigation into germination of Iliamna rivularis. Not much has been done with the species, and we only have a limited number of seeds, so we are trying to wade in carefully. Katri has been doing some great work, including using this machine to get 1000 seed weights. Hopefully we'll have some preliminary results by the end of the week and can plan accordingly. This evening I was suppose to have a conference call... I got the international calling card to work fine, but the passcode for the conference call was extremely frustrating. No matter how carefully I typed the phone keys, the polite but annoying computer voice kept insisting that I had entered extra digits. Ack. So much for modern technology. I've found that the timing is right, time zone wise, for me to get my first salvo of Forest Service emails while I try to relax in the evening. Perhaps I should ignore the emails and do just that. Right now I'm trying; I'm watching Finland and Russia play a little futball... my first game I've been able to find on television. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll last through the second half... I may have to call it a day.

Tuesday, 9 Jun

I felt like a real researcher again today. Actually did some research, talked about some other research, and read about research. I guess that's what a sabbatical is all about... getting away from the phone and the email and visitors in the office to concentrate on one's vocation. Katri started some preliminary work on the Iliamna seeds I brought along. Got some seed counts and we looked at some x-rays to see if we could figure out what we were looking at. Once we have a better feel for seed quality we can start the real experiment. Juha and I had a nice chat this afternoon about a potential experiment looking at using pelleted biochar as a amendment for nursery media. After work I took a good bike ride to get some fresh air.

Today I've been married 25 years. Wow, time flies when you're having fun. We will have to celebrate when we meet up in Sweden next week. Deb says she has heard from our offspring, Niklaas, who is working in steamy New Orleans and plugging his youthful arteries with some good ol' deep fried cookin'. We'll work that off of him soon enough on the research plots.

I was just lamenting that another day had gone without a new bird, but right outside my window a Treecreeper is, well, creeping up the tree. And, even better, it's a lifer.

Bird of the day: Treecreeper (life)

Gesturing Works, Monday, 8 Jun

Today the Director of the Finnish Forest Research Institute was making a presentation. I thought I should probably look professional, so last night I looked at my very wrinkled dress pants and shirts and sighed. If I had to represent the United States Department of Agriculture, I didn't want to do it looking overtly wrinkled. What to do? No iron... of course! I moistened the worst wrinkles and me and my pants and shirt went to the sauna. I tossed a couple of extra ladles of water on the rocks to get it good and steamy. While I gave up my sweat, my clothes gave up those pesky wrinkles. Sorry if I've offended any sauna purists out there, but you have to do what you have to do. As it turns out, it was all for nothing. I snuck into lunch with all of the attendees, but I did not have to represent the government. Oh well, at least I looked good. Instead, I had lunch with Marja-Liisa Juntunen; I organized a tour for her in the US back in 2002. It was nice to get caught up on the news. I also had a nice visit with Pasi Puttonen, who is the Director of Research. Pasi had worked for the British Columbia Ministry of Forests.

After work I hopped on the bike and headed for town. It's a good way to get some exercise. I discovered riding in the rain the other day that I needed to re-waterproof my rain gear. So, I went into the "sport" store. The older owner... no English. He called for his son; about 1% better English. After some gesturing, I finally got across my need. He drew me a nice map to another store, right around the corner. Ah success. They didn't speak much English either, but I got my spray-on waterproof stuff. On the ride back to the station, I stopped and took this photo of the bike trail. Large sections of it are lined with lilacs, that are currently in full bloom. It was really sweet-smelling this afternoon.

Sorry, no new birds for the day, but as I tap this out, the Spotted Flycatcher is working hard right outside my window.

Sunny Sunday, 7 Jun

It’s been a pretty ho-hum Sunday. I’ve been dinging away on the second volume of the “tribal nursery manual” most of the day, but I did take a couple of breaks. The weather was mostly sunny, but cool. I made a bicycle run to the grocery store to pick up a few little things. With the great breakfast and lunch I’m getting, I’ve discovered that I can get by with a pretty light meal at dinner time. So today’s adventure was finding some easy, light things for dinner. I already had my stash of PB & J, an apparent universal food, easily found even if you can’t read the language, so the hunt was on for some other things. I found some tuna in water, but I’d kill for a turny-crank-type can opener. All I can find are the “fang” version, which work, but… when you’re hungry the slow pace is downright cruel. I also worked over the yogurt aisle again. The first stuff I bought had a weird, elastic, texture… not quite what I was after. Hopefully round two will be better. As I tap this out, I can look out my window at a great stand of Scots pine with the sunlight shining through them. A great day to be a forester. It’s also a great day to be a proud parent. My son Niklaas is heading off to New Orleans today to spend a week helping rebuild. He should have a great week, and good preparation for his first try at a Finnish sauna!