It is the end of October. Everything was covered by snows. It might be the last time of our field trip. we took some important equipment back last time, but we haven’t measured tree DBH yet. This data are very important, because it should be regarded as the end of the growing season in 2016, and the beginning condition of growing season in 2017.

In order to measure DBH, Antonio and I chose a sunny and warm day to go to the field. The sky was blue, and sun came up brightly in such a winter time. We thought that it would be a light work for us to measure DBH in such a beautiful day. However, things did go as easy as what we expected……

Because it was warmer, snows on the branches were melting and dripping down. We all soaked as we walked through the trees, which made the situation worse, because we felt colder and heavier! Later, our shoes became wet as well. We couldn’t move fast and steady. The ground was slippery. Sometime we fell off.

The snow melting no only made us feel freezed, but also damaged the electronic caliper for measuring DBH. We often stopped and used our clothes to dried it up when its readings stared to be unstable, though there were not actually dry clothes on us. We used our sleeves to dry caliper at the beginning, and the lower hem later, and then everywhere that was drier.

Our color spray didn’t work well, too. Pigments just joined in the drippings of melting and flowed down along the trunk, which made the trunks look like crying with colorful tears. We used the color spray, because we tried to reduce as many errors as we can, by marking the position that we measured on trees, since tree didn’t expand too much in a month. Next time we will measure DBH at the same position. We did not plan to use ties, because it restricted trunk’s expansion.

Anyway, as persistent person, Antonio and I insisted in staying there to finish our job. When We finished Block 3, I could not feel my feet anymore. I was really scared and exhaust. Antonio felt the same way. So we decided to stop measuring and come back at the other day.

Shaking with cold and disheartenment, we got into the car and drove back to Kelowna.