I’ve been back on the reserve for just over two weeks now after
a brief holiday at home. A whole lot has happened, and it will be difficult to
include everything, but here’s my attempt at an overview of the past month or
so.
I spent just under three weeks back home in Texas. In a way,
it was mostly just a chance to prepare for spending another year in the desert
then it was a vacation. I did get down to South Texas though to see family and
spend time on the beach. We spent a day cleaning up the coasts of South Padre
Island with a naturalist group my mom is a part of. I also got to meet my new
niece who was born while I was away, and I met a much more grown up version of
my older niece who seems to be growing so incredibly fast.
While I was home, I spent plenty of time shopping as well. I
bought a few bits and pieces for myself, but I also bought a bunch of food and
presents for others and crafts to keep us busy. Some of the food items included
things like Koolaid, poptarts, those pink and white animal crackers, and gummy
worms.
Two days after I returned I officially became manager of the
mole rat lab. I had quite a conflicting mix of emotions that morning. Even though
I felt ready and optimistic about improving the lab, I also had a heightened
sense of anxiety for the first several hours, which eventually devolved into a
gentle but persistent squeeze that gripped me for the first week.
But, as my reign as manager nears the finish of week three,
I can already start to look back with a sense of achievement. I have begun to
settle into a routine that allows me time in the morning to prepare for the day
before the volunteers arrive, which also helps prevent the anxiety.
My days start at 6:00 AM, which is when our employees arrive
to start cleaning and feeding the mole rats. I ensure they know where to start
each day, and what colonies need to be cleaned especially well for observation.
For the next hour I prepare the tablets for scans and the first observations of
the day. I also check email, and try to take care of some small things on my
ever-increasing to-do list.
At 7:00 AM the volunteer research assistants arrive to start
their day. My role is to plan out what needs to be done for each experiment,
and to assign tasks to the volunteers based on what they are capable of.
Currently we have two relatively new volunteers at different stages of
training, so I pair them up with more experience volunteers for new things.
In the past, the research assistants have been split between
two post-docs who are running separate experiments. One of the big changes I
have made, with agreement from said post-docs, is to combine the scheduling and
volunteers so that everyone works on every experiment. This way I can make one
weekly rota that has everything on it, whereas in the past we’ve had two.
This change has also involved a lot of time spent going
through what each experiment needs and what has or hasn’t been done, and
organizing it together so I can see everything in one place.
During the rest of the day I’m running around trying to get
everything more organized, monitoring the progress of structural improvements
and maintenance things, and planning for the following week. I’m still in a
stage where I need to make sure I know where everything is, what we have, and
how to get things done. Some of the smaller tasks I’ve completed or have in
progress include re-organizing our storage space, making new signs for
colonies, painting and prepping the giant old coke fridge to hold potatoes, and
trying to keep the tablets running.
Overall I'd say it's going pretty well. I'm getting a handly on things and making the first steps toward some major changes that will improve our data collection and management. I'm also learning more about SQL everyday and will be learning other useful programs and languages as well.
