science and sleep

yesterdays schedule: go out to the field

todays schedule: go out to the field

tomorrows schedule: go out to the field

Day I don't go out to the field: priceless

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We went to a local festival recently called a blanket toss festival, where they (obviously) toss people up on blankets. Now the anticipation for this had been building up for quite a while, and for some reason in my head i was picturing a really really cool festival. come to the day of, well is wasn't exactly what we expected. A bunch of people sitting around and little kids playing blanket toss. This festival goes on from 12 to 12 and has various activities throughout the day, so depending when you get there...yata yata yata great time. but ya it was cool because this is their culture, and you gotta appreciate that. (I'll write more on this later)

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Various thoughts....

Early bird catches the worm, second mouse gets the cheese.

thoughts of summer covered in snow

i'll be back

melting snow

Life here in Barrow has begun to emerge from the snow. Walking along the roads, you couldn't tell that there used to be 3 or 5 feet of snow covering the ground for miles on end. The sun continues to dance around never pausing, never sitting, and always there for you.
As the snow turns to water lemmings emerge from the ground, and begin scavenging the tundra. Lemmings are rodent like creatures that roam the tundra creating branches in the soil, pits of droppings, and a sense of vitality in the tundra. The grasses and the mosses are slowly thawing from their icy glaze, springing forth with new life consuming the water like sponges. The soil is now tender and soft never releasing the moisture it is given. The sky gives birth to several creatures, like the snowy owl who awaits its next meal while other birds poke through the now bare soil, hoping to fill its belly with tasty insects, or whatever it delights. Soon polar bears will come ashore when the sea ice melts into the water. life is good, life is changing, life is life.

good enough for the bush

Good day again today, especially when your in a place like this good days are a frequent visit.

Slept in today, had to wake up in a rush to head out for the days work ahead. It just so relaxing when you've been out for so long and crash (in contrast to drunken crashing)into bed.

Barrow is a quiet town with little rustling every here and there. A small drive along the coast line gives you an amazing view of a frozen ocean full of pressure ridges formed for the ice. Craig was telling us that there can be massive pressure ridges that can topple on to the road 30 meters away. Here you'll here many stories, mostly from the locals who are always happy to speak of their adventurous encounters for hours on end. Barrow isn't the place for a tourist field trip of a week, for me to get the best benefit no tour guide can give you is you have to talk to the people here and interact with them.
Recently we attended a celebration for the grand opening of a new facility here at the heritage memorial center. Entering the building you saw large pictures of the local people, each posing next to something that expressed who they were and their pride. Further in there was the auditorium filled with people and on the stage there were chairs lined up with dancers. They were dressed with moccasins and traditional clothes holding these large pancake like drums about two feet in diameter and a long stick. I nestled into a crevice of people along the wall for their performance was about to begin. Tap..Tap..Tap went the drums very lightly as the dancers began, then a while into it BAM..BAM...BAM as they pounded the drums creating a powerful presence in the room. The soon invited everyone in the room to come up and dance. Only a hand full of people went and I was still a bit to timid to run up there and join them. They announced the last song and opportunity to dance, so I gave it a shot and went. and that was the end of another good day.

today was a good day

sometimes a good day is all that needs to be said.

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.

names names names

for everyone reading this i am bad with names and flip flop in between when witting them. So with that said all Pete(s) shall be Perry. he he, lol. umm ya

snow fight

Today was quite the venture. Dave took us out to the ocean just to give us a feel for what we will have to endure out in the field. This was to be quite the expedition, so like any good amature I over layered and threw on my rubber boots. You would think being out here there would be a problem keeping warm but I'm afraid that isn't the case here. Aside from the little things, walking over the ocean was refreshing. Evey here and there your foot would plop down in the water through the ice. It wasn't like life threatening or anything just slowed you down. After about 40 min of walking around we came to this large hill of snow, this would soon turn out to be the most epic battle of our time...




Me and Santanu began making a snowman like little kids you know. Amorita and Pete were down the shore next to a pool of water just checking it out, while Dave was fiddling around with the GPS. So while we were making the abominable snow man it was just natural to begin chucking snow balls at people. So of course everyone began tossing snow back and forth, returnig to the kid inside. I had made my way up the hill of snow, purely for adventurous purposes then found it to be quite the advantage point from which I could smite my foes. We exchanged blow after blow until everyone got tired. After we walked along the beach some more then headed back to the station for the night and for some reason I had the munchies so I grabbed some cake with a coke and chips to tuck me in for the night.