Ha.

Dad sent me this picture. I think it's hilarious...

Red Hills Coal Mine, Ackerman, MS

Took a field trip to a coal mine in Ackerman yesterday. This is the one and only coal mine in the state of Mississippi. It was a lot bigger than I was expecting too. They're mining low-grade lignite coal. There's a powerplant right next door that accepts all the coal they produce, sort of a symbiotic relationship. Not the first open-pit coal mine I've ever seen, but the first one I've gotten to go into. Not very exciting in terms of geology, but they sure did have some cool equipment... Here's some pictures.

Soil auger, used for finding depth to coal seams in soon to be mined areas.

Stratigraphy. There are 6 coal seams they mine, the largest is only 5 feet thick. In Wyoming this past summer, we saw a coal mine with two 45 foot thick seams...

Dump truck being loaded by coal scraper thingy. The overburden (dirt) is removed until they've got it down to just the coal seam. Then, this thing drives around and just scrapes it up...

Dump truck on the move, hauling ~120 tons of coal.

Rear wheels of dumptruck. Cale Sellers for scale (he's about 5'7").

The dragline, which according to our tour guide, is only a medium sized one. Note tractor for scale. Length of the boom is 320 feet.

The bucket of the dragline. Holds something like 80 cubic yards. Note truck and D9 Cat for scale.

The view from the operator's control station...

We climbed up the boom, this is from about halfway up...

At the top looking down on the bucket and a truck... Around 200 feet up in the air.

Southfarm again.

Took a little stroll at Southfarm Sunday afternoon. Found a couple turtles, took a couple pictures... (reptile pictures as promised)

Purty.

Rock shadows...

Zephyr the turtle hunter comes to my aid.

Kristen with a hungry turtle, me in the background with another one.

He's a grumpy turtle.

Bamboo and the Zoo

This past Saturday, Kristen had arranged for us to go and do some volunteer work to help out a bio grad student she knew, friend of a friend sorta thing. We were supposed to leave Starkville at 6, arrive in Memphis at 9:00am, cut bamboo for 3 hours, get to the Memphis zoo at 12:00, spend 3 hours at the zoo, then be home again by 6:00pm. This grad student is studying the eating habits of Pandas (they have 2 at the memphis zoo), e.g. what spiecies of bamboo do they prefer, what part of the plant do they prefer during which season etc... So Kristen, myself, another bio grad student, and two other bio undergrads were recruited to help out.
It was chilly and windy yesterday, but once we got into the bamboo stands it was a rather pleasant temperature. We had to cut a specified number of stalks from a specified stand. Then we had to chop them into ~5' lengths and bundle them into manageable sizes. Well, it took a lot longer than she expected. Partly because we were short-handed (which she knew, but aparently didn't realize that fewer people = longer time to work), and partly because the other two students worked at a very leisurely pace. Anyway, Kristen and I were rather upset with the other people, including the grad student whose project it was. Not only that, but they didn't even provide lunch for us! What sort of cheap-skates are they? We give them a full day of work and we don't even get food provided? Geez...

Anyway, finally got done around 2:00, at the zoo by 3:00. Got to spend 2 hours there. Some neat stuff to see, but as usual, zoos are kind of depressing since the animals have so little space, especially the ones that are used to African Savannah. I think the coolest thing I saw was a hug alligator snapping turtle. I guess the pandas were supposed to be the main attraction, but I couldn't help thinking they were ungrateful bastards as they snobbily ate the bamboo we had just cut for their finicky-eating pleasure. Kristen (who is usually terrified of spiders) even came into the Spider house with me, and did great. She wasn't scared at all. Go her.

On the way back home, we drove the wrong way for an hour (I kept hinting to the driver that we probably shouldn't be driving northwest... I didn't want to hurt his feelings). Eventually got home about 9:00, exhausted. Here's a few pictures.

Bamboo choppin'

Chop, chop, chop...

Kristen amongst the bamboo.

Tree-frog I nearly chopped in half...

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Willapa.

Truckload of Panda food.

Ungrateful bastard. LeLe or YaYa or whatever, the Panda.

Orangutan eating carrots.

This was on a display of some sort of monkey. Smart monkies.

Neat picture Kristen took of a spiderweb on the handlebar of my road bike.

Neato

Hey, I just realized I've had this thing going for a year now. How about some feedback from the few of you that read this. What do you enjoy about it? What would you like to see more of? What would you like to see less of? Let me know...
I enjoy doing this, and it's especially nice when you all leave comments. I like being able to share pictures and things too. Anywho, your thoughts please.

Cows and Bikes

I sure have been busy lately! A bit of a break (not really, just nothing due immediately) for the next week or so. Before break, I had to get started on a grant, then I was gone and got nothing done, then finish the grant and do a TON of other stuff. It sucked. I didn't even have time to go to work at the shop! Seem to be over a bit of a hump now though. For a bit...
Went for a nice long walk out at Southfarm on Saturday. It was overcast, so Kristen didn't put on sunscreen, but the sun did poke through a couple times, and that was enough to give her a good burn. Poor redhead. Took some pictures of cows and pastures and stuff.
Sunday, decided I go out for the big long group ride from the shop. Mike's been sick, so he and I were going to go shorter than everyone else (since I hadn't ridden in a month and was on a singlespeed). So, I started the day off thinking I was going to go 20 or 30 miles, which isn't really bad at all on the SS. The gear (40-15) is really quite good around here, assuming I've got juice in my legs to stand up and hammer the hills. Anywho, to make a long story short, we wound up riding about 60 miles. Into a very strong headwind on the way home. At one point we (6 of us) were crossing a big open field near Crawford, headed right into the wind. The pace slowed down, which means I have to mash that gear instead of downshift. Man, I was off the back in no time, and my legs never really did recover. That was about 3 hours into it. Caught up eventually (thank to Mike and John staying back with me). Got a flat at one point. On the way back into town on 182 (from the east) were going right into the wind up and down some rolling hills. These hills would normally have been no problem, but my legs were shot and like I said, I had no other gears to shift into to ease the work. Finally made it back. Totally clobbered. About the most beat I've been from riding in a very long time. More so than racing probably. My legs just wouldn't go. Mike, John and I rode into town together, the other 3 people having taken off ahead. They were just as crapped out as I was. Even though they're old dudes, they're on their high-zoot carbon treks, and I was on a 21 year old steel singlespeed trek with a rack and a too narrow (40cm) bar. It was fun. Humbling, but fun. It's good to go out and kick your own ass sometimes...
Later that day, went out to southfarm for a stroll with Kristen and Zephyr... some pics from that too...

"We will fight for bovine freedom..."

"We will run free with the buffalo..."

Strollin' at southfarm.

Kristen at sunset (vetschool in background).

Way out at the end of Southfarm... that's skunk-hill where the road is turning left.