workin'

Today we went out in the field to do some work. We took about 5 snowmobiles and 2 sleds with us. So all of us packed on and two people jumped on the sleds, Santinu and Amorita rode the back standing up. It took us about 20 min to arrive to our site, driving through what seemed to be a fog of snow for miles on end. On the way over there Santinu managed to fall off the sled, funny thing is nobody noticed. It took a while until Craig looked back and saw no one there, so he headed back to pick him up. Riding on those snow mobiles you really have to keep your face covered well, one to keep you face from freezing and two keep yourself from getting snow burned.

When we arrived at the site I had no idea the work they had in store for us. Craig had us begin digging a hole about 3 feet deep into the snow, 3 ft wide and maybe 24 feet long, it wasn't too bad at first but then he kicked it up a notch. He then had us dig about a 1000 ft canal. It was pretty intense digging, you actually began to heat up in your jacket, so I had to take off a layer to stat nice and fresh. It was nice though because you don't feel as fatigued like you do when working in warmer weather. You don't sweat or get thirsty at all, which can be pretty dangerous because it does get really dry out there. After about an hour or two of digging my body began to ache all over especially in my wrists from snow shoveling the whole time. It is amazing how deep the snow gets in some areas, it can range from 1ft to 5 ft in depth. Also when digging a noticed several layers of ice in the snow, it looked almost like a three layer cake with and inch of icing in between. The snow in and of itself is very blinding, because it is extremely pure white. If I didn't have my sunglasses on I wouldn't have been able to see for crap. Its one of those things you have to experience for your self. Its like you can almost feel the white radiating from the snow, just totally incredible but it can also be pretty dangerous. You can get pretty disoriented from being out there for too long, so Craig told us if the wind is hitting the right side of your face you should be facing north.

I was thinking today, when winter comes around in El Paso It will be a breeze . Well I got to go get ready now for the grand opening of the multi million dollar research facility here in Barrow.