I don't know why I get so tense the day before fieldwork. I suppose it's because I'm so aware that things have to work out right, that you have to be sure you have all your kit, the weather has to be just so...

But the day went really well. Everyone was on time, they piled into Ladybug and we drove off to the site - a pasture owned by one of the big ranchers around here. We got permission to go on his land because one of my students does home-health work and she's helping his mother-in-law - so he knew her.

The sampling turned out to be best done with the standard familiar method anyway. There were a few species none of us knew (it happens) but one of my students took samples and borrowed my guidebooks and as part of her work, is going to key them out this weekend.

It was actually kind of a nice day - not too hot (thank goodness for the breeze, and thank goodness for going out at 7 am) and we were done by 10:30. At one point the cattle (all steers, I think) in the field stopped their grazing and looked at us with as much curiosity as a bovine can muster, but none of them approached us. (Which is good, because, secretly, I'm a little afraid of "big" animals like horses and cows, because if they're careless, they can break your foot very easily - stuff like that).

So now one of my soil samples is soaking up water (they were very dry this time, and in order to do the critter-sort I have to let them soak for a while). I'm going to do a couple, and then go home, and have a little relaxation time.


This weekend I should post the recipe for the breadsticks I made last night. I had that late afternoon meeting (which ran long - very, very long) and I was thinking about how good breadsticks and marinara sauce (a favorite snack-light-supper of mine) would taste. But - there are two drawbacks to getting them from Little Caesar's. First, it's a drive across town, and you could probably at least mix up the ingredients in the time it would take to drive. And second, they're greasy and salty and probably not very good for you.

But I found a pizza-crust recipe in one of my cooking-for-one books and modified it, and made my own breadsticks. And they were very good. A bit denser, perhaps, than some (the rising time is shorter - only a half hour) but they were tender and had a good flavor and they were easy to make.

I also had a glass of one of my new favorite summer beverages: iced mint herbal tea. I just followed the instructions on the box-flap of the Celestial Seasonings' peppermint tea box. The mint tea makes great iced tea: it's less astringent than iced black tea (which is one of the things I dislike about iced black tea: it has a slight bitterish taste to me). It's not very strongly minty - the flavor is a lot more subtle than it is in the hot version of the tea - but it's very refreshing.

(The Celestial Seasonings' box says you can sweeten the tea if you want, but I didn't. I think to me it tastes better unsweetened than it would with sugar or honey).

I think tonight I'm going to try making either iced Raspberry Zinger or iced Lemon Zinger. I bet both of those would be good, and they'd be a pretty color, too, from the hibiscus in them.