I picked the group up in my brown 2002 jeep at 8:30 this morning at the usual spot, and we headed out route 22 to Easton. Lafayette College actually is really pretty, despite how much I'm obligated to hate it by being a Lehigh Student. They're also half our size, which makes them clearly sub-par. After getting slightly lost, we made it to room 318 in the AEC (some engineering center). We met with Arthur Kney, the Department head of the Civil and Environmental Department at Lafayette. He was a nice guy, had a daughter named Elise, and drank large Dunkin Donuts coffees. He seemed very knowledgeable and willing to answer any questions we could fire at him about composting. As we left his office to go to the actual composting site, I caught a piece of paper taped to his door with a quote on it that I was rather amused by.
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
-Albert Einstein
Touche, Einstein. We hopped into Art's neat blue Nissan truck, with hats and sweatshirts askew in the back seat from Maine and other such places. The composting site was only a short drive away, and from there we actually got to examine their Earth Bins and the contents inside. And to my pleasant surprise, it didn't smell nearly half as bad as I thought it was going to. And the weather today was 70 and muggy. So again, let me emphasize my pleasant surprise. Just as we researched, there were two Bins underneath a soundly built Solar Panel structure. After a moderately thorough round of questioning from us, we got what we needed and bid Art adieu. See ya later Lafayette, although sooner rather than later because we are supposed to meet with the woman in charge of their garden, Sarah.
Yep. that's compost. mmmmmmm...
sweet getup ya got there Laf
Bin
Art had mentioned that the Lafayette garden was a few miles away, and that's where their compost gets put to use. He told us we could go there with Sarah. Being the adventurers that we are, we took the initiative to google it and go investigate for ourselves. Dang. This garden puts ours to shame. I guess that's what you can expect from a small liberal arts college; people who care about gardening. We saw a family far into the garden planting and hoeing, so we ventured over to ask them some questions. This was their third year at the garden, the bunnies ate the leaves off their snap-peas, and their kale and spinach was planted four weeks ago and still has barely grown. fascinating.. We explored to our earthy hearts' desires, and with wet, dandelion seed covered feet, shoes, and pants, we finally headed out. My shoes are still wet and it's been two and a half hours.
Scaring the daylights out of my group by accelerating instead of decelerating towards a red light, we eventually made our way home safely. The song of the day is Ants Marching by Dave Matthews Band. One, because I love Dave Matthews Band and it was my day to pick, and two, it seemed reasonable considering all the insects and buggies and things we encountered today. If I could stay indoors for the majority of my days, I probably would. I'm a beach person, not so much farms. It's funny because only one person on our team is actually studying Environmental Engineering. Ben and I are both computer science, and Alec is Energy Engineering and Sustainable Development. Tori on the other hand is Environmental Engineering. She actually just wants to study Soil. Like dirt. Because it goes hand in hand with Archeology. But literally, soil.
After our field trip we spent a couple hours in our glass case, writing on windows and sharing with each other the prior night's research we gathered. We came on up with a game plan for the coming days, tomorrow's including coming in at 10 and leaving at 1 to get lunch together at the Goose. I am dreaming about these sandwiches. The weekend should be for a break, but we'll probably end up doing research anyway. We meet with Professor Best on Monday to get a good launch into the week. He's so inspiring. Future field trips are absolutely in order. Delaware Valley College is next, followed by Dickinson College. We are trying to make this project as hands on as we can, because I cannot sit around for the next 7 weeks. AND. MONDAY. we get to go to Mountaintop C to test our new digs. Fingers crossed they actually finish the construction.
For now, that's a wrap I suppose.
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