Week 49 - Video

Most of this week was absorbed by 4-H camp, so I will summarize briefly. It rained, a lot. I heard something like 4 inches of rain over a 4 day camp. The creek flooded and washed logs over the car bridge, but we had a pro group of counselors this year and they did a great job keeping the kids and their peers positive. Despite some of the worst weather for a summer camp, I think the kids this year had more fun as a group than many previous years. Less injuries despite the fact that kids don't get any smarter, I am sure of it (expect a future post on the failure of parents to educate their children). This was the first year that we offered a teen-specific camp and I think that despite some simple changes to make, it was a smashing hit. Of course, now that it turned out well, our debbie-downer of the group has decided it was her great project for the year. Luckily my wife isn't out campaigning for credit for the things she does and is willing to let it go. I taught some mountain biking, some tower climbing and zipping, and got to watch Dan give kids the talk about working hard and making your own breakfast.

Btw... we launched a balloon monkey with a bottle rocket.

Our little baby girl had 2 special visitors this week. First, her aunt finally came home from Prague and we met her at the airport. I classed up the place with a blowout diaper change in the luggage claim which helped clear the area and give us a quiet place to celebrate Sis's return to the states. Technology can help you visit with people, but there is still no replacement for seeing someone in person. I think the picture of them meeting for the first time is perfect evidence of why all our electronics will still not be replacing personal contact anytime soon. And of course, there is also the possibility that our little girl was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing. But she took it in stride, looking around with those expressive eyes and filling a diaper nonchalantly. Now she has finally met all of the close family.

Hannah also got to meet a professor friend of the family from Australia who was in town to visit this week. This woman was the former teacher of the class I was a part of during the technology upgrades for online learning. She has done similar work in Australia since her time here and both classes have grown in popularity. With her came the most interesting stuffed animal Hannah has received (and there've been some doozies with the Dr. Seuss theme, trust me). All the way from Australia, she now has a stuffed wombat. And it apparently is relatively lifelike, because my wife says Betsy went crazy about it when it came home sitting in the carseat. Again, it just goes to show how blessed we are to have so many friends around the world who care so much for us, and for Hannah.

Our little bug with her new wombat!

Later this week also marked the start of the state fair. Here, we have a great fairgrounds managed by a good team who really care about the balance between culture expectations of a fairgrounds and the historic tradition of agriculture exposition. Our state government supports the grounds and the board of directors is very active and forward thinking. My family's involvement over the years has been increasingly concentrated around the sheep show, specifically Shropshires and my little brother had another great showing this year, winning an exhibitor award and placing in the top 5 with sheep bred and raised on our own farm. Coming from such a limited agricultural background and nourished over the years in our pursuit of knowledge and excellence, it is a proud moment to see the youngest of the family finally recognized publicly for his hard work and knowing that it was a family effort to get to this point. And now we are bringing up the next generation in this great environment and lifestyle.

So, the main point of my post today was more related to my work side of life. We made some big time progress this week in the video realm (see the clip below) with the intern's camera. At first, there was some trouble capturing video with the SLR (or even pictures), but we figured out that with the Nikon, it will only function without a lens attached (built in sensor) if you set the camera in manual mode. Once we did this, we needed to push the "live view" button, and then if we pushed the "ok/select" button, it would record video. The video isn't perfect, but with good focus and the ability to use the LCD screen to improve this focus (the focus won't be the same as what is seen in the viewfinder since they are slightly different distances from the stage), we were able to capture the videos we need to proceed with the experiments.

What you see in this video is a group of isotrichs/entodiniomorphs swimming around in flocculated rumen fluid. Basically, we sample rumen fluid by squeezing it through cheesecloth from digesta samples out of a rumen cannulated Jersey dairy cow in the morning, approximately 1 hour post-feeding when the protozoa are up and swimming around amidst the food. Then we take the fluid back to the lab and put it into a separatory funnel. Over about an hour, the feed particles will mostly float to the top with fermentation activity and the protozoa will settle to the bottom. Then the feed and whatnot is removed from the top by aspiration and the remainder is dispensed into a CO2 flushed container. From there we distribute to a series of anaerobic tubes with different diet treatments. Then we take a sub-sample over to the microscope, throw it up on a slide and take the video. For a size perspective, the larger, fuzzy protozoa are isotrichids and they are about 150-200 um in size. To capture this with a $600 camera is really amazing and the possibilities for where we take the research next are endless and will have great relevance to our ongoing projects. Enjoy!