Finally a day that felt like we were in the subarctic!

Today was a cooler day . Cloudy skies and a light mist made work a bit chilly out on the fen this morning; but lower temperatures mean markedly fewer mosquitoes and bulldogs . So no one really minded putting on an extra layer. Max and Dan worked with me, collecting the water quality data. Max illustrated to Amy and Abby why we have given him the nick-name "New-legs" by stumbling .... many times. But he usually manages to stay upright (getting a nick-name here at the Centre is quite an honour ;) ). Abby was very helpful when she showed us all just how deep the organic substrate was - by sinking into it up to her hips. Luckily however, it wasn't nearly as sticky as the mud that Dan sank in earlier in the week, so the extraction process wasn't nearly as involved.

By now, all of the volunteers know their jobs and can do the work well, and quite quickly. We were done with the field work before schedule. This gave us a little extra time to 'shoot some footage' for the incredibly awesome (!) music video that is now coming together nicely. We're trying not to let Ben and LeeAnn see too much because we want to surprise them with it. But they were really good sports when we asked them do their cameo roles.

After another great lunch, we headed to the lab to get the samples and data processed for the day, while Harish and New-legs headed off to Sticky Creek to lay out the last set of traps for tomorrow. There's a slight sadness in the air. We're all starting to notice that we're doing some jobs for the 'last' time, and no one wants to leave here. Churchill (and the Study Centre) has a magic about it that 'catches' you pretty quickly. It's hard to think that this great adventure is almost at an end.

After the lab work was done we headed up to the classroom to work on our video before dinner. After which, the rest evening was filled with two very interesting talks: Amanda (one of the researchers here) gave a great zoology presentation and LeeAnn taught the kids all about the science behind the aurora we saw the other night. Late in the evening we all got into our comfy clothes and curled up on the couches for movies and junk food.

-Paige