Being cooped up in a tin can with a group of college students has to be one of those life experiences that builds character. We got a lot done, but some of the commentary coming from the inventory got interesting (although, fortunately, no one discovered any dinosaurs). Today's log is best formatted as a list, I think...

• When a military surplus diesel generator stops working, it probably means something spectacular has happened. Like having operated for some unknown period of time with only one piston. Only a miracle kept Jolly Green going as long as it did.
  
  
• An amazing job was done cleaning the stove. You can actually see it, instead of a layer of spilled food...
  
  
• Projects are a lot easier to tackle when you actually have all of the parts. The power meter and DC-to-DC converter installations were stalled due to a lack of important pieces.
  
  
• Little fingers are better at soldering little wires than big fingers. I did the wires for the water pump output to the power meter (yes, the power meter logs water, too!) and Erik was very glad it was me and not him.
  
  
• Jonathan and Dean are amazing in their resilience to gray water and work ethic. They've been working and working and working on the GreenHab in an attempt to get the water circulation functioning correctly.
  
  
• It's very disturbing when you turn something off and it doesn't actually go off. The DC disconnect for the battery banks startled us today. Fortunately, we were startled via multimeter rather than someone getting zapped.
  
  
• Amazing things are being unearthed in engineering as everything gets inventoried. I'm just disturbed by the screams of "gross!" that we get occasionally.
  
  
• If an antenna needs a ground plane (apparently desert ground doesn't work), plan for it instead of using whatever material you have. Stripping the outer insulator off of 75 feet of Cat5 is going to be one of those character-building experiences I never want to repeat.

I'm sure the guys are disappointed that they didn't get to go out and play with their geology tools, but you definitely wouldn't know by their willingness to just go work on something else. I have a truly awesome crew!

Emily Colvin
Commander, MDRS Crew 60