Today I woke up feeling very optimistic. I was looking forward to revisiting my stream, and beginning my tests. After gathering my supplies, and carefully packing it into my backpack, I mad my way down to the stream with my mom. It's kind of a hike to get there, so my mom came with me to make sure I got there safely. Once I arrived, I set my stuff down at the area I was focusing on, and got to work. First, I looked up the outside temperature for my area, and made some observations for the area. When finished with that, I recorded all of these in my notebook. After that, I set up my notebook in a way that I could record all of my data in an orderly fashion. 

Once I was done, I began the real work. I took out my Habitat Assessment Field Data Sheet, and using that I scored my stream area. For Epifaunal Substrate, there were many different things including large rocks, fallen logs, undercut banks, cobble and others that could serve as a habitat for animals. For that section, I gave it a 17. It wasn't perfect because there could have been more of these habitats around the other areas, and they were all sort of condensed into one area. Next, for Embeddedness, I gave it a 12 as it wasn't ideal, but it was still decent. For Velocity/Depth Regimes, there were only 3 of the 4 as we were missing the "deep/fast" regime, so I gave it a 14. I gave it the higher end of suboptimal because there was an area that was fast and deep, just not deep enough. For Sediment Deposition, I gave it a 12, and for Channel Flow I gave it a 14. Moving on to Channel Alteration, I gave it an 11. At one end, there is an underpass area where the water flows under VT-289, and this disrupted the flow of the water substantially. This was the only sign of human interaction at the stream, so I averaged it out. For Frequency of Riffles, the math came out to a 6:1 ratio, so I gave it an 18. For Bank Stability, the left was very good at a 9, but because of some undercut banks, and other areas of erosion I gave the right side a 5. For Vegetative Protection, the left side had some little gaps, so I gave it a 9, but the right side was perfect so I gave it a 10. This stream is basically in the middle of nowhere, so for the Riparian Vegetative Zone Width it came in at a 10 for both sides. Overall, my stream scored a 151/200, and I am pretty happy with that. 

After my habitat assessment, I did my daily measurements of the stream water. Using the TDS Test Pen, and averaging my results from different areas of the stream, the overall temperature was 22.8° C, and the conductivity was 398 μS/cm. Then, using my pH papers, both wide range and small range, I determined that the pH was 6.5. After, I took out my E. Coli testing packet, and performed the test. I had a hard time getting the stuff to mix well, but in the end it all worked out. To conclude my visit, I sat down and sketched out my surroundings. I'm not very talented when it comes to art, so this was a bit of a struggle. Upon finishing this, I repacked everything nice and neat, and carefully made the trek back through the woods to my house. Once I got home, I immediately hopped in the shower, and after that, I continued the rest of my day.