Chirstmas Break

I took over a week off from work for Christmas break and it was exactly what I needed to get out of my city life funk. Living in Chicago is great, but I have come to realize that a lot of my happiness is dependent on being in the wilderness, away from the cityNOISE. So hanging out in Milwaukee was a welcome treat.





But Milwaukee is a fairly big city, in its own right, so the real cherry on top was traveling up to northern Michigan with Hannah and my brother to my brother's friend Anders' cabin on Lake Superior. And when I say on Lake Superior, I mean RIGHT next to it. It was amazing. Bonfires, naked saunaing, amazing food, great people, board games, pines, snow, polar bearing... a real wild rumpus. Here are a few photos. But I have to say, most of the time my camera was tucked away. Sometimes it's necessary for me to take a break from constantly shooting and just enjoy the view.

SNOW!




We wrote down what we wanted to leave behind as we prepared to enter 2012 on a small piece of paper, folded it up, put it in a small paper basket, attached the basket to a homemade parachute, lit the basket on fire, and sent it floating into the sky. The parachute started on fire after it got about 20 feet into the air and it fell to the ground. Nonetheless, it was still pretty cool to see. The next three photos document the parachute: initial setup, lift off, and descent.














Here is the wood burning sauna:

Pulling Bat Skulls

WARNING: SOME OF THE FOLLOWING IMAGES ARE VERY GRISLY AND ARE NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART.

I started "pulling skulls" from bats at the Field Museum for Bruce Patterson. It is very interesting, to say the least. I pull a skull by cutting and peeling the skin from around the mouth and over the head, like taking off a mask. Then I have to dislocate the skull and fill the skin with cotton. After this, the skulls will be placed in a container with flesh eating beetles and then some final touch up cleaning by the professionals. Pretty awesome, crazy, weird, and a little bit gross but very cool. I do this in the sub-sub basement of the Field in the Collections Resource Center (CRC) in a lab surrounded by dead animals soaking in alcohol. Try drinking your morning coffee with a cyclops deer fetus staring at you.

Bruce believes he and his colleagues may have found a new species of bat. In order to determine this, they must compare the bat to closely related species on every level before sending the specimens back to where they came from. Many species specific traits can be determined by the skull and so they must be removed, cleaned, and compared.

I believe it is important to know what species are where (the field of taxonomy) in order to monitor our impacts as humans and protect the species that are at risk. And so, taxonomy should be more of an important tool of conservationists as most conservation planning is species specific. I like playing a small roll in that. Anyways, I digressed, here are some photos:













Bruce showing me how it is done:




My turn:



(Photograph by Bruce Patterson)