Salt Kills.

Yesterday morning was spent from 7am to about 12:30pm in watershed 17 dilution gauging. Not much to report on that except for the fact that I got to read a big chunk of Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin while waiting on the salt to pass through the stream, over...and over...and over...and over again. Come 12:30 however, I luckily managed to escape the salt dumping for an afternoon spent at 2 of the offsite watersheds, Falls Branch and Mica City, about 45 minutes away collecting rain gauge samples.

This little guy is my Falls Branch buddy. From the second I step out of my car to the moment I leave he follows me around the site helping keep snakes away. 

How would you like to live out here?

Site entrance.

The rhododendrons are blooming! Finally!

They don't call it Mica City for nothing...

Muscovite sheets.

Honeybees

The beauty of the agriculture watershed...

Climate station.

Whoops...

Of course I had to take a pitstop on the way back...

Today however, I was not so lucky in escaping the dreading dilution gauging. As a result, 7am to 7pm was spent in watershed 2 hiking upstream with buckets, mixing salt, dumping salt, waiting for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, then repeating. With my dad and sister visiting tomorrow through the weekend, hopefully there will be much more interesting news to report with the coming days...