Site One

Today was pretty amazing. This morning was the first time I got to see my first research site (Site One)!!!

I started writing the application for this research grant just as I learned of my cancer diagnosis. I wrote the first preliminary proposal while in Seattle for a medical visit in June of 2010. I drug myself to the MSU campus every other week while I was in chemo to meet with my committee to write the full grant in the fall of 2010. Since then, we've spent a lot of time planning and thinking on how design this research trial.

And after all that, today I got to see it, not on paper, but for real, in a farmer's field. It's not much right now: a lot of flags and stakes as we get ready to seed sometime this week.

Today we were out taking soil cores to get a baseline characterization of the site. It was a perfect morning, with a big, blue sky. I am looking forward to these office views for the next several years.