12/23/19
We're at the end of our long 8 day workweek that precedes our 2 days off for Christmas. It's been a long but busy week both with work and play.
12/15/19
Today was the annual gingerbread competition. We had dreams of making a tree house for gnomes,so to do this we had planned far ahead, even going to hobby lobby in Fort Collins before deploying. Then we spent a few days in McM making trees out of metal scraps and paper mache. After 3 hours, lots of gingerbread and candy consumed, we made a pretty dang sweet gingerbread tree house scence. Two trees with little huts and then a snow igloo. The trees ended up being a bit baobab style, which fits our Africa travel theme and the gnomes also had pet bears and a pet leopard. I was very impressed with our finished product as was everyone else. We were definitely the crowd favorite! And in my opinion, also by far the best one. However, the judges didn't see it that way and we somehow got 6th place out of like 8 or 9 teams. Oh well, we weren't in it for the competition.
12/18 - 12/19/19
In the morning we tried for a flight to the dry valleys but as we got across the sound and hit the continent, the fog was so bad that we boomeranged and came back to town in order to try later.
I flew out to the dry valleys in the late morning, to F6 camp to help two grad students from CU-Boulder build a new stream weir, and tear down an old stream weir. It was very hard, exhausting, and wet work, but it in a beautiful location. They were the only 2 other people at camp, so it was nice and chill in the evenings. I brought Lexi from haz waste with me to help. After work on the 1st day, we grilled pork loin on the bbq and had margaritas. Then Lexi and I drove the ATV across the frozen lake and then hiked to the Canada glacier. It snowed a lot our 2nd day, but cleared enough in the evening to fly us back to McMurdo.
I made it back in time for the end of Elisha's Supply Department Christmas party at hut 10. It's always a nice party with lots of good food, fresh cookies, chocolate, and fudge. Also McM-made eggnogg and spice mulled wine.
After that party we headed over to the galley where they were having McMurdo Museum. It's a pretty fun event and it's amazing all the museum worthy things we have. Some of the favorites were pictures from the old boiling alley, pictures from the old hover craft, plans for the station remodel that was supposed to happen (but didn't) in 1994, and other things.
12/20/19
I flew out in to Moore's Bay (a frozen bay) with Robyn from the BFC and Lindsay from helo ops. We were doing a recce of a big astrophysics project that had been buried deep in snow and that we'll eventually have to remove. The flight to the place was really cool. We flew around Minna Bluff where there is a shear zone and so the crevasses and huge chunks of ice are spectacular. Weather was better on the way home, and so we flew right up near the summit of Mt. Discovery (at 7,000 or so feet). Super cool!
Tonight was one of my favorite McM events. The Waste Barn Christmas Acoustic show. They always really decorate the barn cool, pack in a bunch of old couches and chairs, and host the show. They always have a theme, and this year they leaked it was going to be Home Alone, but they were fooling us all at it was instead "Wasteozoic Park" -- a take off of Jurassic Park. The decorations were amazing! And the various acts were great. There was an orchestra type group with so many different instruments (tubas, flutes, guitar, violins, trumpets, clarinets, and more) that played Christmas songs. There was a fiddling group with 5 fiddles. Various singers. Some comedy skits. Piano solos. And more. The talent of McMurdo is always amazing! And it's a very friendly and encouraging crowd. B/c everyone is crammed into seats, the wasties hosting the party, would walk up and down the aisles handing out free beer and wine so that people didn't have to get up.
Today Mitch hurt his foot while doing burpees and after getting x-rays and hearing back from UTMB in Texas, turns out he broke his foot. So the poor guy is hobbling around on crutches and a foot boot.
I forgot to mention that last week, our volleyball team (Me, Elisha, Danny, Kristen, and Eric) finished the McMurdo Volleyball League UNDEFEATED! A pretty good feat b/c there are some pretty good players down here.
We're at the end of our long 8 day workweek that precedes our 2 days off for Christmas. It's been a long but busy week both with work and play.
12/15/19
Today was the annual gingerbread competition. We had dreams of making a tree house for gnomes,so to do this we had planned far ahead, even going to hobby lobby in Fort Collins before deploying. Then we spent a few days in McM making trees out of metal scraps and paper mache. After 3 hours, lots of gingerbread and candy consumed, we made a pretty dang sweet gingerbread tree house scence. Two trees with little huts and then a snow igloo. The trees ended up being a bit baobab style, which fits our Africa travel theme and the gnomes also had pet bears and a pet leopard. I was very impressed with our finished product as was everyone else. We were definitely the crowd favorite! And in my opinion, also by far the best one. However, the judges didn't see it that way and we somehow got 6th place out of like 8 or 9 teams. Oh well, we weren't in it for the competition.
12/18 - 12/19/19
In the morning we tried for a flight to the dry valleys but as we got across the sound and hit the continent, the fog was so bad that we boomeranged and came back to town in order to try later.
I flew out to the dry valleys in the late morning, to F6 camp to help two grad students from CU-Boulder build a new stream weir, and tear down an old stream weir. It was very hard, exhausting, and wet work, but it in a beautiful location. They were the only 2 other people at camp, so it was nice and chill in the evenings. I brought Lexi from haz waste with me to help. After work on the 1st day, we grilled pork loin on the bbq and had margaritas. Then Lexi and I drove the ATV across the frozen lake and then hiked to the Canada glacier. It snowed a lot our 2nd day, but cleared enough in the evening to fly us back to McMurdo.
I made it back in time for the end of Elisha's Supply Department Christmas party at hut 10. It's always a nice party with lots of good food, fresh cookies, chocolate, and fudge. Also McM-made eggnogg and spice mulled wine.
After that party we headed over to the galley where they were having McMurdo Museum. It's a pretty fun event and it's amazing all the museum worthy things we have. Some of the favorites were pictures from the old boiling alley, pictures from the old hover craft, plans for the station remodel that was supposed to happen (but didn't) in 1994, and other things.
12/20/19
I flew out in to Moore's Bay (a frozen bay) with Robyn from the BFC and Lindsay from helo ops. We were doing a recce of a big astrophysics project that had been buried deep in snow and that we'll eventually have to remove. The flight to the place was really cool. We flew around Minna Bluff where there is a shear zone and so the crevasses and huge chunks of ice are spectacular. Weather was better on the way home, and so we flew right up near the summit of Mt. Discovery (at 7,000 or so feet). Super cool!
Tonight was one of my favorite McM events. The Waste Barn Christmas Acoustic show. They always really decorate the barn cool, pack in a bunch of old couches and chairs, and host the show. They always have a theme, and this year they leaked it was going to be Home Alone, but they were fooling us all at it was instead "Wasteozoic Park" -- a take off of Jurassic Park. The decorations were amazing! And the various acts were great. There was an orchestra type group with so many different instruments (tubas, flutes, guitar, violins, trumpets, clarinets, and more) that played Christmas songs. There was a fiddling group with 5 fiddles. Various singers. Some comedy skits. Piano solos. And more. The talent of McMurdo is always amazing! And it's a very friendly and encouraging crowd. B/c everyone is crammed into seats, the wasties hosting the party, would walk up and down the aisles handing out free beer and wine so that people didn't have to get up.
Today Mitch hurt his foot while doing burpees and after getting x-rays and hearing back from UTMB in Texas, turns out he broke his foot. So the poor guy is hobbling around on crutches and a foot boot.
I forgot to mention that last week, our volleyball team (Me, Elisha, Danny, Kristen, and Eric) finished the McMurdo Volleyball League UNDEFEATED! A pretty good feat b/c there are some pretty good players down here.
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| McMurdo Snowball Fight taken by Elisha from our dorm window after the big snow (I was at the Pole or I would have been there!) |
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| Our tree house gingerbread creation |
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| making cookies for the supply party |
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| gingerbread construction |
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| finished gingerbread house. 2 tree houses and an igloo |
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| mr. gnome and leoapard |
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| Our team: Christine, Sue, Me, and Elisha |
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| Ob Hill |
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| Coffee House (they are tearing the coffee house building down at the end of the year as part of the station remodel) |
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| A field camp called "the gingerbreak hills" |
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| the house from the lorax |
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| Air traffic control tower |
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| Liz Sutter house (she was sent home for medical reasons and her team made her house in her honor) |
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| gingerbread houses on display in the galley |
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| Waste Barn acoustic Christmas show |
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| Waste Barn acoustic Christmas show |
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| Building a new steram weir at Lost Seal Creek |
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| we filled so many sand bags! |
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| My tent for the night at F6 camp |
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| F6 camp |
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| Lake Fryxell |
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| Commonwealth Glacier |
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| shear zone around Minna Bluff |
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| Robin helping me flag equipment in case it gets buried |
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| Back side of Mt. Discovery |
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| View looking down from Mt. Discovery |
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