Day 8
June 11, 2013This blog is sometimes difficult to write because we experience so much each day that it is hard to compress into a few meaningful paragraphs.
I am enjoying getting up with the roosters every morning at 5 a.m. It gave me time today to brush the horses and mentally plan for the day without feeling rushed.
Horse
Calf
After learning how to upload the data dictionaries that we created, today we were able to but our plans into motion out on the ranch property. It all finally clicked, since I was definitely a bit unsure as to what the large data collect would eventually turn into. We created a thorough dictionary for bare ground classification, which included roads, dirt, buildings, some agriculture, structures and rocks. Our data will go into a common product – along with data group other groups – that will help to guide our research by creating ground control and geo-rectification points that can be used by everyone. This front-end investment will really help our research stay on track.
Hotu Iti made his way into our data collection
The grounds of the Kualoa Ranch are simply stunning. I had to remind myself to look up from the GPS every once in a while to soak in the surroundings. There are so many new plants and animals here in O’ahu that we are not used to seeing. Including this bad boy:
Big spider and his friend
While collecting our points today, I learned a few lessons that I can used to adjust my procedures tomorrow, but mainly take my time – we chose the wrong category a few times and also noticed our dictionary needed some edits. While we wandered around collecting our points, we also survey our potential data collection areas for the next few days. We will be hitting the coast tomorrow to collect sample points of the sand and rocks.