Blog #14 - Our B Shift photo

OK, I figure I can at least try one more tonight since it will mostly be photos.


Here you will see the front of our fire station along with one of our Engines and our two brand new Ambulances we just got this past February off the ship.

Not much else to tell you about the photos except that these are the people I work with all the time. We have an A Shift and a B Shift and each shift works one day on and then one day off. Because of our schedule we are usually not very liked by many here in McMurdo since everyone else pretty much has to work 6 days a week and only gets Sunday off. Once a month they get a full weekend off, but when we work every other day, ALL THE TIME, it kind of puts a little friction between us and others. What really gets a lot of people is that we have the day on/off thing and then every other week we get an extra Kelly Day, or K-Day (a firefighter thing from I believe Chicago) so every other week each person gets their K-Day so that means we have 3 days off in a row. I think you can see why others don't seem to like us much.

Anyway, here are the photos and maybe one or two of McMurdo or something. ENJOY!

That's our station from up on Observation Hill. Pictures a little weird though?

Our Station, Engine, and two Ambulances. This was back in April when we still had sun!

How's that??

L to R: Rob Weidman, Grant Hanson, Lt. Mark Bucher, ME, Megan Branson

Who the Heck???

Blog #13 A Little Bull Dozer Trouble

So on one of our days down here in McMurdo word was getting around that one of the large bull dozers had broken through the ice and was half in and half out of the water. The incident happened around 0930 in the morning, but all the Fleet Operation guys thought they would be able to get it out during the day sometime. Well, things kept going longer and longer and with a few attempts here and there the dozer was falling deeper into the whole.

Finally about 1800 they decided to bring in all the Fire Department since they were going to make a final try and they were worried because the dozer driver would be in the cab and if he went in the water they wanted others around crazy enough to go in and get him out. That would be US of course!!

So they pull us in, tell us what has been happening all day, and what the plans are now. We were going to set up some ropes attached to our engines and there was going to be two people dressed in dry suits in case they had to go in the water. The other folks on our crew would help with pulling on the ropes to help bring the rescuers and driver in.

Well only three of us have had cold water training and I just happened to be one of them. The three of us were going to get dry suits on, but it turned out that there were only two dry suits so myself and one of our Lt. were the ones to dress up and be ready if needed.

After finally finding all we needed to get dressed in and after all were situated on the ice, the Fleet Operations guys tried to pull the dozer out again for the last time before it got to late to try anymore. The first go at it actually put the dozer down farther into the whole, but there was no way they were going to give up. On the second try it seemed like all the previous practice trys helped out and they were finally able to get the dozer out of the ice.

The main reason they wanted to get the dozer out of the ice that night is if they didn't, and left if for the morning, the likelihood that the dozer would be stuck in the ice for the rest of the season was GREAT and they didn't want to have all these people coming in for the Summer season and seeing a large dozer halfway in the ice.

Needless to say nobody got hurt, bruised, or anything during the whole process. To say no one got cold would be a lie, but no one got hurt. The amazing thing through all this is that for all the time the dozer was half in water and ice NOTHING happened to the beast except for a broken light. That's it! All the seals and everything were kept well so the dozer was able to run half submerged in water. I guess the best thing about the whole situation is that it actually gave the Fire House something to do and get involved in. Can't be mad about that!!

So here are a few photos of the dozer in and out of the ice. There are also two photos of myself and the Lt. in our dry suits during the wait. Enjoy the photos and I'll be TRYING to get more up ASAP!!

Thar She Blows!

The Other Side

One way to hold on?

That's how you get one dozer out of the ICE. With 3!

Here we go!

Almost there!

By our Engine.

Live Long and Prosper!!

Blog #12 - A Little Bit Lazy!

Hey everyone! Well, as you all can see it's been awhile since I last did a Blog, just over a months now actually, and I know I need to get in gear and get things going again, but right now I'm a little on the slow side and need to get back into the swing of things so I can get more Blogs on the way.

This past weekend was our Mid-Winter Dinner and partying for our, as you guessed it, the start of winter for us and the start of summer for you all up North. It also is pretty much the mid-point for a lot of us here in McMurdo with all of us on our downhill decent before we hit our departure date.

The party and fun was exciting and to say that people didn't get crazy would be an understatement. I will admit I was one of those who got crazy and I will admit I also felt it the next day. I am still trying to catch up on my sleep and get back into the full swing of things as soon as possible. As soon as I recharge and feel fully ready I'll get back to the Blogs and fill you in on things like; a large bulldozer falling partially through the ice and needing to be saved, my excitement of helping at the Poo Plant, and the adventures of the Mid-Winter Dinner.

OK, well I hope everyone is enjoying the start of summer and all the warmth and joy it brings. Soon the sun will rise higher and higher and soon we'll be bathed in it's glow and warmth before we depart. Enjoy yourselves and I'll be posting here pretty soon.

Cheers!

Blog #11 – SUNLIGHT??

OK, I know everyone out there believes we have been living in complete darkness since the sun “Officially” set for the last time on April 24th, but I must let you all know that we still had some light peeking out  out there during the days. OK, it’s not a lot of light, especially from today on, but it’s still at least something to help you see what’s in front of you, for now. The next few photos are what it looked like 3 days, 6 days, 8 days, and 17 days after the sun set. As you all can see we do (did) still have some light down here, but I will admit, we are kind of losing more and more each day.

3 days after last sunset!

Looks pretty nice to me. You can also see the bay that the large cargo ship comes into and docks when it arrives in February with all our supplies. In the next couple of photos you'll see shots from this same position and during that you'll see lights pop up and work being done out there. They are building a new ice pier this year for off loading all the cargo. I guess what they do is layer gravel on top of the ice, get it wet with seawater, let it freeze, more gravel, and so on and so forth. The last pier they had (you can see it right in the middle left of the picture with two telephone poles on it) lasted about 10 or 12 years and just cracked beyond continued use this year. This new pier looks all nice and neat and I'll have to get more pictures of it when it's completed.

Another 3 day shot.

You can actually see the green flagging they put out to mark aspects of the pier before they got out there in heavy machinery!

6 days after sunset of the McMurdo shot from partial way up Observation Hill.

8 days after sunset!

I should actually mention that these photos were all taken around 1300-1400 in the day. The sun set at 1336 on the 24th so I'm trying to get it at exactly that time each day afterward. This photo was taken from the window in my office at the station. The building right in front is Gallagher's the bar and those are three of the dorms in the distance.

17 days after sunset!

OK, I guess you can say now that we've lost most of our light, but it still looks like there is more out there than total darkness. The light to the right is from the pier, one of the lights they put in it on the telephone poles. I'll get another that might show the pier better, but you'll get a better shot at the end of the season.

17 days again!

17 days with a flash!

Now you can see the pier a little better. Looks like a nice ice skating rink with the berms around it. There are two poles in the middle of it. Not sure how they break it off of the other ice, but it floats perfectly for dealing with the cargo!

So that about does it for now. I will get a good photo of when it's really dark out there and no hint of light. Still hasn't gotten really cold yet, but we keep getting told it will come August!? Hope you all enjoyed the photos and I'll get another one going soon.

Cheers!!

Blog #10 - A little Fire Training in McMurdo’s Sunlight

Here it is, a wonderful, wintry shot of McMurdo. Now you can get an idea of our size, all the buildings and a little layout of the place. You can see the hills behind us and to the left is the frozen ocean. That pipe leading to the lower left corner, that's our seawater intake so we can get seawater and make fresh water at the treatment plant.

Oh, and the golf ball at the top is some NASA stuff.

I know some of you wonder what I do down here, and sometimes I wonder that myself. As I’ve said to others, life down here in McMurdo makes me think I’m in the movie Groundhog Day! Seriously, for me I wake up, eat breakfast, head to the station, do whatever our Lieutenant has planned for us that day, eat dinner, and then have the night to ourselves. If I’m on duty I’ll spend the night here at the station and then wake up in the morning and head back to my dorm for my day off. That’s about it! Once in awhile when I’m at the station I’ll get lucky to have to do Dispatch, where I’m lucky enough to be the person who stays up all night and gets to answer the phone or deal with fire alarms through the night. Everyone loves that!!

Though it may seem like Groundhog Day it all goes pretty well and it’s pretty fun when it comes down to it.

In the next couple of photos you’ll see some of the stuff we have done here. The first ones you’ll see are when we had to empty the tanks in our engine so we could take it in to get worked on in the Vehicle Maintenance Shop. Nothing major crazy, but it was nice to shoot all the water out into the cold Antarctic air!

This is our driver/operator Rob getting things ready at the pump panel so we can discharge the water from our tanks.

Here we go!!! Engine 2 gets a little excited!!

Might be a little slippery when we get done?

That's our Lieutenant Bucher getting the discharge outlet set up with a nozzle so the water sprays farther out and cuz it looks cooler!

That's the other firefighter Grant in the background watching it all. He has his fire hood on to help keep himself a little warmer. Wus, and he says he's from Minnesota???

Warm water and cold air creates lots of steam right away.

The next photos you’ll see are when we had to get ready for a Confined Space Rescue possibility. They have a bunch of tanks here in McMurdo that are considered confined space, those with only one opening, not much area to move, etc. etc. In the past they really haven’t done much about when people would go in and do work inside these tanks, but this winter we have a new safety person so they are trying to keep things on the up and up, which means they needed to make sure the Fire Department was trained and ready for a Confined Space rescue if it was needed.

Getting ready for the drill. The tank we are dealing with is the large orange one to the left. It's about 3000 gallons and only has a small opening on the top. It's used to hold water for the sprinkler systems in the dorms.

Almost ready. The guy on the left if Lieutenant Dombrowski and he'll be our test victim going inside the tank.

And this is us up there getting our victim out of the tank. That's me on the far right and the guy who is our dummy is the Base engineer something or another.

For the most part everyone at the station has some confined space training with some more than others. In the photos you’ll see us going through an actual C.S. mock rescue so that all the “Head People” could see that we knew what we were doing and that we were ready for a rescue if needed.

It definitely was a little difference in our schedule and kind of fun to get all decked out in our safety gear and climb up on top of the tanks and pull people out of the tank like dummies. It didn’t last very long, but it was fun while it lasted!

So that’s what “Work Life” is like there in Antarctica. Now I know all of you are jealous and want to come rushing down here to work, but believe me, the hours are long, the work is tough, and sometimes it might be hard to get up when it’s still dark outside.

Enjoy and I’ll send some more soon!

Blog #9 Hotel McMurdo

I know most of you are wondering what living is like here in McMurdo. I’ve already given you a little taste of what McMurdo looks like outside, but I’m sure you all are wondering what it’s like on the inside.


Pretty much McMurdo living is like living in a dorm in college. Right now during the winter each person has their own room. Depending on what Dorm you are in you have a smaller, college size room all to yourself with a private bathroom, or you have a larger room where you have to share a common bathroom with others. I was lucky and got a smaller room, but I also got a bathroom to myself right there attached to my room. Would be kind of a bummer to have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and have to walk down the hall and back just for that.

Most of the Dorms are those that have their own bathroom, or actually have a shared Jack and Jill bathroom. I was places in the last dorm that they opened before the last of us showed up here in McMurdo. Other similar Dorms like mine have people that were her during the summer, and stayed, and thus have their own room, but share a bathroom with a neighbor next to them. I’m just glad I got a place where we don’t have many people in the Dorm and the bathrooms are all private.

The Dorm that has the communal bathroom is the building where our Galley, Store, and some offices are located. This Dorm during the summer is where they place 4 to 5 people to a room, since the rooms are a lot larger, and they also have the communal bathrooms. Some people like the fact that they get this huge room to themselves, but since you’re not there much and a room is a room, I’ll stick with what I have.

Here are some photos of the Dorms from the inside and out and also some photos of my room. As you’ll see it’s pretty much just like being back in college, but luckily this time you don’t have to live with a roommate.

Enjoy the photos and if you have any questions about this let me know!

The 4 tall brown buildings in the back are the single person/room dorms and the blue building is our main building with our Galley and the rooms that are large, but have a communal bathroom.

This is our lounge on the first floor of my Dorm 207. It's nice and large, but they really aren't used in the winter, but I hear in the summer when there are about 1100 people here, they are used a lot more. Probably used more then too because you have a roomie!!

Back part of the lounge. Some other lounges are bigger or smaller in other dorms and some have ping pong, an exercise bike or treadmill, large TVs, etc. We also have a smaller lounge upstairs on the second floor in my Dorm 207. The smaller one is mostly just a TV lounge.

Every Dorm has a laundry in it. This one has like 10 or so driers and only 5 washers? We are supposed to wash our clothes on certain "laundry days" assigned to us by our room. This is mainly for the summer, when there are tons of people here so during the winter it's whenever you need it. If you do have really dirty clothes or oily, nasty clothes they ask you to take those to the Main Laundry and they'll do them for you. They don't want all these smaller washers to get nasty and ruin everyone else’s regular clothes!

Each Dorm has a recycle area in it. You are supposed to separate all your trash into different categories. From here the trash is brought to the Waste Barn and it's packed up for shipment off continent in the summer. I heard we recycle or manage about 80% of our trash here. Nothing is allowed to be wasted or to get out into the Antarctic wilds!

Just a typical hallway down my floor. I'm on the second floor on the right side of this picture. I'm lucky to be on this side since it buts up against Dorm 208 and since they have wireless Internet I can suck it in from them through my window. If I was on the other side I wouldn't get reception. Pretty Lucky!!!

So here's my room! I sleep on the left side, use the right bed for laying clothes on and other stuff, have two large closet type things to the left and another in front of the bed which has a TV with a DVD player. They have about 10 channels down here, all AFN, Armed Forces Network and two of the channels run movies all day long. By the right bed there is a sink and mirror there around the corner and the bathroom is to the right. You can also see the window is open, as it usually is when I'm in the room, because they keep the temperature in the Dorm HOT, well at least for me. Can you believe it, I'm in Antarctica and have my window open all the time because it's too warm in here for me!!??

And here's the tiny bathroom. You can see the toilet and the shower in the back. You can also see the other door that leads to the room attached to the other side of me. These are the Jack and Jill rooms for this bathroom, but right now it's all my own!!!

That about does it! Now you seen McMurdo on the outside and McMurdo on the inside. People how have been here many times have tons of stuff down here and know what to bring when they come back. Some rooms are like little apartments with couches, large beds made from two singles pushed together, lots of decorations, and some even have movie projectors to show tons of movies!

Well enjoy and I'll have another blog coming up pretty soon! Cheers!!

Blog 8 - McTown and Greenhouse

I know a lot of you still wonder what McMurdo is like. How is it set up, what does it look like, etc. etc. Well to tell you the truth it’s not that amazing a place! You can tell that this was a military base and that there a buildings here and there spread all over the place. There really is no hearsay to how this place is set up or the buildings are numbered, but this is how it is and this is how we deal with it.

McMurdo from Space

McMurdo from Above

I have a few pictures that give you some looks at the town from different areas. You’ll see the dorms, the large blue building (155) that holds the Galley, the store, offices, and some dorm rooms. You’ll also see some of the open storage areas where a lot of the stuff that comes in on the ship is stored all winter until it is needed for the field camps next summer.

Dorms and Storage

Blue Building 155

NASA Golf Ball

In the pictures you’ll also see a little bit of the town here and there and you’ll also get a chance to see what kind of weather comes through here at times. In McMurdo they have the weather split up into three conditions; Con 1, Con 2, and Con 3. Con 3 is when all is going well here in McMurdo. The wind is less than 55 mph, visibility is greater than a quarter mile, and the wind chill temperature is greater than -75 degrees. Usually with Con 3 here it’s clear, a light wind, and maybe around 20 below.

A little windy

Windy and Cold

Con 2 is where wind is between 55 and 63 mph, visibility is from a quarter mile to 100 feet, and wind chill temperatures are between -100 and -75 degrees. We’ve only had Con 2 here a few times and it has come from higher winds and cold temperatures. Finally, Con 1 is the worst! Con 1 consists of winds greater than 63 mph, visibility less than 100 feet, and wind chill temperatures less than -100 degrees. I’m told Con 1 hits a few times here during the winter and when it does you can’t see the building next to you, or sometimes your hand in front of you.

Con 2 from Dorm (white lights on pole in front mean Con 2)

(pole also has red lights for Con 1, if you can see them then!)

When Con 1 does hit there is no travel allowed outside of any building unless it is a dire emergency and unless you are escorted by the Safety and Rescue crew. This is where there are ropes set up between buildings so you can hold onto the ropes and not get blown away!!!!

So the pictures will show you some of McMurdo and some of the weather conditions here. Most of the weather scene is Con 3, but the ones with the nastier looking stuff is Con 2.

Also included in this group of photos are ones I took from inside the Greenhouse we have here in McMurdo. The Greenhouse isn’t very large, but it is our only place we can get some fresh vegetables during the winter, and it’s the only place you’ll get temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s with some welcome humidity. I volunteer to take care of the plants in the greenhouse on Sundays, so it’s a great time to get a little warmth and some welcomed UV light. It’s also relaxing to be in the Greenhouse alone, listening to the water running from the plant trays into the catchment basins, and feeling like you’re in a little Japanese Rock Garden somewhere in the warmth.

Tomatoes in Greenhouse

Herbs in the Greenhouse (Herbs Sure????)

More Tomatoes and Cukes in Back

Lettuce Room

So that about does it for now with my photos of McMurdo. I need to get you all some photos of our galley and talk about what we eat down here, more photos of the town itself, and of course some photos of the fire house and what we do and have here.

Enjoy the photos and let me know if there is anything you all would like to see and hear about!! Cheers!