I started working for NSTL grinding plant samples while I was attending Iowa State. The new NSTL building was not open yet, so we worked in the Agronomy building. When I graduated, I moved on to working with data using SAS. In 1993 I became a full-time USDA employee. I went to Treynor once a month to take water samples while also working with ArcGIS and SAS. I went to Nashua to watch smoke blow up worm holes and learned how to get pig manure out of a pit and take a sample. While that was going on I was processing data with the Root Zone Water Quality Model and became the system administrator for the CEAP database. When the IT Specialist position opened here in 2013, I was selected to fill it.