Trying to decide how to convey the research experience. It really isn't as interesting or exciting as Indiana Jones movies make it. I placed around 30 surveys in a water-proof box in a common area of the event grounds, and then announced it at every opportunity. In doing so, I got 26 surveys completed. A couple of people sent me messages asking about them via Facebook after I left (I had to leave before the event was over), so I will be sending those out. One woman offered to take them to her group members that were unable to be there, so I sent her the PDF.
Every evening, I'd grab the surveys to take back to my tent, take out the completed ones, and replace them with new ones. There's some drinking that takes place at night, so I didn't want anything to happen to them accidentally (or on purpose, but I wasn't too worried about that). I had the benefit at this event of knowing people well, and so asking for people to fill them out was fairly easy. This will not be the case at future events though, so we shall see.
Here's what my home sweet home for the long weekend looked like:
Please note the bow-legged-ness of the pop up. That's because it's a very old one and is on it's last legs, somewhat literally. It was pretty hot the whole weekend, but given that usually this particular event is very cold, no one was allowed to complain about the heat. Of course, what happens when it gets really hot? It thunderstorms...and thus illuminated that not only should the pop up be replaced, but so too should the tent behind it. I got a bit of water in the tent (the laptop and the surveys were safe though), and had to re-engineer the which goes over the whole thing (that you can't see from this angle). I figured at that point, I needed to replace the tent OR the pop up (or possibly both), before something truly tragic happened and all sorts of water became a problem. Fortunately, the re-engineer worked and a later rainstorm did not make anything worse inside.
Before I left, I rolled a bunch of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters and bought this:
This piece of awesomeness is the Cabela's Deluxe Camp Kitchen. That bit in the middle has an actual sink in it. It definitely made life easier, despite taking up more of the trunk than I had anticipated.
One thing that I don't think I ever talked about in class was what to do if unexpected guests stop by:
That is some sort of bee. It could have been a hornet or yellow jacket. I'm not allergic, but that doesn't mean I needed to get stung. (The massive amount of mosquito bites I got was plenty....they laughed at all manner of insect repellent). I don't think I've ever covered this particular research problem in class, but maybe I will next year :)
I have a new hand-me-down tent from a friend, so that's handled. I have 26 surveys to code and enter, and then see if any of them wanted to be contacted for more indepth interviews. But there are still other ongoing tasks. The literature review persists, and I just ordered about 25 more articles and maybe 10 books. The next event is June 18 to 26ish (or whatever that Sunday is).
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