We've reached the last day for this beamrun. Thankfully we're doing science and getting some really interesting results. It's been more painful than I recall as being normal to get here.

We're following some very interesting behavior as we get water to freeze on our surface. I say it's interesting, because it's freezing in two completely different configurations of ice. It's even more interesting as the ice appears to be freezing somewhat in patterns. Unfortunately we're having to do this without moving some of the motors on the diffractometer which limits our ability to really scan to determine fully the structure and orientation of all the ice crystals.

It's exciting to have a science question to actually ponder. We're not sure of exactly how the ice crystals are going onto the surface. Is it purely epitaxial (ie lining up with the metal atoms underneath) or does it have some variation, perhaps random? More importantly... how can we test for this with our remaining time? And how can we test for it with a buggy instrument and still have a reliable result? So we forge ahead, not knowing exactly what we'll find and trying our best to figure out ways to tell us what we're seeing.

As per Kerri's request, the wildlife sightings are as follows. Tonight was quiet with no one about. Yesterday was quite active with 2 raccoons and a skunk out during the night hours. During the morning there was a large hawk on a post. The previous two nights saw a small herd of white deer grazing contentedly. Among them were two yearlings and the buck.