Moonrise

moonrise over thor lake. all photos so far from my iPhone

Other times

The last few days have passed quickly. The reason being... wait a second! I'm in a damn rut. Anyways, the days are honestly flying by. That can be expected when all one does is make measurements and type numbers into a computer. On the plus side, the drill is a full hour long quad ride away, making visits pretty fun. Due to damp weather, the core racks have become mosquito hong kong. And I guess that makes me godzilla; I have certainly ruined a few mosquito's day. In other news, the runway is officially finished up here and the inaugural flight took place. Not the inaugural inaugural flight with all the investors, that's on wednesday. Today's landing was to make sure that none of the big spenders would die in a speeding fireball on wednesday, as that might attract bad press. Progress is occurring on my personal project as well... no, not the improvement of my golf swing, but my masters. The rocks are beginning to speak to me. And not in an insightful and helpful way, but more of a creepy, disguised-informant-voice-on-the-telephone-or-in-a-documentary kind of way. It keeps trying to get me to do a backflip from the roof of the core shack, but I think it just wants to laugh at me when I land on my neck. Honestly though, the masters project is chugging along.

Hot Weather

thank you mr. freeze!

The last few days have passed quickly. The reason being the work has been going smoothly. I think that terrible heat from "down south" has crept up here over the past few days making for some real scorchers in the high 20s. That may not sound like much but it's all relative. And considering I woke up the other morning and could see my breath that makes it pretty hot. Fortunately, we've got all the amenities including a freezer stocked with freezies. Upon reflection, although I would have chosen the largest size anyways, I realised I've never had a Mr. Freeze that wasn't Jumbo size. Anyways, they feel small to me now in this heat.

One real perk of living up at thor is that when it gets too hot at work, I walk over, pull on my swim trunks and jump in the lake, all in a matter of 2 minutes. I have unimpeded lake view, access and front, with a dock, a boat at my disposal and some bare rocks which would be perfect for lying on to catch some rays should I so choose. In fact, the only thing between my front door and the lake is the giant fire pit with benches. In all honesty, you couldn't possibly beat this for bunk or vacation home.

I was thinking the last few days, I wanted to address anyone who thinks living large in the NWT in the name of mining is less than ethical. That's fine, I hear that all the time, but park your Prius and pick up your iPhones to take a look at what our competitors are up to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltan

if Avalon could stamp industrial metals with little polar bears they would just to avoid association with these guys.

Zinc Island

zinc island on a peaceful evening

With two germans soon to be in camp, I remain happy with the outcome of the second world cup semi-final match. Gloating co-workers can be pretty draining. Still impressed that we managed to take a half hour to watch the match taking place a couple of hemispheres away, sitting in a canvas tent facing our lake. Prime rib for dinner and good evening conversation made for a solid end of the day.

Inanimate objects

So for various reasons, my arrival at camp depended on the availability of an inanimate object. They were waiting on some part to arrive to yellowknife so they could send us out together to camp. It not a great feeling, but once the part and I were on our way I forgave it. We were lucky enough to fly up front in a turbo beaver to Thor.

Upon arrival I saw few changes from last summer, mainly the km long airstrip being built nearby. The project manager and main geologist also have two new tents to themselves in a recent subdivision called "the Westend". There are way more vehicles in camp which are generally not missed when taken. We now have a newish truck, 2 Kubotas, 3 skiffs and a half dozen ATVs (that's not including all the equipment being used to build the runway. There are quite a lot of new staff, mainly operators and labourers as well as 2 new dogs, or "Yard Foremen". Luckily there are a lot of familiar faces, people who for some reason decided to stick around since last summer.

My days are spent logging core. Both of them. The drilling is quick and space is limited, so theres a lot of moving of core boxes. We stack them high to save space and also for fun, but I don't always share my coworkers confidence that the piles won't collapse into heaps of splinters and rock. So far so good, but you won't catch me with my foot under the stack.

The weather's been mediocre-to-bad. We've had moments of sun but no sunny days. One of the downsides a wet summer is the bugs, which have lately been enjoying all that blood I was saving all year for them. And they didn't even say thanks. I hear it will clear up later in the week, but then again the weather men always dangle carrots for us civilians to give us hope.

Even the weather

There is a shocking similarity between my current travel delay and my last one. It is not surprising that my luggage missed my Air Canada connection in Edmonton considering the 15 minute layover (kudos to my travel agent). But what is surprising is: being put up in a hotel that's white and looks like a giant house, grey clouds overhead, only a short drive from the airport, within walking distance of Walmart, being surrounded by small trees and parking lots, having my ears filled with roars of big trucks and watching a world sporting event on TV... all reminiscent of my time spent in Atlanta in February.

And what lessons did I learn in that last setback? Taco Bell food doesn't not look or taste as good as it appears on the ads, and pack vitals in your carry on. It's looking like my luggage will be dropped off with our expeditor this morning, and I should be on my merry way to camp by 185 cessna by midday.