28th October – Raven, SK

Another morning and another idle walk down to the lake. Since it has started to freeze the ice has gone from a thin layer to 2cm and now to 4cm. Not enough to hold body weight but getting better. The rocks make this really cool high pitched sound when they land and bounce on the frozen surface.

At lunch, amazed with this frozen water fascination, Tan and I threw more rocks on the lake and skimmed ice like hockey pucks. Cookie come with us and she saw the rocks and stepped onto the lake. Cookie was quite unresponsive to our calls back. In a way we were somewhat concerned knowing the lake was all liquid a few days earlier. When she run out about 100m we got scared as the ice was thinner there.

Ten minutes later I was showing Derek the ice and sounds the rocks make when Cookie the avid adventurer went skating again. This time she come back near the grassy lake edge and fell through to her tummy. I had enough so I grabbed her and took her back into her tent. Matt was up most of the night probing a drill hole so he was sleeping. Not for long! Ten seconds later we heard “Get off the bed!!”. Cookie was giving Matt an unwelcome wake up lick in the face with wet paws!

Oh yeah, last night I had a semi-shave and I am now sporting an awesome Newfie mo. Check out my early addition for Movember!!! Also Tan "the Warrior Princess" found an ice shield!! Both my mo and Tan's shield are a-kickers.

A light dusting of evening snow made everything white and fluffy again. Seeing the stacks of core covered in the snow is a stark contrast from four months ago. Tonight will be the coldest night we have ever experienced.
Dave, our great chef, made up an awesome lamb curry and we could taste it was made with love. It was hit with most people and we really enjoyed it!! I’ve had two up here now and both were good. Tan played guess that song and she was, as usual, spot on the money with her music knowledge.
Lindsay and Matt knew we were off tomorrow so the packed us a little Happy Halloween bag full of goodies. It was great as it contained the two things everyone craves up here – beer and chocolate!!
Later that night Derek, Darcy (D.P.), Heather and I had tins. Dave, Travis, Tan and Cliff joined us later on and the night turned out well. Not to raucous, but I got to shot gun two tins, one successfully, the other I won’t talk about.

1st August, Points North, SK

Wes took Brad, Corey, Brendo and I out to Wolf Lake this morning. We had to check the rocks at the end of a diamond drill hole and drop off Brad to do a downhole geophysical survey. This area has a huge bald eagle nest in the highest tree on the highest hill. Getting to fly close to it was good. The weather was great and we got to West Bear to resample old core. I love flying in the helicopter and Wes does a great job flying it. We have got him to say “Wanker” which is very funny. The chats about random stuff in the chopper are entertaining. At West Bear, we had to unstuck loads of core and mark it up for sampling. Everything was going well until the boys disturbed a wasps’ nest. Well, I ended up getting stung on the right eye brow and it did hurt, a strong stinging sensation and it swelled up very quickly. Brad didn’t know why I went crazy and squashed the remainder of the nest with my gum boots until I told him that I just got stung.
The sunny day turned into a stormy day and we had a couple of retreats back to the old generator shack. It is empty now and it was great cover from the heavy intermittent rain. The frogs were out and about again. By the end of the day, the swelling had gone down and it didn’t hurt too much so I’ll be alright. The late afternoon sun peeked its head from amongst the clouds. The Pronto flight come in, a small prop plane which will take me to Saskatoon when I take my first (and only) break of the program. Here’s a photo of the plane (mainly for Tan’s – I don’t like little planes – benefit).
P.S. I got to clip my right middle finger nail today. Something I haven’t done since the 20th March when I ripped it completely off!!!

31st July, Raven Camp/Points North, SK

Today was a slow morning of writing up procedures. The rain come in and then an awesome thunderstorm. It was very close indeed. During the storm we had pea size hail. Mike, a legend, was out in the rain with garbage bags as a coat. We got the word that we needed to resample some old core to assess lower uranium grades at one of our projects, West Bear. Brendan and his team needed help, so my role as “pinch hitter” or “jack of all trades” come in. I packed my bag and moved to Points North, an airstrip and cargo drop off zone servicing the mines and exploration camps in the area.
We sorted out some of the gear we needed and boarded the chopper to assess what needs to be done. We had to unstack boxes of Sonic core. This core is drilled using vibration and slowly rotating string with casing following the hole down and used to drill through soft clays and sands with awesome core recovery.

First thing Brendan and I noticed was the frogs. They were everywhere and the location of the core farm is in muskeg, swampy, wet ground with areas of competent ground with peat moss. The frogs were all of the same species and we spent some time playing catch and release. The macro on my camera turned out well too. The core intersects graphitic pelites. I haven’t seen such graphitic rocks before so it was a real treat. At the some time, the core has quite a lot of nickel and cobalt in it and when it weathers and oxidises it produces nickel and cobalt blooms (secondary minerals). Within a short time these minerals had already developed on the core!
Wes, our new chopper pilot, has 28 years of experience and they way he lands and takes off is very smooth. We commented that we wanted to see wildlife and said it had been very quiet. About 8 miles from Points North, I saw two brown figures in one of the shallow lakes. I was hesitant to say anything into I saw the sun shinig off the v ripples made from the animals moving. Wes swung it around and there were two moose, a cow and a calf. My first moose sighting and I was the one to spot them. It was very exciting. There was a buzz in the chopper. Moments later, Wes swung around to see some more, (which I thought was unusual or very lucky) we got in close and the green backed brown rocky looking moose didn’t move. He spotted some rocks with tufts of grass in the lake. It was laughs all round. Brendo told Wes that Mark the other pilot did the same thing to those two rocks a week ago as well.
Back at Points, I got my room and settled down. The office has super quick internet so I had a chance to Skype etc. I learnt about online movie and music sharing too. I shared “Fubar” – a Canadian mockumentary on two down and outers. The Raven Camp use phrases from the movie all the time so I had to get it to put everything into context.

The office we have is in the airport lounge. Out the window, I can see choppers and aircraft coming to and fro. Dad would love it here. A lot of Americans come here to fish and there are posters up about Minor Bay and Wollaston Lodges with big pike, similar to my trophy fish. One sign mentioned this areas is a dry “First Nations” indigenous reserve and another says “Tackle Boxes and Fish Finders Not Allowed as Carry-On Luggage”. I’m in my element.

Watching the sun set on the helicopters parked up was pretty good (ours is on the right).