Finally, some rest!

It's Tuesday afternoon here in the subarctic and we are finally experiencing some downtime. Yesterday, I spent most of my time weighing the branchlets that were processed on Sunday. Afterwards, I stayed behind while everyone else went out to collect snow measurements. That is because I was elected to setup the database for the branchlet data. Since I have a lot of experience with Excel spreadsheets, the rest of the team thought I was the best member for the job!

This morning, however, I was able to suit up and ride the qamatuk (that's a sled pulled by snowmobiles) out to one of the snow collecting sites. I'm so proud of myself. I was out for about 2 hours in 0 degree F temperatures and didn't snivel once. Pretty good for a California girl.

Tonight, we have a lecture by Roger, affectionately know as "Starman". He is the guru of astronomy here at the center. I'm sure I'll be bringing back lots of good information to share with you.

Thanks for the questions. Katarina asked about when will we know the results of the study we are doing. Unfortunately, this is a long term study. The scientists here will be collecting data for many years, They will be logging the measurements that are taken daily and keep a running record of them. They will then be able to look at the measurements over a period of years and see if there are any changes. Most scientific work that is done in the field like this are long term. These studies aren't the type that give you instant results. In this case, patience is a virtue.

Question of the day: What are the native people of northern Canada called?

Until tomorrow........