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This morning started off bittersweet with the unwelcome, yet catchy, anthem of Too Good in the “carty par” this morning. Leah drove me, Jame, and Alyson to Leah and Alyson’s last field day. I say unwelcomed, but everyone in Town Hall knows that Drake really grew on them thanks to the persistent efforts of Alyson and Leah. I hope Alex, who was in the other car, got to listen to something just as commemorative this morning as he was driven to his last field day too.
In the field this morning, we did fun-ology on the very few remaining flowering plants and did aphid addition and exclusion. Also notable, Leah and Alyson ate their last lunch out of their communal lunch box.
 “Did you pack cheese today?” Everyone’s watery eyes weren’t the only puffy thing we experienced today because after lunch, Per, Hatti, and Patrice made cream puffs for the team. They were so delicious!
For the rest of the afternoon, we put staples in p1 and did rechecks. Leah found 7 plants and Jame found 9 plants and a meter stick!
While Leah packed for her 6am morning departure, the rest of us ventured to Barrett for some culture. We attended the Fire Prairie Children’s production of Alice in Wonderland. Hatti, Patrice, and Per all had roles and were awesome! They have been attending camp only for one week and put on a great show.
Tonight we all said our goodbyes to Leah and Alyson (Alex isn’t leaving until Sunday and will be able to join the weekend festivities with us, woohoo!) Goodbyes were a little easier for me because I will see these two lovely people back at Wooster. I am so glad that I have gotten to know them this summer and can’t wait to continue spending time with and learning things from this dynamic duo throughout the year. So far I’ve learned that yes, two people can eat that much cheese,how to survive in a bog, that Drake is Too Good for me, that someone is lying about Drake and Rhianna being a “thing”, the pure joy of dropping a slide “jelly side up”, and that even when you think you can’t, you can always eat a whole bowl of taco dip.
Today is my last flog, and tomorrow is my last field day. It’s a sad ending to an amazing summer. Today we worked on independent projects in the morning & measured P9 in the afternoon. This morning I analyzed my 42nd slide out of 236 slides. My project’s goal was to better understand what pollen loads bees are bringing to Echinacea. With the help of others (huge shoutout to Laura), I captured over 100 pollinators during early, peak, and late flowering. I brought them back to Hjelm house where they were cooled and wiped for pollen. I wiped pollen (separated by body and scope) on fuchsin jelly on glass slides and am currently counting Echinacea pollen grains in comparison to heterospecific pollen. The goal of my research was to look at how pollinator foraging behavior changes over Echinacea’s flowering season. There is still a lot of data analysis left, but thanks to Team Echinacea I gathered so much great data, thank you!
In honor of my final flog post I wanted to recap what I learned from each team member:
Amy taught me the importance of patience during research. I might not have caught all my bees within the time frame I wanted, but with patience I managed to catch enough bees for my study.
Gretel taught me that field work keeps you young at heart.
James taught me that you can’t always be nice but you should always try.
Alyson taught me that hard work pays off, especially when you cut down 20+ buckthorn trees and end up with significant data within one month! (Congratulations!)
Alex taught me how important passion is in science. When I spent 12 hours catching bees and only caught 8 I had to absolutely love my research just as much as Alex loves his.
Lea taught me the importance of positivity in the field. When you have 6 “can’t find”s in a row, or are counting over 100 stipa seeds, you have to stay positive and excited about field work.
Abby taught me how to make every piece of field work fun; whether it was signing to aphids, chopping off palida, or eating soggy pretzels.
Will taught me the difference between an earned win and a lucky win (example: settlers of catan vs. the lottery).
Scott taught me that the best thing a scientist can do is just listen.
Laura taught me the importance of helping others, because science could not exist without collaboration.
Ruth taught me that humility is a far better sign of a good scientist than any accolade.
Jennifer taught me that a great advisor lets their student struggle just enough to come to a solution on their own, but never lets their advisee drown.
Zachary taught me that you can be a scientist at any age.
Stuart taught me to keep an eye out for everything, whether it’s stipa, a seedling, or a great idea.
Best of luck in all of your future endeavors,
Leah
ps: Minnesota was lit
Good afternoon floggers, today was a busy and hot day in the lab! The air conditioner stopped working this morning, so we all got a bit of a sweat from cleaning and counting. This week has been lonely without Danny, but the volunteers are keeping up the amazing work. We are almost on the 8th bag of Echinacea heads that need to be cleaned and experiment 96_a is done being counted! I finished re-checking a second tray of achene samples, which means I have only one more tray left to re-check. Below is a picture of our current counting progress. We still have a ways to go, but every day moves us forward. Have a great rest of the afternoon floggers!
Dear Flog,
 The team comforts Roxy as she contemplates life’s transience Today was bittersweet. We began the day by assessing phenology in the remnants, a task which takes far less time now than it did a few weeks ago. Many sites are completely done flowering, so we won’t visit them any more. To make matters worse, today was Jennifer’s last day. Roxy was so upset that she hitchhiked to Barrett in a last ditch attempt to make Jennifer stay. However there were also some rays of hope today. Most notably, Lea found a shirt that Alyson had left in Staffanson two weeks ago. We thought it was gone forever! Also, Ruth and Carlee, an REU student, visited. We all had a very productive afternoon measuring hybrid plots at Hegg. The day kept getting better. After work we went and had a nice dinner at Mi Mexico, a well-decorated restaurant in Alexandria. Tomorrow, Will, Gretel, and I will head up to Pembina to check seed set of the western prairie fringed orchids that we found earlier in the summer. Hopefully it will help take my mind off of the sad thought that more team members will be leaving soon.
Yours truly,
Amy
Hey Flog!
So much happened today- Steve Ellis, a local beekeper/bee-hero came to talk to us about the work he has done advocating for bees. He has been apart of several lawsuits that aim to stop neonicotinoids from harming his bees and bees around the country! He talked about how the chemical insecticide harms the bees and affects colony survival. Along with Steve, we got some really fantastic scones.
After Steve left we ventured into the bog to pull buck thorn from Alyson’s project. There was a lot of buck thorn and I’m sure we missed some but we would have felt bad if we hadn’t left any for the goats. We piled all the buck thorn near the ’99 south garden for a bonfire. The pile was probably at least two Abbys tall or about 12 feet. Post-buck thorn we headed in for an early lunch.
P2 rechecks after lunch, which went really fast. We were finished by about 2 and then we headed home to prepare our dishes for the potluck/bonfire party. (I brought a “multi-berry” pie, though it was more of an aggregate pie). The food at the potluck was great and we had a lot of fun chatting in the screened porch away from the mosquitoes. The party was 90 percent potluck and 10 percent bonfire, which was a good ratio.
Today was the best day of the summer for me, not only did we have a great presentation from Steve Ellis and great food, but! The man, the myth, the legend: Danny Hanson came up from Lakeville to visit! I’m so excited that we will both be at the University of Minnesota in the fall.
 Danny.
Some of the team headed out this morning to do phenology. The flowers are quickly finishing up and many sites have no more flowering plants. Amy and Will stayed back to work on their posters for the Ecological Society of America (ESA) annual meeting next week in Florida!
After phenology, people worked on aphid treatments and Laura painted bracts. We took an early lunch and then began the daunting task of measuring the 99 and 99 south gardens to finish out P1. We worked quickly and efficiently. Afterwards, we celebrated the P1 victory with root beer floats.
 Wow so tall To help celebrate Monday Funday, this flower is made out of burnt up toothpicks from P8.
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