Activities

Just to begin my post, my neighbour Jim Furlong asked some questions that I can answer here (as if I replied in the comments, most people likely wouldn't see them). All the electricity for the Station is from diesel generators. Obviously, there are failsafes, because a loss of power this far North in the cold would be life threatening. I believe that there are always two generators running, while there are backups as well for all the individual buildings that are tested regularly. The heat from the generators is also used to heat the water, so overall it's a pretty efficient system. There really isn't that much wildlife up here, as there is no vegetation, and it's damn cold, so while the foxes, hares and wolves are technically native, the SIZE of the wolf pack is inflated due to the availability of food here. It's likely that if they continue to grow in size that they'll have to be "relocated" (to be politically correct...if they ever bit someone, they'd be "relocated" pretty quickly). Days are getting longer up here too....there is a faint glow on the horizon now for a few hours around noon, and it's definitely getting stronger.

For this post I was thinking of talking about the activities that are done up here. Every night of the week has something scheduled going on, and there's lots of pick-up stuff that happens as well. The schedule is:

Monday: Euchre
Tuesday: Darts
Wednesday: Pool
Thursday: Bowling (picture below)
Friday: TGIF (i.e. Drinking)
Saturday: Trivia/Poker (i.e. Little less drinking)
Sunday: Bingo

So far I've done everything but Poker and Pool, but I've played enough pool now that I'm getting back into the swing of things and I'll likely give it a go this Wednesday. All these activities have prizes available, and so far I've won $25 at bowling (high game: 173), $21.50 at Bingo (haven't won the $50 grand prize yet), $10 at euchre (we were tied for the lead, and had to do a play-off, where we got some nasty cards) and a LOT of free drinks from trivia.

As well, lots of the time people will talk throughout the day about doing something, and a note will go up on the whiteboard that Badminton or Floor Hockey will happen at 1830, so that's always a fun time. Hadn't played floor hockey forever, and after about 5 minutes I was feeling my lack of fitness :) Had a great time though, and will be adding it to my rotation of things to do. (Picture of the main gym right)

Sundays are usually sports tournaments, where there is no real cash prize, but teams can be self-chosen and they're more competitive. Two weekends ago was doubles Badminton, which I WON!! with my partner Josh...who coincidentally is one of the best players on station :P Last weekend was blind volleyball (sheet over the net, not over your eyes as I originally thought....and wondered about) which was fun too.

In honour of the Super Bowl tomorrow, the activity is going to be flag football.....outside!! We'll likely only play for 15 minutes before we start to freeze, but should be a fun time. As well, Mike and I just discovered a mat, clubs and balls in the gym, so we're going to head over to test out our golf games later this week. I'm just starting to get that mid-winter itch again :)

If anyone has any questions about what goes on up here, please leave a comment, and I'd gladly answer it in my next post. Picture suggestions are welcome too.

Miss you all,
Graham

Wildlife and cuisine...thankfully not together

First off, sorry for the lapse in my semi-formal posting schedule. New boss came in to relieve my other boss (going for a month leave) and while I'm still doing the same things, adjustments always have to be made. I'll do my best to get the posts up sometime on the weekend from now on (to let Mom know I'm still alive..........I'm still alive Mom).

On that note, I also didn't have time to snap any real pics for this post, so I'll put in the one below. We took a few people on a jaunt down to the lab a few days ago (same day that I took the picture of the "sun"). Environment Canada (me) is exempted from many of the travel rules at the base, as we need to go so far to the lab several times a week. That means it's easier for people to come with us then schedule a rec trip for a short excursion. Anyways, on that trip we also swung by the dump, and I saw the wolves for the first time while in possession of my camera. It was cold, so my breath ruined a lot of pictures, and I promise to get more/better ones (wolves are all over, it's just a matter of time) before I come home. This guy typifies the pack though. Mangy, scrawny and, perhaps surprisingly, very laid back. If they're lounging on the route you need to walk, you just walk right through. Sometimes they'll back off, sometimes they'll just watch you go on by. I've been within 10 feet of about a dozen wolves, and really didn't feel threatened....exhilarated maybe :)

No picture for this guy, but coming out of the gym (detached from the main building) the other night I FINALLY saw some other winter wildlife. An Arctic hare bounded in front of me. Let me tell you, this was not your "Peter Rabbit"-esque bunny. If Mr. McGregor saw THIS thing in his vegetable patch, he would have slowly backed away, locked himself in his shed, and waited for it to move on of its own accord. This rabbit was 30lbs, pure white, and high-tailing it between buildings. With the dozen-plus strong wolf pack on Station, only the hardy bunnies survive.

Finally, I've been trying to glimpse pretty much the only other wildlife up here in the winter darkness: the fox. I KNOW that he's around the lab, because there are tracks everywhere. If I go out to do a met check (don't worry, I'll talk about the details of my job in later weeks), and then come out 15 minutes later to flask, there'll be little paw prints following my boot prints 10" away for my entire trip. Even when we drive back to the Station, there are tracks following our tire-tracks in, almost all the way back. I think that he knows where the wolves' territory starts though, because the tracks always die off well away from Station. I really want to meet him...I'm told that he's smaller then the hare :)

Wow....I was also going to talk about food in this post, but I guess I'll save that for another day. I'll quickly note that it was -18°C the other day. Felt balmy :)

Hope you're all doing well down South, miss you all,
Graham

It's coming back!

Trust me, this picture shows the sun. It's 'slowly' starting to come back. You can actually see the outlines of the hills in the distance. (Light to the right is our lab)

Life up here: Part 1 of ?

So, it's been 2 weeks now and I've settled into the routine up here quite nicely. So much is going on with work and life that I don't even know where to begin with the stories. I guess that I'll use this post to talk a bit about living up here.

The station itself is a lot smaller than I thought it would be. I don't really know what I was expecting, but it's smaller :) The main building consists of 3 housing wings, a wing of office/work space and a wing that houses the mess hall, trading post, 2 bars and some games rooms. That may sound big, but from my bedroom door, walking at a normal pace it's:

-2 seconds to the computer room
-2 seconds to laundry
-5 seconds to the bathroom
-30 seconds to work
-45 seconds to meals
-55 seconds to the bars

It's not a big place is what I'm trying to convey here :) I'll take a little video walking through that I can show once I get back to let you all see it for yourselves.


My room is great. It's bigger than at home, has a nice bed, big closet, desk, couch, chair, TV/DVD player and sink. Communal showers and bathroom, but that's no big deal when you're only sharing them with 4 or 5 guys and they're 30 feet away. Great common room down the hall with tiered couches pointed at a huge flatscreen TV. Lots of movies for renting and junk food aplenty.

One anecdote I'll tell before finishing up will hopefully put to rest all of you e-mailing me saying how much colder it is in your part of the South then it is up here :) Ok, sure, Waterloo might be -28 while it's -27 up here. I'd like you all to remember that -28 for Waterloo is FREEZING, while that same temperature up here is a warm snap for us. Plus, you have SUN to give you some radiant heat. As well, the windchill is worse up here. The other night I was recruited into taking a manual air speed reading during a storm we were having (yes, I'd had a few beers when I was coerced into it). If any of you has been in a hurricane, picture that.....but then drop the temperature from +30°C to -30°C. We had sustained winds of 80km/h, and gusts up to 110km/h, which actually would have pushed me over if not for the lifeline! So, just envision that the next time you think you're all tough walking to you car with your little mittens on :P Alright...that's my rant for this blog!!

I think that's enough for this week. Hope life down South is going well for everyone. Miss you all lots,

Graham

Coming up...

Hey everyone, apparently DND opened up my blog up here (who knows how long for), so I'll be able to personally put up a post likely today or tomorrow. As well, I got rid of that old poll and the answer was......Jan 7 morning :) I think that I was the only one that chose that though.

I'll wait a bit to see if my access is just a temporary thing before re-implementing comments and my polls.

Update SOON! Maybe a pic or two

Miss you all,
G

Something Graham Would Say

Actually, just put a new post at the top saying:

"Hey everyone, due to the firewalls up here, I can't read your comments, so I've disabled them. If you want to ask me questions or send comments, drop me an e-mail"

I think I can do that.

I'm Here!!

Just a note: My blog is blocked up here, so my friend Andrew is going to be making the posts for me as I e-mail him the information. I'll still be able to recieve your comments on the blog itself, but feel free to e-mail me directly at my Gmail account or post on my Facebook wall if you want to talk. Due to the super-slow internet I'll also be limited in the number of pictures that I can attach, but rest assured that I'll post a few, and that there will be many, many more once I get back to the South.

Well, I have arrived safely in Alert and have quickly gotten into the swing of things here. As there is so much to talk about, I'll keep things simple and start off with my first post from Alert talking about my trip up here.


The drive from Waterloo to CFB Trenton went well, only 2.5 hours door-to-door. Getting onto the base itself through all the security was a hassel...the unmanned guard hut made me feel realy secure :P Rooms on base were basically a hotel, except that they were only $40 a night. Dad and I went out to dinner, and about 20 minutes after the sun had gone down we realized that that could have potentially been my last sun for a long time. Since I had to wake up at 3am to get to the hanger for 4, I wanted to get to bed in good time. Unfortunately, the World Junior game was on (Go Canada!) so I only got a few hours sleep.

My first alarm woke me up just fine, so the 5 backups that I had set were unnecessary (I didn't even KNOW you could set an alarm on a microwave...but I did). Got a taxi to the terminal and checked in. After an hour and a half of waiting we went through standard airline security...although there were only 4 of us. Waited a bit more, then were shuttled out to the plane. I don't have many outside pictures at this point, as everything is dark, but I'll try to get some good plane pictures on the trip home.

The C130 Hercules itself was very cool. Big open plane, little fabric seats, lots of cargo, big drop door at the back. With only the 4 of us, it was quite spacious. It was also a training mission, so there were probably 8 or 9 flight crew. The warning that the plane was "deafening" was quite accurate, and my teeth are still chattering from the vibration. My in-ear ear plugs were working ok, but one of the crew offered me an aviation headset to wear, so that worked better (as I could even plug my iPod in underneath it to listen to music). We were able to wander around at our leisure, and I got some great pictures of the cargo, loading bay and even the cockpit! The sun did come up for an hour or two, but as we were traveling due north, at around 12:15pm we crossed the Arctic Circle and the sun dissapeared for the next 2 months.

We landed in Thule, Greenland after a 7:10 flight. It was really cold, really dark and I was tired as hell after not sleeping on the flight (due to nerves and exitement). We didn't have any customs or security screening, which I would have expected upon arriving at a foriegn (American) military base, but we were shuttled to our rooms for the night. The next morning we hopped back on the Herc for a [relatively] short flight almost due North 1.5 hours to Alert. The previous day had seen a storm with winds reachind 120km/h, but it had calmed down and the landing was a great one. We were shuttled to the main building, and when we all entered a big group of people had gathered to cheer us onto the station.

Well, that sums up my trip in a lot more words than I was intending. I'll leave it at that for now, and my next post will talk about my work, or maybe living up here.

Miss you all,
Graham

This is it...

Well, this is it. Bags are packed, lists have been checked, loose ends dealt with. Computer is getting turned off. My next post will likely be from Alert, barring weather delays that strand me in Greenland :)

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes and talk to you all later from a colder local.