Ice!

Gone, Baby, Gone

2007-02-25T15:11:00.000-08:00

Well, I left Antarctica almost a week ago- on the 20th, to be exact. Got into Christchurch at Midnight, after sitting on the runway while the mechanics made sure that the right engine wouldn't fall off in flight. And wqe get here and it's HOT and muggy and therre are lots of bigs. I almost crawled right back on the C-17 for a return to good weather.
I've spent the last six days enjoying the scenery and the whole light-dark-light thing. And the stars are nice to see again too. The mior sun-burn is a bit of a hassle, but it just itches. I have one more week of lounging about before I return to the States on March 6th.
I'm looking forward to being home, or at least in a place where I understand the traffic, the advertisements and the way things work. There are some things here in NZ that are just odd. I'm sure the many Kiwis who go to the US have the same feelings, but hey-this is my blog!
I have applied for a job with Cook's Illustrated magazine-if they like the article I emailed them on the 22nd I will be going East for a few days to work in the Test Kitchen. If I'm really in luck, soon I'll be moving to the Boston area. Otherwise it's a stretch on unemployment while I try to :
a)get back to the South Pole, maybe
b) get a job in Chicago somewhere, along with housing, etc,
c) decide to move to Alaska.
The whole life-thing is in flux at the moment. (did you know that that was an old name for really nasty discharges?)
So this particular blog has about lived out its natural span-when I do (really, I will!) post those last few pics I will still let you all know.
Becky

RePack! For the end is near!

2007-02-05T13:49:00.000-08:00

Well, I have been amazingly lax about posting anything at all to this poor, neglected blog this month. Partly, that's because nothing much has been happening. Sadly, much of what I wanted to post pictures of became un-noteworthy in the execution. Because the string was a week late in arriving on the Ice, the kite festival had a total of 3 kites in the air-one of them brought over from the NZ base. The other kite-makers have gone flying, but only one at a time. The shot of one lonely kite in the huge blue sky was just too depressing to post.
The weather is starting to get colder out-I'm back in Big Red the parka, instead of a fleece jacket. The Sound has lots of open water this year-a few years ago the huge ice chunk named B-15 parked itself at the opening of the sound and caused the annual ice to stay put a freeze up instead of flowing away North in pieces. It broke up late last season, and so far the ice-edge has been getting steadily closer. The first official sunset will take place on Feb 19th, and sunrise will appear about 36 minutes later.
And while there has been wildlife around- whales cavorting in the Sound, for example-I tend to see the spouts from so far away that a pic looks silly. The Coast Guard Icebreaker Polar Sea offered cruises to about half of the population-there was a lottery, and I was not chosen. I let Paul go off to Snow Survival School, also called Happy Campers-I was offered the chance of going on 2 hours of sleep, and Paul hadn't gotten to go on any fun trips at all-he had a blast, but I stayed home. (It was his night off anyway-so he had had plenty of rest)
And now the end of the season is looming. Some folks have already headed home. Most of the scientists are long gone, or are leaving today. (Leaving on a C-17, don't know if I'll be back again....)
The big arrival this week is SUPPLIES. The tanker that delivers our fuel was here for three days, and now our container ship is here. The next ten days are called "vessel offload" or vessel for short-and the next year's worth of food, toilet paper, beer, chips, welding stuff, paper, staples, lumber, paint, parts, and so on, is here, somewhere in a big orange metal box called a milvan. They get lifted off the ship with a crane, and driven around town on anything big enough to carry one-big forklifts, flatbeds, converted Deltas, etc. Any day now I expect to see gangs of folks hauling them along on rollers, like the Egyptians building the pyramids.
My flight out is now scheduled to be on the 20th of February. I will be hanging around in NZ for about 2 weeks, and hope to back in Illinois (home Sweet Chicago!) on the 6th of March. In early April I will be off to Barcelona for a week or so, with a detour to the Valhrona chocolate factory on the way.
After that, who knows? I'll probably apply to return, but can't say if I'll come back down. I may get a better offer in the meantime.
Boxes have been mailed home so I don't have to lug crap all over New Zealand that I just won't use-like my knife kit. The pool cue- thanks again Josh!-I am taking with. It just might help me chat up cute guys!

More stuff

2007-01-09T05:48:00.000-08:00

And there was quite a hiatus between the former and the following:
On the 8th the sky was clear, the wind was good and the kites were grounded for one simple reason-the string had not yet arrived from NZ. *sigh* So now we're going to try for next Tuesday night-because I suspect that the package came in on today's cargo flight.
Several of the galley staff have taken to hanging around the dining room between 12:30 and 1:30-2ish in the AM., and it's been very refreshing to sit around discussing literature, space flight, helicopters, tall ships and stupid math jokes. Most kitchen crews are quite anti-intellctual-that is if they speak English enough to discuss anything with me.
Even though I've been unable to hang out with actual "scientists" this season I've still met some very bright people. Of course, all of the cute male ones are under 30. *sigh* Mind you, my next door neighbor is a cute young(er) thing-and he's great fun hang around with-nudge nudge, wink wink. My being assigned a roommate put a certain crimp in our plans, but he had to hit the Pole to fix their generators-which had suffered a Rube Goldbergian series of errors leading to smoke, sparks and steaming glycol spraying into the #3 generator. This is not good for the equipment. Parts have been ordered, and when the repairs are all finished, and he's back from another stint South I'll be solo again, as the current roommate is leaving on the 23rd of January. Yee Haa! I do wish I could manage to get some time at the Pole but it doesn't look likely this season.
It is now a bit late to be mailing things here. So thanks for all of the great books and other pressies, but keep them for the time being or mail them to me at home. I'm planning on two weeks in NZ playing tourist before hitting the States-if anyone has any fun ideas let me know. Also if you know of cheap places to stay in Barcelona that might have kitchens.
I promise I will get some more pictures posted soon-I've even got some of people, which I noticed I was lacking.
The end of the season appears every closer, drat! Some folks are quite anxious to be off the Ice, but I'd just as soon stay- except of course that I wouldn't want to make my kitties foster children forever. And I do miss the friends and family, too.
The icebreakers have both arrived on Station, and there is open water visible from Town. This has led to large flocks of penguins hanging around Hut Point-one of my favorite pics posted here on the intranet is of about a dozen penguins and the same number of people with cameras clicking away. For the most part the penguins ignore the people, which can lead to amusing encounters. Soon the seals will appears as large, furry boulders scattered about. It's only when they move that you can get startled by their size.
Now I have to decide how much I want to come back, and for how long.

Deck the halls

2006-12-27T04:40:00.000-08:00

with Boston Charlie, Walla Walla Washington and Kalamazoo! Nora's freezing on the trolley, holly golly cauliflower, ally ga-roo!
And if you recognize that you're familiar with a muskrat named POGO, who starred in a comic strip for lo these many years. It was much fun, but is out of print now. Well worth looking up if you have the chance, though.
There is some news- I will NOT be staying for the winter. It's a long, sad story- if you want the details email me and I'll spill all, but not here. That means that I'll be off of the Ice come the end of February, and with any luck will get to do some traveling in April and May before getting back to the daily grind. Where I'll be living is somewhat up in the air-the house I used to live in may have been rented, and I may not want to stay in Evanston/Chicago anyway. But I will be happy to see the kitties!
I have been helping people to build kites for our up-coming festival. Folks are being very creative, adding all kinds of fluttery and flappy stuff, and decorating up a storm. Now I just hope that the wind will remain as constant as it has, so flight can occur. The festival is on Jan. 8th-you can expect pictures.
The MidRats galley crew have taken up bowling. We go on Thursday mornings after work, and so far I'm consistently a mediocre-to-bad bowler. If I'm not the worst bowler in the room it's because Shane has decided to come along-once he managed to get a total of 23 points in 10 frames. I, at least, tend to break 70. Some of the kitchen staff are quite good, making strike after spare and so on. I'm happy when I manage to get the ball down the center of the lane. This is not helped by the ancient and warped nature of the lanes themselves. Bowling here will not improve your game anywhere else.

Stuff

2006-12-12T05:06:00.000-08:00

I know, it's been too long since the last update. Sorry!
It felt like the week after T-day was about a year long. And this week has also taken its' own sweet time. But I did get a chance to take some more pictures around town:
http://s106.photobucket.com/albums/m266/bheydemann/stuff/
And I've been kind of busy-I organized a Festival of Kites, to be held on Jan. 8th, so on Tuesday evenings I've been holding kite-building workshops for anyone who wants to fly. It's been loads of fun. And I'm working as librarian for 3 hours on Tuesday mornings as well. And the MidRats galley crew has taken up bowling on Thursday or Friday mornings- last time I cleared 88. The lanes here were installed in 1962 and haven been sanded since....
And my brother Josh sent me a pool cue of my very own for my birthday. THANKS JOSH!!! Playing with a cue that is straight and has its tip is a big change around here. It's helped immensely. So my time on the internet has been severely compromised, hence the lack of posts here.
Weather-wise the outlook is grim. It's been over 35F for the last two weeks-warmer than it's been in Chicago! That's just NOT FAIR. I come 10,000 miles to get some good weather and it warms up. GRRRRR. Some of the local roads have had to be closed-when you're driving on ice you don't want to hear the description "soupy" about surface conditions. BUT- if the sea-ice breaks out of the Sound then we'll have Penguins and lots of fat Seals hanging around, which would be nice.
The next regular sunset has been scheduled-in late January,around the 22nd, I believe, we'll have 3 hours of sunset. It will make a pleasant change. Around that time the cargo vessel with all of next years' supplies will be arriving-vessel offload is always a hectic time, but there's lots of new foodstuffs to play with.
I'm off to exercise the perogative of those with a night off, and take a nap.

2006-11-27T11:46:00.000-08:00

Well, it's about that time of the week again, so here I am. I now have a new job-on Tuesdays I get to the librarian from-10:30 in the mornings. It's a lot of fun- not many folks stop by and I can use the computer without anybody breathing down my neck as they wait for a chance. I expect to get some writing done in this time slot-Great American Novel, her I come! (just kidding)
It was some hectic week with all of Thanks giving to get through.
we made:
1,200 rolls
40 Pecan Pies
48 Pumpkin cheesecakes
24 flourless chocolate cakes
60 Apple pies
60 pumpkin pies
4 full sheets of marjolaine-which is three layers of walnut meringue filled with maple buttercream and orange buttercream and all enrobed in ganache.
There were also 60 loaves of walnut cranberry bread.
The rest of the usual suspects were there too- turkey, stuffing, mashed 'taters, Green bean casserole, etc, etc. I was too busy or too tired to even remember to get pictures. I'll try to snag some from Paul-the other midrats baker.
Otherwise, no big news.
It was my birthday last Tuesday (the 21st) and I got a stunning 2# of chocolates from Piron, which I just had to share. There were too many to eat all by myself. And lots of boxes with books in them arrived. Some I have donated to the library, some I'm reading first. Thanks! for all of the goodies. I some package mail waiting for me right now in the mail room-I wonder what it is?!
Here's hoping everyone had a happy healthy holiday-which includes at least three slices of dessert.
Becky

It's a wild, wild life

2006-11-15T03:15:00.000-08:00

So I've seen my first Skua of the season. The bird was flying around the other day, and when it disappeared I thought it had gone to roost on the roof of the galley, waiting for a sandwich to be carried out for its lunch. But no! It had just hunkered down in the parking lot known as derelict junction, and was resting comfortably on the ground about 2 feet from one of the vans. They're pretty big birds-wingspan is over 24"- and the top of the food chain around here. People are just convenient carriers of goodies as far as the skuas are concerned.
I've got an extra day off-it's my Thanksgiving holiday. Needless to say (so why am I saying it then? Very good question...) on Thanksgiving itself the galley staff is busy. Very, very busy.
So we get our holidays when we can manage them. I spent my extra time in the ceramics room, working on a project that I'll post more about when it's closer to being done. And it isn't a pot or an ashtray, either!
Yesterday was an informal galley gathering in Hut 10, which used to be the Admiral's hose when this was real Navy base. Now we use it for parties and housing visiting brass. In contrast to previous galley parties this one was quite subdued-for much of the day just Rob, one of the AM cooks and myself were hanging out, watching movies, playing loud music and playing Set. Set is a very nifty card game- look at the web site www.setgame.com for an idea. And there was almost no food. Most galley parties are overflowing with enough food to feed a village, but this one had only some nice fruit kuchen from Rob and some pizza that came by around 9PM. During the course of the evening other folks drifted in and out-at one point we had five guests! It was great, just like having a living room again. After the Midrats shift was done the whole crew came by and we watched Pirates of the Caribbean. (Shane, one of our cooks, has a radio show. He is serializing the exploits of Pirate Captain Drew ((our sous-chef)) and the rest of us. It's rather...odd. Drew just had his legs gnawed off by hamsters, and Emily goes around preaching democracy to preschoolers whilst I myself am some knod of secret ninja.) Much fun was had by all.
We have a greenhouse here that provides hydroponically grown vegetables. The gardener-person can also grow other stuff- Brent gave me a present. See the link to find out what it was.
http://s106.photobucket.com/albums/m266/bheydemann/wild%20life/?sc=4

Field Trip

2006-11-05T12:29:00.000-08:00

So I got to go out to Cape Evans last week. It was a great little trip, just a few hours long, but still a lot closer to the Antarctica of my time at the Pole than this year in Town.
You climb into the vehicle called a Delta and strap yourself in as the driver gets the thing in gear. It's a bouncy ride at the best of times, and if the road is rough you can catch some air on the bumps. The trip is over the sea-ice and there are pressure ridges where the glaciers and the pack ice are moving together. The flags on the roadside keep the vehicle out of the cracks and holes. The Barnard Glacier rises up not far from the hut site, but w couldn't go too close to it-we didn't know where the holes were and no-one wanted to go for a swim!
After about an hour you can see Tent Island rising up in front. When Scott got here much of this ice was water and he sailed right in. Then he built a hut, which is still standing. It has stables for his ponies, and the equpimnet is still there, including the pony-snowshoes. Inside the cabin proper it's actually very dark, but my flash did a great job. Nice to see that the cocoa was available in quantity! Of course, so was the pickled cabbage-mostly there as an anti-scorbutic.
Scott had himself a few square yarsd of space, while the enlisted men got to be crammed in almost as tightly as onboard ship-18" between hammocks. Never understood that method of housekeeping, egalitarian that I am.
Of course, they left piles of stuff everywhere-crates and so on clutter the area. The group that mantains the place had to remove some a few years ago- they were afraid that someone was going to setp on a buried crate and injure themselves.
A few of the surviving crew put up a cross for the ones who died in the area- Scott and his companions were buried in the snow just as they were. I got one nice shot from the top of the hill and my batteries conked out, Alas.
But the view was just as nice without the camera, and I had a great time getting to see some of the continent.
Here's a link to the photos!
http://s106.photobucket.com/albums/m266/bheydemann/Cape%20Evans/?sc=6&start=all

still crazy

2006-11-03T23:18:00.000-08:00

Well, we finally got all of the South Pole crew shuffled off to their new home at the bottom of the world. Wish I was going wth them...
But with the population down to under 1,000 and another night baker here work is almost under control. Of course, now the holiday madness begins to set in-we need 2,500 dinner rolls, 150 pies and 14 or so sheets of goodies like pumpkin cheescake for Thnaksgiving and lots of stuff for christmas.
Here in Mac Town life is very... normal. People have regular schedules, and regular hang-outs and so on, so for days on end you can almost forget where you are. Then you get to go out of town for a few hours and you can see just how tiny the town is compared to the continent. And how LOUD the place is. While we love the hum of the generators (heat is a good thing down here), as a ubiquitous background noise it gets a bit wearing. I got out to Cape Evans-about 14 miles away, and we could feel the quiet. A group went out to check out the hut that Scott and his crew stayed in on the expedition that he never returned from. A wierd, guy, Scott. His big regret at getting to the Pole was finding out he wasn't the first person there. With that as the main drive to walk across this place, it's no wonder he froze in his tent. I guess he didn't know that the journey has to be it's own reason for going....
Lots of folks aking me "why did I come down here?!" these days. I guess that the facts of work, even in Antarctica, are starting to overwhelm the sense of adventure. And here at McMurdo it's hard to get close to the Science. At the Pole, with only 200 or so folks around, you know everyone. Here the beakers often seem to skip the idea that a person cooked that food, cleaned that bathroom or made the heat in their lab work. And with my wacky schedule I even get to miss the science lectures. So it's easy to think that you're hear baking for a crowd of folks who are here cleaning and maintaining the place so they need a baker, and around and around. And town seems so big when you're in it-you can go from home to work to the gym to the library and not look out and see the mountains or the sea-ice.
If any of you know a scientist down here- send them by the bakeshop between 9PM and 730AM, especially if they're cute. Thanks.
And a modification to the wish list-
NZ customs won't send whiskey through the mails. They pour out the booze and SEND THE EMPTY BOTTLE!! I learned this by whinging at the mail room that no-one loved me enough to send me any. Now love yourselves even more and ignore all of that noise and DON'T send me any booze. I will have to find a person to hand-carry some down from Christchurch on an inbound flight. Hmmm-wonder wht the flight-crews like for dessert.....
Well, time to return to the salt mines-
I can now bench-press more than Nick, the other Lead Baker. When he saw this, he blushed. Tee-Hee!

Work, work, work

2006-10-15T23:04:00.000-07:00

Well, the population keeps going up, but the number of bakers has remained the same. This has lead to many 12 hour days, just getting it all done. With any luck this week one of the other new bakers will arrive, and the last one will show up next week, in theory. While the extra hands will be welcome, it does mean that I will likely be moveing to the midrats (that's short from Midnight Rations-a Navy holdover) shift to make bread-until Christmas, when I'll shift back to days.
Yes, it's a real bite-but it does make sense in terms of the staff on hand. I just wish it would not be phrased as a compliment quite so often, that I'm to be trusted to be getting this done, and doing it well, all without constant supervision....And it might even be nice to be in the galley when the noise level has come down some.
We have over 900 people here at the moment and most of them want to eat brunch at the same time. So from 10AM to 1PM it's a zoo on Sundays. And the sheer volume that they can consume is staggering. Folks like to take stuff as a snack, or for later (all of the rooms in the dorms come with a fridge-it's better than having folks pile stuff on the window ledges, where maurauding skuas can have a snack.) One day someone walked off with an entire 2kg tub of honey-all they had to do was ask and we would have given them a containerful, but taking it was easier, I guess. I also guess it was easier to steal the couch from the 203B (that's what I call home)dorm lounge and put it in someones' room than to improvise something else to sit on. And this has happened to just about every sofa on the station-they've been dissapeared. I emailed the station manager, asking what was to be done about this, but have received no reply. *sigh* Guess it's low on his list of priorities.
I have now recieved 3 volumes of Neal Stephensons' Baroque Cycle-I'm not sure I'll be able to get through all 3,500 pages without destroying several synapses-I like the guys' writing, but this is a LOT of it.
As you can see the brain has been baked to a delicate crisp-tonight I'm watchin 2 odd SF movies-Dark Star by John Carpenter and Le Dernier Combat by Luc Bresson, and then I'll become a pumpkin for as long as possible before getting back to work......
B

the wheels on the bus

2006-10-08T21:41:00.000-07:00

Or rather the tracks on the van. Here's a link to a bunch of ways to get around town. Yes, it's a new place, but Yahoo ugraded its photo service so well tha I can no longer manage to upload new photos to it and have had to change over to photobucket. We'll see how this works out.
Most of the new population has arrived. It feels somewhat like an invasion-many of these folks have been down before and will squeal and giggle when they see old friends if female, or bellow and bang each other around, if male. I have a new roommate, after having a week alone. Alas, I was unable to bribe the housing office to assing me an imaginary roommate, although I offered various enticements-extra cookies on cookie day, favorite desserts, fresh bread to take home, etc. Should have brought out the naked dancing boys.....
We did get one of the new bakers in, which is great as Christy will be leaving us tomorrow. She has begun wandering around with the silly grin-for weeks she's been acting like leaving was the furthest thing from her mind. Another baker and an extern from Johnson and Wales-the "other" big culinary school (I'm a CIA grad myself) are due in later this week-we hope. With the increase in numbers we could really use them!
The weight-lifting contiunes. I have once again increased my free weights, and am up in number of reps as well. Have managed to shed almost 10 pounds already, without worry about what I eat. But-I rarely eat dessert, and my daily chocolate intake is rationed because stocks of recreational chocolate (as opposed to the stuff we bake with) are quite limited. I try to avoid buying chips-the salty snacks are my downfall.
The days are almost continuous now- just a brief period of dim twilight in a lucious violet shade, then it starts to brighten up again. I won't be seeing any actual stars for months now. It is strange to walk out of a dark bar into the glare, but soon it will feel normal. Let's all try out the link to the new photos now....
http://s106.photobucket.com/albums/m266/bheydemann/MacTown%20moves/
B

how to tell

2006-10-03T01:55:00.000-07:00

For those of you who hang out with those of us who keep our noses in books-
The Reader’s Scale of Affection
If a Reader has just met you, he will ask what you’re reading.
If a Reader wants to continue the conversation, she will recommend a book or author.
If a Reader likes you, he will give you a book.
If a Reader really likes you she will give you a poem.
If a Reader is seriously interested he will write you a poem.

Mail!

2006-10-03T01:28:00.000-07:00

So the first flight of mainbody came in today. I had mail! SIX pacages! Yee Haa! Goody, goody, goody. I am chortling away here, it's so much fun. There are hundreds of new people around. Well, at least one hundred. And one of them is another baker. That makes us very happy. At family meal Nick was still quite discombobulated bythe trip down, so we'll be gebtle on him tomorrow-we only need to make 500 pita breads, as they couldn't find them in the freezer after all...at least Mark, the chef, had the sense to tell us a full day BEFORE he needed them. That's a rare event in big kitchens.
And the obverse of new folks comming to town is that the old folks are leaving. The last few of the people who wintered-over are leaving this week and several of them are galley crew. While I'll miss them all I have a special soft spot for Johnny Siegal, the (now ex)-PM Sous chef. A great cook and a real mensch- I'm glad I'll be here when he gets back in January to winter-over again. I'm hoping I can manage to winter-over myself, but it's all up in the air at the moment. Think cold dark thoughts for me, ok?
About Johhny-I told him I was writing a novel and he asked to be in it-with his own name and recognizably himself. I gave him the opening 8 pages but he hasn't gotten back to me yet. I do wonder if he'll still be as eager when he sees just what part I have planned for him.....he's always ready to talk about food, or pottery or books, or teach a pool guppy how to get better. He's already missed in the galley, and he's been gone for ONE meal. *sigh* Cute, too-been around enough to get some history, a nice solid bulk of a man, great smile-kind of crinkly. I think I have a picture with him in it somewhere.
And to those great people who have sent books-THANK YOU!! They got here and I had a blast ripping the packages open. I'll be sharing them around as some friends have asked to read them.
It starts getting busy around here now-bythe end of the week we'll have twice as many people here as we did yesterday. But the Season is gearing up and the science is going to be happening-and I love talking to the beakers.
Yet again, I promise pictures SOON.

Happy Campers

2006-09-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

One thing I've noticed here-I tend to smile at people. At home not only did I see relatively few people most days, but I had little to say to most of them.
Down here I at least recognize most of the people on station (at least until the 3rd, when the rest of the population arrives). And I seem to be ready to like them, which is definitley NOT the case at home. So I see a vaugely familiar face and I smile. It does make for a nicer day.
It helps that they smile back, and that they appreciate what I do for them. "That chocolate thing last night-it was awesome!" makes it easier to enjoy someones' company. Also, they seem to understand that we've got to get along here for the summer, so being friendly will only help.
And I have a social life! After 5 years of working nights with people I did not want to socialize with, and not many chances to meet folks I might find interesting, I can get off work, change and go OUT. There are 3 bars here, to meet every expectation. The Coffeehouse serves wine and coffee and cocoa, with some booze to go in the hot drinks. It has couches and low tables, a big room to show movies (excuse me, cinema). It's non-smoking and low key and seen as the intellectual hangout. Then there's Southern Exposure, whose logo is a Skulland corssbones, with red eyes and a cigarette hanging from the bony jaws. Southern has the best pool table, and a nice shuffleboard, and serves beer, liquor and sodas. You can also smoke there, Unfortunatley, most of the people I like talking to all end up at Southern, so I often end up there as well. I get the cough without benefit of the nicotine. The other bar is Gallagher's-the non-smoking bar. Not much is happening there these days, but I'm told it will be hopping after mainbody gets here. I'd like that- my friends can drink the cheap Canadian whiskey they prefer and I don't have to eat smoke. Last weekend they had a talent showcase there. The usual kind of line up-some good, some just willing. But a fine time was had by all. I may even try to be in the next open-mic kind of thing that happens, but no one is sure when that will be. More pics will post soon!

2006-09-18T00:50:00.000-07:00

There are some new pictures up at the same old link.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/heydemann@sbcglobal.net/album?.dir=371escd&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos
The first set show what happens to the trash. It all gets sorted, bagged, collected and sorted again, before being shipped off for resale, reuse or recycling in California. Sewage we treat at our new wastwater treatment plant, just like at home.
Then there are some shots of the inside of the frozen food warehouse. You can see just how much food is piled up in there. I think there's some stuff I want in the middle of aisle 4, near the bottom. It will be a while till I can get it....
The next set of pics are the power and water plants. The generators run on disel fuel, and generate lots of electricity. Which is good, becaue we use it to cook with! We use about 24,000 galloons of fuel per week. That's Adam on the right by the control panel, and my pal Rick on the left. Rick is the guy I lift weights with. He runs the water plant and got me this tour.
The water we get from the ocean, and just like a plasma donation we pull the salts out and return the concentrate to the ocean. We get about 40% as through-flow, that is the amount of potable water from the volume we pump in. There are 4 of the big green tanks, each of which holds about 20,000 gallons. All of the reverse-osmosis process runs through the long tubes, pushed by the high-pressure pumps.
And the radio came on while we were looking at the new generators, which are almost twice as efficient as the old ones. Condition one weather was declared-and this is why you mostly stay indoors, where you are, when it hits. Condition 3 weather is a nice day, or maybe breezy. Condition 2 will be blustery, but you can still see to walk around.
A nice day off- laundry, plant tours, a stint in the gerbil gym (on the machines) and now a chance to go bowling! And I even had a brownie for dessert. Damn, we do good work in the bakery! If I do say so myself.

How's the weather

2006-09-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

There are a few ways to tell what the weather outside is like-if the smoke (or steam) from the buildings is lofting straight up, then it's calm. If the smoke is blowing sideways then it's breezy. If the "whoam whoam" as the wind cuts through the multiple stacks on the water plant can be heard as you step out of the galley then there's a wind. Walking with this wind is a skill. Try walking into it and resistance training takes on a whole new meaning. Walk with it and you might just sail along-not quite on the ground.
The average air temp is at about 20 degrees below, Farenheit. When the sun is out for a significant portion of the day it can get up to 0! Soon enough it will approach the 20s and 30s, and the whole place will become Muck Murdo. At this spopt the ground (volcanic rocks and gravel mostly) is at the surface. Not to mention the tons of "fines" (crushed volcanic gravel) that are spread everywhere outside to help folks walk.
Most days I'm fine in my Big Red Parka and gloves, but for longer walks than from dorm 203B to the Galley I put on my charhart insulated overalls. They are brand-new, and consequently a little stiff...I look and feel quite like a penguin in them.
Well, must be off to my daily toil. Today we're baking chocolate cake rolls with a cinnamon cream mousse filling, something fruity and many many pieces of naan bread. Also making up some danish for breakfasts.

2006-09-09T22:02:00.000-07:00

Trying again with the comments....

2006-09-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

Just trying a new post to see if I have the comments turned on correctly. Made eclairs yesterday, which were very well recieved by the community. At least one young man took 4! He did not seem to grasp that that meant someone else didn't get any.......soon I will be starting to make crepes so we can have blintzes for Hannukah. As the whole population will be here by then I need to make at least 1,000 crepes. If I do a few hundred at at time it won't take too long, And that takes less time thant you would think.

2006-09-06T02:00:00.000-07:00

Things are settling into a routine now. Days off, laundry, when I go to the gym, etc. Today we had SUNSHINE-big blue skies with the almost full moon up. I'll try to get a picture tomorrow. We keep getting compliments for the baked goods-which is very nice for the ego. Of course, then we get blamed for the extra poundage folks pack on.
The folks who are leaving in October because they've been here all winter, or even longer, are all talking about where they'll be in a month. Lots of warm beaches are mentioned. When the new group arrives at "Mainbody", when the majority of the scientists get here, it will be a whole new ballgame. The population will almost triple in two weeks of daily flights from NZ, and the whole place will feel crowded.
We went on a tour of the food storage facilities today. There are three BIG warehouses, one frozen, one warm and one just unheated. In the freezer there are hundreds and hundreds of of crates 6' cubed, some on shelves and many of them all stacked up on top of each other. What ever happens, don't want an ingredient that's at the bottom of the stack-it will not be unearthed until we eat our way through the pile on top of it. In theory a new storage facility is an A list priority, but the NSF has very little money, so we don't expect to see it any time soon. The other 2 warehouses are pretty much more of the same. And because of the difficulties in finding stuff, sometimes it gets lost for a long time. There was a case of buckets of corn syrup. It dates from 1996, and has been frozen and thawed so many times it looks like expanded foam insulation. I stated categorically that I would NOT bake with it, so they could heave it aside any time. Ben- the guy in charge, agreed.
Well, just about bedtime, so check for new pics later this week!

see here!

2006-09-03T17:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to see my pictures.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/heydemann@sbcglobal.net/album?.dir=4e0escd&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

2006-09-03T14:42:00.000-07:00

Still working on the pictures.....
I have begun learing how to use the weight room. It's fun, but my quadriceps are very sore. I hope to fit into my jeans somewhat more loosely by the end of the month.
The weather has been great-not too much wind and the sun was out of the clouds for quite a while yesterday!
If any of you could email me a copy of Marvin Bell's poem "Drawn by Earth, By Stones, By things that have been in the fire" I would be grateful-I couldn't find it online. It's in the book of the same name.
The galley keeps getting compliments this year-Sally (the exec. Chef) sends on the glowing emails from people amazed by the quality of the food. Quite an ego-boost. Us bakers are working on a take-off of "Don't Fear the Reaper" called "don't Blame the Bakers", as folks are often heard claiming that those extra pounds are all our fault. When I offer to make crud, they get all upset. Just can't be satisfied, I guess.
I have set this up so anyone can comment-please do!
Here's the address here:
Becky Heydemann
RPSCMcMurdo StationPSC 469
Box 700
APO AP 96599-1035

Wish List

2006-09-01T14:36:00.000-07:00

Plenty of you people are generous to a fault. Here I'm willing to exploit that generousity and post a list of stuff I could use. Mail is now being accepted, and will get here in October, more or less..

Some books to keep in the bathroom.
a new five-wheel cake marker on an expandable frame. 2 1/2" wheels.
a small desk fan
a nice pool cue
a couple of bars of Spanish hot chocolate-you can get it at LaTienda.com
A new edition of Lonely Planet-New Zealand-mine is ten years out of date.
The 14" offset spatula from my kitchen in Evanston-thanks, mom!

More to follow...
Becky

New here in Town?

2006-09-01T14:01:00.000-07:00

Well, I've gone and done it-started a blog for all you inquiring minds.
It's Saturday today, my first day off since we got here. I have laundry to get done, and a few minor matters to still clear up back in the US. Telecom is great-I can actually contact my bank etc. and it's only Friday there so offices are even open!
Life here at McMurdo Station AKA MacTown is being fun so far. I have a room mate, but we overlap for about 15 minutes a day so while we probably won't become fast friends we won't irritate each other either. It did take a few tries for me to remember her name. When she was in the shower I snuck a look at her Parka-they all have name tapes on them.
At the moment there are few of the Science Types (beakers) here-just the ones who have stayed all winter. The population is all of the service types getting everything up and running. About 400 folks, all of them with a story about why they came down. Gerald has been down here every season for 18 years-this year his three kids are down too. Apparently Mom enjoys the quiet for 5 months a year. Dawn, the youngest, is 23-we don't run a kindergarten after all.
There are several bars that open for a few hours in the evenings-I've been to the coffeehouse but not the others. There's bowling alley with TWO lanes-and you can earn spare cash being a pinsetter. If I can can score a blender off of the SKUA hut I might even make some recycled paper. I'd have to scam a bus tray from the galley-but I'm a baker so it won't look too weird.
SKUA is the spot where folks leave stuff they don't want anymore. Imagine a pretty well sorted back attic and you'll have the idea. There are boxes of clothes, books, food packets, decor, and general "stuff". It's fun to poke around.
The galley crew are all good so far, but there are many more coming down in October. With only 400 to cook for it's relatively calm, so I am doing some fancy stuff for desserts-and we do cookies once a week because round cookies for that many is too many to scoop everyday. Mostly the dough gets rolled into logs and sliced. The cooks like lots of cuisines and plenty of heat-the lime coconut curry soup last night was enough to clear the sinuses. Many of the population would be happy with pot roast and potatoes 5 nights a week, with chicken one night and hot dogs the other, but we force them to expand their culinary horizons! We also have a vegetarian/vegan option at Lunch and Dinner, and Jeff is good-he makes a necessary reliance (it's what we have here) on temphe (slabs of drier-style soybean curd) work out with a huge variation in flavorings.
When I got here it was a) the last flight for another month and b) a new box of freshies-or vegetables not from can or freezer. Some of the winter-over folks ate rather more fruit and veg that they should have all at once-the revenge of the killer tomato struck. I will try to figure out how to post the menus for the week.
Mostly the weather's been ok-but yesterday it got WINDY. Just like home in Chicago.... And it's still to early in the year for 24 hour sunshine! We get sun for about 8 hours a day, then a looong twilight, then some dark. It's odd, but there's been so much cloud cover and general area light that I haven't yet seen the stars. Fewer than 3,000 people on the whole continent, pretty dang dark and NO chance to see different constellations. *sigh*
Well, must get off to run errands. Some things, it seems, are inescapeable.
Becky
The Galley crew plays pool on Monday nights. I'm not quite the worst player there, but it's close! And all of the cues are these weird aluminum ones-they go "tink" when you break.