Deb springs to action!

Hello to all out friends who have checked in on us. Sorry we've been slacking on the posts. Work has been extremely busy for the both of us lately and it takes a long time to upload pictures. But enough with the excuses, I will make a better effort to keep the blog updated! These photos are from a fire that started after an engine overheated in a truck. Part of Deb's job is to respond to any type of spill that happens on continent and can be cleaned up. She spent a week in Texas learning how to clean up oil spills on water and must be on call for a week every three weeks to respond to spills of any type. For this spill she had to clean up some transmission fluid by shoveling snow into 55 gal. drums for a few days. Debbie is currently at the South Pole helping the waste department handle all the stations waste. I'm sure she has some great pictures so hopefully we will put those up shortly. Feel free to send me reminders from time to time. We miss everyone and hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving. we had a big meal with friends and two days off in a row which was our reward for the holiday.

Work Week

Hello all, thought we'd explain a little of what an Antarctic work week is like. During the week I move science cargo for many of the science projects here at McMurdo. Everything from tents, food, snowmobiles, generators, construction equipment, science instruments, etc. makes it's way out to field sites around the continent. All the gear needs to be delivered to the right areas so that it can be loaded onto planes or helicopters and tracked in a cargo system. I also certify hazardous cargo that flies out of the station. I guess it's a glorified Fed Ex position in a way. I've attached a picture of what some of my day consists of. Deb works with handling all the waste the station produces. Over 90% of the waste is taken off continent and a good amount of it is recycled or resold back in the states. Deb can provide a more detailed explanation. We'll take some pictures of Deb's work place soon. Please ask any questions you may have on the blog and we'll try our best to answer them. Also if you want pictures or more info on anything just let us know!

Settling In

Our first two weeks here at McMurdo have been hectic!!!! It takes time getting use to working ten hour shifts six days in a row. We have found ourselves exhausted at night and are sorry to say that our bodies aren't cooperating like we hoped. Matt threw out his back playing basketball and had to spend a night on the floor. The next day my back started to hurt, at first I thought it was sympathy pains, but it lasted a few days!!!! We are finally feeling good again, the weather is improving and now we are working on catching up with friends!!! It feels great to be back and see so many familiar faces. This past week I was lucky and got the chance to attend two great survival trainings. The first is called Happy Camper School where you spend 36 hours out of town building shelters and learning basic survival skills in case you got stranded in a storm. I spent the night in a quinsy hut which is made by burying about twenty survival bags with a mound of snow. After letting the snow settle, we dug out the bags and it created a little igloo like structure to rest in. It was -18 that night, but we stayed somewhat warm in our hut. On Friday, I was able to go to see ice training. This is a day of analyzing cracks in the sea ice to see if they are passable in the vehicles we drive. We tested some of the cracks by drilling holes around them and checking the depth of the ice. We had a great instructor who also allowed us to sight see a bit and so we made a stop to visit some mother seals getting ready to have their pups and to a glacier at the end of of peninsula called Barn Glacier. Last night they had a showing of the Banff Mountain Film Festival in the galley. The pictures above are from our plane ride down, happy camper school, and sea ice training. We love and miss you all!!!!

A cold welcome!

Hi all,

We landed yesterday to a bone chilling -29F (-35F) with the windchill. It was nice to finally get to unpack and relax however the cold was a bit of an eye opener. Today it's actually a little colder but we're both off so we can hunker down inside. We'll both start working on Monday, (Sunday back home). The picture attached was from the flight before ours since it was too cold yesterday to stop and take a picture. We're working on setting up our room and should have a picture of it forthcoming.

Matt and Deb