I am now finished with my first term of graduate school! In the next years my work will be less tied to class schedules, and the end of the term will mean less to me. But for now it feels like I am back in college, and it feels as good as ever to complete a term. Since my last final yesterday, I have spent some time in our lab learning about our mass spectrometer and worked on developing my program of study. Tomorrow I will be visiting Breitenbush Hot Springs – an intentional community/spiritual center/hot springs resort east of Salem.
A major storm is scheduled for tomorrow, with blizzard warnings and winter storm warnings covering all of the Cascades and coast mountains. They are predicting 2-3 feet of snow and winds to 75 mph in the high mountains, followed by a rare intrusion of arctic air that will bring snow to the valley floor on Sunday and lows down to 13 degrees, the coldest since 2004. It looks like Minnesota will be seeing the same storm on Sunday followed by cold, and I shouldn’t complain since the “cold” predicted in Minnesota is 9 below zero.
I moved the chicken enclosure today to give them some new grass. Our rooster has now come of age, and he is constantly mounting our hens. Now if only our hens would reach their chicken-puberty and start dropping edibles…
