25-27th March, Raven Camp, SK

Over the next few days in between work, I got to walk on the lake Tan and I watched freeze over from nothing to 5cm of ice in three days. I got to write Tan in the snow on the lake. Now the snow was thigh to groin high in areas and it was so dry you couldn’t make a snow ball out of it. It is really hard to walk in deep snow, tiring in fact. It was a sunny -21 when I took this photo.
The core racks were covered in fluffy snow, like muffins.
Brendo cruising along in the snow.

The northern lights of a night time were absolutely glorious. One night they were shimmering away. I was outside in -20C (as cold as a conventional freezer) with a gusty wind. This meant it was pretty cold in my books. Fantastic to experience this again! A rule in Canada is “Don’t eat yellow snow!”. Around the tents there was a lot of yellow snow. I did some calligraphy!!

Cooktits had a spare snowboard and boots which fitted so got to hit the slopes for two nights. I did some pretty spectacular crashes but overall learnt a bit more on the board.

Going off the slope into the powder was a silly idea. Here is me stuck in snow with a snowboard attached to my feet.
On the last day, I visited one of the rigs at Raven. A glorious cloud free day and some ptarmigans were walking around in the snow.
After visiting the rig, we went to Lake Wollaston, where I caught a large pike and walleye in the summer. Now the lake is frozen over and it has an ice road. The minimum thickness of ice was 76cm!! Semi trailers work they way across the lake and one company was actually drilling on it. I got to drive on the lake, a first and then we played on the thick blue ice. Along the Umpherville River under all that snow and ice is where we put the boat in for the first time in the summer season.
The coldest it got during these nights was -29.2C, colder than Australia’s coldest reported temperature at Charlotte’s Pass. This cold weather isn’t that bad!

The last night, the northern lights were the second most spectacular I have seen. They are an absolutely amazing phenomena.

2nd October – Raven Camp – SK

A nice sunny day today. The boys were out to West Bear again. As this area is only accessible by helicopter during summer, in order to move things out, they have to sling them in a net that is hooked onto to helicopter via a long line. The long line can be hooked on while the helicopter is still running with its blades rotating. Dan had the pleasure of doing this task. It was a late one trying to get as many loads out as possible. The tamaracs, a deciduous pine tree, looked nice and yellow in the late afternoon sun.
It was a nice night out. Christine and I went out for a walk taking our obligatory bear bangers and bear spray.

We had a random email from a bloke in the US who Googled "Quebec City dodgy" and got on to our blog and liked it.

Later that evening, just as we were about to go to bed, Dan poked his head outside the door and quickly called me out. Nature had put on the most spectacular display we have ever seen. The Northern Lights!!! It is difficult to describe just how truly breathtaking these lights actually are. They swirl in the sky like green smoke, quickly changing. Then all of a sudden, they dance across the sky in a dazzling display of greens, purples and pinks. The best of last nights display went for around 30 minutes. We have never seen anything like this and we both agreed it was one of the most unforgettable moments. It was nice out, a balmy 4 degrees Celsius.

We had to get Judy, our night baker, to come watch.

Tan is one week down with three more to go. Alcohol free!!

29th September – Raven Camp, SK

Cold, wet and windy morning. No West Bear sampling today. The weather cleared in the afternoon.

Tom grabbed Tan and took her out to the rigs. The wind made Tan cry, well her eyes were watering from the cold. Tom and Tan sat in the car with the heater on after standing out in the cold. The road to the rigs is getting bumpy and wet. Good fun though.

It was dry enough for a skate on the south of 60 skate park. Darcy, Derek and I gave it a power effort. My best tricks were backside 50-50, 270 out to fakie and a lucky back side half cab kickflip with front side 180 body varial.

We watched two episodes of Trailer Park Boys, in Tan’s view – possibly the worst trash ever made. Mine was different of course!
That night it slipped into negative temperatures. I slipped outside for a rest room break and the northern lights were out. An impressive green streak. I’ve worked out how to photograph them now.

16th August, Points North, SK

I went over to catch up with Brendo tonight at Points North. He leaves tomorrow and I will look after his program until he returns. That night Dave, Brendo, Leo and I planned the next lot of drilling in an area called Tent Seal. Another place to explore. The key to my room was in Brad’s pocket at Raven so I was roomless for a while. At 11:00pm I went out of the office and watched the green fountain of northern lights (check the brilliant image I captured above). It was okay but it was better the first time I saw them. At 11:35pm, I gave Brendo a call. “I can’t wait any longer for these keys to turn up, I’m sharing the room with you.” Brendo was watching this shite movie and winding down for his break. I fell asleep quickly, knackered.

6th August, Points North, SK

Watching a commercial jet plane, and two sea planes in the air within 1km of each other revealed to me that Points is a busy little place. Not to mention the helicopter traffic. Our chopper pad is only 50m from the end of the runway and watching the plane scoot in at high speed from such a short distance is something I wouldn’t get to experience at home.

On the way to West Bear we had a safety meeting at 2200’. Certainly a different location in comparison to other meetings I have been in. We discussed slinging and it made the flight go quickly.
We absolutely nailed it today and worked hard. It was great to get the job done and packed away. We found a little field mouse which we caught and re-caught and caught again. Something to keep us occupied. It’s the little things. In a way it was good to get the job done. On the way home we traveled east a bit to see the distance to the main road. About 13kms through swampy country. The sun on the lakes through the clouds was great. That night I moved back to Raven camp. Matt, one of the helpers brought in some rum for Brendo so we gave it a tipple. We ended up going for a drive down to the Wollaston Landing where a barge takes cars etc. to the township of Wollaston. We kicked the footy on the road and had some relaxing drinks. When we got back to camp we decided to stir up the helpers. It was fun. As we were talking to them, we saw the northern light. Waves and ribbons of green traversed the sky. A group of us went out to the old core storage area away from the light. Seeing the northern lights on such a cool crisp night is a sight to behold, made better with the sighting of three shooting stars.
Ended up getting to bed on at 3:20am when it was starting to get light again was probably not the best idea on a school night, but it doesn’t matter because seeing the northern lights is fantastic. Pity my digital camera didn’t take the photos to well. (You will have to squint!!)