A veritable pictorial plethora

Posted by: Nic

A lot of pictures for y'all this week. The first is a picture of my office - the Solar House at North Carolina State University.

Next up, pictures of some of our friends at Seeds. Sal chatting to Markis whilst they plant seeds ready for the Spring crop. Anthony, showing off the large hunk of ice he and I found in a trough outside. And Sal with our fearless Seeds supervisor, Kavanagh.

There ain't much in the ground at Seeds at the moment, as you can see below. We are spending our time doing maintenance around the property. I am helping terrace a bank ready to house more garden beds.

Finally, in the same way that we are gearing up for spring at Seeds we are also preparing at home. Here is Sal buidling a garden box in our yard.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the USA

Posted by: Nic


I just finished re-reading Bill Bryson's book Notes from a Big Country. We were given this book as a wedding gift and I read it just before coming here.

For those unfamiliar with or Bill Bryson - he was born in the US and moved to England in his early twenties. After two decades away he moved back to the US and was asked to write a series of news paper columns on his thoughts about being "home". These columns were later compiled into Notes from a Big Country.

Now, you're probably wondering why I am shamelessly plugging this book on ContrabandVegemite. It's because it PERFECTLY describes what foreigners living in America will think about the country. If you want to know what life here is like - get a copy!

There’s no such thing as cold, just inappropriate clothing.

Posted by: Nic

Durham Feb 15th 2007

Temperature: -4°C
Dew Point: -13 °C
Wind: 7 km/h Variable
Wind Gust: 5 km/h
Pressure: 1017.5 hPa
Windchill: -8 °C
Visibility: Sunny clear 16.1 kilometers
UV: 0 out of 16

Some things I've learned since getting here:

1. A North Carolina winter is good because, unlike Perth, it is cold BUT dry and sunny.
2. When there is a heavy frost the ground makes a nice sound when you walk on it.
3. Plants that look otherwise soft and pathetic (i.e. cabbage and violets) can survive surprisingly low temperatures (-10˚C so far).
4. Outside a narrow temperature window jeans are absolutely useless. I think this temperature window is about 5 to 15˚C.
5. I’d prefer to ride in snow than rain. Snow is slippery but dry.
6. Wool is an awesome fabric and cotton sucks.
7. Once it gets below freezing clothes need to be wind-proof.
8. Always carry a beanie and gloves.
9. Buffalo skin is good if you can get it.
10. There's no such thing as strong coffee, just soft people.

REALLY big farms!!!

Posted by: Nic

Yesterday I went to Open Grounds Farm. This farm is about 240 km east of Durham and has some Canola fields we are experimenting on.

Canola is a relatively new thing in North Carolina and I was expecting the farm to be a small "hippy" place - who else would be really interested in alternative fuels and new crops.

Nothing could be further from the truth. This was my first encounter with real industrial agriculture. They grow mainly corn and soya beans. Open Grounds comes in at an impressive 36 000 acres! It is the light coloured bit in the picture below. I put it next to Perth for a size comparison. They have an office bu idling, a full time chef, and their grain silos are as big as most CBH's I've been to! The whole farm is completely flat and drawn up into a 1 mile by mile grid, as you can see from the picture at the bottom.

Crazy!

Hold your horses!

Posted by: Nic

After only a week of work I am technically unemployed!!! It appears the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services made an error on my work authorization. They issued me my permit on December 5 2006 (12/05/06) but the card says I am eligible to start working on 12/02/07! That's a year from now!!! The people here said they think some one typed 07 when they meant to type 06!!! Regardless they said they can't let me work!

So I need to reapply for my permit again at a cost of $180 and with a turn around time of up to 3 months. Alternatively I can apply for a different work visa, as I was going to have to do any way, at a cost of about $500 and with a turn around time of 4 months. I have the options of paying for this to be expedited to 1 month at an additional cost of $1000!

*SIGH*

So far EVERY SINGLE official document we have received here has had an error!

And thanks to Chris, Rod, Tim, Lori and Helena for your nice messages!

Post-doc Nic

Posted by: Nic

I began my new job on Monday. Despite the current lack of an office and utter confusion regarding what I am supposed to be doing it has been good. The seems to be interesting work and the people are very nice.

I am employed by the Crop Science Dept. of NC State University but I am based with the North Carolina Solar Center. The Solar Center is an entity spread across the university but I am in their demonstration building, which is basically and office designed to look like a house. It is passive solar, fully solar powered, geo-heated etc. It was warm even on the -12ºC morning yesterday!

They have all sort of cool stuff in their workshops like two fully electric vehicles, a Toyota Prius, a hydrogen generator and fuel cell and different types of photovoltaics. The flat-film photovoltaics that come in a role, stick to your roof like contact and are about as thick as cardboard are really cool.

My contract here is 18 months but with any luck it will get renewed. There is even the potential to extend it for the full five years we are here. Of course I have to do some good work first...

Nic

More snow!

Posted by: Nic

I don't even claim to understand what this synoptic chart means (A warm-cold front!?! A wold front? A carm front?). The point is that the orange-green stuff is snow and the weather is cold. We got about 2 inches of snow this morning. Okay, so it isn't much but it is still interesting for Perthites. It also made the wood near our house very pretty to go for a walk in.

The crazy weather of the US of A

The snow comes in.

The woods after a light dusting.

Look What Mum can Do!

Posted by: Sal

My clever Mum has just gotten back from a course learning how to make shoes. And I'm so jolly impressed that I thought you should all see how cool she is too- check these out:

Pretty Gold Sandal

Innovative Green Boot, nicely advertising the farm! (Did you make a pair for Dad too?)

Reeeeallly pretty sandal - yay Mum!