Hoop Screams.

Horns'n Hoop: The devil made me do it.

I believe that I have recently been subject to torture much more
severe than anyone of those fortunate unlawful combatants down in Cuba
could possible imagine. The magnitude of my suffering is immeasurable.
It is not possible to have been more uncomfortable in one day. Only a
geophysicist could possibly find any redeeming benefit in participating
in an HLEM "Max-Min" survey. Which could go a long way to explaining why
so many geophysicists are loners.

Today I had the "pleasure" of wearing the "hoop" and traipsing some 75
meters behind the bearer of the horns. 16 steps and then stop for two
minutes and dial up various frequencies all to extreme aural
dissatisfaction. First time ever and hopefully there will not be a
second( mind you I also said that about epaulettes and then I worked on some fancy yacht...).Weighed down with a lead belt of batteries, and suspended from my shoulders both a great ,fat, heavy oval hula hoop and transmitter box, I swear a hold over from the early fifties. All of this lashed to me with the finest in thin leather webbing and rusty steel buckles that
ever came out of the same generation. Never have I spent more time going nowhere with such physical disatisfaction in the search for minerals. Not only that I had the distinct displeasure of having to wear snowshoes during this day of unrelenting misery!

Who in their right mind could possibly consider snowshoeing a remotely
enjoyable recreational activity. Why on earth would someone want to
post-hole, though not as deep as without the "benefit" of wearing them, anywhere in uncomfortable soon to be wet
footwear when that same person could get everywhere in half the time on
ski's and have considerably more fun descending?

A pox on any of you that actually enjoy this "activity"!

How could I stop there? I can't! A low level jet stream has placed
itself directly over top of us and it is currently blowing in excess of
50kts. At least I'm inside. I could still be out there frying my
testicles and tripping over myself in slush and ice.

Thanks a bunch Sister Sarah for sending me this pleasant sight.

Damn I miss the boat. Serving blue haired old ladies G&T's all day
couldn't be more appealing after today.

Hey look, maybe one day I can make it to the top of the world without getting frostbite.

It's Beer o'clock.

D.

Shitty day on the job

Camp guy's best friend and worst enemy

All hail the Pacto toilet!

Best thing to happen to field camps in the Arctic since the addition of the shovel. Followed closely by fire and alcohol, not necesarilly in that order.

Imagine if you will, household plumbing-so to speak- that doesn't require the addition of water. Not only that some poor fool no longer has to go and dig a hole deep enough to last long enough to dig another hole that is deep enough to accomodate upwords of twenty people. Not only that, said sorry fool no longer has to battle perma-frost to accomplish said task.

Sounds wonderfull yes? Well sort of. When there is a mechanical malfuncion guess who has to deal with the shit? literally...

You guessed it.

"Welcome to Camp Dean. How was your breakfast? Can you fix the Pacto?"

Then there comes disposal day! Oh do I miss just covering up the hole, I just don't miss the digging.

Murphy’s 1st law: Mother Nature is a Bitch!

Camp: Day 1

Spring is the best! Weather sucks, not much gets accomplished, people begin freaking out and to make matters worse I saw on TV that Vancouver was to get up to 29 degrees.

Bastards!

Up until this point I had been stuck for 3 days in Rankin Inlet. The weather in around the camp has been less than ideal for flight. During the fourth attempt over these 3 days the helicopter was stuck 7 miles south of camp on it’s first inbound flight attempt of the day. Whether or not it returned to Rankin for me remained to be seen. Spring thaws and dew points, the temperature at which moisture in the air begins to form clouds, and the topography surrounding camp have brought ideal conditions for fog formation not to mention the possibility of rain/freezing rain.

As for Rankin itself, it has been suffering from floods of near biblical proportions. It pretty much poured all day and night long and combined with the melting of this year’s record snowfall has left lakes and ponds all over and many of those have breached their natural barriers. Now there are streams and rivers all over town. The fire department was called out Tuesday night to pump out one of the offending bodies of water to keep one home from floating away only to return this afternoon with city works in tow. Significant dangers up here as no homes here are built on foundations because of the permafrost.

The helicopter did make it into camp eventually and some 8 hours after it left Rankin it returned to town for me. Thankfully, one can only watch so much TV, and I have had my fill for the next 39 days. As I type this it is still making flights while it can to swap out the current drill crew for the one that will be replacing it tomorrow. So far so good I must say. It would be tough to believe but it is just a hell of alot more comfortable to be in camp. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Stay tuned

Day one

Home sweet home?

So today I am off to Rankin Inlet, well Edmonton actually but Rankin Inlet being the ultimate destination. Almost everything that I know about the place can be found here:

www.kivalliq.org/eng/rankin.htm

Bear with me, I am still working out this Blog thing and eventually I will get the links figured out so a bit of cut and paste may be the order of the day.

Those inclined to find out more about the place have a party, I myself am bound to find out a hell of a lot more in a matter of hours.


For the next 6 weeks I will be amongst a crew of 20+ people searching for diamonds in Canada's North where I will be responssible for heat,light, water, communication and sanitation.

Sounds like fun hunh?

When I can be assured that the shit flows downhill I will be working out in the field, which may prove to be a little more exciting than previous forays into the tundra as I will find myself in the heart of Polar Yogi country and as far as I understand they have no known predators...

A little salt with your Dean-oh?

The primary benefit of this whole exercise is that I will be around helicopters all of the time with plenty of time to bother pilots and engineers and try to get myself in some sort of position to place myself front and center in the career path that I would prefer to follow. Oh and did I mention a steady pay cheque? That's kind of nice benefit.

Anyway, stay tuned as I hope to post something...anything that I may find interesting on this grand experiment and I hope that you may find it a bit of a curiosity as well.

Untill then. Enjoy the ride!

Hey look! The boy can fly!

Day one all over again

Take two.

Still trying to figure out how all of this blog shit works. It would be nice to have a bit of a handle on it before I hit the road to Rankin, which apparently has suffered from it's highest recorded yearly snowfall.

Oh boy! Can't wait!

More to come