Merry Christmas

Our holiday is in a few days and it’s been a long week so far. Most of us are working 7 days this week to have Monday and Tuesday off for Christmas. It is Saturday night now. There are some decorations around town that attempt to be festive but it is really difficult to dress up an industrial village. Inside, it’s a better attempt, but with the large fluorescent lit spaces, the Christmas tree lights don’t do much. I’ve always been used to Christmas a la Katch Family style, so maybe I am just noticing the difference of being somewhere else. I don’t have that PHEW- off of work for a week! feeling and the plane ride that makes it feel like Christmas also. It’s just new and I’m sure I’ll have a lovely holiday. It’s been snowing lightly on this summer solstice, so if that keeps up I’m sure the town will be giddy. Snow may stop me from taking a 6 hour trail inland for a new getaway. I’ve done the other local hikes around town so this is my last one to try. One day I walked out on a trail on the sea ice and it happened to be such a warm sunny day that I laid down and tried to get a belly tan. It didn’t really work, but it felt nice.

Today I went on a small ½ hour walk and the wind was blowing so hard I had to lean into the wind. When I got to the nearby promontory, the wind whipped my pants against me in the same tempo as the music I was listening to on my Ipod, and no one else was around (I did feel a bit removed from -things). And then I spied two seals. One of the seals was swimming in a melted pool of sea water and the other crawled on its belly to meet the other seal. Then they both went down a deeper hole to disappear. The melt pool water was green as if it were a tropical cartoon lagoon, the ice was white/gray/dirty yellow/ice colored, and the hills I was standing on were rich with dark rocks and soil. The sea ice is starting to melt and a dark blue band of ocean can be seen on the horizon from the top of Ob Hill, but not from town. The sea ice runway that I landed on has been dismantled and moved to another location on the permanent ice shelf. All other sea ice buildings or research areas have been dismantled for the season. Besides the last few days, it really has felt warm lately and the temperature has gone up to even 37 degrees. I want to take daily walks, 15 mins- 1 hour, whatever I can squeeze in, even if the weather is windy and cold.

I also got to tour some nearby ice formations that occur near neighboring Scott Base (NZ-- the green buildings). The pressure ridges form as the sea ice moves against the permanent ice shelf. The trail is flagged for the safest route and the tour is led by someone experienced with being around this ice movement as it can be dangerous around the cracking and shifting ice. Obviously. These areas are pretty amazing and it is nice to be near something so ephemeral and sculptural.

There are other areas like this for sure, but they not easy or safe to get close to most of the time, unless you have extensive mountaineering and glacier training. My friend Karen works in the field safety department and trains or assists workers or scientists with going out to remote camps. She spent 10 days at the top of Mt. Erebus with some science groups and got to peer into the edge of the volcano. There are also these amazing (as described to me) tunnels near the top of the mountain where the thermal heat from underground escapes through the ice and creates beautiful icy blue tunnels and rooms and then escapes to the outside through a fumerole or a vertical tunnel. Only few people get to do these kinds of adventures and it was one of the regular Erebus scientists that introduced her to this. She also spent 8 days in a very serious storm sleeping in her tent at night and hanging out in the research buildings during the day, she couldn’t even work to train the new scientists that were due to fly in by helicopter, but were on weather delay. Although I might not be ready to have that Antarctic experience, it is exciting to talk to people who get to do it. I found these websites which gives a great idea of what it is like up there.

http://www.60south.com/erebus/

http://erebus.nmt.edu/

There are more field camps than I first thought… at least half a dozen and some small, some up to about 40 people. Weather can change the schedule of the camp and sometimes people may be stuck out there for days if the planes can’t make it out there. All camps have shelters and are well equipped, so there is never really a safety concern, but just the frustration of not being able to get as much done in a season, etc. etc. People, besides scientists, who get to occasionally work out at these field camps are usually carpenters, vehicle mechanics, antenna riggers, and general assistants. Someone thought I might go out to a field camp for a few days later in the season to do some as-built drawings, but I don’t think I will have time and I hear things will be really busy when people are trying to wrap up their projects before winter. That’s fine. I should still go to Pole, but probably not until after mid-January.

Here is also a video of me taking a ride on a "Tucker" with Bryan. He works on a science team that sends an underwater robot to do research on the marine life and environment in McMurdo Sound. There are divers that do go into these waters, but the robot can go deeper than is allowable for humans. There are actually experiments left in the sound for decades and were installed by divers who in previous years dove deeper and did not have the durable dry diving suits of recent years. The robot has gone to check on some of these experiments that no one has been able to follow up on for years. You can check out the project here http://scini.mlml.calstate.edu/index.html. Bryan needed help to go out and re-fuel a generator that was drilling and melting a hole through the ice for the next day's robot dive (if someone asks you to do something fun like this, you say yes. Even at 11pm at night). This trip was only about 20 minutes from town and back when the ice was stable.

Cheers to everyone, have a great holiday!

happy thanksgiving

hi... it is saturday the 24th for me and the station is celebrating thanksgiving today and we have today and tomorrow off from work. this is lovely. soon i will eat a big feast, even dress up a little (if you call wearing a dress over jeans dressing up). and then there will be merriment and hanging out with friends. i don't have much time right now, but wanted to post as many photos as i can to show what's been happening over the past few weeks. i have been well, all is well, i suppose not much more to say about that.


here is a video of a CONDITION ONE storm. these typically do not make it into town in the summer that often, and don't really last for that long, but it means that you cannot travel between buildings until it lets up. this was at about 11pm and i just woke up from a nap (really tired that day), so i was lucky i was in the main building where my dorm is. it was actually pretty warm, but the call was for extreme low visibility whereas it can be called for extreme low temps or extreme winds (more rare).

Here are is a shot out over mcmurdo sound of the transantarctic mountains. On clear days, the view is amazing and they seem right so close. I know the photo seems a bit washed out, but that is sometimes how it looks.



Here is a view of some of us going out for a very windy hike nearby

General random shot of the coffeehouse on a mellow night.

Last weekend I went and volunteered at the greenhouse to plant some lettuce. The greenhouse is warm, bright and smells good. Everything is grown hydroponically... only water and typically a growing medium called rockwool (highly heated and spun rock... it's soft like stretchy felt)... no dirt at all. We get fresh vegetables from NZ when we can, but we also eat the items grown in the greenhouse. The folks that stay for winter only get greenhouse freshies, so its got to be maintained well all year around. There are also a couple of hammocks in there, so anyone can go and hang out and get some comfortable humidity. I fell asleep in the hammock after all my hard work.

These are the lettuce starts I planted on the lower system (they grew from seeds in another tray).

This is some lettuce to be harvested in another few weeks... it takes about 4-5 weeks from seed to harvest for most of the lettuce. Below there is arugula, swiss chard, calallo, bok choy and above is butter lettuce. The black rubber is to inhibit the growth of algae in the watering trays due to the high levels of light and nutrients that it takes to grow the veggies.

Tomato, cucumber, pepper and zuchinni room

Herb room

Dill... I helped harvest it for the galley.

Ok, almost time for turkey dinner, so I better go. Have a wonderful holiday!

--- julie

Here I am again...

Sunday afternoon and sitting at the coffeehouse, laptop in lap… finally. The last week and a half I have been bouncing between feeling ok and having a sore throat. I stayed home 3 (and then 2 more) days to rest, which is encouraged to keep spreading illness. My cold is changing shape, but I feel better and I hope that the curative powers of Saturday night whiskey are real, even if a bit overdue today. All the sleeping and convalescing has knocked my schedule out of whack and I asked the doctor for a temporary sleeping aid. That has worked but last night I ran out, so after not sleeping well I went to the lounge to sit and drink water at 5am. I then spent 3 hours on a puzzle that was sitting there, half completed. Didn’t sleep much more, but am now dedicated to a no-nap day. Altogether, the constant daylight is not affecting my sleeping much as I am usually inside by 10-11pm and settling in for bed without a window nearby to distract me. If that is what it would take to affect me? So, I apologize for the long pause in my writing…
First off, don’t be mad if you are The Today Show type and you turn it on the next few days and you see they are broadcasting live from McMurdo and I didn’t tell you about it ahead of time. I knew they were coming, but they are suddenly here. Oh, they are at the extreme (ha!) ends of the earth to highlight, I’m guessing, some environmental programs. So tune in Monday and Tuesday morning and then maybe Tuesday on the NBC national news, (I think). But they are broadcasting live and that means I am not getting up at 2am here to stand outside with the slim chance that a camera pans my way. (Sorry Chels). Plus, we’ve been told that it’s not really going to be the Times Square experience with 2000 gloves and mittens a-waving. Although, I hope that if you do watch, it’s nice and you can get some kind of better visual grasp on this thing down here, nicer shots than I can provide with my camera.


In between the, uh, sick days, I made the effort to celebrate Halloween. I lasted about 1 ½ hours of low energy, sober, hanging out in the decorated big gym. I went as a tree. I wore a wig and clothes from the station costume closet and fake foliage of course, nothing grows down here (well, some things grow and I’ll show you later). The Halloween parties are a big deal and people bring down or ship down their costumes, or make them here, etc. etc. I heard by the end of the night things were dancy and drunky and robots were taking their pants off. On a related note, I keep finding out that lots of people are in their mid twenties.




Halloween Party

Me the tree, Jane the mummy, Kelly the trailer trash

Ok, not everyone is in their mid twenties, but lots of people think that I’m about 26. Man, that is funny. I must exude some jolly, carefree spirit or something… or at least, more than I am willing to admit to strangers. Perhaps I am being ridiculous about what 26 is. (Nevertheless, Saturn is hurling itself far away and no longer wants to hang over my head or sit on my Sun—recent astrological curiosities indulged.)

Here are some shots taken around 10pm I think, looking out over the sea ice toward Mt. Discovery on a peninsula of the continent, south of McMurdo. The buildings out there are sea ice runway support buildings (i.e. runway fire department, fueling, some air transportation support, etc.).

A few photos from a calm, but overcast day at Hut Point Ridge, just west and northwest of town.

Looking out over the sea ice...

Not bored

13 days here. My friend works in the Recreation Department, making sure that we all have lots to do between working and exclusively drinking or wandering off to find a penguin. The enthusiasm of community already makes it feel like college. That is fine, for now, it should wear off, it’s more humorous than anything else at this point. Behind my friend’s enthusiastic cheerleading for REC, she’s a bit more ambivalent like me about all the activities. Everyone is saying that they just don’t have as much time as they thought down here! There is so much to do! So far, I was talked into playing bingo but failed to win the $200 jackpot or any lame prizes. I’ve been to some science lectures regarding research going on down here and also attended the outdoor safety lecture for going on trails outside the station. I’ve also been to each of the bars on quiet nights and also on the night that many bands played (huge musical community down here). There are 3 bars—a smoking dive bar, a general dive bar, and the coffeehouse which is a pretty cozy dive and they sell alcohol there also. Last Saturday (the big night to go out), my roommate invited our room to a pig roast at the Vehicle Maintenance Facility. Yes, the Galley actually orders some pigs for folks to roast if they sign up (I’ve heard about this pig roasting thing way too much this year). We made it after the food was served, but it was nice to hang out in a different space, one that houses large vehicles called deltas and piston-bullies. Sure, why not.
I am also drinking lots of water, putting on lots of lotion, and getting shocked constantly because of the dry weather and abundance of fleece and wool. Touch metal first. Touch metal first. I am also reading.
Our room is pretty nice, considering. Considering I share it with 3 people and there are no windows and it has dorm furniture. At first I inhabited a bottom bunk bed, but came up with some schemes and we all decided it would be nice to change the layout so all beds were in separate corners. I spent the first two days of work (before the supervisor got here) creating 3D models of our room as I was pretty bored. My room is in the main building that also houses the cafeteria and store and shared computer lab. I like not having to go outside for meals and being able to bring them up to my room easily and still warm if I am not in the mood for small talk in the galley. The other dorm buildings mostly have 2 person rooms and some of them I hear are nicer, or at least there are a lot of regulars in those dorms. The more time you spend on ice, you tend to get a better dorm situation. You can request roommates if you know them, or you can shack up with your husband or significant other (you’ll get the really small rooms).

my room

the hall outside my room

the common lounge on my floor

recycle center... a bin for everything.

recreation board

there are 4 coat alcoves like this outside the galley, i lose my coat alot.

the galley and main meeting space. science lectures are here too.

the handwashing station outside the galley - let's not get each other sick

the library, very cozy and has internet hookup for laptops

9 hours a day/ 6 days a week

For two days this week I sat at my new desk with nothing to do. The other drafter, James, did not get to town until Wednesday and he is the one who knows what needs to be done, essentially he'll be my supervisor. I looked at the town map many times to acquaint myself with all the different buildings and I met some folks who worked down the hall. Now that James is here, I finally have the real scoop on my job. Officially, I am the South Pole drafter and he is the McMurdo drafter. There is limited bed space at the Pole, as apparently they purposefully try to keep the population there as minimal as possible, and that is why I am actually stationed at McMurdo. But I will be headed to Pole, at least once, maybe more, depending on how much work needs to be done there. And if I need a break from that, James could head down there also. I will say more about the Pole later (apparently, lots of people try to make it down there), but when I am not at the Pole I will be working on projects in town. Basically, a lot of the town buildings (warehouses/shacks/trailers, etc.) were built awhile ago, in the 40's,50's, 70's, etc. The Navy used to operate this whole station until the last years of the century and I've been told that there are not a lot of good records for those buildings . There are also constant projects going on for remodeling, moving trailers, re-allocating space, etc. and sometimes the end result of a construction project is different from what was shown on the construction plans. This can happen anywhere, but in this environment, things need to move fast and materials and labor will vary. Improvising and working around conditions is reality. Our job as drafters is mostly to go back and make note of those changes, creating as-built drawings. There will be times when I will go around to different buildings (inside and out) and measure them and take notes and photos. Then I will draft them up and send them on to the Denver Raytheon HQ as they have a team there to some of the work also. I think this is pretty much what I expected, but I only thought there was a chance I would go to the Pole. The more people talk about really wanting to go there, the more I think it is a good idea. If I'm down here, I might as well.

on the way to work today... my work building ahead.

my desk in the drafting room

the drafting room

passengers together

I am in Antarctica.

It has been over a week since leaving Portland and most of it has been pretty boring. I flew to Denver for 2 ½ days of slow-going orientation. I flew through LAX and Auckland, NZ to Christchurch NZ. Christchurch is the Deployment Center (CDC) for the McMurdo and South Pole Stations. The city itself is not very exciting for 2 days of visiting and I kept a low profile as I felt a cold (illness) coming on. On Friday Oct. 5th, I went to the Deployment Center to try on the Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear and that was my only official duty other than to show up the next morning at 6am for the flight.

Getting ready for the flight means re-packing some items into the appropriate luggage, deciding what items can be stored in the Deployment center (adjacent to the airport), putting on required ECW gear for the flight and arrival, and packing the rest of gear to make sure that the checked baggage weighs less than 75 lbs total. The CDC has its own terminal where we checked with the Military personnel that would be flying us to the Ice. We watched an introduction film, grabbed a box lunch, and took a shuttle to the C-17 military jet across the street. I was the second person off the shuttle and on to the plane, in a matter of seconds. This flight had more cargo than people, so most of us were seated against the sides of the plane, facing inward to the large pallets of cargo running down the middle. There are only a few precious windows on the plane, so for the most part I actually didn’t feel like I was flying. Some of you know that I am not always comfortable flying, or more accurately, flying with turbulence. But I have been able to lessen my flying anxiety greatly and the Antarctic flight was actually quite peaceful. The plane is so open and the exposure of all the cables and structure and such really helps me understand the entire machine as a whole. It will keep flying. The last hour of the flight (out of 5 hours total) was the opportunity to peek through the windows and see the beginning of the continent, and under clear sunny skies. As we landed, one could say the weather changed, although we couldn’t tell. There was no chance to anticipate that when the doors opened, it would be -51 degrees outside with wind chill. Filing out of the plane, there is not much chance to stop and think about it. Move towards the red shuttle in front of you and get inside. Look back at the plane. Wait, I can barely turn around with my red jacket and when I do, I just see the inside of my hood.