On The Land

Home...but not for long.

Friday, August 31, 2007, 9:34:01 AM | donkeycat

29 August 2007

On my way home again…

Nothing very interesting happened today, however I need to have a finish to this chapter “On The Land”. We did get the samples to the labs, did get some souvenirs and I also got the bags checked with Air Canada, to the tune of $598can. in oversized and extra bags. Bye the bye the rates for extra and/or over weight bags is going up…so if you are traveling with AC check your bags carefully and be prepared to pay through the nose if your over.  My flight form leaves from Yellowknife Airport (where you can get NFLD style “chips dressing and gravy) at 1915 hours and arrives in Edmonton Airport at 2115 hours (where every thing is closed, except the bar. I had a few beers with a bunch from NFLD and we even had guitars and singing in the smoking room, just like being in Cambridge with the brother-in-law) and then on Toronto Airport (a sea of mass confusion) at 0030 arriving at 0630 hours. From the airport I have to go to Guelph to drop off some more samples and then finally home for some rest…maybe…This made Wednesday/Thursday a very long day….I be to the office on Friday…

I found out today from my e-mail that I being shipped out to Lonely Island in Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay for a couple of days of fieldwork. I be picking up a new camera for this trip. Hopefully I'll get a shot of a rattlesnake.

Cheers from Yellowknife, Edmonton and Toronto.

Pat

Off the Land

Friday, August 31, 2007, 9:29:09 AM | donkeycat

28 August 2007

Well we got out…

My last day on site was filled with fun and work. I had to fulfill the duties that were assigned to me the resident project engineer “knob” but how I did it was up to me…that being said I used the quad instead if the truck and I did not stay on the road as much as I should have. Every chance I had to take a trail or cut line I was gone. I did finish the work and still manage to pack up my gear, sort and pack the samples and equipment get dusted by the DC3 and have five cups of coffee before the plane arrived. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos to add to this entry but the last dusting, from the DC3, killed my camera. I’ll have to explain this at work and hopefully get a new one, if not I’ll end up with an etch-a-sketch.  The twin left Port Radium at 1700 hours and with a good tailwind we bounced our way into Yellowknife 1855 hours. I checked into my hotel room had a Donair for dinner, then the weekly shower and to bed. Tomorrow will be a busy day, getting samples to the labs, picking up souvenirs, and taking every thing to the airport.  

Cheers from Yellowknife.

Pat

My last day on site...I think!

Tuesday, August 28, 2007, 5:27:55 PM | donkeycat

Today was one of those days…

We were told that our plane back to Yellowknife was going to arrive this evening. So we got an early start to the sampling (right after the morning meeting). Our first stop was at McDonough Lake (tailings area) went off without a hitch. We then moved to Cross Fault Lake to complete the water sampling on the second of the three lakes. Again no problems. A quick stop in camp for lunch and to check e-mail, to find out what time our flight from paradise would be leaving, and we’d be off to the third of three lakes. This is where the “one of these day” starts…not only was our flight not arriving today, but nobody had booked one for us….apparently they had just forgotten we were here. However we were told that there would definitely be a plane first thing on Tuesday morning, or maybe in the afternoon but quite possibly in the evening, it was all depending on when a plane was available. It could even be Wednesday….we will just have to see. Anyways back to work, we proceeded to the last lake, Glacier Lake, to finish the sampling program. We had no sooner headed out on the water when the kicker died. There was a problem with the fuel line and the motor was not getting gas. As we drifted (very strong north winds today) toward the far end of the lake Claire found and fixed the problem. There was an “O” ring out of place and we were losing fuel. (While all this was going on we heard over the two-ways that there were two wolves circling the excavator and the wildlife monitor was off to investigate. Henry, one of the knobs, had also had an encounter with wolves today. It sounds like our crew is looking pretty good, as in eating, to the wolves. I think this can be attributed to Gina our camp cook, she keeps us well fed with excellent meals and home had pies, cakes, cheesecakes, bread and donuts…it’s a wonder that we can fit into the equipment.) our problem solved we completed our assignment and moved back to the camp to start packing up our samples and equipment and make ready for the plane..Ha ha..

A DC3 did arrive and leave us standing in the dust literaly (when he took off we could not see the bear fence from the tents, a distance of four feet) and then a second DC3 arrived and took off. And as you can see from this entry I’m still in camp. I’ll keep you updated, if they keep me updated..

I received some photos from Claire and took some as well to add. Enjoy:

Water monitoring on the shore of Great Bear Lake.

Early morning heading down the lake. That's me sleeping in the bow.

Claire took this one of me in my finer sampling moments.

Wide awake for the returm trip.

Dave the site handyman, Terry the medic., Elaine & Merlin are the housekeeping and kitchen staff.

Gina the Cook, Simon and Jack (in background) camp mechanic.

Henry (one of us "knobs") in his office.

My last quad ride at P.R. I took the short-cut to the camp.

The DC3 dusting the camp.

and the take-off set from outside the tent.

Cheers from Port Radium on Great Bear Lake

Pat

PS. the wolf is howling.

“Glossary of Mining Terms”

Monday, August 27, 2007, 11:07:11 PM | donkeycat

Here is the “Glossary of Mining Terms” I promised I’d put together. I tried to keep it simple and only included the terms I had used or thought I had used in this blog. A more in-depth list can be found (this is where I got my information from): http://www.northernminer.com/Tools/glossary.asp

Acidic precipitation - Snow and rain that have a low pH, caused by sulphur dioxide and nitric oxide gases from industrial activity released into the atmosphere.Acid mine drainage - Acidic run-off water from mine waste dumps and mill tailings ponds containing sulphide minerals. Also refers to ground water pumped to surface from mines.Adit - An opening driven horizontally into the side of a mountain or hill for providing access to a mineral deposit.

Assay - A chemical test performed on a sample of ores or minerals to determine the amount of valuable metals contained.

Back - The ceiling or roof of an underground opening.Backfill - Waste material used to fill the void created by mining an orebody.

Ball mill - A steel cylinder filled with steel balls into which crushed ore is fed. The ball mill is rotated, causing the balls to cascade and grind the ore.

Basement rocks - The underlying or older rock mass. Often refers to rocks of Precambrian age which may be covered by younger rocks.Base camp - Centre of operations from which exploration activity is conducted.Base metal - Any non-precious metal (eg. copper, lead, zinc, nickel, etc.).

Collar - The term applied to the timbering or concrete around the mouth of a shaft; also used to describe the top of a mill hole.

Cone crusher - A machine which crushes ore between a gyrating cone or crushing head and an inverted, truncated cone known as a bowl.Concentrate - A fine, powdery product of the milling process containing a high percentage of valuable metal.Concentrator - A milling plant that produces a concentrate of the valuable minerals or metals. Further treatment is required to recover the pure metal.

Cyanidation - A method of extracting exposed gold or silver grains from crushed or ground ore by dissolving it in a weak cyanide solution. May be carried out in tanks inside a mill or in heaps of ore out of doors.Cyanide - A chemical species containing carbon and nitrogen used to dissolve gold and silver from ore.

Drift - A horizontal underground opening that follows along the length of a vein or rock formation as opposed to a crosscut which crosses the rock formation

Dry - A building where the miner changes into working clothes.

Environmental impact study - A written report, compiled prior to a production decision, that examines the effects proposed mining activities will have on the natural surroundings.

Exploration - Prospecting, sampling, mapping, diamond drilling and other work involved in searching for ore.

Geiger counter - An instrument used to measure the radioactivity that emanates from certain minerals by means of a Geiger-Mueller tube.

Grizzly (or mantle) - A grating, usually constructed of steel rails, placed over the top of a chute or ore pass for the purpose of stopping large pieces of rock or ore that may hang up in the pass.

Hoist - The machine used for raising and lowering the cage or other conveyance in a shaft.

Jaw crusher - A machine in which rock is broken by the action of steel plates.

Mill - A plant in which ore is treated and metals are recovered or prepared for smelting; also a revolving drum used for the grinding of ores in preparation for treatment.Milling ore - Ore that contains sufficient valuable mineral to be treated by milling process.

Pitchblende - An important uranium ore mineral. It is black in color, possesses a characteristic greasy lustre and is highly radioactive.

Plant - A building or group of buildings in which a process or function is carried out; at a mine site it will include warehouses, hoisting equipment, compressors, maintenance shops, offices and the mill or concentrator.

Radioactivity - The property of spontaneously emitting alpha, beta or gamma rays by the decay of the nuclei of atoms.

Shaft - A vertical or inclined excavation in rock for the purpose of providing access to an orebody. Usually equipped with a hoist at the top, which lowers and raises a conveyance for handling workers and materials.

Tailings - Material rejected from a mill after most of the recoverable valuable minerals have been extracted.Tailings pond - A low-lying depression used to confine tailings, the prime function of which is to allow enough time for heavy metals to settle out or for cyanide to be destroyed before water is discharged into the local watershed.Talus - A heap of broken, coarse rock found at the base of a cliff or mountain.

Uranium - A radioactive, silvery-white, metallic element.

What a great day.

Sunday, August 26, 2007, 10:52:08 PM | donkeycat

26 August 2007

Another beautiful day on Great Bear Lake…

Today was our second trip down the lake.

Our sampling location.

The route we took to get there and back.

You could not ask for a better day to be on the water. The sampling went faster than we had originally thought and we were back at camp by 1830 hours. The return trip was a little choppy with rollers between 8 – 10 inches and a strong north wind. Once we reached the boat launch we hooked up the trailer and moved the boat to the next little lake. There are still three more lakes to sample and we should be finished by evening tomorrow.

It’s now 2100 hours and I think I’ll go and see if this computer will play a movie. The only ones I have are “The Bourne Supremacy” which I’ve been watching over a two week period, I keep falling asleep, and “Flight of Furry” which I hope will put me to sleep. I may set my alarm for 0300 hours and see if I can see the northern lights.

  

I’m still trying to get some photos from Claire, but her day is as long as mine so I’m not going to bug her for them.

THE SEA OF SUNSET.

by Emily Dickinson

This is the land the sunset washes,
These are the banks of the Yellow Sea;
Where it rose, or whither it rushes,
These are the western mystery!

Night after night her purple traffic
Strews the landing with opal bales;
Merchantmen poise upon horizons,
Dip, and vanish with fairy sails.

Cheers from Port Radium on Great Bear Lake

Pat

PS. Here is one of my tent mates, there are hundreds of them in the tents. They don't eat much, but I haven't seen Bob in days.

Very tired..

Saturday, August 25, 2007, 11:43:19 PM | donkeycat

24 August 2007

The last two days have been very long..

Thursday started off good, the work was going fine until 1600 hours that’s when the “knobs”, as Dave the 74 year old superintendent calls the engineering types, arrived..this meant a three hour detailed tour of the site followed by a conference call to other “knobs” to discuss the work on site and any potential issues that would slow the project down. We were back to the camp be 1930 hours for dinner then I turned the project back over to Henry, the engineer I cross-shift with, and started a new one. This project involves the sediment sampling and water sampling in Great Bear Lake. Well this began with prep work starting at 2000 hours, getting bottles ready, checking equipment and filling in labels, and went on to 0030 hours… Oh ya..I saw the white wolf again, very cool!...then up and at it 0700 hours as usual and on to the lake. The first site to sample is 15 Km, about one hour by our boat, south of the camp in one of GBL’s many bays.

The Crew. 

Down the bay.

Our sampling took the full day, we did stop for a spot of Kelly kettle tea with lunch,

Everybody up here loves this thing. When we make tea we usualy end up making 5-6 pots so everybody can try it.

I just saw this and it begged to be photographed. What do you think?

and we still did not finish. This means we are back there tomorrow. It’s now 2330 hours and we just finished putting our samples away and getting ready for tomorrow (at 2300 hours actually, plus ½ hour to type this) my back is sore and I’m tired so I will end this now as I need to get some sleep.

Cheers from Port Radium on Great Bear Lake

Pat

Lots of fun.

Saturday, August 25, 2007, 11:33:59 PM | donkeycat

25 August 2007

SNAFU..

We were all set to get on the lake right after morning meeting…even The Fates were against us, tugging even breaking the threads of destiny, were we meant to be on the lake today, I think not…last night as we arrived the barge was making ready to sail, the mechanic had tuned up the diesels, the cook had stocked to galley and the crew, one of our superintends and the apprentice mechanic, had rested and packed for the thirty hour trip. When we passed them on the road to camp they questioned us about the need for us having two kickers (outboard boat motors) on our Lund, and explained that they needed one as the motor for their emergency boat. After a short debate over who needs a backup/spare motor and on which boat and the fact that AEL owns one, the small 10hp, we conceded and they took the motor.  By 2330 hours they were on there way to Deleni…as we arrived at the boat launch we observed that our Lund was quite a bit farther out of the water than we had left it. Not thinking to much of it we loaded the boat and proceeded to push it into the lake. That’s when Claire noticed that we were taking on water. It seems that the barge crew had taken more than the kicker…they had also taken the PLUG…now you want to see people move fast, well we had to unload the boat and pull it ashore before it took on to much water. When we talked to the mechanic about this issue, he informed us that the emergency boat for the barge was also missing a plug so they took ours. After 2 hours of looking around and discussing alternate solutions to this problem we approached Alberta Star and asked if they had a spare one. We were informed by there camp manager that they did not have a spare but they would take one from one of there boats and chopper it to us some time today.  It the interim we took to the truck and collected all the samples we could from the shore. By 1230 hours we had our plug..off to the lake we went. What a beautiful day to be on the water.

Clear blue sky but cold (+7⁰C) and no wind. The water is clear like I never seen before, in Canada, you can see the bottom at 30 ft. (10m)

and cold (+6⁰C). By 2000 hours we had finished the water sampling around the site. Tomorrow we will go back down the lake to finish that program and them on to three more little lakes within the site.

I’ll add some more photos when I get them from Claire.

Cheers from Port Radium on Great Bear Lake

Pat

Thursday, August 23, 2007, 9:42:52 AM | donkeycat

22 August 2007

A very busy day on site today.

The day began as all others have, except this morning the boss was on site…so you know what that means…work, work, work and then work some more, time is running out for the construction season and the project must get done. So today we had crews going off in all directions. Some doing cover on low level radioactive material, some excavating mine openings, some starting to place fencing around the mine trenches and others examining the mine openings to determine the best way to construct the cap.

Tonight while on my way back to the site to assist in the layout of the cap for the tailings area (I’ll have to do a section on mining terms) I saw the white wolf…absolutely beautiful and big, it had to stand three to three and one half feet at the shoulder. I tried to get a photo, actually I did but it’s terrible, but by the time I had the camera focused it was gone. This made my day.

Enough of my bad photos, here are some more from Shaun from the Tundra Mine site:

The caribou series.

The grizzly bear.

I wish I had seen the bear.

The fox.

Cheers from Port Radium on Great Bear Lake

Pat

PS. The other day I made a decision that I may regret later…I skinned my insulated coveralls. That is I cut the lining out of them. It was very hot on site and I had to have coveralls to work in. So I figured that it would probably stay warm, at least for the next week or so, so I took the lining out. Since then it has been cold and windy every day. I’m still OK (unless it snow, then I have to steal Henry’s coveralls) for now as I have my Nipigon lingerie.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007, 10:06:10 AM | donkeycat

21 August 2007

What a great day, full of surprises.

 The day started off as any other, breakfast, daily meeting, more coffee, reports and dealing with e-mails. That was all completed by 0930 hours just in time to witness the arrival of the press (we had five people from INAC (Indian and Northern Affairs Canada), one from PWGSC (Public Works and Government Services Canada), three from “Up Here Magazine”, one from CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.), one from the Yellowknife French paper “L’Aquilon” and one from “Canadian Press” ) by twin otter and make our escape to the site. For the next two and a half hours we had peace and quiet , if you can call the roar of the D6H dozer and three rock trucks at your side quiet, to do my work.

RAD meter on talus.

Just before lunch our (the inspector from CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission) and myself) luck changed and we were cornered by them. I was lucky enough to escape the questions, however my comrade wasn’t so lucky. 

 Thirty five minutes later, as the press gang made there way to another part of the site we took off in the opposite direction to the camp for lunch. As the press arrived for their dinner we went back to the site. This is where the surprise starts. The clean talus that we were placing on the low level radiation was just as high as the low level radiation. Upon some investigation we found the source to be the natural background readings for the talus rock. We did stop all excavation in that area for the time being. Some more work on site and then back to the camp. Upon arrival I found that I had been bounced from my tent by the supervisor from my Tundra Mine site. That’s was O.K. because I had taken his bed (he was the super for this site before being sent to Tundra) when I arrived here. He’s a hell of a good guy and there was no hard feelings. But now and for the next four days I’ll be sharing a tent with the president of AEL, the contractor, for both mine sites. I did however get an AEL hat out of the deal…

Supper finished by 0830 hours (now that the boss is here everybody works late) and play time begins.. don’t tell CFG he thinks I working on his daily reports..ha ha, all the AEL management staff go fishing, and why not it’s one of the best trout lakes in the world and there is a pissing match to see who has caught the biggest, the most and the first fish, while Ron and I went on a quad ride to the top of the mountain.

Ron on the quad.

The rub is Ron has never driven a quad before. Forty five minutes later we were on top, what a view and a spectacular sunset.

Ron on the mountain top.

The camp from the mountain side.

I also built my first “geo-cash” the GPS quadrants are 11W0458116, 7330534 but I’m not saying what I put in it…you’ll have to come here and find out..oh bye the way Shelly I lost my ring..just kidding.

GPSing my Geo-cash.

My first Geo-cash

We got back just in time to here from the fishing crew, that everybody but Bob, the president of AEL, caught fish..he’ll not here the end of that to soon.

Bye the way the white wolf was just outside the camp and the northern lights are out. 

    

The northern lights.

Good night from the top of the mountain.

Fantastic sun sets.

Cheers from Port Radium on Great Bear Lake

Pat

Just Touring Around

Tuesday, August 21, 2007, 9:19:25 AM | donkeycat

20 August 2007

I spent the day touring around site today..

My day consisted of a semiformal site tour with the inspector for Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. He is on site for the next couple of days conducting a site safety inspection and review of the work in progress. Well out and about we noticed that the leaves are starting to change…fall is fast approaching.

Changing colour of the trees.

The day started of as any other with a tailgate meeting, at which time our site foreman tore into the HEO’s (heavy equipment operators) trainees. He read them the riot act and let them know that their work performance would not be acceptable on any work site outside of this one, and that they better shape up or they would be put on the labour crew (that means that they will all be operating a D1 (hand shovel) instead of the big CAT equipment).

CAT 730D rock truck.

We then had movie time..a video on health and safety dealing with head protection.  Then on to the daily reports and dealing with e-mails..

Our site tour started with a walk down Silver Point causeway checking the radiation levels. Once we finished the lower mine site we proceeded to the upper mine site for a radiation check of several of the different areas where tailing were known to have been dumped and/or spilled to.

A beautiful little beach (just like in NFLD) below one of the tailings areas.

Just a view of the lake.

Then back to the camp for a very interesting lunch. Tuna sandwiches and a lasagna made with spaghetti. Then back to site to continue the tour of the upper mine site, an inspection of the dump, the former powder magazine and McDonough Lake tailings. From there it was up to the old Echo Bay mine site, this site was a former silver mine and located next to Port Radium mine, it is also included in the remediation plan and we have taken down and burned the buildings. All that remains is to cap the shafts and raises and fence the trenches. It was a quick trip up the mountain in 4x4 on the new road we built and then through the bush, just because we were there and it was fun..I won’t say who’s truck we were in..Ha ha..it was at this time I finally got some of my own wildlife photos the insert in this blog.

Port Radium from Echo Bay Mine.

Spruce grouse or "chicken" as they are known up here.

Then back to the camp for the eighth cup of joe (coffee) and some homemade donuts. We arrived to find the generator, that supplies power to the camp, was down and therefore no internet access..also much to my dismay I was not able to respond to any e-mails and had to be content to enjoy my lukewarm coffee in peace. Coffee done and the two-way radios squawking about drillers, of which we have none, we were off once again to the mine site. Our investigation reveled that Alberta Star (our neighbor at the far end of the airstrip and an exploration company) had been drilling exploration holes near to one of the areas where we have to fence in some trenching (trenching is a technique used in mining to expose veins of ore at or near the surface).  

Exploration drill rig.

All things in order, back to the camp again (it’s 7 km from camp to site on a bush road) for supper and some discussion on what to do tomorrow..you see we are having a press conference on site and nobody wants to deal with them. I plan to be very busy with something….anything..

Well I have to end this now; you see it’s time for my weekly shave and shower, got to look good for the camera.

Cheers from Port Radium on Great Bear Lake

Pat

Another Day Gone Bye

Tuesday, August 21, 2007, 12:20:10 AM | donkeycat

19 August 2007

A cool day on site….

The weather up here is very erratic this year according to our wildlife monitors. It changes by the minute. From warm and sunny to cold and raining to…fog, yes, fog and thicker than NFLD fog. That being said the weather is different even from camp to the site. It can be t-shirt weather at the camp and insulated coveralls at site, or like today thick fog at camp

and clear at site (well almost)

Fog on the lake. Photos do not do the view justice.

I know there is a meteorological explanation for this and I may look into it, but that means I’ll pass it on to you..Haha.

Seeing as it’s cool at night now, and I can spend more time on the keyboard, you know the two finger typing takes a long time to do anything, and less time swatting mosquitoes I thought I’d pass along some more knowledge or just useless information, depending on the type of activities you do.

Tonight’s class is…Entomology for Beginners…specifically the mosquitoes or nippers as they are also known as.

A little late but useful anyhow.

As we take our family, friends and pets into the woods, we often forget our self-defence training. That is the knowledge we have learned from the previous summer on dealing with and protecting ourselves and families from Mosquitoes, Black flies, No-See-Ums and Ticks as well as any other little gnawing insects.

Mosquitoes and the Diseases They Can Carry

Almost everyone has had the unpleasant experience of being bitten by a mosquito. Mosquito bites can cause severe skin irritation through an allergic reaction to the mosquito's saliva. This is what causes the red bump and itching. A more serious consequence of some mosquito bites may be the transmission of serious diseases such as West Nile, malaria, dengue fever and several forms of encephalitis. In addition ticks can carry Lyme disease. Not only can mosquitoes carry diseases which afflict humans, but they also can transmit several diseases and parasites that dogs and horses are very susceptible to. These include dog heartworms and eastern equine encephalitis.

There are approximately 200 different species of mosquitoes in North America, all of which live in specific habitats, exhibit unique behaviors and bite different types of animals. Despite these differences, all mosquitoes share some common traits, such as a four-stage life cycle. After the female mosquito obtains a blood meal (male mosquitoes do not bite), she lays her eggs directly on the surface of stagnant water, in a depression, or on the edge of a container where rainwater may collect and flood the eggs. The eggs hatch and a mosquito larva or "wriggler" emerges. The larva lives in the water, feeds and develops into the third stage of the life cycle called a pupa or "tumbler". The pupa also lives in the water, but no longer feeds. Finally, the mosquito emerges from the pupal case as a fully developed adult, ready to bite.

The type of standing water in which the mosquito chooses to lay her eggs depends upon the species. The presence of beneficial predators such as fish and dragonfly nymphs in permanent ponds, lakes and streams usually keeps these bodies of water relatively free of mosquito larvae. However, portions of marshes, swamps, clogged ditches and temporary pools and puddles are all prolific mosquito breeding sites. Other sites in which some species lay their eggs include treeholes and containers such as old tires, buckets, toys, potted plant trays and saucers and plastic covers or tarpaulins. Some of the most annoying and potentially dangerous mosquito species, such as the Asian tiger mosquito, come from these sites.

Self-defense against Insects

There are several things that we can do to protect ourselves (although not 100%) against these little pests. Our defences range from clothing to “bug dope” (both chemical and natural) to a host of electronic gadgets. The intent of this short course is to give a basic understanding of the ways to protect oneself and family from these pests.

Here are a few simple things that can be done to ease the attraction of mosquitoes and black flies when enjoying the outdoors:

-Don’t use perfumes and deodorants as they attract mosquitoes and black flies.

-For working in the bush ONLY (that’s why I go for the weekly shower only). If you don’t wash, the build up of natural body oils seems to deter mosquitoes and black flies.

-Smoke either from a fire or a pipe/cigarette also seems to deter mosquitoes and black flies. This is in no way an encouragement for you to start smoking. The beneficial effects smoking has as a insect deterrent do not out weight the health effects caused by the use of tobacco and I do not encourage or recommend this for any non-smokers…I know the pot calling the kettle black..

-Stay in the wind if at all possible.

-Bring bug lotion. Apply it as directed to exposed skin, and put some a few inches up your sleeves and down your neckline to keep mosquitoes from crawling under clothing. Tuck in your shirt. Bring a mesh head net.

-Plan your day. Mosquitoes are most active just after rain storms and when there's low light and no wind. They are least active when it's windy and during the day's hottest hours.

-Don't feed the bugs. Heat attracts mosquitoes, so when you cook, use a mesh cook "tent" or tarp and keep pots covered.

-Keep a good attitude. Mosquitoes are a major link in the ecological chain. Consider them to be wildlife, and they won't seem so bad, and remember everything has to eat…

Clothing

Clothing should be loose fitting on the body and light in colour (off-whites or light khakis) and the material should be of a tight woven material. In bad bug country pant legs and shirt cuffs should be tied to ankles and wrists and light cotton gloves and some type of head netting should be used.

The alternative is to purchase a ‘bug shirt’ or ‘bug suit’.

The bug clothing is available at almost any outdoors sporting supply store and the prices range from as little as $5.00 for a simple mosquito head net to $60.00 for a bug shirt & pants.

Bug Dope

Mosquitoes, biting flies, and ticks are annoying and can pose a serious risk to public health. In certain areas of the U.S., mosquitoes can transmit diseases, such as equine and St. Louis encephalitis. Biting flies can inflict a painful bite that can persist for days, swell, and become infected. Ticks can transmit serious diseases, such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. When properly used, insect repellents can prevent biting insects from landing on treated skin or clothing.

Choosing Insect Repellents

Insect repellents are available in various forms and concentrations. Aerosol and pump-spray products are intended for skin applications, as well as for treating clothing. Liquid, cream, lotion and stick products enable direct skin application. Products with a low concentration of the active ingredients may be appropriate for situations where exposure to insects is minimal. Higher concentrations of active ingredients may be useful in highly infested areas or with insect species which are more difficult to repel. Where appropriate, consider non-chemical ways to deter biting insects such as screens on windows and doors, netting when camping, and long sleeves and slacks.

Chemical Insect Repellent

Chemical insect repellents all apparently contain “DEET”. They seem to differ in strength (% of DEET) and methods of application, and additives (some mix suntan lotion in with the repellent).

DEET (chemical name, N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide) is the active ingredient in many insect repellent products. It is used to repel biting pests such as mosquitoes and ticks, including ticks that may carry Lyme disease. DEET is designed for direct application to human skin to repel insects, rather than kill them. It was developed by the U.S. Army in 1946.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED) for the chemical DEET. After completing a comprehensive re- assessment of DEET, EPA concluded that, as long as consumers follow label directions and take proper precautions, insect repellents containing DEET do not present a health concern. Human exposure is expected to be brief, and long-term exposure is not expected. Based on extensive toxicity testing, the EPA believes that the normal use of DEET does not present a health concern to the general population. DEET's most significant benefit is its ability to repel potentially disease-carrying insects and ticks. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) receives nearly 10,000 reports of Lyme disease (transmitted by deer ticks) and 1,000 reports of encephalitis (transmitted by mosquitoes) annually. Both of these diseases can cause serious health problems or possibly even death in the case of encephalitis. Where these diseases are endemic, the CDC recommends use of insect repellents when out-of-doors.

Alternative Insect Repellent

If you're concerned about using a chemical repellent, try one that uses citronella as its active ingredient. Citronella is a natural repellent that rebuffs bugs by confusing their sense of direction and stifling their appetite.

How to Use Insect Repellents Safely

Repellents (either chemical or natural) should be applied only to exposed skin and/or clothing (as directed on the product label). Do not use under clothing.

Never use repellents over cuts, wounds, or irritated skin.

Do not apply near eyes and mouth, and apply sparingly around ears. When using sprays, do not spray directly onto face; spray on hands first and then apply to face.

Do not allow children to handle these products, and do not apply to children's hands. When using on children, apply to your own hands and then put it on the child. Please read the labels carefully. From what I have read, DEET in concentrations greater than 10% should not be used on children. You should also avoid combination bug dope and sun screen. Sun screen is to be applied several times a day whereas bug dope should only be applied once and at the most twice a day. A 30% DEET formula lotion by Muskol will provide effective protection up to 8 hours.

Do not spray in enclosed areas. Avoid breathing a spray product, and do not use it near food.

Use just enough repellent to cover exposed skin and/or clothing. Heavy application and saturation is unnecessary for effectiveness - if biting insects do not respond to a thin film of repellent, apply a bit more.

After returning indoors, wash treated skin with soap and water or bathe. This is particularly important when repellents are used repeatedly in a day or on consecutive days. Also, wash treated clothing before wearing it again.

If you suspect that you or your child is having an adverse reaction to this product, discontinue use of the product, wash treated skin, and call your local poison control center or physician for help. If you go to a doctor, take the repellent container with you.

What You Can Do to Help Fight Mosquitoes

Empty standing water in old tires, cemetery urns, buckets, plastic covers, toys, or any other container where "wrigglers" and "tumblers" live.

Empty and change the water in bird baths, fountains, wading pools, rain barrels, and potted plant trays at least once a week or more often if required

Drain or fill temporary pools with dirt.

Keep swimming pools treated and circulating and rain gutters unclogged.

Use mosquito repellants when necessary and follow label directions and precautions closely.

Use headnets, long sleeves and long pants if you venture into areas with high mosquito populations, such as salt marshes.

If there is a mosquito-borne disease warning in effect, stay inside during the evening when mosquitoes are most active.

Make sure window and door screens are "bug tight."

Replace your outdoor lights with yellow "bug" lights

Tomorrow maybe I’ll bug you with Entomology for Beginners - class II – The Blackfly..

On the larger mammal front, we have seen the white wolf around the site, sorry still no photos,

And now for something completely different…how the project is going.

The work I going very well, the loons are calling – bad weather for tomorrow, we are now using two excavators to load three trucks with talus, which means that the cover over the low level radioactive material is going much faster.

Placing the cover material.

Near miss with a boulder at one of the talus locations.

Screening plane in operation.

This is what a talus slope look like.

This means, in the short term,  more work for me as I have to cover more ground each day with my confirmation survey so as not to hold back the work crews. Alas this also means less time to write reports..Ha ha..just kidding CFG, maybe.

Here are the photos you have had to wait for..

Here is a photo of a “Spirit Bear”used with the permission of  Ron Niebrugge, professional photographer

It seams that the only nature photos I get these days are from others. These are from Shaun on the Tundra Mine site...again...

Tundra ground squirrel.

How the H#$l did he get this? It's a artic greyling . 

Another one from Shaun, a caribou head that passes the camp. I wish I were there to see them.

An old end dump mine car.

And to end a sunset, taken at 2230 hours.

Cheers from Port Radium on Great Bear Lake

Pat

Up here again.

Sunday, August 19, 2007, 11:40:54 AM | donkeycat

16 August 2007

Back on site…

Well I’m back on site at Port Radium…just arrive today around 1630 hours and therefore I don’t have a lot to write about. The one difference that I have been told about is it gets dark at night now..some time around midnight you need a flashlight to see and cold (as I’m typing this I’m also getting a fire going in the office tent). Also there are two white wolves hanging around site. They have been seen on the airstrip. I’ll try to get photos. Now that I have mentioned photos the ones that I have been putting on this blog are also on www.flickr.com. You will have to go: search, look up people and enter donkeycat1 or donkeycat1a.

I did hear from Shaun at Tundra Mine site..you know the site that started this blog..and they have had several herds of caribou go by and he sent me this photo.

That’s all for now.

Cheers from Port Radium on Great Bear Lake

Pat

PS. I’m giving Thomas a head start in his trophy collection.

moose, elk,white-tailed deer

mountain goat, big horn sheep and black bear

I can't bear it any more.

Sunday, August 19, 2007, 11:39:38 AM | donkeycat

17 August 2007

A very busy day on site…yes sir…a very busy day!

Like I said it was very busy on site today. We had three rock trucks hauling rock, two excavators excavating, one loader loading and a screening plant screening. I know it sounds like a Christmas carol, but it’s all true.

We had one of the rock trucks break through a concrete slab and the back half of it rolled over. Only the back half you say..you see the rock trucks are articulated, pivotes in the middle, so when it broke through the concrete the back half rolled over full load and all. We had to bring in one of the excavators to lift him back upright.

Then we had a bear encounter. A little black bear was having dinner at the same time as us. That’s at 1900 hours, however he was eating out of our garbage drums.

We fired the bear bangers at him and drove him into the woods. You think that would be it, but Oh No he had other ideas. 30 minutes later he was back. Again we go running to drive him away this time with three sets of bear bangers, George with his 12 gauge shotgun and rubber bullets and I was handed the 45/70 leaver action rifle. Again we used the bangers and George gave him a good tongue lashing then hit him with a rubber bullet and we watched him high tail it into the woods. Again we thought we had seen the last of him, but wrong again. He came again from the lake side this time again bangers and rubber bullets and off he went into the woods. We hoped we had seen the last of him. But alas it was not to be, again he come, this time he came in from the other direction and again we did our best again to get rid of this youngster. But as all teenagers he would not listen. This time he came across the airstrip.

sorry it's a little fuzzy

Our medic was near by and fired her banger and yelled and swore at him. This seamed to work for he stopped to listen and then wandered into the woods. Just as well as George, who is getting tired of these games, showed up with his 270 to give this kid a scare. I hope he is gone for good but I think we will see him again and that’s not good for the bear.

We’ll be charging up the fence and sleeping with boots on tonight.

Here are some more photos to enjoy.

My side-kick. He was never more than 10 feet (3m) from me all day.

And this one from Shaun on the Tundra.

Cheers from Port Radium on Great Bear Lake

Pat

PS. as I'm writing this it just came over the radio that our little black bear has shown up at Alberta Star's camp at the other end of the airstrip.

The Bear Facts

Saturday, August 18, 2007, 9:22:26 PM | donkeycat

18 August 2007

What a night…

The little bear did cause a great deal of commotion around here. He did show up at Alberta Star’s camp and several of us went down to help them deal with him. They do not have a bear fence at there camp. We spent two + hours down there chasing him from their camp. From one side of the airstrip to the other (the bear crossing the airstrip and circling through the bush) all around the camp. Bangers going off and the use of rubber bullets, again they appeared to have little effect in driving him away. At around 2330 hours we watched him limp into the woods and thought, hoped and prayed it was the last of him (nobody, at either camp, wants to have to destroy this young bear) I stayed up with the medic to keep a eye for him until 0000 hours, listening to the haunting howl of the wolves and the lonely call of the loons. They say if the loons call at night, expect a storm. Then again at 0200 hours the bear showed up at our camp again. I know because the bangers woke me and most of the camp up. Then the storm struck. Honest to god I woke up again thinking I was on my way to OZ…the wind was shaking the tent and it felt as if was going the lift of the ground. The rain was coming down so hard …it was like being in a car wash. Once identified as a storm, I slept like a baby..until 0645 hours when the call went out for breakfast and morning meeting. Upon exiting the tent I was greeted by the warmth of the sun and a clear blue sky. Today will be a good day!

The work on site is keeping me very busy and running from one area to the other checking up on what is going on. We have cover over low level radioactive material, excavation of talus (naturaly broken rock) and screening of gravel for use in the concrete caps for the mine openings. Today was not the good day I thought it was going to be...it rained off and on all day. Anyhow now on to more interesting things. It's a good thing I don't have TV and therefore have time to do this blog.

All About Bears.. now pay attention class..speeking of which we have not seen the little guy today.

Humankind has forever had a connection to the bear. The earliest known religions were those of the bear cults. Evidence of ritual burials and reverence of bear remains has been seen in nearly every culture in the world.

Here in the north there is a strong connection between the aboriginal people and the bear. To the Dene the bear is the reincarnation of the human spirit. It is to be treated as one would treat an elder, with loving respect. As I said yesterday George spoke to the bear telling him to leave the camp, giving him the opertunity to leave on his own, before he shot at him with a rubber bullet. Even when he retrieved his 270 it was only to scare the bear away.  There are stories up here of people running into bears in the woods and talking to them in a quiet respectful voice and asking to pass through the bear’s area, and of the bear granting the request and allowing the travelers safe passage. This connection to the bear is found throughout native lore. People or famlies are connected to the bear or become bears. The bear legends are used to explane the season changes and to teach life lessons and morals. Here are a few examples I have found on http://www.indians.org/welker/bear.htm. Enjoy and maybe learn a little from them.

Cherokee Bear Legend

In the long ago time, there was a Cherokee Clan call the Ani-Tsa-gu-hi (Ahnee-Jah-goo-hee), and in one family of this clan was a boy who used to leave home and be gone all day in the mountains. After a while he went oftener and stayed longer, until at last he would not eat in the house at all, but started off at daybreak and did not come back until night. His parents scolded, but that did no good, and the boy still went every day until they noticed that long brown hair was beginning to grow out all over his body. Then they wondered and asked him why it was that he wanted to be so much in the woods that he would not even eat at home. Said the boy, "I find plenty to eat there, and it is better than the corn and beans we have in the settlements, and pretty soon I am going into the woods to say all the time." His parents were worried and begged him not leave them, but he said, "It is better there than here, and you see I am beginning to be different already, so that I can not live here any longer. If you will come with me, there is plenty for all of us and you will never have to work for it; but if you want to come, you must first fast seven days."

The father and mother talked it over and then told the headmen of the clan. They held a council about the matter and after everything had been said they decided: "Here we must work hard and have not always enough. There he says is always plenty without work. We will go with him." So they fasted seven days, and on the seventh morning al the Ani-Tsa-gu-hi left the settlement and started for the mountains as the boy led the way.

When the people of the other towns heard of it they were very sorry and sent their headmen to persuade the Ani Tsaguhi to stay at home and not go into the woods to live. The messengers found them already on the way, and were surprised to notice that their bodies were beginning to be covered with hair like that of animals, because for seven days they had not taken human food and their nature was changing. The Ani Tsaguhi would not come back, but said, "We are going where there is always plenty to eat. Hereafter we shall be called Yonv(a) (bears), and when you yourselves are hungry come into the woods and call us and we shall shall come to give you our own flesh. You need not be afraid to kill us, for we shall live always." Then they taught the messengers the songs with which to call them and bear hunters have these songs still. When they had finished the songs, the Ani Tsaguhi started on again and the messengers turned back to the settlements, but after going a little way they looked back and saw a drove of bears going into the woods.

Aho! We are all Related!

The Hunting of the Great Bear

Long ago, the Great Bear wandered freely throughout the sky. His massive paws took him far across the boundless ceiling of the world. He hunted and fished, feeding there in the rivers of the sky. All throughout the first spring h e did this, until his belly was full and he was happy.

Little did he know that three braves had discovered him feeding that spring and they sought his meat and pelt to feed their families in the long winter that they knew was coming.

Without warning, the braves ran out after the bear. The Great Bear took off running, trying to escape from the hunters. All through the long summer he ran, trying to get away. The braves, however, were very cunning and strong. It wa s in the first autumn when their arrows pierced the Great Bear and he died.

The blood of the bear spilled out of the sky and tinged all of the leaves with red and orange. The trees then dropped all of their leaves in mourning for their friend.

The Great Bear was reborn the following spring as is the way of bears, and the braves set out after him again. They do this each year. If you look into the sky and watch, you can see the three braves trailing behind the Great Bear as he runs from them towards the horizon, only to do it again with the coming of spring.

Chipmunk and Bear

Long ago when animals could talk, a bear was walking along. Now it has always been said that bears think very highly of themselves. Since they are big and strong, they are certain that they are the most important of the animals.

As this bear went along turning over big logs with his paws to look for food to eat, he felt very sure of himself. "There is nothing I cannot do," said this bear. "Is that so?" said a small voice. Bear looked down. There was a little chipmunk looking up at Bear from its hole in the ground. "Yes," Bear said, "that is true indeed." He reached out one huge paw and rolled over a big log. "Look at how easily I can do this. I am the strongest of all the animals. I can do anything. All the other animals fear me." "Can you stop the sun from rising in the morning?" said the Chipmunk. Bear thought for a moment. "I have never tried that," he said. "Yes, I am sure I could stop the sun from rising." "You are sure?" said Chipmunk. "I am sure," said Bear. "Tomorrow morning the sun will not rise. I, Bear, have said so." Bear sat down facing the east to wait. Behind him the sun set for the night and still he sat there. The chipmunk went into its hole and curled up in its snug little nest, chuckling about how foolish Bear was. All through the night Bear sat. Finally the first birds started their songs and the east glowed with the light which comes before the sun. "The sun will not rise today," said Bear. He stared hard at the glowing light. "The sun will not rise today." However, the sun rose, just as it always had. Bear was very upset, but Chipmunk was delighted. He laughed and laughed. "Sun is stronger than Bear," said the chipmunk, twittering with laughter. Chipmunk was so amused that he came out of his hole and began running around in circles, singing this song: "The sun came up, The sun came up.
Bear is angry, But the sun came up."

While Bear sat there looking very unhappy, Chipmunk ran around and around, singing and laughing until he was so weak that he rolled over on his back. Then, quicker than the leap of a fish from a stream, Bear shot out one big paw and pinned him to the ground.

"Perhaps I cannot stop the sun from rising," said Bear, "but you will never see another sunrise." 'Oh, Bear," said the chipmunk. "oh, oh, oh, you are the strongest, you are the quickest, you are the best of all of the animals. I was only joking." But Bear did not move his paw. "Oh, Bear," Chipmunk said, "you are right to kill me, I deserve to die. Just please let me say one last prayer to Creator before you eat me." "Say your prayer quickly," said Bear. "Your time to walk the Sky Road has come!" "Oh, Bear," said Chipmunk, "I would like to die. But you are pressing down on me so hard I cannot breathe. I can hardly squeak. I do not have enough breath to say a prayer. If you would just lift your paw a little, just a little bit, then I could breathe. And I could say my last prayer to the Maker of all, to the one who made great, wise, powerful Bear and the foolish, weak, little Chipmunk. "Bear lifted up his paw. He lifted it just a little bit. That little bit, though, was enough. Chipmunk squirmed free and ran for his hole as quickly as the blinking of an eye. Bear swung his paw at the little chipmunk as it darted away. He was not quick enough to catch him, but the very tips of his long claws scraped along Chipmunk's back leaving three pale scars.

To this day, all chipmunks wear those scars as a reminder to them of what happens when one animal makes fun to another.

What You Should Know About Black Bears

Black bears are not normally dangerous animals. They are, however, opportunistic omnivores. In other words, they will eat practically anything that is easy to get at. Admire them. Respect them. But please, don't feed them.

Polar Bear: Length 8-10 feet, Weight males 600-1200 lbs; females 400-700 lbs., Color All White.

Black Bear: Length 5 feet, Weight males 150-400 lbs.; females 125-250 lbs., Color Brown to Black, cinnamon, white (Kermode or spirit bear) and even a dark blue (very rare)

Brown Bear: (a.k.a. Grizzly and Kodiak) Length 7-10 feet, Weight males 400-1000 lbs.; females 200-600 lbs.; Color Dark brown to blonde.

Black bears are actively feeding from mid-April to late fall in most parts of the Canada

Black bears feed mainly on summer berry crops such as raspberries and blueberries, as well as mountain ash acorns and beech nuts in the fall. In late summer and early fall some bears actively feed for 20 hours a day, ingesting as much as 20,000 calories (about 40 Big Mac’s).

During the summer bears typically double their body weight while preparing for winter hibernation. If natural foods are not readily available, black bears will travel up to 100 km to find other food - primarily your garbage. Once they know where to find a non-natural food source they will return again and again. In northern Ontario, most black bears move into their winter dens by mid-October. In central Ontario, bears usually enter their dens by early November.

Bears will travel more than 100 km to a known food source, such as a berry patch or a stand of beech trees. Bears are highly intelligent and will learn where other food sources can be found and seek them out. They can easily learn to re-visit your backyard or campsite once they have determined that food can be found there.

The majority of bear problems occur as a result of improperly stored household garbage. Bears quickly learn to associate human residences and campsites with a readily available food source. Bears are also attracted to pet food that is left outdoors, bird feeders, barbecues, composters, fruit trees, sweetcorn and grain fields. Garbage dumps provide a concentration of readily available food that often attracts bears.

Bears lose their natural fear of humans through repeated exposure to people in areas where food is intentionally or unintentionally provided. In such cases, conflict with humans is inevitable; bears may even become destructive or dangerous.

Such bears are often destroyed because they have become a "nuisance" or are perceived as a threat to human safety. That is why you should never intentionally feed bears or place food to attract wildlife to your yard for viewing.

This is from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources guide called Bear Wise and can be found at http://bears.mnr.gov.on.ca/

The only good photos of bears I could find are on www.wildnatureimages.com it is a web  site by  professional photographer Ron Niebrugge the images are fantastic and well worth a viewing. He also has a photo of a "Spirit Bear" on his photo blog at www.my-photo-blog.com/spirit-bear.

If you want to know more about bears I’ll be happy to post some information and websites I have found.  

Cheers from Port Radium on Great Bear Lake

Pat

On my way home

Thursday, August 16, 2007, 11:14:48 AM | donkeycat

11 August 2007

First leg of my trip home completed.

Sitting in the airport at Calgary trying to piece together the last couple of days..as I said on the 8^th a trip to the Black Knight was in order…well from there it was to Le Frolic for dinner, then back to the Black Knight for a few, and ending the night (very early in the morning) at the Gold Range..and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Needless to say Wednesday was a very tough day for me..Ha ha..self-induced.

The site we were working at was called Hottah Mine and is located on Beaverlodge Lake, 316 Km northwest of Yellowknife NWT. It was an underground uranium mine that operated between 1934 and 1956. The site is only accessible by floatplane now, even though there is an old airfield. There are no buildings to inspect as a fire swept through the area a long time ago and destroyed all the structures. There are however two crashed planes on this site. The smaller of the two is a Cessna and the larger is a Bristol aircraft. The plane on the post by the airport in Yellowknife is a Bristol. With the number of flights we had in and out of Hottah and the bad weather, we were hoping there would not be a twin otter to add to the collection…

Again this area is completely different in appearance and topography from Tundra and Port Radium and even from Indore mine which is only one lake away.

Here is a brief geology and ore deposit description of the area..if you are interested, if not go straight to the photos.. the geology of the area consists of a belt up to 1.5 Km wide consisting of a northeast-tending Proterozoic Snare Group interbedded sediments, volcanice, and quartz-feldspar porphyries that form a northeast-tending ridge that crosses the ridge. Quartzite, with thin beds of conglomerate and slate or talc-sericite schist striking northeast and dipping 75 – 80⁰ north west along the ridge. It is bound on the southeast by the Beaverlodge thrust fault, where altered fine-grained porphyry overlain by massive dacite flow is in contact with the quartzite, and in the northwest by a granitic intrusions.  What a mouthful, I don’t know if I can continue with this..for any of you budding geologists or rockhounds that would like the rest of the description please let me know..

Now some photos….

The crashed Bristol.

What a Bristol looks like. During the 70-80's there were people living in this plane..

The landscape at Hottah Mine.

A view the other way. I think that's a Bell 500, in belongs to Great Slave Lake Helicopters and was being used be INAD for a geology survey of the area.

The Hottah adit, and no I did not go inside. well not very far inside.

Hottah Mine from the air. Note the Bristol.

The new resident of the Bristol.

 We have had some wonderful dinners at the Wildcat restaurant. I had Musk-ibou (that’s musk-ox and caribou) stew one night and a bison burger the next. Colin had a wonderful turnip and maple syrup soup  

Well that’s all for now, I have to figure out what to do with the four days R & R, I have before returning to the north…back to Port Radium to finish out my sentence.

Cheers from Yellowknife

Pat

Rushing around Yellowknife

Thursday, August 16, 2007, 11:12:51 AM | donkeycat

8 August 2007

Very long days…

The last two days have been long and very busy. The days are averaging 15 hours and all of it go..go..go.. we only have two days on each site. Today is Wednesday and a nice quiet day in the office..Ha-ha..photo logs have to be done (and there are lots of photos to go through), draft reports have to be written, samples have to be sent out and drawings have to be made. All this today so that on Thursday, when we go back into the field, we can start fresh with the new site. 

The site we just finished working on was Indore Mine. Here is a little history on this place. Indore was the first private endeavor to produce uranium in the NWT. The mine is located about 330 Km northwest of Yellowknife on Hotta Lake and is only accessible by float plane. The mine site was claimed in 1950 and went into production in 1952. A small mill was installed in 1953 and the mine was in production until 1956.

As I’ve said, we have been flying in and out every day the first day was uneventful. We have a scheduled stop, both to and from the site at a town called Gameti to pick up our wildlife monitors, however the second day of our field program was completely different. The day started off with our arrival at Air Tindi’s float plane base at 0630 hours and the boarding of the twin otter. Did I mention that it was raining and strong winds... after a 20 minute of circling around the bay several times we were informed that the compass on the plane was not holding true…in English “not working”…so back to the dock to get another plane. A half hour later we were off. The takeoff was a little rough the flight a little bouncy and this repeated itself at Gameti and Hotta Lake. After a full day of working on the site, and a good cup of tea/coffee make with water boiled in the Kelly kettle, we packed up to fly home. This was at 1730 hours, after two hours three sat-phone (very short due to a dying battery) calls to Air Tindi, we were told, that the plane was on route…several more cups of coffee and a camp fire, another, very short sat-phone call we were told the plane was there…Ah-Ha…this was news to us. All of this in off and on rain and strong wind. Two hours later and as we were boiling water for more coffee the plane arrived..this time a turbo otter..it appears they were on the wrong lake waiting and searching for us. All said and done, the flight home was as the flight in had been.

Dinner, pizza and beer, was served in the hotel room at 2300 hours, a quick sleep and up at 0700 hours to have breakfast and then to the office. And the day ahs been spent getting ready for tomorrow. We fly at 0700 hours.

By the way, the temperature at Tundra today was -5⁰C and at Port Radium, Henry, the guy I cross shift with has asked me to send up his insulated work clothing. Winter is coming.

This web site belongs to the biologist that is working with us. He has some beautiful photos of animals and flowers, etc. http://www.pbase.com/duff24

I have to go and finish getting ready for tomorrow…a quick trip to the Black Knight…and I’ll add photos later when I’ve had a chance to review and pick some.

Indore Mine Adit.

Find the Biologists.

One of the buildings.

Very Rocky area.

Tea time.. still no otter.

Surrounded by rainbows.

Our ride home.

All packed up and ready to go.

Sunset through the storm.

Cheers from Yellowknife

Pat

Still in Yellowknife.

Sunday, August 05, 2007, 11:07:45 PM | donkeycat

Sorry this is so long but I’ve tried to cover 3 days..

3 August 2007

Last night I when I went for a drive through town to get a fishing license. I stopped into Wolverine Sports and was talking to the bunch behind the counter about Cameron Fall. I found out several interesting things I’ll share with you. First carry bear protection in that area, they have seen bears and someone lost a dog to bears. Secondly there is only 30% of the non-native in Yellowknife population that is not from NFLD, I'm still trying to verify this, and lastly the price of gas up here is  $1.24/L. 

Goodnight from Yellowknife.

4 August 2007

Last night I had a rather interesting experience…I had McDonalds Big Mac meal, something I have not done for over two years, for dinner, the meal tasted great but the effects lasted through out the evening. Early this morning our hotel had a power failure of some sort because the smoke alarm was beeping from 0500 hours, I think, until 0700 hours add to that the dripping of the shower, I did not get to much sleep.

 

Today was a good day for sight seeing. I took a drive down the Ingraham Trail to Cameron Falls.

Giant Mine headframe.

The falls are nice but it’s not the same without the May 24 crowd.

Then I made my way down to Pickerel Lake and had a wee bit of a pick-nick on the shore. I was going to take a dip in the lake and was half way to getting my bathing, birthday, suite on…when a car pulled up to put there canoe in the lake. This put a halt on my swimming plans. Anyhow what a beautiful place, it’s a lot like northern Ontario. I could have spent all day there. 

This is where the ice road starts.

After viewing this wonderful place for an hour or so I went in search of woodland Bison.

I took a drive on Hwy No. 3 from Yellowknife to Rae-Edzo.

Have you ever seen a sign like this before?

No bison but I did see a few Sand Hill Cranes. Tomorrow will be the tour of Yellowknife.

sich ordentlich ausschlafen

5 August 2007

Today was great just traveling around town, checking out the different areas and sites, having a few beers with some friends, that sort of thing..here are some of the famous / infamous buildings of Yellowknife.

The Golden Range Saloon. (infamous)

The SENES/DCs office. (infamous working on famous, Haha)

A Yellowknife house boat. (famous)

The Wildcat Cafe. (very famous)

????

Very famous..

Very famous..the road not the guy standing there..

and as we have an early, and long, day tomorow, I will end this with a sunset over Back Bay...

Cheers from Yellowknife

Pat

From Yellowknife

Friday, August 03, 2007, 3:47:32 PM | donkeycat

2 August 2007

I’m out-a-here…maybe

The day was going fine, clear blue sky and little wind just perfect for flying. I was informed that the flight would be leaving Yellowknife at 1700 hours that would put it at camp at around 1900 hours. This was great; I could get a day’s work in and be to town in time for dinner. By 0900 hours I was informed that the flight would now be leaving Yellowknife at 1500 hours. It was also at this time that the fog started to roll in off Great Bear Lake.

 By 1100 hours I was told that the flight would now be leaving Yellowknife at 1200 hours. At this time the fog was reaching the camp and airstrip.

We were beginning to wonder if the plane would be able to land at all. At 1400 hours a twin otter on floats arrived at Glacier Lake (that’s the lake beside the camp) with the camp supplies, fresh fruit, bottled water, 15 cases of juice and two flats of klik (a staple in the north).

The flight to Yellowknife was uneventful and Great Bear Lake was covered in a blanket of white.

 As we approached town we had a fly-by by a small plane going to the airport. I’ve never had another plane come so close to the one I’m in.

very cool…. 

3 August 2007

Today was a day of prep-work for the two mine sites, Indor Mine on Hottah Lake and Hottah Mine on Beaverlodge Lake, where we will be working for the next week. I have to read the reports that were done before by others, and make sure I have all my gear ready to go. As we are traveling every day by plane to and from the sites my equipment must be as light as possible to allow for the zodiac boat and motor that will be used for the water sampling.

As tomorrow is Saturday I’m planning to take the day and travel the Ingraham Trail to see the waterfalls and the starting location of the ice road. Check it out at http://www.iti.gov.nt.ca/parks/highway_routes/ingraham_trail.htm

And if I have time tomorrow evening (like I have anything else to do) I’ll take a drive around Yellowknife and show you where Shelly and I will be living…Ha ha just kidding….maybe…

Cheers from Yellowknife

Pat

Thursday, August 02, 2007, 10:01:34 AM | donkeycat

1 August 2007

Well here I am..

Another night in Port Radium!

I don’t mind except that tonight it started raining just after the INAC tour departed. The day started off just great..No tailgate meeting as we had two barges arrive and docked by 0830 hours. The off loading went by in a wink; well actually it was 1130 hours by the time we had finished.

We now have all the equipment on site that we need to complete the project. That being said there are still two more barges to arrive at site. These will be carrying all the necessities for the completion of the mine caps and the landfills. By 0900 hours our guests began arriving. The first lot of 12 arrived by twin otter on wheels from Delene (this is a delegation from the aboriginal community that will be coming to site throughout the project to witness the work) and then at 0930 hours the host of the party showed up..INAC arrived on a twin otter on floats. The entire party was put through the site orientation and provided safety equipment. After a wonderful lunch and some socializing, all of the workers on site are from Delene, it was off to the site in an assortment of vehicles.

(as I’m writing this sitting in my dry and warm tent, we have the oil stove going,

I can here the crew running around in the rain shouting “I need a wood stove”, “where can I find a damper”, “cut me some wood” and between the shouting and the rustle of the tent is the typical twang of old time country music, George Jones, Hank Williams, etc. so often heard on these sites. And yes there is the group sing along that goes with it. I often wonder if it's the wilderness or the music that draws me to places like this… Just because I ask a friend about her, And just because I spoke her name somewhere, Just because I saw her then went all to pieces She thinks I still care. She thinks I still care…sorry about that I just got caught up in it.) where was I...the site tour went well and every body seamed happy with the work, then back to camp for some more socializing and lots of coffee and then it was time to leave. As soon as the last plane departed the weather turned. The temperature dropped to 10⁰C and the rain started. Two hours later we had dinner and it’s now 2100 hours and still raining.  Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and fillet gumbo,'Cause tonight I'm gonna see my ma cher amio, Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-o, Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou. Sorry for that. In the background I hear the splitting of wood.

Dave my roommate who has been sawing logs over on his side of the tent, just startled himself awake with one very loud snort.

Now on to tonight’s class on the monuments of Port Radium..

This one is from the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada and commorates the production of uranium at this site.

Gordon Spence..He will be here long after we are gone.

In honor if the Mine Manager and his wife.

and on the back or front depending on how you look at it.

            To Mr. LaBine who discovered the mine.

Gov. of Canada sign.

and to Bob Calloway from NFLD. We don't know who he is but he was here.

I’m going to end this now because I can only listen to the same three songs, complete with sing along, soooo many times. I’ll try to watch a movie if I can figure out how to get this Dell computer to play it..I’ll let you know..

Just a shot of the land and the front coming in. 

Cheers from on the Land

Pat

Port Radium Botany 001

Wednesday, August 01, 2007, 8:36:40 AM | donkeycat

31 July 2007

Good evening class..and welcome to Port Radium Botany 001. (No biology because I only saw rabbits, grouse..no photos.. wolf tracks and one large CAT which I did get a photo of, but you will have to get to the bottom of the page to see it.)

I’ve been driving around this site for the last week looking at all these beautiful green plants, as well as the work that’s been going on so don’t worry CFG, and I decided I would try to learn a thing or two about them before I go and I thought I’d share some of it with you.

…the genius of the earth, which is probably

That of the whole world, acts, in the vital struggle,

exactly as a man would act.

It employs the same methods, the same logic.

It attains its aim by the means which

we would use: it gropes, it hesitates,

it corrects itself time after time; it adds,

it suppresses, it recognizes and repairs its errors,

as we should do in its place.

Maurice Maeterlinck

The Intelligence of the Flowers, 1907

I think I’ll start with the Paper Birch. This tree should be recognizable by all and has a special meaning for some. This tree has traditionally been a valuable food plant for Aboriginal peoples of this area. The inner bark can be scraped off into noodle like strips and used as a starvation food or boiled to make a beverage. The sap of the tree can be collected and drank as a health food or boiled down to make syrup. The outer bark has been used to make a canoes.

Paper Birch

Labrador Tea was used as a tea substitute or mixed with black tea by early explores. A light brew of the tea is refreshing, but prolonged steeping or boiling extracts andromedotoxin, which can cause nausea, intestinal cramps, headaches and even death. Labrador Tea is known in Europe as “moth herb” because it was hung in closets to repell moths, as well as ghosts and illness.

 Labrador Tea

Cloudberry or as it’s known in NFLD, Bakeapples are high in vitamin C. the berries make delicious pies and jams. The flowers can be used in salads as an edible garnish, and the fresh or dried leaves can be used for tea. Wilted flowers can be slightly toxic.

Cloudberry

Bearberry is also known as “kinnikinnick”  which means “smoking mixture,” because of its use as tobacco be Aboriginal people. Bearberry has also been used as a diuretic and antiseptic for more than 100 years.

Bear Berry

Prickly Wild Rose was used by the Aboriginal people throughout this area for several different reasons. The Dene of south South Slave used it on bee stings, the Dogrib used rose hips tea to cure mouth infections, sore stomach, shortness of breath and coughing. The Sahtu boiled the petals and used the tea as an eye wash. The hips were made into a tea for colds and pneumonia. A liquid made from the boiled leaves was used on rashes or to sooth the skin.

Prickly Wild Rose

The Dogrib people used all parts of the Black Spruce for medicine. They boiled the boughs to make steam that was good for congestion, bad colds and headaches. Spruce beer can be made from boiling the tree branches, while tea is made by boiling the leaves and young stems.

Black Spruce

Creeping Juniper was used to make tea for treating colds while Ground Juniper  berries are used to flavor food, a substitute for pepper and a base for making beer. Every part of the juniper can be used for making medicine, from the treatment of urinary and bladder infections to use in anti-inflammatory compresses. The first written record of the use of juniper comes from an Egyptian papyrus dated 1550BC which recommends juniper berries to treat tapeworm.

Creeping Juniper

Ground Juniper

The entire plant of Shrubby Cinqufoil can be gathered as medicine. It is astringent and said to reduce inflammation of the gums and tonsils. One or two cupfuls of a decoction of the stem, leaves and roots were given for fever accompanied by aching limbs. Because of it’s high tannin content, Aboriginals used this plant to stop bleeding as well as to treat diarrhea and dysentery. Cinquefoil was also considered to be magical and was believed to provide protection against evil, especially witches.

Shrubby Cinquefoil

Well that’s it from here. Tonight will be my last night on site for this tour. I will be based out of Yellowknife for the next 11 days while I am involved in the sits assessments of two other mine sites. These sites will be fly-in every day which should by lots of fun.

Tomorrows class will be on the monuments of Port Radium..

Cheers from on the Land

Pat

OH ya..the CAT

Port Radium..Tower do you copy...

Monday, July 30, 2007, 11:06:05 PM | donkeycat

30 July 2007

Very busy airstrip tonight…

Between 1800 and 1830 hours we had: 2 helicopters, a twin engine otter on wheels and one on floats. It seams that shift change is on the same days for everybody. The helicopters that flies for Alberta Star and Hunter Bay, both are exploration companies that share our living space, are in and out continuously, taking supplies and people to drilling platforms and dropping off geologists and prospectors, add on top of that Alberta Star lands the DC3 every other day and this is one busy and noisy airstrip. 

 

Great Slave Lake Helicopters landing beside our camp.

DC3 taking off over out camp.

Twin on floats.

Twin on wheels.

Helicopter hauling fuel barrels.

On to the days events…the same morning ritual, followed by the morning site visit, work at camp, helping to finish the washroom, lunch, helping finish the washroom, afternoon site visit dinner, my site orientation, which I was to take upon my arrival..I did get the Cloes notes version..and to finish the day…reports.

This is an area of the site, we are regrading the slopes.

Just a note for you fisherman, one of the lead hands, Justin (Velmore’s brother) landed a 28 lbs lake trout on his second cast during his lunch break.

In the time it took for me to do the site orientation (1 hour) we had 3 more helicopters landing and taking off and another twin on floats.

Just a photo of the land.

Well that’s all for tonight.

Cheers from on the Land

Pat

Day and a half at Port Radium

Sunday, July 29, 2007, 11:21:49 PM | donkeycat

Evening of 28 July 2007

WOW…that’s all I can say about the fishing up here..

After dinner I put together my 7’ medium weight rod with 6 lbs. spider line and a small spoon. I had serious doubts about my choice of equipment after Frank, one of the lead hands, said “It’s going to break”, I told him “not a chance” and climbed into the truck. Upon arrival at the boat I was surprised to see that my rod looked like a straw to a tree when compared to the other rods. Jack, he caught the fish in the last photos, was using an 8’ heavy weight rod with 30 lbs. line and Dave had a 5’ heavy weight trolling rod with 30 lbs. line. Within the first 15 ft. of the beach Dave had caught his first fish,

this was the start of his run of luck, A small lake trout weighting about 8 lbs. “to small to keep, throw it back” were his thoughts on that. Five minutes later and after a good five minute fight, Dave’s second fish broke the surface. What a beauty! Three deep dives under the boat and another five minutes later the 25 lbs. trout was in the boat. 

 We had just started trolling again when Dave hit his third fish, a 12 lbs. trout. As for Jack and I, we were just ballast up to this time. As we left the bay and headed out to the big lake, which was dead calm and no wind..a perfect evening,

Sun setting on Great Bear Lake.

 we figured that now is our chance to catch up to Dave, you see there is $1 for first fish, $1 for largest fish and $1 for the most fish, and so far this summer Dave has been cleaning up. After a troll through the channel and a small tour on the big lake, it was back to the bay. On the way back in Dave had another strike and a miss (not landed) Jack had a strike and a miss, I had a strike and a rod break, that’s right..a rod break. It happened in the blink of an eye, the rod bowed and then SNAP. As far as I can figure, with the speed and strength of the strike the fish was a least over 20 lbs. and both Jack and Dave agree. As I wound in line Jack landed a 12 lbs.

 and Dave missed another. As we reached the beachhead and I jumped to from the boat to pull it to shore, Dave landed another 6 lbs. trout.

My lesson learned from now on I’ll be using a heaver rod for these northern waters.

Now on today…29 July 2007

Work on site is proceeding as if we were normal. Excavation, covering material, etc.

The weather up here is spectacular the days are clear blue sky’s as far as you can see and the temperature in around +24⁰C during the day and 10⁰C at night, perfect for sleeping and no bugs in the tent. Driving back to camp from the site I had to stop and get a photo of the lake trout.

During the afternoon I helped to build the new washrooms for the camp, this is a huge step-up from the existing ones. Not that the old ones were bad.

 

The old washroom.

We had fresh lake trout for dinner, followed by home made apple pie, After dinner there was an emergency response team meeting. I was asked to attend and be part of this team by Bob, the level two medic on site. We were talking about working in the wilderness and he informed me that he teaches wilderness courses (first aid, survival, team building that sort of thing) at his land outside of Calgary, and I offered my two cents worth of information on the topic including giving him a section of the DCS H&S manual on working in the wilderness that I had put together, some of it he knew but some of it he had never heard of but he liked and plans to use in his teaching. He then offered me a spot at one of the wilderness survival training sessions and even to teach a few courses.

Yes the helecopters are still here..

I think I’ll finish this off and try to get some sleep or reading in before it’s too late.

  

Cheers from on the Land

Pat

still at Port Radium

Saturday, July 28, 2007, 7:55:20 PM | donkeycat

28 July 2007

More and more helecopters..they are even landing on our work site now..we are just hoping they do not bring in a drill rig. It would be for exploration work and would make our work more difficult in some areas.

Anyhow; Hello from Port Radium. As yesterdays entry was rather long I’ll try to keep this one short.

Work on site is going well.

Cheers from on the Land

Pat

  

Just kidding..work is going well the barge is just over halfway home, we are keeping track of her on internet GPS and at the rate she is going she will arrive in Deline between 0100 and 0300 hours.

The weather here is just perfect..that is it’s ideal for us to work in, clear blue sky, 15-20⁰C and little to no wind..for the bugs. If you stand in an area with no air movement the flies are maggoty.

All blackflies and mosquitoes.

Last night we had a little bit of entrainment. Our field engineer did not trust the mulitmeter reading and decided to see if the bear fence was actually working. That meant he would have to touch it…and he did…the crack of the electricity, his scream and jumping around sent the bunch of us into a fit of laughter. This led to a “see who will touch the fence next” game with the crew.

Today was also my first lesson on how to operate a rock-truck (I’ll include the photo when I get it from Alvaro), what an experience. The size and the fact that the unit is articulated gives the feeling that it going to tip over. However once you get the hang of it, it’s like driving a soccer mom car..haha..

While driving..more accurately quading..back to camp from the work site I decided to take a little short cut down one of the cut lines. I’m not sure that it was any shorter than the road, in fact I think it was longer. The reason for that it that the first cut line I took ended in a small cliff and I had to go back out to the road, the second one did come right to the camp. Not faster but an order of magnitude more fun.

and here is the camp. My tent is the green tarp, fourth from the left.

Well got to go now and set up my fishing pole. Tonight we hit the lake.

Cheers from on the land

Pat

Port Radium

Saturday, July 28, 2007, 7:13:40 PM | donkeycat

27 July 2007

 What a great day on Great Bear Lake.

Today started off with the tailgate meeting..sound familiar..then down to the dock to finish the repairs to the barge. The weld held and the front section floats. The barge went back together faster and easer than thought. Then off for my general site tour..on the quad of course..and then home to camp for lunch.

In the last ten minutes we have had take off and/or fly over our camp..at no more than 50 ft..a DC3, a Grand Caravan and a helicopter. It kind of makes your hair stand on end and feels like they are going to go through the tent.

A little bit on Great Bear Lake:

Great Bear Lake (Slavey: Sahtú, French: Grand lac de l'Ours) is the largest lake entirely within Canada (Lake Superior and Lake Huron straddling the Canada-US border are larger), the third largest in North America, and the seventh largest in the world. The lake is situated on the Arctic Circle between 65 and 67 degrees of northern latitude and between 118 and 123 degrees western longitude, 186 m (610 ft) above sea level.

The lake has a surface area of 31,153 km² (12,028 mi²) and a total volume of 2,236 km³ (536 mi³). Its maximum depth is 446 m (1,463 ft) and its average depth 72 m (236 ft). The total shoreline is 2,719 km (1,690 mi) and the total catchment area of the lake is 114,717 km² (44,293 mi²).

The lake empties through the Great Bear River (Sahtúdé) into the Mackenzie River. The only community on the lake is Deline, Northwest Territories at the southwest end.

ANOTHER HELECOPTER…there are two exploration companies living on this air strip with us, and they move people and supplies 24/7.

Some history on Port Radium:

Port Radium is a mining area on the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada. It included the settlement of Cameron Bay and the Eldorado Mine and Echo Bay Mine. The name Port Radium did not come into use until 1936 and at the time it was in reference to the region as a whole. The Eldorado mine site at LaBine Point adopted the name for its settlement in the 1940s and it has generally stuck. The official name of the settlement itself, however, was Echo Bay, but the community no longer exists. Port Radium was situated at 66°5′N, 118°2′W on the shores of Great Bear Lake.

Climate:

Port Radium is located near the Arctic Circle, which means that in December the sun almost does not rise and in June it does not set for 24 hours. The average temperature is –7.1°C, the prevailing wind direction is southeast.

History of the site:

During a field trip along the east arm of Great Bear Lake in August 1900, James McIntosh Bell of the Geological Survey of Canada noted evidences of iron, copper, uranium and cobalt in the vicinity of Echo Bay. Thirty years later, a prospector Gilbert LaBine discovered high-grade pitchblende and silver. His company was Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited, then known as Eldorado Gold Mines Limited. Radium ores were highly valued at the time because the price of radium salts, used in cancer treatment and then monopolized by Belgium, was US$70,000 per gram.

Several settlements popped up in the 1930s in this area. Eldorado Mine became the first producing venture and it had its own private camp for its employees. There were also operations at the Elbonanza silver property, at White Eagle on the Camsell River, and at Contact Lake. In 1932 prospectors and businesses settled down in a protective cove off Echo Bay, known as Cameron Bay. By 1933 the Canadian Government had surveyed a townsite. At its peak the Cameron Bay settlement had 100 permanent residents, and the Port Radium area as a whole probably boasted 200+ residents. But by 1934 all the important deposits had been staked and activity died down. The Eldorado Mine at LaBine Point entered production in 1933 and the Contact Lake silver mine followed in 1936. At Cameron Bay, the government established a post office, a government office, and a wireless radio station. There was also a Royal Canadian Mounted Police post and a Hudson's Bay Company post. In 1936, the government facilities were re-christened Port Radium to glorify the nature of the nearby mining operations.

With the closure of the Eldorado Mine in June 1940 and the general lack of activity, the government closed up the offices at Cameron Bay and except for a few native families which now occupied the abandoned buildings, Port Radium was empty. When the Eldorado Mine reopened in 1942 to supply uranium ores for the war effort, the mine settlement adopted the name of 'Port Radium'. Cameron Bay remained abandoned, but later in the 1960s Branson's Lodge would build a fishing lodge on the site.

Therefore, Port Radium, a name brought to use in 1936 to apply basically to the entire region, was now being used to name the Eldorado Mine site, which was the only operation in the area after 1942. Port Radium, as it is now called, was occupied from 1942-1960 when the Eldorado Mine was a uranium producer, then again between 1964 and 1982 when Echo Bay Mines Limited produced silver from the so-named Echo Bay Mine, and the Eldorado Mine. When the mine finally closed in 1982, all the old buildings were burned down, and only an old log cabin remains today.

ANOTHER HELECOPTER…this one slinging timber most likely for a drilling platform.

So there you have it in a nut shell..my job or I should say …here come the helicopters again…the program is the clean up of the old mine site. We take down any existing building, burn them and landfill the ash, clean up the low level radioactive tailings and landfill them, cap and cover any mine openings and footings, landfill all scrap metal and make the site look natural.

My afternoon was filled with new and exciting work…site tour, on a quad, to check up on the work progress, then on to being a deck hand for the barge. Loading and chaining down equipment, helping move the barge and hook it up to the tug.

Then back to camp to work on the daily report. Also a little cool-aid in the sun.

ANOTHER HELECOPTER….

The mechanic just arrived in camp with 3 beautiful trout, he’s trying to get the cook to fix them up for dinner.

Back out to site to do some RAD survey along the roadway. Well I’m back and just in time for dinner (1930 hours) ribs, vegetables and pizza. More helicopters…

Dinner over and it’s time for a quad ride through the woods and mud to the top of Echo Bay mines. We went to check out the mine openings..ya that the reason..what a beautiful view from the summit

and a brilliant sun set

..if you can call it that, you know the 24 hours of daylight.

Cheers from on the Land

Pat

Port Radium

Friday, July 27, 2007, 10:14:13 AM | donkeycat

26 July 2007

 Well I made it to Port Radium on Great Bear Lake.

The trip in was good, I fell asleep on the plane..again but did wake up in time to get a couple of photos.

One of the small lakes near Great Bear Lake

The land here is quite different from the Tundra site. It’s got trees…also highlands,

From the top of the highlands looking onto the site and Great Bear Lake.

and camp is also very different. This time we are in tents.

My room and view from my front flap..

Very cool..to wake up to this every day.

My room mate is the 74 year old site supervisor, a little rough around the edges but still a nice guy. The food is as good as at Tundra however the cooks are natives from Deleni (a town across the lake). I understand why Henry did not want to leave this place. It’s like a holiday…a 7 Km quad ride (we have our own Honda Forman) from the camp to the work site through the woods….and NO traffic. Great fishing…the crew goes out every once and awhile after dinner and catches some great fish. Valmore’s brother got one the was 27 lbs. the other night. It’s all catch and release with barbless hooks on this lake.

Sorry this is so short but we worked on the barge until 0000 hours and then back to camp by 0030 hours and it’s now 0850 hours and I have to get to work.

Cheers from on the Land

Pat

July 13, 2007

Monday, July 23, 2007, 7:06:18 PM | donkeycat

13 July 2007
Good Day Eh!! A beautiful day out here on the trunda, temperature in the high teens, clear sky and a good breakfast (we have run out of eggs and won’t get any until Tuesday) to start the day off. That’s when Friday the 13th struck. The daily safety meeting turned into an investigation on who stole the satellite converter from someone’s room. The site superintendent had dealt with this issue already however one guy in camp would not let it die and wanted a witch hunt. Then to work in the mill removing the cyanide..sounds easy.. well it took two hours to get the equipment (extra equipment that we did not already have in the mill) lined up and in the building, then we had to find our outside safety person. He the guy that’s responsible to make sure that the compressor (for our breathing air) and generator (for power for our equipment) are running and to ensure that our air lines do not get crossed or cut. He also aids in the decontamination when we are finished work. By this time it was coffee break and he was not going to miss that. Once the work in the mill was started things went well for about 20 minutes. We were working on the catwalk above the settling tanks and had to go up 3 flights of stairs on our 10 minute escape bottles (small bottles of air) to the work area and hook up to the air supply lines already set up inside. The vacuum hose was continuously getting plugged with nails, steel balls that were used in the ball mills, pieces of wood, metal, etc. and had to be taken off the unit and banged clean. Shaun dropped a hammer (when working with two sets of rubber gloves on your sense of feel is next to nothing) into one of the two story mixing tanks. I was cutting pipe above the cyanide tank, broke a saw blade and when I came down off the ladder my air hose caught on the edge of it and knocked the brand new Mikita saws-all into the same mixing tank as the hammer. By this time we had been inside for two hours and Shaun, who is no small man, was starting to over heat and needed to get out so we called it a morning and planned to head out for lunch. Shaun was the first to disconnect from the supply lines and head down. Ten minutes later, after radio contact that Shaun was through the decon, I was on my way out. I disconnected my air supply line and started down the stairs. At the top of the second flight of stairs my OUT OF AIR alarm went off. This meant that I had three minutes of air left to get out. I radioed to the third guy we had inside working and told him to meet me at the bottom of the stairs so I could hook up on his air line and he could get out on his ten minute bottle (he come in on a air supply line and had a full ten minutes on the escape bottle). The fault with this plan was..are you ready for this..his ten minute bottle was shut off so when we disconnected the air supple line he had no air. We had to reconnect the line, he then had to pull his arms out of the sleeves and into the inside the green suite and turn on his bottle. All this with my OUT OF AIR alarm going off. We then made the switch and everything was fine. Upon our arrival at camp we found we had missed lunch and were left to dine on cold leftovers. After lunch and about six liters of water – to replace the water I left in the suite – it was time to help the next crew into the gear for there shift. And yes the equipment is still hot and sweaty from us, the first shift. Once they were inside Lawrence and I took a 10Km truck ride to Courageous Lake, along the old mine roads in search of gravel. We did see an artic owl pair and chick on the tundra. At our arrival back at camp I was informed by Max that Shaun was not feeling well and had gone to bed, Marco – who was on the second shift was not feeling well and gone to bed. Roger, one of the Haz-mat workers, had been stabbed in the hand by a nail and the internet and phones were down and may not be up and running until Tuesday. Max can be a little dramatic at times. After hearing this I grabbed a cup of coffee and made my way to my room, by the way after lunch I found I had a roommate – one of the general labors on site named Darwin Unka, to find out if the pages of my book were missing..Ha-ha. I am looking forward to tomorrow all the same. I have plans to work in the mill in the morning and go by quad for a gravel search across the tundra with Charlie Fish. Well that’s all for now..folks.. It can only get better.

Creek flowing into Courageous Lake.

Tundra in the summer.

The largest Inukshuk (stone man) I ever saw.

Sunset on the Tundra.

 Cheers from on the Land
Pat

July 23, 2007

Monday, July 23, 2007, 7:04:28 PM | donkeycat

Donkeycat and donkeyDiesel.

Photos have been added to the july13, 15 and 16.

July 16, 2007

Monday, July 23, 2007, 7:01:56 PM | donkeycat

16 July 2007

It was a dark and gloomy day…

The sky was overcast and threatened of rain, there was little to no wind and the bugs were so thick that they bounced of my face like the water drops in a shower.

The day started as any other, with a shower, breakfast (I had my one egg ration) and the daily tailgate meeting. We then proceeded to the mill to begin the final stage of the cyanide circuit removal. Some minor prep work and last minute instruction to the men in the green suites and we were off to the races. Forty five minutes later the work was finished. The piping and the pump removed, the green suited men reappeared from inside the mill. All that remained to be done was the flushing of the tanks with pH altered water..however the Air Tindi plane was landing and the leader of this green suited troop was bound for the airstrip to get reacquainted with forty-eight beer he had left on ice back in Yellowknife. This left me feeling in a state abandonment with nothing to train my watchful eye upon. A few site tours to check out the work that was not going on, several cups of coffee and a chapter or two of my book rounded out the rest of this my final day at Tundra mine site, for tomorrow I embark on my long migration to eastward.

This morning at the safety meeting the site supervisor had promised a shortened work day, with a full days pay in an attempt to lift the spirits of the crew, with a beach style party complete with swimming in Sandy Lake, a bonfire complete with hotdogs, smokies and cool-aid (it’s a dry camp so no beer). By 1630 hours the crew was slowly arriving (nothing happens quickly around here) at camp in anticipation of the evenings events. The foreshadowing of rain casting doubtful looks upon the faces of the weary group.

Several suggestions were tossed around as to what games could be played should the festivities ensue. A tug-a-war was proposed between the HEOs and the Haz-Mat crews over the septic pit, also a scavenger hunt for the two-way radios, we are missing several, followed by who’s got the most bug bites.

As the time approaches 1800 hours the beleaguered crew is watching one of the five T.V. channels we get (B.C. ligature, 24 hour poker, 24 hour soccer, news and the French channel) or playing Texas Hold’m while they wait on word of the party. In the mean time I sit and think about packing while counting the mosquitoes in the window screen. 21, 22, 23…I can’t wait for the plane tomorrow.

Tonight’s dinner was not held around a bonfire as promised but in the dining hall as usual. Instead of hotdogs we had chicken legs and caribou with an assortment of salads. After dinner a ride on the quads to Salmita Mine site through the sand and gavel pits made for a fun way to end my stay.

Wild flowers on the Tundra.

and my final sunset at Tundra Mine Site.

When next we meet..I’ll be in Port Radium on Great Bear Lake.

I have to use Marco's computer to post this and I can't take up to much of this time, he has real work to do.

 Cheers from on the Land

(Apparently I’ve been reading too much drama) 

Pat

July 15, 2007

Monday, July 23, 2007, 6:51:58 PM | donkeycat

15 July 2007

Good evening all

Well it’s now 2200 hours and I’m finally getting to sit down, it was another fine day on site today the temperature was 24⁰C and clear blue skies that were full of mosquitoes and blackflys. We took a drive down to Courageous Lake again, I had to collect some gravel and waste rock samples, but this time we went to another old mine. I hope to get some of Shaun’s photos. He took some amazing wildlife shots today of ground squirrels, hares and fox as well as landscapes.

Another camp on the tundra.

The ramp of another mine site. The water was ice cold but clear. Note the snow in the background.

Wildlife at the mine.

The mine again.

We worked late again tonight, it’s cooler in the evening for working in the green suites. We had a minor incident with one of the fellows working inside. He had a small anxicity attack and we had to hurry to get him out of the work area and the suite, a couple of minutes in the fresh air and he was right as rain.

That’s all from on the land.

Pat

July 14, 2007

Saturday, July 14, 2007, 11:56:38 PM | donkeycat

14 July 2007

Hello

It is with a heavy heart that I have to pass on the news that Shelly’s father’s passed away today at 1330hours in St. John’s NFLD.

This day has brought about a great loss for a lot of people. In Mike’s passing we have lost a father, a brother, a commander and a friend.

Our prayers and thoughts are with his family during time.

Pat

The Real 12 July 2007

Friday, July 13, 2007, 12:37:23 AM | donkeycat

12a July 2007

Good evening to all:

Today was very busy indeed. Shaun and I spent the entire day building and setting up the decon (short form for decontamination area) for the cyanide system removal.

Lots of fun, lots of work. We tested it from start to end and then tested the equipment…played in the suites.

Then after dinner we went to work to see if everything was up to snuff. It was and we will tweak it out tomorrow before getting into it full bore.

That’s it for today. Got to get some sleep.  By the way I know I messed up the dates and I’m one day ahead for myself that’s why the date says 12a. (I had to go back through the days and found I arrived on site on the 10^th not the 11^th)

Cheers from on the Land

Pat

July 12, 2007

Thursday, July 12, 2007, 1:08:02 PM | donkeycat

12 July 2007

Hi All

What a day today was..where to begin..lets start with last night. We had a two hour meeting starting at 2200 hours and ending at 0030 hours. I know the math does not work but that’s what happened. We did manage to solve the worlds problems..well maybe not the worlds but at least some of our site issues. We redesigned the landfill (the dump), made it smaller and put more in it.

The to bed..Ah to sleep and per chance to dream..however the mosquitoes had a different idea..to feed and to feed again..all I could hear was the relentless whine of buffet in mosquitoes language. Needless to say that 0530 hours came early. Not that I could sleep anyway.

Breakfast was good as always, followed by a typical tailgate (safety) meeting but this one had a bit of a twist..we were to have guests on site today. Inspectors from INAC and WCB for a site safety inspection. The only good thing was that I heard a friend of mine was to be arriving on site as one of the inspectors. Bert, who is a retired mine inspector, and I worked together on the Port Radium job on Great Bear Lake. Any how this took from 0830 hours to 1930 hours. The site passed however there were a few minor problems mostly dealing with housekeeping issues, dealing with the storage of oils and compressed gases in the garage, parking of the trucks, our first aid room, supplies and response planning and fire fighting response. We have all this so don’t worry but they thought it could be better. We are going to work on it. During the site tour we had cause to go for a wonder or two out on the tundra for a couple of hours. With today’s temperature at 19⁰C and very little to no wind the bugs were just vicious and not only misquitoes but also blackflies and horseflies, they almost carried off Marco..just kidding it was more like dragging. The inspector and I went for a quick tour to the old Salmita mine site to check up on some shore line damage (fish habitat) that was caused by the crew at the exploration camp over the winter. It was there that we saw a few artic hares. These things are as big as a dog. After a roast pork dinner with all the fixings and a short meeting to discuss the days findings the inspectors left the site. Dan, the supervisor, drove them to the airstrip and on his way back to camp he saw a very large moose. Yes a moose. This is not a common sight on the trundra and we will be looking for it in the future. It appears that I’m just rambling on but I very tired and I think I’ll end this now. My wireless network is not working so I may be late getting this out.

An artic hare. Thats a 100lbs propane tank beside him.

This is a smaller hare that I had cornered, and let go.

Cheers from on the Land

Pat

July 11, 2007

Wednesday, July 11, 2007, 9:19:11 AM | donkeycat

11 July 2007

12 hours of traveling and I’m finally home in Yellowknife….Ha-ha…just kidding Shelly

I have to apologize for the way in which I left this blog on the 22 of June, it seams that I was very vague on the reason for my hasty departure from the north to the east and this has left many, judging by the e-mails and phone calls, worried about Shelly and the baby. Well both mother and child and yes it’s a BOY…yahoo…and his name is Thomas Patrick, are fine and growing daily.

Out of love and respect for Shelly I have given this to her to read prior to posting for her approval.

The reason for the gathering of the family in St. John’s was to be with Shelly’s father in this heartbreaking time.

I would like to introduce you to Captain Michael O’Brien (Retired) of the Canadian Coast Guard. I first met Mike about 4 years ago when I called him to inform him of my intentions to marry his daughter. Since that initial conversation I got to know a little bit about and gain a great deal of respect for the most important and influential man in Shelly’s life. I have had the privilege of sharing in the many attributes that make up the man.

I’ve seen first hand the admiration and respect that is given to him by his crew when he is captain.

I’ve seen the proud smile of a father when he’s with or talking about his children.

The love and tenderness of the grandfather,

the sharp sense of humor when around friends and his frustration on the golf course.

I’ve also witnessed the strong will of a man that’s accustomed to the giving of orders and the resolve to fight his illness from the onset, the strength to listen to and understand the words of the doctors and the courage to talk to his family and friends about it.  I have also observed Mike’s devotion to his religious conviction, to remain unquestioning and steadfast in his belief throughout his life and this ordeal, only confirms the quality of the man.

Michael O’Brien is the father of four children. The eldest son Mike lives with his family in Cambridge and is one of my hunting partners, actually he is the one that rekindled my love for the sport. Michelle or Shelly as she is known is the love of my life and the second in Michael’s line. Natasha the second daughter lives in Stayner with her husband John. Natasha was also the one that got me started on the blogging thing. The youngest of Michael’s children is Seamus and he still lives in St. John’s with his two boys.

Michael is the grandfather of five children, Mike’s three – Katlin, Shannon and Michael and Seamus’ two – Seamus and Rielly. And the soon to be here Thomas.

This was taken from the Canadian Coast Guard web-site:

As part of the Canadian Honours System, the Canadian Coast Guard Exemplary Service Medal recognizes individuals who, in the course of their duties, provide service in difficult or critical situations; who are often involved in potentially dangerous activities; and who also have a record of such high standard as to merit this prestigious Medal.
The medal is a circular silver medal suspended from a five striped ribbon bearing the Canadian Coast Guard crest on the obverse and Her Majesty’s Crown and Cipher on the reverse. It is presented by or on behalf of the Governor General at a formal ceremony.
Michael O’Brien
Mr. O’Brien began his career on the CCGS John Cabot in 1969. From there, he served on several Coast Guard ships in the region and progressed to the level of captain. As captain of the CCGS Harp, a primary search and rescue vessel along the South Coast of Labrador and the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, he answered numerous calls for assistance from mariners in distress. He was often called upon to carry out medical evacuations when weather conditions prevented aircraft from doing so. His energetic approach aboard the ships has carried over into the boardrooms and classrooms, much to the benefit of other seagoing employees. He has served as the Coast Guard ambassador to many communities in Labrador and has been instrumental in promoting and enhancing the image of the Coast Guard among the people in the area.
This not only sums up his professional career but also his private life. His devotion to family and friends, his ability to provide help and guidance when needed and his willingness to share in the joy of the successes of others.
We love you and may God keep and protect you.

The return trip to Yellowknife was uneventful except for the fact that I was seated amongst the band Collective Soul from Toronto to Edmonton. I had no idea who these guys were until I looked them up on the web. They are doing a concert in Edmonton and then Calgary and on to Grande Prairie. I was sitting between Ryan Hoyle the drummer and Shane Evans and behind Joel Kosche and Dean and Ed Roland. Descent bunch..kind of quiet for a rock band..upon my arrival on Yellowknife at 2200 hours it was a beautiful 25⁰C and sunny. On the bus from the airport to the hotel I ran into the first cook we had on site. June. She informed me that her daughter was sending her back to Tundra while she went on to Thailand for some fun in the Asian sun. Oh by the way she won a silver medal for her book…the one she gave me.

The flight to Tundra was uneventful.. I slept through it.. and fast (down from 1 hour 15 minutes to 45 minutes). We are now using a Dash 8 for the crew change. It’s a larger plane with a greater payload. The tundra has changed so that you would not recognize it now. Everything has gone from the greybrown to a beautiful lush emerald green with yellow and white flowers. The air if full of…mosquitoes and blackflys...you thought I was going to say birds didn’t you…and horseflys. You should see the hole they chewed in my bug shirt.

Lawrence picked me up at the airstrip in our truck and it’s full of dust..this is from one of his (our man that was with me before I left for NFLD) memos…and yes there have been a lot of them.

“Dust has been a serious problem at site and the interior of the truck shows it.  Joe says "lots of dust".  I refuse to use the recirculate mode - I have to have fresh air and without A/C the window(s) stay open.  Just how do you work the 4WD modes on that transmission anyway?”

What was he thinking...5Km of sand and gravel road with heavy truck traffic...looks like I’ll have to clean the truck again... and where was he going that he needed the 4WD.

We did a quick tour of the site and investigated the mill for the cyanide removal..that’s why I’m here this time...which we will start tomorrow. I get to go in a space suite with supplied air...I’ll get photos.

I did not get my old room this time as Lawrence is still here, so I have no phone and no T.V… well I have a T.V. just no channels to watch.

That’s all for now..guess I’ll read my book

Cheers from on the Land

Pat

June 22. 2007

Saturday, June 23, 2007, 1:13:58 AM | donkeycat

                                                                                    June 22, 2007

Hi all..

A late night again last night. We worked until after midnight on setting up and testing the dewatering pump, photos are on the June 21 entry, it was absolutely beautiful at midnight the sun was low and the moon was high and the mosquitoes were out in droves.

Midnight moon June 21.

Midnight Sun June 21.

Today was a good day on site, work is going well and the weather is holding at as close to summer as we’ve had,  however I had to spend most of the day inside getting my paperwork done and preparing to hand the project to him. I hope he can handle it..

Sun set at 2200 hours today

and at midnight.

 I received some unpleasant news from home today and had to spend part of the afternoon preparing to bug-out. The contractor is bringing a float plane to camp in the morning, they will be bringing a new lead hand into camp, and I’ll be flying out to Yellowknife. Then on to Toronto and then to meet up with Shelly and family in St. John’s NFLD. by Sunday at noon.  

You’ll have to excuse me if I seam distracted but my mind is on other thing and my thoughts are for Shelly right now.

Good night from “on the Land”

Pat

June 21, 2007

Thursday, June 21, 2007, 11:08:28 PM | donkeycat

                                                                                    June 21, 2007

Happy Summer Solstice to you:

Did you also know that today is also National Aboriginal Day as well?

Sorry I did/could not write yesterday, but I had to deal with my counterpart…the one that’s driving me and the project manager nuts. Two days on site and he still does not understand the project. He can’t even find his way around the site. Aside from the camp there are only six building to recognize and ONE road…enough of this… I’ve got a headache.

Anyhow yesterday was a very busy day we had representatives from both INAC and PWGSC also AEL’s top people and SENES project management on site. This was the monthly meeting where everybody gets to do a walking tour of the site and then the meetings start. It starts with general discussions about the progress or lack of progress that has been made since the last meeting.  In this case it is progress. Then after the PWGSC & INAC people have left we had some more site meetings and site inspections to look at different options for the work in progress. Oh ya we also saw another fox and her kits. Then I ended up working on reports until 0100 hours.

Yes there is still snow on the ground in some places and ice on the lakes, but the tempature at 2230 hours is +18C and sunny. And yes the mosquitoes are out.

Today was a good day. It started early with the daily tailgate meeting,  then on to finishing the reports that I did not finish last night. Then the fun started…a three hour tour across the tundra on the quads. This time I had a passenger. Charles.

He’s the project manager.. we had to go and see the mine raises again..this time with the AEL team. An assessment of the raises was needed for the cap design.

Then back for a late lunch, and to deal with him again..Oh to have spent the rest of the day on the tundra riding around looking for gravel..and then on to more meeting about the site and billing.

After dinner the Dash 8 arrived with our dewatering pump.

you would never see a loader unloading a plane at YYZ. Thats how we got the pump out.

This pump will put through 2 cubic meters of water a minute. H#&@ S*$^ that’s a lot of water. That would fill a room, about the size of a townhouse living room, 3.6 x 4.5 x 2.4m high (38.8 cubic meters) in about 19 minutes. I will definitely get photos of this. Anyhow a plane that big and the airline company only put two seats for passengers. The catch here is that only two out of four people got to go out…Charles and Shaun that means the surveyor and Bob the top dog at AEL got bumped…which means that the guys at camp are going to end up working until the sun sets or Bob leaves..hint the sun does not set here until the fall

Well that’s all for tonight. I’m very tired (I seem to be typing every word twice due to spelling) but still have to do some work. And I will need my strength to deal with him tomorrow…as I was typing this Bob knocked on my door, they are going to set the pump up tonight and get her going….when I said guys that includes me if the work needs to be inspected…

I’m going to get him to do the daily report..wish me luck

 Enjoy the Sun (photo taken at 2230 hours from my room)

Sitting by a Bush in Broad Sunlight

When I spread out my hand here today,
I catch no more than a ray
To feel of between thumb and fingers;
No lasting effect of it lingers.

There was one time and only the one
When dust really took in the sun;
And from that one intake of fire
All creatures still warmly suspire.

And if men have watched a long time
And never seen sun-smitten slime
Again come to life and crawl off,
We not be too ready to scoff.

God once declared he was true
And then took the veil and withdrew,
And remember how final a hush
Then descended of old on the bush.

God once spoke to people by name.
The sun once imparted its flame.
One impulse persists as our breath;
The other persists as our faith.

The Summer Solstice: Summer has begun by the almanac, but the light is already leaning toward Fall.

Hal Borland

 

 

Cheers from “on the Land”

Pat

June 19, 2007

Wednesday, June 20, 2007, 12:09:48 AM | donkeycat

                                                                                    June 19, 2007

Today is my day reckoning….(you'll have to forgive me tonight, I'm having trouble controlling my text bolding..I can't turn it off..) 

Once again winter is thrust upon us..we awoke to below 0⁰C temperatures and snow..an evil omen of what is to come………………………………

The arrival of the bane of my existence…the one who’s name cannot be spoken aloud…for if he hears, he will drowned me in a sea of irrelevant questions…sapping both my time and my strength leaving a withered husk of a man devoid of will and sprit. Giving me to pray for a swift passage of time, to once again struggle with the Yin of routine and the Yang of chaos….little bit dramatic? Well we will see in a few hours if my fears have been realized.

He is here the fifth horseman of the Apocalypse …confusion….

Not five minutes into camp…not even 1Km from the airstrip…the deluge of questions started. How far to the camp? Who’s cabins are those? What’s the coffee like? Do the ladies change the bedding? Where do I find a pillow case? Etc..etc...apparently he was suffering through an anxiety attack on the twin otter flight up here…he had a quick nap (2 hours) at the camp and then the questions started again, leaving  me.. circling, circling…ever circling in the whirlpool of confusion he leaves in his path…..we will see what tomorrow brings…Ha-ha I may start drinking Scope.

Anyway on to more better things..see it’s already begun..

Last night Shaun and I took a drive to the airstrip in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the fox kits. And what luck we had..not only did we see them but we saw two different sets of kits and we got some photos..so here they are…enjoy..

Mom fox

Mom again. She is lettin us get closer each time we go out.

One of the kids.

The two kids. one in the forground the other in the upper right.

And here is a wonderful little poem to inspire and end with a smile.

Look To this Day

Look to this day:

For it is life, the very life of life.

In its brief course

Lie all the verities and realities of your existence.

The bliss of growth,

The glory of action,

The splendour of achievement

Are but experiences of time.

For yesterday is but a dream

And tomorrow is only a vision;

And today well-lived, makes

Yesterday a dream of happiness

And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well therefore to this day;

Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn!

by  Kalidasa

Cheers and good night to all

from “on the Land”

Pat

Monday, June 18, 2007, 8:31:03 PM | donkeycat

                                                                                    June 18, 2007

Two weeks and counting….

Well not really counting, that would drive me nuts!! 

As usual today we had at least two seasons. We started the day off  with a Toronto winter…at -3.8⁰C and ended the day with an artic summer at +10⁰C. All in all it was a good day both in weather and in work. The hazardous material removal is going well and we will soon have photos of another building coming down. The gravel hauling is going great when we have all the trucks running…we go between 3 to 4 of 5 trucks daily. They are old (the trucks not the drivers) and there are parts constantly falling off. We have two mechanics and they are the busiest guys on the site. But even their truck has only 5^th gear and no reverse…so for them it’s a one way trip around the site.

I hope all you fathers had a great day yesterday..

I promised to get some pictures from Shaun and I did so here they are….enjoy

 

An artic hare.

This guy you have all met.

Shaun and I picking up our Maytag washing machine..who remembers these.

Mom and Dad Raven

The kids..........

The kids again......

and the fox.. we will try to get photos of the kits.. (I think that's what a baby fox is called)

And to end this an evening sky..

"Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge"

 Psalm 19:2

Cheers from “on the Land”

Pat

June 17, 2007

Sunday, June 17, 2007, 9:46:36 PM | donkeycat

                                                                                    June 17, 2007

Happy Fathers Day…to my Dad and all the fathers I know.

I can find no better words to describe what a father is than these:

What Is A Dad?
A dad is someone who
wants to catch you before you fall
but instead picks you up,
brushes you off,
and lets you try again.
A dad is someone who
wants to keep you from making mistakes
but instead lets you find your own way,
even though his heart breaks in silence
when you get hurt.
A dad is someone who
holds you when you cry,
scolds you when you break the rules,
shines with pride when you succeed,
and has faith in you even when you fail...
- Unknown

A close second was a quote from Ernest Hemingway

"To be a successful father . . . there's one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don't look at it for the first two years."
I’m just kidding. To be a dad, I think you have to have a good sense of humor to survive the day to day…
Anyhow, Happy Fathers Day, I love you Dad and I could not have done the things I have done without your guidance and understanding. (That goes for Mom as well)
Enough of the mushy stuff. Back to the land that God gave Cain.
Today’s weather is back to cold! 6⁰C and falling. The last time I checked with the rock it was 4⁰C and a wind chill of 0⁰C. the barometer is falling and we could be heading into a storm…and all this from a rock…remember what I said about a father having a sense of humor…
Last night at 2100 hours it was a beautiful night only a 5Km hour wind…so we (I should say Wayne..He grabbed the bull by the horns and cast down his fear of heights) put the wind sock up. 

That’s Wayne up at the top of the tower. I took the photo from the ground with the zoom on my camera…you wonder why I saying this? 

Because this is the photo that Wayne took from the top of the tower. That’s me at the bottom taking a photo of him. See how bright it is at night up here.

This is a view of the setting sun at 2130 hours. It just takes your breath away, and it happens every night…I guess you are having sunsets every night too. But do you watch them.

“Nobody of any real culture, for instance, ever talks nowadays about the beauty of sunsets. Sunsets are quite old fashioned…to admire them is a distinct sign of provincialism of temperament.”  Oscar Wilde
Every once and a while, I do read a page or two from my book.
We are still having bear sightings around the camp. Last night there was one spotted about 500m north from the camp. Again I missed this one; he was going over the hill as I arrived. I think I am doomed to see only bear buts on this trip… Ha-ha… however we (thanks to Shaun and his Nikon D70 digital SLR with the really big lenses) have some excellent wildlife photos to share. I’m working on getting them from him. He’s as busy if not more so than I, so getting him to put photos on a memory stick takes time.

I hope to have some tomorrow to put on the blog.

Well that all folks!!

Cheers and good night from “on the Land”

Pat

June 16, 2007

Saturday, June 16, 2007, 7:44:50 PM | donkeycat

                                                                                    June 16, 2007

A good day on site..

The weather was 12.1⁰C, with the wind chill it is 6.0⁰C. There is a North West wind at 20.8Km/hour and 50% humidity. The barometer is falling and there’s a front moving in. this was confirmed by the AEL weather station. We will continue to compare the weather rock with the wireless weather station to determine the accuracy of each. The weather rock does have the right date…Haha..

  

Work is progressing well with the only slow downs we have are: equipment failure, the trucks keep breaking down, and the suprise landing of  airplanes and helicopters.

The other day I mentioned bear belts well here’s what they look like.

And the bear bangers (top left) look a little like shotgun shells without the brass...the information is all in German..so none of us know what it says...and I left my German to English dictionary at home, and I don’t believe there’s a German to Slavie (one of the languages spoken in this part if the world).  I hope we got the ones for really large bears and not the ones for scaring small animals like chipmunks.

Here’s a photo that Shaun took just before we headed out on the tundra the other day. Kinda looks like some out on the land version of CHiPs (that’s a T.V. show from the late 70’s) for those of you that can remember that far back.. 

Not really much to up date on today. However I’ve got one busy night planned. Dinner with 30 followed by a weekly site meeting and then it’s laundry time… Now that the creeks are open I can have my pick of any of the washing rocks I want…

“No summer is long enough to take away the winter. The winter always comes.”
Barry Lopez

I’m not sure who he is but it’s so true in this part of the world. Winter seams to be trying to come back every night.

Cheers from “on the Land”

Pat

June 6, 2007

Saturday, June 16, 2007, 10:59:15 AM | donkeycat

                                                                                                    June 6, 2007

Well here’s what new on site.

The weather is now at -3⁰C overcast with a strong wind from the north. That’s a big improvement from before. The only thing that’s changed is the snow is almost gone.

We have a new cook, Ray, and the food is fantastic..she worked in the tree planting camps of northern Ontario for 4 years as their cook…to bad for them.. but great for us. With all this good food I just might be making the jump to a 38 by the end of my tour.

We are still having some minor problems with the camp..the satellite TV was down for two day, that was repaired yesterday. We now have wireless internet connection…I can’t believe how computer savvy I have become. Internet banking, laptop, blog and now wireless..WOW who knows how advanced I’ll be by the end of my time on the land…look out Stephen Hawking. J  Anyhow…there is still a leak in the sewer system..this time it’s outside the trailers. The doors are still not closing tight, the trailers are still settling. We are testing the drinking water supply to see if it is indeed fit to drink. So for we are just using it to wash with. all our drinking water is So you can see, not much has changed..a camp is like a living organism..it seams to be in a constant state of change and growth and with the solving of one problem another arises.

As far as the work is going, that is moving along well…we have some good crews and some that are a little hard on the equipment. Several of the buildings that I was surveying are now gone…and some of the ones I was to survey are also gone…here’s what’s left of the crusher building.

 

Some interesting events happened while I was away. We have had great success with the bear fence when it works. It seams to be keeping out all the ptarmigan, several have been found dead beside it in the mornings. However one evening the cleaning staff watched as a hare ran in and out of the camp through the activated..haha..bear fence. I doubt there was enough power to make his hair stand on endJ. We have also zapped a few of the human’s in this camp…I won’t mention who…Marco said it gives quite a shock and this was confirmed by Velmore.

We have had several sightings of several brown (grizzlies) bears around the camp. One large grumpy male, as Shaun describes him, has been observed at the north end of the air field on several occasions. The airfield is around 5Km from the camp by way of the road. This photo was taken by Shaun on the 5 of June, the morning of my arrival.

It is believed that the mother and cub were the ones that broke into Boyd’s shack, part of his outfitting camp, at the air strip. We all have to be extra careful when working at the borrow pits as they are located at the air strip, and keep an eye out for bears and each other.

I don’t know if you will recognize this photo but it’s the river running through the snow.

Or this one..you can see that my required reading is growing. J

Well I just came in from my last tour around the site to find that the Ducks have won Lord Stanley’s cup…I need to go now..i can’t write anymore I’ll try to get up tomorrow and do something.

Cheers from “out on the land”

Pat

June 7, 2007

Saturday, June 16, 2007, 10:59:14 AM | donkeycat

                                                                                         June 7, 2007

Well it’s still winter out here.

Today we had a wonderful daytime temperature of 0⁰C, a 20km north wind with heavy flurries and as I write this the snow is coming down harder.

I have been asked “how long will you be on the land this trip” well the answer is June 26 or July 3 but to be more accurate I will be here until I fly out. Anyhow it’s to far in the future the think about now.

Today was a busy day for me, I was all over the place. The day started with a trip to the airfield to find the mechanic to get my brand new heavy duty Makita drill..I’ll make the connection in a minute..I took my new to me truck..Yes Shelly it is a GMC 4x4 extended cab. I’m not sure what year it is but I do know it has not been serviced since 2005 sometime.

 It runs O.K. but on our road…we only have one and it’s only 5Km long…you can only drive at 30Km/h or you’ll shake the bolts out of the vehicle. Anyway I had a race with a ptarmigan. We were neck to neck when he took to wing to get the lead.

To get back to the tale..I did not find the mechanic there, I did find an interesting photo at the air field.. a caribou antler.I may try to bring it home...

I found him working on some equipment near to the shop..go figure..anyways I got my drill and proceeded to the tank farm. I think this is every environmental tech’s dream….drilling into a 2000l bunker C storage tank. Actually I got to drill into 5 fuel storage tanks today..no worries there is only sludge in the bottom of the tanks, that is what I was checking for.

After playing with the tanks it was back in the mill building (all the way to the top) to check on the easiest way to bring it down.

Well that’s the day in a nut shell. I’ll end this with a photo of the land.

It's very cool the way the frost jacks the rocks out of the ground. They look like tombstones and they are all over the place.

Cheers from “on the Land”

Pat

June 8, 2007

Saturday, June 16, 2007, 10:59:14 AM | donkeycat

                                                                                    June 8, 2007

I think that winter has finally left us! Ha-ha

Today started out cold and windy but changed into an absolutely brilliant day with a high of +2⁰C and sunny. Oh to have a few more days like this would be great. But who am I kidding. This is the tundra and the weather changes by the hour not the day. I tried to get a photo of the snow from last night, I’m not sure if you can see the snow in this. That thing standing in the photo is an incinerator and is all that is left of the incinerator building, it was burned down a week ago. Is there some kind of strange irony in this?

Today was another bust day on site for me. Aside from inspecting the work that’s going on I have to complete reports and spreadsheets. With the speed of my typing and lack of understanding of spreadsheets this is a long and tedious chore. Anyhow I did find some interesting things on site today. There is an old dump on Hambone Lake that full of cans, drums and whisky and beer bottles…apparently this was not a dry mine.

We also started to tear down part of the mill building. The first section is the storage area of the building and had a very simple structural component..so it came down very easily.

If anyone is interested I can include more of what is happening on the site. I also found more asbestos in a place that was under 3 feet of snow the last time I was here.

I have an update for John..he knows who he is..this one includes the ptarmigan.. these things are everywhere.

You must be getting sick of seeing photos of them but this one has the male and the female and was taken at the airstrip. The male is the white one, did you notice the red crest on his head.

Enough of these foul birds, here is a little guy we see in any and all open water..I don’t know what type of bird it is..I think that it is a sandpiper..but they are as thick as flees on a dog around here.

 

And here is a snow goose taking to wing,,apparently snow geese do not like to be photographed. Every time I get close, they fly. I need to get a digital SLR (what does SRL stand for anyway?) camera with a good telephoto lens so I can zoom in on weary creatures.

  

There was a beautiful red fox in white fur down by the airstrip, however he would not come close enough for me to get a shot. I tried to use my binoculars in front of the camera lens to get a photo but it did not work so good.

And I will end this note with a photo that I know will be close to the hearts of all the NFLD readers. It’s only a small one floating in the river..but if you zoom in on it looks huge.

Cheers from “on the Land”

Pat

June 9, 2007

Saturday, June 16, 2007, 10:59:13 AM | donkeycat

                                                                                    June 9, 2007

WOW what a day!

The day started off as any other..-2⁰C and overcast then straight into a daily safety meeting, tour around the site, weekly site meeting, had my truck serviced and found a set of back scratchers (caribou antlers) and all of this before morning coffee. After coffee is when things really took off. The weather turned! The sky cleared up to a beautiful blue the wind died down and the temperature went to a record high of +6⁰C.

 And then we set fire to the assay building. We had knocked this building down yesterday.

The building in the background is the bunkhouse…it’s time will come..Haha

Then we had lunch and planned the destruction of the fine ore bin, in the high section of the mill building, but frist a little prep work…

 

Some more coffee..and….down she comes..

We had to bring in the big machine for the rest of the work..

 

And in a cloud of dust it was over…then off to dinner. WOW what a day.

  

The day ended with report writing and some moccasin maintenance.

and a beautiful sunset. The photo was taken at midnight.

Sorry for all the photos but a picture is worth a thousand words….H#$!  S@#^ without the photos this log would have 19000 words..I’d be writing all night.

Cheers from “on the Land”

Pat

P.S. What a great job..I get to be in the wilderness, knock things down and then burn them.

June 10, 2007

Saturday, June 16, 2007, 10:59:12 AM | donkeycat

June 10, 2007

Hi All

Today was another beautiful day on the tundra. It was +8⁰C little wind and blue sky as far as you could see. Summer is here and soon the bugs will follow.

Work on site is going good, we are getting a lot of work done and everybody is getting along, which is very important when you are working and living in such close quarters. Under these types of conditions even the smallest issue can cause huge problems.

Anyhow the good news is I’ll be taking a quad (a 4x4 ATV) around to the back of Bulldog Lake tomorrow to check out some possible buildings. They show up on the topo map but are not mentioned in any reports of this site.

We had another sighting of a bear about 3km from the camp. One of the truck drivers saw him crossing the haul road and heading north. I did not get to see him this time.

I’m going to keep this short today and try to get to sleep early or maybe read my book "Acquainted with the Night". The funny thing about 24 hours of daylight is unless you are watching a clock the time goes by and the next thing you know is it’s the wee hours of the morning.

So here are some photos for you to enjoy.

Trees on the tundra – these are only about 10 feet (3m for you youngsters) and you can see from this shot…you are 3 days walk between trees.

 

Just an interesting root or an upside down bush?

The backscratchers I found.

A fantastic day on the tundra.

 

And the photos that brings a smile to my face.

Cheers from “on the Land”

Pat

June 11, 2007

Saturday, June 16, 2007, 10:59:11 AM | donkeycat

                                                                                    June 11, 2007

Good Evening to you all

Another beautiful day on the tundra. It was +10⁰C and clear blue sky.

Doesn’t it figure that with such a fantastic day I would only get to spend a few short hours ..out of 24 hours of daylight..outside enjoying the sunshine. The rest of my day was spent inside finishing excel spreadsheets and writing daily reports and checking work e-mails.

Some of the e-mails are from a co-worker they are planning to send up to work with me. In the 3+ hours I have spoken and answered his messages he has not asked a single question on the work that is being done up here. He seams to be more intrested in the room, the coffee, what the camp looks like...Ha-ha he should be reading this blog…anyhow I don’t think that I can share a room with him..maybe I’ll move into a tent..

Anyhow I did get to take a quad around to the back of Bulldog Lake to check for some buildings. All I found was a few old remnants of some core shacks (that is the place where that kept the rock core from the drilling that was done on site). It was fun all the same..treking through the tundra, muskeg and creeks.

We are still having sightings of a bear. This time it was the surveyor at the airstrip, and this bear is an mature male. Possibly the one that is in the photos that Shan took. From what I saw of Andrew’s (the surveyor) photo he is a very big and blond coloured bear.

Today the camp handyman was working on building the gym in the old trailer. They are tearing out the wall and electrical and having to replace everything. Maybe tomorrow the flooring will arrive. We are going to be getting a tread mill, a couple of bikes and a guine Bow-Flex..WOW. this may get done by the time I fly out of here. But they are trying.

Well its 2130 hours and it’s time for my weekly shower..got to go before it’s to late.

More photos for you to enjoy.

Asbestos removal under way.

Tundra mine site from the other side of Bulldog Lake.

This is Jasmine Blackduck. The contractor’s office manager. She is the one that controls the camp, all flights in/out, workers on site, supplies etc. with out her the camp stops. And yes she is driving my truck.

Our kitchen staff Ray Brown and Lorna Catholique. These two are responsible for me adding another hole in my belt..just kidding they keep us well fed.

And this is a major competer for all the scavengers. This seagull is huge, has to be 2 feet tall and weigh in at 10-15 lbs. We have spent days looking for a chip truck.

Cheers from “on the Land”

Pat

June 13, 2007

Saturday, June 16, 2007, 10:59:10 AM | donkeycat

                                                                                    June 13, 2007

Well hello there..

Well it’s now 2000 hours and it’s +10⁰C and raining. Can’t really complain though, this is the first rain that we have had since I’ve been here. However the cloud cover is playing havoc with the satellite T.V.. not only is there never anything good to watch on…but now there is nothing period to watch.

 

My T.V. has been like this since 1830 hours. That’s O.K. because I have my reports to write and a report to read on the existing mine shafts and what we are going to do with them.  Oh ya..and to write this log.

I finally got a copy of my bear safety training certificate. I now practice all the tricks that I learned from the course that Andy taught. However I still carry a bear belt (it’s a belt with a can of bear spray, a bowie knife and a revolver for bear bangers (bear bangers are a shell that is loaded with a kind-of firecracker..i’ll get a picture). All of us that travel onto the tundra must carry one.

While I’m on the topic of training I just completed a course on Aerial Work Platform Safety and Operation. That’s right I’m now certified to operate a cherry picker. Haha a whole new concept for deer hunting tree stand..just think of the possibilities! What a view from 135 feet up.

This is what the site looks like from 45 feet up.

Shaun and I spent about 2.5 hours this afternoon riding around the tundra on quads, looking for the old mine raises. There are three that are still open… These are fenced in so don’t worry…mom, Shelly…we traveled only about 1 to 1.5 Km from the camp…I know, I know, I would love to just go exploring this land for days on end. However there is work to do….we did find the two that are off the site proper. It was one h#$@ (trying to keep it clean so that in the years to come my new baby can read this in school class) of a ride. Over rocks, through willows (that’s where you find bears), bogs and streams. IT WAS GREAT!! I might just have to go looking for the openings again, or several times..you know to get the dimensions I missed before..nod, nod,wink,wink..

They make us wear the helmet because it’s in the health and safety plan. But it’s hard to swat the mosquitoes when they get in your ears. Oh ya! they are here, and they are big. The only saving grace is it’s still to cold for them to be out on mass.

Not and actual photo, however almost to scale. I’ll try to get a photo….but I’ll need some bait….maybe on the 19^th (Shelly will get this)...Ha-ha

Anyway even with the bugs the tundra is absolutely fantastic and beautiful. It’ like nothing I’ve been to before. And the amount of living creatures is staggering. There are birds nesting everywhere. This nest is in a wooden pipe that was used by the mine to take the tailings from the mill to the tailings pond. What are tailings you ask! Well they are the materials that is left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction
(gold, silver etc.) from the worthless fraction of an ore (rock).

And here is a good one to end this with.

That’s me on the tundra with the mine in the background at approx. 1Km.

Cheers from “on the Land”

Pat

June 14, 2007

Saturday, June 16, 2007, 10:59:10 AM | donkeycat

                                                                                    June 14, 2007

Winter is here again…it seems to strike every couple of days.

Late last night the water at the edge if the lakes started freezing up again. The temperature was +3⁰C this morning and freezing rain with the occasional snow flake. The entire day was like a late fall day in northern Ontario. Overcast and cold…I’m back in the Nipigon nylons. Because the weather is so unpredictable I decided to set up my weather station and make my own forecasts. This is the traditional weather rock, and so far it’s been dead accurate. And I’ve included the “how it works “ for all you budding weather people (I’m being politically correct).

The weather rock

This rock is the perfect weather indicator. It never fails. It is

more accurate than your local weatherman; it is 100% correct. This

is how it works:

·       A dry rock means fair weather.

·       A wet rock means it's raining.

·       A dusty rock means a dust storm.

·       A swaying rock means the wind is blowing.

·       A shadow under the rock means the sun is shining.

·       If the rock is jumping up and down, an earthquake is upon us.

·       A white rock means there is a snow storm.

Most beautiful of all, though the rock is not attached to its existence,

it doesn't mind if which of the above is occurring

I believe there is a little Zen in this forecasting system.

AEL (Aboriginal Engineers Ltd.) the contractor installed there fancy digital screen, remote location, 25 function including an alarm clock and a backlight (I have to use a flashlight to check mine at night..I guess that does not apply in the land of the 24 hour sunlight...but mine does not use batteries) weather station today as well. We’ll see which is more accurate.

The work on site today was pretty routine and nothing of any real interest happened. I did the usual routine of checking on all the different work areas, Haz-mat, demolition and gravel haul. Then in the afternoon we had a visit from the INAC (Indian and Northern Affaire Canada). They go around to all the sites and check to see that everyone is operating within there land and water permits. And we are. They showed up in there helicopter..what a nice machine..and fast. I believe it’s a Eurocopter EC.135

  

If the weather is nice tomorrow I’ll be taking a quad. for a run back through the tundra. This time I’ll be going along the edge of Mathews Lake. And you’ll never guess why…I’m looking for a dump site (that should be of no surprise).  But this is a historic dump from when the mine was in use back in the 60’s. all I have to do is look for stuff that’s as old as I am..Ha-ha..

Well got to run dinner is being served and with a camp of 33 people it’s hard to get a seat. I’m back , what a great supper. We had ribs, baked potatoes, cauliflower and artic char with apple crisp for desert.

Well is now 2030 hours and time for the weekly shower..so I will leave you now with this quote.

“I have been one acquainted with the night

I have walked out in rain – and back in rain.

I have outwalked the furthest city light.”

Robert Frost

It’s not that I’ve found some deeper meaning of life out “on the land” it’s just happens to be the opening of my book. I may get to read some of it tonight.

Cheers from “on the Land”

Pat

June 15, 2007

Saturday, June 16, 2007, 10:59:09 AM | donkeycat

                                                                                    June 15, 2007

What a great day…

The weather was almost perfect. It was somewhere around 5⁰C this morning but with the wind chill it was 3⁰C (that one’s from AEL weather station) but warmed up the 12⁰C in the late afternoon. The day was mostly overcast with a look of rain. 

This morning after the 0730 hour safety meeting I took off down to the airstrip with a couple of the guys from AEL to put the wind sock on the tower. The tower is maybe 50 to 60 feet (15  to 18 meters for the younger crowd) and the wind sock goes at the top. The kicker is…Wayne (the laborer from AEL) has a fear of heights…sooo guess who got to ride the Ariel Work Platform (remember I just took the course) yours truly…so here is the photo that Wayne took of me 50 to 60 feet (15  to 18 meters for the younger crowd) up in the air.

I never did get the wind sock on the tower. I needed to get 5 feet (1.5m) higher to reach the top. As I inched my way closer the peek of the tower…all this with a 21Km/hour wind and the bucket moving, bobbing and swinging from side to side, Wayne said his knees were buckling just watching…with only inches to go… the off level alarm (that’s the buzzer that tells you the machine is no longer level and it's time to readjust the unit before it falls over) went off. Well this set my heart to pounding, I said #$%@ this, I’m getting the #^%* out of here and headed down. The wind sock can wait until a calmer day. Oh by the way did you notice the crows nest in the tower. Well there are three baby crows in it and two very upset parents buzzing around me the entire time I was in the AWP.

After all that excitement I came back to the office had a cup of coffee and then off to look for hidden raises (a raise is a shaft that connects one underground level to another underground level or in this case the surface) that are usually full of water or overgrown with vegetation. I think I was able to locate two. Both are depressions in the bedrock and both are full of water and overgrown. When they dig them up I’ll know if I’m right.

This is an open raise, number 130S and is 325 feet (99.06m) deep. However it’s got water at about 10 feet (3m) from surface. And is safely fenced in as you can see. Part of the work that we are doing up here is to find and cap these shafts and raises to prevent people and animals from falling in.

After lunch I was off on a 15 Km quad trip with the bear monitor (Charlie Fish) across the tundra in search of another old dump.

That’s Charlie checking the land for…bears or the dump site we are looking for. We went up the one side of Matthew Lake through some of the worst area you can imagine (except for you Mike, I know you’ve been through worst). Over boulders, through peat bog and through run-offs, well almost through..

I had to get Charlie to pull me out.  But we, I should say I, only got stuck once and we never did find the dump.

Well it looks like it’s going to be a pleasant evening, the wind has died down a little the sun is shining and I’ve just had a wonderful dinner..so I think I’ll end this update now and go and enjoy a cup of tea and watch some T.V. (yes…it’s back on). Oh by the way CFG I have finished my daily report.

I found another good quote from Robert Frost.

"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper."

The reason I’ve included this is, I may have to learn about someone and they may have to learn about me.

Cheers from “on the Land”

Pat

June 12. 2007

Wednesday, June 13, 2007, 12:12:43 AM | donkeycat

                                                                                    June 12, 2007

Well it’s 2100 hours and I’m still working…

I’m trying to revise the spreadsheet that I’ve been working on…it seams like forever…anyhow I think I’m done, or at least for tonight.

Today was shift change day so the morning was very busy. I had to do a survey of the dump for PCB’s (I heard that it stands for Pirogues, Cabbage rolls and Borsch) in the form of light ballasts and transformers. The next thing on my list of thing to do was check the transformers we had already found and count other items..then we moved on to burning some of the structures we had already taken down. What a great fire the mill fine ore bin made.

I then spent some time collecting old batteries, and checking up on the haz-mat crew and the removal of designated substances.

The rest of the day was spent in a aerial work platform safety course. Aced the test..tomorow we will have the practical part of the course..I’ll try to get some photos from the top as well as ground level.

Oh ya…we had another bear sighting. This time 500m from the camp. A young blond grizzly. Again no photos..I’m working on it..

Today’s weather was 14⁰C at 0730 hours and at 2100 its still warm at 17⁰C and a blue sky.

Well it’s time I go the bed..tomorow will come very quickly and it will be busy.

Cheers from “on the Land”

Pat

June 5, 2007

Tuesday, June 05, 2007, 6:39:47 PM | donkeycat

                                                                                                            June 5, 2007

Well this is it I’m back at Tundra.. but here is what has happened since I left.

May 16, 2007 – the trip home

Well it’s time to leave this place and head for home..a place that I have missed, but tried not to think about. If you think about the places and people you are missing the time you spend in an isolated place this will take forever to go by.

The flight from Tundra to Yellowknife was a little on the bumpy side. Lots of turbulence and cloud cover, however I did manage to get a few shots from the plane window.

You can see that the land is still covered with snow. I hope it will be gone by the next time I back.

Upon arriving back in Toronto I was very disappointed to learn that the traffic problem is still here. With all of our technology we still cannot solve this. Anyways I arrived safely and started to get ready for camping in the USA at Letchworth State Park. What a beautiful place. The company was top draw and the falls are fantastic..the weather could have been better…but what do you want for May in Canada (or New York State).

 

Here is Shelly getting the fire ready for dinner.

 and dinner on the stove!

 Shelly getting ready for the Civil War reenactment.

  

and yes here are the falls. This is lower falls the middle and upper falls are also great.

Upon our return to Toronto….there was that work thing again. Back in the office, enough said about that. Shelly had all kinds of plans for the house. Painting a room and adding a few trees and a step to the front of the house.

 

June 3, 2007

The day of my travel trials:

Leaving from Toronto was standard the trip to the airport was uneventful and as per the norm..I was searched form top to bottom. The flight was hot, rough and crouded..the more things change the more they stay the same. The new twist on this trip was the chemical detector at the Edmonton airport. I set that off..go figure I’m caring a back pack I use for hunting…this time the search included a questionnaire and a more detailed search of everything I had with me and a complete pat down.

My arrival in Yellowknife was 2 hours delayed but it was beautiful, the sun was shining, at 2200hrs, and the temperature was around 10⁰C.

 

Inside the Yellowknife airport.

June 5, 2007

The flight from Yellowknife was a little on the rough side…like 100Km of washboard road.. my but spent half of the time out of the seat, only the seatbelt kept me in place. the snow is gone however the lakes are still frozen. it's around +4C with a clear blue sky and a north wind..it's still cold! and so bright I have to shades. According to my sources on site, Velmore, there are 3 grizzlies in the neighbourhood, Shaun has some photos of them and I'll try to get copies to post in the updates.

Well it’s time to go and catch up on what’s been happening here, that means more reading.

Cheers from “out on the land”

Pat

May 7/07

Friday, June 01, 2007, 2:03:54 PM | donkeycat

                                                                                             May 7/07

Day ….whatever it’s all the same day up here….

Some good news…we have had a major change in the weather.  Instead of  fog, we now have ice fog and snow, the temperature has dropped to -4⁰C but we have no wind.  It does not look good for a plane to land today.  Maybe later today?  Haha  Who are we kidding..the reports from the airport in Yellowknife are that they are fogged in. Supprise!!!

At 0600 hours, while out for a smoke, I spotted a couple of ptarmigans (why does it start with a ‘p’ anyway) beautiful white birds with a dark head. They are still in the winter plumage.  I think that they are smaller than our partridge and are just as good to eat.  I may find that out sooner or later.

Our wildlife monitor was out just after 0600 hours to check out the camp and site for any cridders that may have come in last night.  None found.

At around 0700 hours Dave, our fix-it-all man, finally got the furnaces to blow hot air. For the past couple of days they were just acting as big fans and blowing cold air around. Everybody in camp had piled clothing and gear on top of the registers to keep the cold out.

I was speaking to the contractor this morning at breakfast and laying out the days work plan and which buildings I was going into, when he informed me that 5 of the structures had already been knocked down. One of the building was full of caribou carcass (the lodge at the other end of the air field, about 10km away, was using this to attract grizzlies for hunting) and was burned down when the camp was set up.

Well time for another tailgate (daily safety meeting for those not in construction).

Quickly before dinner is served I got my TV hooked up J now I can watch all that stuff I never really watched at home… I hope I can get ..that show with the functional dysfunctional family…Arrested Development.

Back again…it is now 1630 hours and I have to sit down and figure out all the quantities of material I’ve been looking at. I think we are way over the estimate.

Any how we have had a very exciting afternoon…. the weather has changed, no fog but very low cloud ceiling and a very, very cold and strong north wind, it’s shaking the camp. I had to get my parka out. Oh ya we also had a small herd of caribou go close (maybe 1000 m) by the camp, sorry but no photos of the herd.  However, the site foreman and the wildlife monitor took off on a sled with rifle in hand to go shopping.  We heard the shots so maybe we will have caribou for dinner.

Velmore (site foreman) going caribou shopping.

(the whole camp was like kids in a candy store all work stopped to watch the herd)

The boys just got back from caribou shopping and we are having caribou for dinner. They got two.  The small herd was approximately 200 in size. Sorry no photos, they dressed them out in the field.

Well that’s it for the excitement “out on the land”.

Cheers for now, I’ll continue to update you on our progress or lack of it.

Pat

P.S. I do get Arrested Development.

May 9, 2007

Friday, June 01, 2007, 2:03:34 PM | donkeycat

                                                                                                9 May 2007

Hi again, here it the latest update:                                                                     

What a beautiful day “out on the land”, the sun is shining bright and the sky is bight blue and there is not a cloud in sight.  However, the temperature has fallen to a chilly -13⁰C.  There was some relief last night when we saw the sun dogs at sunset…everybody knew that the weather was about to change.

Sunset at Tundra mine site

 

Beautiful morning (0630hours) at Tundra mine.

Today we have +10km visibility and unlimited ceiling. The planes are coming in. We will have a full camp by end of day.  Ten have left and seventeen have arrived (that will bring the camp to 35) and this group is all Hazmat workers in training. The next 3 days will be slow due to the training program.  All of our supplies have arrived.

Our wildlife monitor left today but a new guy arrived to install the bear fence around the camp.  It appears that the fence that was ordered may not be the right type for this size of camp..we will see what happens with that.  Andy, the bear guy, will be installing the fence and teaching a course on bear safety.  I’ll be taking that course.  I’ll pass on any useful information and tips I learn.

Our cooking staff – the one on the right is June.

Our cook also left today (and a new one arrived – this one Sage is her daughter and boss) but she did leave me with a parting gift. During the last week and a half I’ve lent her my CD collection to play in the kitchen and upon my return to my office I found a book she had written (she’s been calling me Dave for the last week and signed her book to Dave) about her experiences in the diamond exploration camps of Canada’s artic. The book is comprised of her letters home to her husband and talks to the ways of the land and the people, and the continual desire to return to this wilderness.  I understand where she is coming from.. from my first trip up north “out on the land” I was captivated by it’s harshness and rugged beauty, the relentless flies, the unpredictability of the weather and speed with which it changes and the people.  The people are fantastic.. friendly and willing to make the camp work, and their knowledge of the land is seems limitless.  I was talking to Valmore the other day about the use of GPS systems for travel on the land, his answer was he has never used them or a compass and he just knows which way he has to go to get to where he is going.  “Those that forget the traditional ways are doomed to be lost”.  I don’t remember the elders name that said that but it was a quote in a local newspaper.. and I won’t tell you where I was when I read it.

Today was a rather easy day for me. I had time to catch up on my reading..hahaJ that’s work reading, contract documents, health and safety plans, fire, spill and wildlife management plans and demolition plans.  Possibly, I even get to read my book…not likely!  I still have a lot to go through.

I am actually working on the computer for all this project management and I have proof.. the computer is giving me more trouble than the project.  When I’m not crawling through the buildings I have to read and write reports.

Well it’s 1830 hours here now and supper will be coming on line in a few minutes, followed by the bear course. So I’ll continue this later.

It’s hard to believe that I had to close the blinds to work on the computer.  We haven’t had this much sun since I’ve been here.

Dinner was fantastic “T” bone stakes, baked potatoes, sweet carrots and cherry crumble for dessert with juice to drink, orange juice…boy did it taste good.

The bear safety course will be starting at 1930 hours and last about 2 hours so I’ll fill you in on the details in the next letter.

Once again Cheers from “out on the land”

Pat

May 10, 2007

Friday, June 01, 2007, 2:03:02 PM | donkeycat

                                                                                               10 May 2007

Good morning to all:

Another beautiful day out on the land, the sun is shining bright and the sky is brilliant blue and there is not a cloud anywhere.  It’s still -8⁰C.  However, you don’t feel it.

Today is another slack day on site due to training programs.  This allows me time to continue with my reading, writing and site tours to inspect the equipment and buildings.

The food is back to being excellent and lots of it.  There’s really not much to report on.

Andy is installing the bear fence today and everything that we covered on bears in the course last night (2.5 hours) is on the DVD Staying Safe in Bear Country – that’s because it’s the DVD they use in the course. The instructor Andy McMullen is the chairman of the committee that made the DVD.  He has over 30 years as a wildlife officer in Ontario, NWT and the Artic dealing with black, brown (grizzlies) and polar bears as well as other carnivores.

Speaking of wildlife I had a run in with a couple of our local feathered and furred friends, and did manage to snap a few photographs.

I believe you all know this one…the ptarmigan in partial winter plumage.

This is a red fox that been wandering around the camp since I got here.

This bunch is the contractor’s staff on site.  On left is Marco, Max and Shaun.  This group is made up of two chemical engineers and Max, who is working toward a law degree (so he can slap an environmental law suite on his mining company executive father) but for now he’s the camp administrator and expeditor.  The problem with the planes was driving him nuts.

 

And here’s me with my site truck (and yes Shelly it’s a Ford F150 4x4 extended cab with a winch on the front) “out on the land”.  You can see what a great day we are having..I’m almost in shortsJ (I discovered this happy face thing the other day.. not bad eh!).

It should be pretty quiet around here tonight. The crew has been in course all day, and the AEL and kitchen staff are required to take the bear course tonight.  I have two documents (small ones 7 and 11 pages) to review tonight and comment on by morning and then I’ll have some time to watch TV.

Anyhow, I’ll end this here (I don’t know if you can take this much excitement) and carry on with my real work.

Cheers from “out on the land”,

Pat

May 11, 2007

Friday, June 01, 2007, 2:02:35 PM | donkeycat

                                                                                                  11 May 2007

Good evening to you all:

We had another beautiful day “out on the land”.  The sun is shining bright and the sky is brilliant blue and there is not a cloud anywhere.  It’s a balmy +1⁰C and I’m wearing a “T” shirt…that’s because I’m stuck inside writing a DSS (Designated Substance Survey) report on all the buildings.  Just me and my !@#$%^ computer.  I’ll keep the language clean because I don’t know who’s reading this.

Another day of training for the lads.  I hope they understand that this is their last and that tomorrow brings the start of 10 hour days of hot and dirty work.  We already had one guy quit today and had to put him on the plane out.  Speaking of the plane… there is no jet “B” fuel available in Yellowknife for charters and they will not get supplied until some time next week.  However, we are getting planes because we have fuel.  They fly out supplies to us.  On the return trip, we fill the plane and send an additional 2 to 3 205L (45gal for us oldies that still think in imperial) drums.  While we are on the topic of fuel our bear guy (Andy) pointed out several bear attracts at our camp.  The worst one being our incinerator..or..lack of an incinerator.  You see, about 3 days ago, one of the fuel injectors went and we’ve been waiting for a new one, so our garbage has been piling up.  Well today our supply plane brought the injector and we (Velmore) installed it.  Problem solved, you would think…well now the electronic flow control for the diesel fuel has gone and we will have to wait on another one.  We almost had this problem solved with out a hitch.  Anyways it usually takes a couple of weeks to get a camp this size up and running smoothly.

I did manage to get my review and comments done early last night and I took the bear course again.  Very informative even a second time.  The first night I got volunteered to walk like a bear, however last night I got a photo of Shaun doing the bear walk..and he’s no small guy.  That’s Andy in the background laughing.  I would suggest that anyone going out doors this summer watch that DVD (staying safe in bear country), you don’t need any bear deterrents you just need to known how a bear behaves and how to read it’s body language.  Sounds easy …well it actually is and it works.  Deterrents like bear bangers, pepper spray and a gun only give a false sense of security and if you don’t know how to use them they can be dangerous. That’s all the bear wisdom I can give you by mail, watch the DVD.

Shaun walking as a grizzly during our bear course

Andy doing the final setup of our bear fence.

We have our bear fence installed now.  It’s a 6 wire 10,000volt 1/100amp fence that runs around the trailers to keep the bears out.  I hope we remember to keep in plugged in J.

Things should start getting busy tomorrow, still with the writing and reading and building inspections and add to that supervision of remediation, I think I’ll manage to stay out of trouble for the next 4 days…..YES that right 4 more sleeps till I’m out of here J only to return again on the 6 of JuneJ alright I’ll admit it I love it up here..

Anyhow got to go now supper is being served and I don’t want to miss out.

As always Cheers from “out on the land”

Pat

P.S. say hi to Andy and Tony for me.

May 13, 2007

Friday, June 01, 2007, 2:02:02 PM | donkeycat

                                                                                                  13 May 2007

Happy Mothers Day:

It would appear that we have been thrown back into winter (it just will not go away) again.  The day started off with fog and rain and a north wind, you know what that means, by coffee time at 1000 hours we had snow and blowing snow to white out conditions.  It’s not to bad for me as I am again inside typing reports.  I realize that it seems like it’s taking forever to get this report done.  But my typing is not very fast…I think I’m up to 15 words a minute..does spelling count?

The guys were saying that we had another herd of caribou near to the camp.  They are down by where we get our water.  Marco got some photos of them but by the time I got down to the area where they were spotted the visibility was down to 30 to 50 m from the blowing snow and I could not find them.

Sorry the photo is not too clear but it was snowing at the time.  As you can see there were a few of them.  Beautiful animals and the mine is on one of the migration routes.  We also have more geese arriving by the day.  Also seagulls.

This place is alive with wildlife, well except for the camp mascot the sleeping wood pecker.  The poor little guy, we think he flew into the side of the trailer.

Today there is not too much to report to bring you up to speed…the training program of our new recruits is over and they started to work on the decontamination area in one of the buildings, while I was busy working to finish the report.  I DID IT!!  Its done, now to sent it off to the office.  I hope they don’t rip it apart too badly at the officeJ.

I did manage to get “out on the land” today,  in the snow and blowing snow..as you can see it’s kind of cold up here..no I’m not standing on a cliff..it’s just a white out behind me.

That’s all I have for today.

Cheers from “out on the land”

Pat

P.S.

Only 2 more sleeps till a cold moosehead in Yellowknife.

May 14, 2007

Friday, June 01, 2007, 2:01:38 PM | donkeycat

                                                                                                 14 May 2007

Last day of captivity:

As I sit here finishing my paperwork for the day, I look out the window and watch the setting sun.  It seems funny that as the sun sets and I lay my pen (or in this case my keyboard) down for the evening this tour at Tundra also ends.

The last 15 days have gone by very fast and it seems like just yesterday I was boarding the twin otter in Yellowknife to head into Tundra.  Since arriving I have watched this camp go through all the growing pains and problems that any new settlement has to endure.  If I was part of the problems or the solutions only time will tell.

As I write this another herd of caribou is passing the camp out on Bulldog Lake.  I can see them clear as day with my binoculars (or blockneers).  However, my camera will not zoom enough to get a photo of them.  That black line in the center of the photo is the caribou.  I would love to get a better camera for up here.  The land is so flat and treeless…I guess that’s why they call it the barrens…that judging distance is very difficult and things are farther than they appear.

Tonight I have to get things ready for Lawrence (the guy I spelled off) so that when he takes over tomorrow he will have an understanding of where I left off from, the place he left off or at least what has happened since he’s been gone.  I also have to pack up my gear and get ready for the trip home.  I’ll be home for 20 days (May 17 to June 6) then back to the north..Tundra.

Well that all I have time for….I need to find my razor and soapJ and clean up a little for the flight to Yellowknife.

Cheers from “out on the land”.

Pat

P.S. I just finished this letter and another herd of caribou goes past.  One of the ladies that looks after the camp spotted this one.

May 12, 2007

Friday, June 01, 2007, 1:43:51 PM | donkeycat

                                                                                                    12 May 2007

Afternoon  all:

We are being dragged back into the fair to poor category of weather.  Today it hovering between 0 and -3⁰C and can’t decide if it’s going to rain or snow…so we are getting both. As far as work is going, I’ve completed all the building surveys that I can do. The remaining buildings are still full of snow and are inaccessible right now.  I’ll have to wait till my next trip back to inspect them.  The photo below is me (clean shaven and washed just for this photo opportunity) in the upper regions, that is the top of the crusher house.

Last night we had another beautiful sunset.  The photo was taken at about 2330 hours from the door beside my room.  This is what I have to look at every night out my window. I don’t close my blinds at night.   Sometimes I even keep the window open to listen to the night.  The silence is only broken by the howl of the wind, the running of the generator and the hum and click of the bear fence.

I did not work too late last night.  I was kind of tired, so I had some time to do the minor repairs that all field equipment needs….I fixed my moccasins.  The soles were a little worn.  I did a little patch job with the 200 Km/h tape.  They are working fine now and I think I can walk fasterJ.

The snow geese are flocking here by the hundreds, every day there are more.  There are also groundhogs showing up at various locations.  I guess spring is here.  The snow is still melting, the rivers are running under the snow and the road runs through it.

While driving to the water supply location I found this and had to get a picture for big, John Gordon.  I know how much he loves them and will want to add this to his collection.

Well folks that all for now.

Cheers from “out on the land”.

Pat

P.S.

I hope Shelly is saving these, because I keep erasing them by accident.

P.P.S.

Only 3 more sleeps till Yellowknife and a cold moosehead and 4 to Toronto.

P.P.P.S. (can you do this)

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers and mother’s to be (Shelly)

May 8, 2007

Friday, June 01, 2007, 12:55:24 PM | donkeycat

                                                                                                            8 May 2007

It’s the 8th of May and we are still “out on the land”.  Well actually, at the mine camp.

The weather has changed dramatically.  Today we had -6⁰C with snow and fog in the morning.  However, after dinner the fog lifted and we had visibility of 6 km with a ceiling of 300-400 ft and a light north wind.  Just beautiful!  Now here is the problem… Air Tindi wants visibility of +10 km and a ceiling of 800 ft… so you see the problem… no plane again today…  We have 2 electronic technicians in camp that have been stranded for the past 6 days.  Our supplies are starting to get very low.  The cook was telling me that we are having our last meal with vegetables.  Our fruit is all gone, the baking supplies are done, and we are on canned milk.  We do have lots of meat, several boxes of cold cereal and a large selection of creamy salad dressings.  Speaking of food, we had a fantastic feed of caribou for dinner last night.  The camp had (I had 2) caribou steaks with potatoes and Yorkshire pudding.  For breakfast today I had caribou steak with bacon (pork) had hash browns.  Dinner was caribou sloppy Joe had caribou soup.

Back to the supply situation, we are also running out of cleaning supplies and consumables.  All the paper towel is gone, and we are almost out of toilet paper.  There is talk of rationing 2 sheets to each person per day until the plane comes in.  Our supply pile is growing at air Tindi.  I have heard that we are up to 19 crates to come in.  That is a single and back to back twin otters.

Anyhow enough of the day to day…I had mentioned that there are 39 buildings on site that I had to inspect but I have not included any photos.. so here a aerial photo to let you see what I’m up against.

This is the site.  On the far left is the bunkhouse, beside it is the cookhouse.  Center is the headframe, (with the green roof) crusher building, mill.  On the right is the main office and garage.  The warehouse is in the foreground and the tank farm on the right and that little bit of lake on the edge is called Bulldog lake.  There are 33 double occupancy bedrooms in the bunkhouse and another 8 in the cookhouse.  I estimate that at its peak the mine was running around 100 men. I don’t know any of the history of this site except that it was a gold mine. The Giant mine (in Yellowknife) did do some work here in the early 1980’s.

Above is a map of the southern part of NWT.  Yellowknife is in the south at Giant mine. I’m currently at the Tundra mine (north and east).  Later in the summer (June) I’ll be working at the Eldorado mine on Great Bear Lake and Tundra and possible several small mines south of the Terra mine. 

This is inside one of the buildings.  The snow makes my work all the more difficult because I cannot see the floors (or lack off) or any openings.  That grate in the center of the frame goes straight through 2 floors to the crawlspace.  It also makes it hard to put up a ladder.

We also have to deal with the crawl spaces that run under the buildings.  Before we can enter these areas we have to send in the wildlife monitor to see if there are any sleeping bears.

As the weather starts to get better we are being visited by more and more wildlife.  There are now ravens, tons of snow sparrows, snow geese and ptarmigan around the camp daily.  I did manage to get a photo of the ptarmigan. They are snow white with dark heads at this time of the year, and they have feathered feet.  See how nicely they blend in with the surroundings.

Well, it’s 1930 hours here (2130 hours your time) and I have a lot of work ahead of me still.  Reading and writing reports and answering e-mails from the office.  I hope I haven’t bored you with the trials and tribulation of working in the north.  Anyway, I will end this now and say goodnight to you all.

Cheers from “out on the land”

Pat

P.S. there is word that the planes will arrive tomorrow.

May 6, 2007

Friday, June 01, 2007, 12:35:04 PM | donkeycat

Day 6 of my captivity…..

Sorry, just thinking out loud….

Well, good evening to you all (it’s 1830 hours here).  Just an update to what is going on “out on the land”.

For any of you that want to see where this place is on the map, we are located at WGS84 N64⁰02’24.6” W111⁰10’38.9”.  That is somewhere out on the barrens of the Northwest Territories.

We have now been fogged in (only a Newfoundlander can understand) for the last 5 days (that means no planes) and supplies are running low.  We are running out of everything and we are out of eggs, milk, juice and most important catsups!!  The cooks are looking to see who has the most meat on them...haha just kidding, there are lots of snow sparrows to eat.

As for the weather, it’s foggy in the morning, afternoon and in the evening (interrupted by strong wind and rain).  There’s talk that the fog should break sometime…at least we are all hoping it will happen before June.  At least the temperature has been good.  Lately it’s been hanging around 0⁰C day and night.  However, the cook said it dropped to a chilly -27⁰C the other night.  That doesn’t matter too much as there is no place to go at night.

Work is keeping me busy.  I’ve now inspected 10 of the 39 buildings onsite (wearing a tyvek suite and respirator all day over my insulated coveralls).  The work is tiring and dirty and the buildings are dark and full of old equipment and machinery.  At the end of the day I have to sit down and write up my reports and photo logs (I think I have taken almost as many photos as Natasha takes in a weekend…J) with a description of each.

We haven’t seen any wildlife in the past 5 days, we haven’t seen anything in the past 5 day (due to the fog).

This is what the camp looks like from about 200 m away. You don’t want to stray to far from home….you might not find it again.

Speaking of home this is what it look like, it is also my office.

Sorry about the formatting, I’m still trying to get the hang of this program.

Anyways, it’s time to go and see who’s for dinner… just kidding, but just the same I’ve got to go.  Supper will be served soon and I don’t want to miss out.  It’s only served between 1830-1930 hours.

Well good night from “on the land” and I’ll try to keep you updated on the situation here. It’s really not as bad as it sounds. J

Cheers and enjoy your clear skies.

Pat

May 5, 2007

Friday, June 01, 2007, 12:26:32 PM | donkeycat

Good Morning to all:

Just a quick e-mail to let you all know that I’m alive and well. You will have to accept my apologies for the format of this letter but I’m still learning how to use this word processing program with inserting photos.

We had a great flight in from Yellowknife, approximately 1.5 hours on a twin engine otter. The flight itself was uneventful but the landing was a little rough. The frost is starting to come out of the exposed ground and the runway was a little soft.

Yes, we have weather “out on the land”.  Our mornings are around -12C with fog followed with a daily high of a balmy -4C with beautiful clear days and the nights drop to a chilly -17C.  The land is still snow covered and the lakes have anywhere from 24” to 60” of ice. The weather should change sometime around the beginning of June, when the ice starts to come off the lakes. Our sunsets are beautiful all the same.

The camp, well where do I begin. I am staying in a trailer (there are tents for the overflow when the camp grows to more than 30).  The trailer is warm, except that the outside doors do not close tight, and beds are comfortable.  By the end of the day we will have phones, internet and TV.  All of it is satellite of course seeing that we are 250 kms northeast of Yellowknife.  We have had some fun all the same. The plumbing was leaking in the washroom, so that had to be torn apart to find the leak, which took us from 3 showers and toilets to one in the men’s washroom.  The kitchen is leaking somewhere and that is currently under investigation.

I have to go now.  We are having the daily safety meeting held at 0730 hours. I’ll continue this later…….well I’m back, almost exactly 12 hours later.

Where was I…ah yes, the camp….well the washroom is repaired and we are now up to 2 toilets and showers.  We are missing a ventilation fan in the kitchen and the other morning, at around 0530 hours (the time I’m getting up anyhow) the fire alarm went off. We thought we had this problem fixed?  They have installed the fan.  However now when they turn on the vent fan it trips a breaker and we lose all power to this side of the camp. The phones are in and working except if the intercom is used the phones go off line and need to be reset.  I have a TV in my room and it has power but no channels, the satellite dishes are up and the wiring is in, but due to weather (strong north wind and thick –NFLD thick – fog) the plane bringing supplies and the last part for the TV system was cancelled.  Hopefully, it will arrive tomorrow!  Until then, I still have my CD’s.

The food is very good and there is plenty of it.  I’m trying to stick to only one plate at each meal and no desserts only fruit.  However, I’m drinking too much coffee. The milk has lumps – I hope it’s powdered.  New milk will arrive when the plane comes in, along with ketchup, mustard and all the other necessities.  We do have 9 types of creamy salad dressing to choose from.

What’s it like up here you ask?....Well that’s hard to explain.  It’s very different than the Great Bear Lake area, for those of you who have seen photos, this area is very flat with a lot of rock outcropping.  The trees, if you can call them trees are very small, no more than 6 to 8 feet, and very sparse.  I have seen 3 since I’ve been here.  You have to remember that the ground is still snow covered, in some places several feet deep.  As for the wildlife, we have had a fox and a white wolf come around the camp.  Our wildlife monitor, that is the guy that checks for and deals with any wildlife that enters the camp, is an older man (a native from up here as is 90% of our camp) who has spent his life “on the land” thinks we may have trouble with bears this year. He is very superstitious and will not say the word bear.  He says “if you talk about them, they will come”.  We will be getting a bear fence around the camp, when the plane comes.

Work is keeping me very busy.  I have to survey all the building for PCB, asbestos, mercury, lead and all the other good stuff.  This can be difficult at times due to debris, structural condition and no light.  I have a good helper, a native from a town on Great Bear Lake, and he’s interested in learning about environmental surveys.  After a 12 hour day crawling through these buildings (I’ve done 2 of 39) I have to meet with the contractor and discuss the days work and what will happen next, then the report writing starts.  Speaking of which, I’m going to have to run and get my reports done before bed and yes Dano I am doing kata every night.

Well good night from “on the land” and I’ll try to keep you updated on any new events.

Cheers and enjoy your good weather!

Pat

Friday, June 01, 2007, 11:38:41 AM | donkeycat

May 24 2007 Letchworth State Park camping trip.
This is my first attempt at doing this blog thing.

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