I enjoyed my summer break. I really miss my family when I am at school. I worked on my thesis outline a bit. I added sources where they will go in my paper and looked for more sources where I didn't have the citations I needed.
I have done a few days of data collection for my thesis so far. I have some pics which include liver and maggots. If you don't want to see that, don't scroll all the way to the bottom of this post. I don't think it's gross, but some people might.
My thesis asks whether the interval between death and insect colonization can be predicted based on climatic conditions. This is important in establishing time of death in death investigations. Is it possible for insects to have laid eggs on remains if the temperature was X or the humidity was Y or if the wind speed was Z, etc. The data I have collected so far seems to be in line with my original hypothesis and matches up with the experiment I am modeling mine after. When temperature rises, the probability of colonization increases and when humidity increases, the probability of colonization decreases.
Now for week one of Fall quarter 2016, Grace and I moved to Bellingham a week ago today. We are staying in an apartment complex on campus that has family housing-although I think we might be the only family here. Our apartment has two bedrooms. It is in the basement of one of the buildings, so the bedrooms are kind of dark. The living room and kitchen are open to ground level and the community building where the laundry room is located is right behind us. Guess which room is Grace's.
My roommate from last year lives one building over. :)
Grace is doing online public school this year for 8th grade. She has 6 hours a week of instruction through Blackboard Collaborate where she meets online with her teachers and classmates. The rest of her lessons are on an online platform. It will take a little while to get used to online school. She talks to her friends on the phone and online often. She will see them when we go home for a weekend.
I only have one class this quarter. I am taking Osteology. I already took it in my undergrad, but it was really the only class that was relevant for me. I have a few thesis credits to make my schedule full time. I am also a graduate teaching assistant for Intro to Biological Anthropology again, but with a different instructor. My classes and labs are all early in the morning.
Our apartment is "only a short 22 minute walk from the center of campus." Whoopee! I will be getting my steps in this quarter. There is a bus that can take me part way, but by the time I wait for to arrive, I can be halfway there, so I usually just walk. I will probably take the bus when it rains or when the time changes and it's dark when I leave.
We are going home this weekend. Kelly is having surgery on Wednesday. It hurts my heart not to be there for that, but it is what it is.
Oh, and for fun, financial aid has not paid out my student loans yet. They are still processing. I am pretty sure I am going to owe money this quarter anyway.
Experiment pics....
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This is my basic setup. I have a bowl with liver in it on top of a pan with water to keep ants out underneath a basket to keep critters out. There is a thermometer with temp and humidity on it for each of the three locations I place this setup-grass, tall tree and short tree. I have a light meter to measure the light intensity at each location and am using local weather station data for the rest of my climate variables-wind speed, rainfall, barometric pressure, etc.
Here's a couple of close ups of eggs (evidence of colonization).
The liver has attracted blowflies and bottleflies as well as a ton of yellow jackets. The yellow jackets are just there to eat the liver. I have to shoo them away before I can look at the liver, but they are mostly happy and full, so I haven't been stung...yet. On the day it rained and never got above 60 degrees, there was pretty much zero insect activity. I saw one small fly as I was cleaning up. On the warm, dry days, I can barely get things set up before the insects arrive. I can also hear them buzzing as I walk up to the site.
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