Snow Hits the Triangle

I think that the discussions I had with my family in the Midwest this week about how Raleigh was snow free (and has been all year) might have jinxed us. We now have snow. The same storm system that caused all of the flooding and mudslides in California, and the power outages in the Texas panhandle has moved into Raleigh. The snow started last night around 7pm bringing an early end to the Soil Science department happy hour at Sammy’s Tap and Grill. After the happy hour I gave a ride home to one of the new graduate students in my department. He is from Kenya and has never seen snow before. We thought he would think seeing snow for the first time is exciting. Unfortunately he could care less.

It was a wet snow – perfect for snowballs though we didn’t start a snowball fight. Sometime early this morning it switched to sleet and it is supposed to be sleeting for the rest of the morning and early afternoon. The reported snow accumulation so far is around 4 to 6 inches. RDU, the airport between Raleigh and Durham, has all but shut down with most flights canceled. The Triangle didn’t exactly shut down, though from the video on the local TV news channel nobody is risking a drive unless they had to. Stacy is working her weekend shift this weekend. She took an extra half hour to do her morning commute.

Stacy was really excited about snow. I don’t think I know a grown individual who loves the snow more. You can see her apparent love for the snow in this picture:

Our beagle Maisie seems to have mixed feelings of the snow. She loves to walk in it and smell it, but she will not “go to the bathroom” in snow. She better get used to it because the snow will be around for a few more days I believe.

Earlier this week I added a post about buying our 2006 Ford Fusion. I posted some pictures of the car on this website and on Facebook. My aunt Nancy (who lives in Nebraska) commented that there wasn’t any snow in the picture. My brother Matt was also surprised that there was no snow which is weird to him since he is used to Iowa Januaries. Well, here is a repeat of the same picture I took Thursday.

Then:

Now:

I also shot a picture of our cozy grill which we just covered with the best kind of grill cover – an Iowa State grill cover.

I’m kind of happy that I can’t do anything away from the apartment this weekend. I have a lot of writing to do on my thesis so this should help me stay focused. And, its not that I’m scared to drive in this weather, I’m scared of all the other people who think they can drive in it. Thanks for stopping by, and stay warm!

Our New Car – 2006 Ford Fusion S

Yesterday we purchased a Ford Fusion S to replace my 98 Ranger pickup that I sold a while back. We were looking for just the right Fusion or Mercury Milan. Both of my brothers have those cars – Matt has a Fusion and Joey has a Milan. They both have 4-cylinder cars with a 5-speed manual transmissions that they love. The Fusions and Milans have excellent consumer reports and are based off of one of the most popular and long lasting cars of all time – the Ford Taurus. So, with that in mind we began our search for this car.

I came across an add for this car through autotrader.com. It was for sale from Hastings Ford in Greenville, NC (just under 2 hours east of Raleigh). I talked to Matt Gorman who is a salesman there. We worked out a verbal agreement on a price on the car before I even saw it. The pictures on their website and the Ford Certified Pre-owned gauruntee made it sound like a great car. On Tuesday night, Matt met Stacy and I in Wilson, NC which is halfway between the two cities. We looked it over and took it for a test drive and we loved it. Matt was nice enough to then drive it to Raleigh where we did all of the paperwork – loan with the credit union, final sale, warranty transfer, tag transfer, everything all at one time. It was pretty convenient and it saved us the dreaded trip to the DMV.

So, we brought the car home Wednesday night and I commuted in it today. It’s a great little car. It has all of the luxuries that my Ranger had so I don’t feel that I’m missing anything even though it is the base model Fusion.

So here are all of the details: 2006 Ford Fusion S, FWD, 2.3L 4 cylinder engine, 5 speed manual transmission, power windows/locks/mirrors, anti-lock breaks, CD/MP3 player, cruise control, AM/FM radio, huge trunk, almost new tires, engine/drive-train warranty until 100,000 miles, 6 airbags in the front two seats, and a ton of other safety features.

Last, but not least, here are all of the pictures:

If you’re interested in more about Fusions, Milans, and MKZs then here is a Forum I’ve found: http://www.fordfusionforum.com/. We like the car a lot. I’m also working on perfecting Stacy’s manual transmission technique and helping her gain her confidence. She has never driven a stick shift on a regular basis so it is a bit of a learning curve for now, but she’ll get it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Teaching Soil Science to High School Envirothon Students

On Saturday, several of the NCSU Soil Science graduate students and I taught the basics of soil science to high school students. These students were from two schools in Wake county and both groups are preparing for their regional Envirothon competitions. Envirothon is a sort of “academic decathlon”. They take tests at a competition which focus on five different areas relating to environmental issues including soil/land use, aquatic ecology, forestry, wildlife, and a current environmental issue. We were asked by one of the group leaders to train the young scholars to get them ready for the soil/land use exam. Since they are already really well prepared by reading books and studying the “academic” side of soils, it was our responsibility to apply what they’ve learned to real world situations and hands on experience.

We held the training at a demonstration facility used by our department to teach the public about on-site waste water management (i.e. septic systems), and erosion control methods for construction sites. The facility is just south of Raleigh. We started by having Scott, one of the research technicians in the NC State Soil Science Department, give a presentation on soil erosion and conservation methods used on farms and construction sites.

After that Amanda, a fellow grad student, and I taught the kids about the five soil forming factors and all the soil characteristics used to describe and classify soils.

The kids that do this competition are great. It is nice to see academic pursuits as a fun extracurricular activity. The students really know their stuff and think of some great questions. The group as a whole seemed to be several steps up on the college students I TA’ed in a soils laboratory class last semester. Hopefully some of them will think soils are interesting and fun enough to go into Agronomy at NCSU.

The Envirothon (actually the Cannon Envirothon) is a great organization. Envirothon is set up with regional competitions followed by a state competition, which is then followed by a North American competition where 52 teams from around the continent come to compete. Last year the national competition was held in Asheville, NC at UNC Asheville. This year I’ve heard it is in California. I wish they had this when I was a youngin’. I also applaud Cannon for sponsoring an event like this.

That is all for now. I will have a post soon talking about the 2010 HH Bennett chapter of the SWCS winter banquet which I attended last night.

Christmas in Raleigh and a Virtual Tour of Our Home

We made some Christmas cookies the other day. We actually made cookies two nights in a row but this day was the decorated cookies day. Here is Stacy (right) hard at work. We also busted out the “Charlie Brown Christmas tree” which is surrounded by a pile of gifts, most of which is on  a UPS truck on the way to Iowa right now.

For the Holidays, Stacy ended up having to work at the hospital Christmas eve and Christmas. She did get New Years off though. We are flying home to Iowa via MSP on the 29th of December. We will be in Iowa for New Years, and for the ISU Insight Bowl game against Minnesota. The Moorberg family will be celebrating X-mas on the 1st, and the Schacherers will be celebrating X-mas on the 2nd. Our parents said they got around 18 inches of snow recently in a blizzard so it should be interesting weather while we’re home. Stacy got her wish of snow for our trip home, and then some. We will be heading back to Raleigh on the 4th. It should be a fun trip. It’s too bad we couldn’t be home for Christmas day, but, ya got to work I guess. And since the 25th is historically an arbitrary day anyway, it’s no big deal. We’ll celebrate it as soon as we can.

Several months ago, I mentioned that we have moved. As I was getting pictures of our tree, I thought we better post some pictures of our townhouse now that we are all moved in and settled. Here is the “virtual tour”:

Our Townhouse (ours is the right half of the building)

On the front half we have the patio. Here is the grill we keep on the patio.

The living room and front door

The living room, entertainment center, and bottom of the staircase

The kitchen and dining room area

You’ll notice Maisie at her “observing” spot next to the table. Our bikes are in the back and our fridge is covered with pictures of our nephews, friend’s kids, and wedding invitations/thank yous.

The kitchen (stove and fridge)

The kitchen (the sink, cookbooks, and drying rack)

Now, moving up the stairs:

The stairway (from the top)

The bedroom

The desk in the bedroom

The bedroom (the cedar chest, Maisie’s crate, and the bathroom door in the corner)

The bathroom sink

The “Cy cabinet” above the John

The shower room with the door open to the walk-in closet (the closet opens to the bedroom too)

Through the walk-in closet is the laundry room with a stacked clothes washer and dryer.

The deck

Through the bedroom, there is a door outside leading to this deck. This is the view off the porch facing north.

The deck.

This is the view off of the same deck facing east.

That’s pretty much it for a virtual tour. Our home is “cozy”. It’s a good size for us though. It’s just big enough that we have room, but it’s just small enough that we won’t accumulate stuff for a future move once I’m done with school (around 2013 for now). It is in Hedingham, a golf course development. We rent our place. However, some of our rent does go towards equity should we want to buy a place from the management company that runs Hedingham. It is a nice and quiet community. It is patrolled at night by a security agency and there seems to be a police officer that lives on each block. There is also dog poo stations everywhere since it is a very dog-friendly community. There is also a tennis court, athletic center, indoor BBall court, two swimming pools, and a golf course that we can use for no additional fee. One of the NCSU soil science grad students and her husband also live about eight blocks from us. She and I carpool to work together almost every workday. They are the couple that we went to the Blue Ridge Parkway with that you can read about here.