Nearing the end

I only have 20L left to filter from what is hopefully the last large volume filtration I have to do for a while. And this one was really easy, my lovely compatriot let me sleep 5 hours while she watched the filtration. Whoohoo. We didn't make it to the last station on the line because of a huge storm, but this water that I'm finishing up right now is from the station that we skipped on the way out that is really important. We're going to do a minor station later this morning, which will wrap up our part of the cruise. I'm not sure what we're going to do for the next 3 days because the ship's time is already paid for and I'm sure that we're not going to get back to dock more than 12 hours ahead of schedule???

Heave ho

I'm not sure if the weather is actually worse this Feb than last or if I'm just over the excitement of getting tossed around. We've already skipped 2 major stations of the 4 that we've passed. I'm filtering the second set of large volume samples, yeah 2 down 2 to go-hopefully. One of the major stations that we skipped is really important to the project. We should have enough time to pick up the samples if the weather is reasonable-which what does that mean in Feb? I think I'll go nap while I'm waiting for carboys to filter

Line P v. IV

I'm back out at sea. So far so good. The water is pretty calm. I was feeling a little woozy this afternoon but just took the opportunity to nap and try to get on the overnight schedule. More to come...

Not dead yet, I'm feeling betta

Not much going on here. We spent Christmas in WY with the fam. Thairo and I snuck away to Saratoga one day which was great. The water was too hot to stay in very long even though it was hair-freezing-cold.
Now I'm getting ready for my first and last cruise of the year. There's an army of us going this time. 3 from the oceanography lab, and another post-doc from my main lab. We'll be doing all the regular DNA and gas work, plus several nitrogen and sulfur species. Not sure if we'll actually detect the compounds that we're looking for deep in the ocean, but as far as I've been able to tell, we'll be the first to try. So hopefully even a "not there" result will be publishable.
I should post more about the cruise in the next few weeks.

what happened to November?

It seems that November flew by. I was really busy but nothing significant happened and I feel like nothing significant was accomplished. blech. I'm sure I accomplished something...I finished the big/long/finicky lab work, but one of the last set failed which effectively wipes out my sense of accomplishment for getting 11 to work this go round ontop of the 12 that are already at the sequencing facility. another blech.



Thairo was home all month which was nice. He cleaned up the garden and made me coffee every morning-I'm sure he did other things but those two are the most important. He's in the middle of nowhere right now.



We're heading back to my native land for Christmas, so I think that I'll go pick him up from the middle of nowhere then we'll head to the homestead. There are lots of hotsprings in the middle of nowhere-perhaps my interest in driving an extra 10 hours to meet him in the middle of nowhere is increased by the potential for soaking.

Green tomato pickles

We made pickles based on Betty Crocker bread and butter pickles and this recipe.



10 lbs. green tomatoes - sliced 3/8 inch thick

3 cucumber - sliced 1/4 inch thick

3 Walla Walla onions - sliced 1/8 inch thick

6 c. vinegar

3.5 c. sugar

2 t. tumeric

2 t. celery seed

2 T. mustard - used mix of black and yellow seeds



Salt the tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions 4 hours. Drain liquid and rinse lightly. Start water boiling in canner. Sterilize jars 10 min. While jars are sterilizing heat vinegar, sugar, and spices. Once vinegar is boiling add the veggies, return to boil. Pack hot pickle mix into hot jars, top off with vinegar. Boiling water process 10 min. Made 11 pints.

We made 2 batched of vinegar and processed half of the pickles at a time which meant we could pack 6 pints at a time which is one processing load for our canner.

Green tomato salsa

Alright this is more of a record for us for next year. One jar of salsa didn't seal-the lid was flawed from the get go but we tried anyway- which has allowed us to sample fully processed salsa. It's great, really really good heat and flavor if I don't say so myself.



20 c. chopped green and partially ripe tomatoes (~12 lbs)

6 c. finely chopped onions (2 Walla Walla, 3 regular yellow)

14 fire roasted Serrano peppers

1/2 bulb garlic

2/3 can chipotles with sauce

1/3 c. cumin seed

1/4 c. salt

1/4 c. pepper

1 T. coriander

4 c. lime juice

1/2 - 1 c. cider vinegar



We ran the onion, garlic, and peppers through the food processor for a fine chop. Then cooked the tomatoes, onion mix, and spices for approximately 45 min. Just before we started packing the sterilized jars, we added the lime juice and vinegar because I was afraid to cook off the acidity. Process the jars in boiling water canner 15 min at sea level. Made 13 and a bit pints.

We're still working on a name for the salsa and label design.