Back to work for a little rest.......

I spent the whole last two weeks home working on a countertop project. I have a few pictures of some of the pieces but I still have some finish work to do and don't have any pictures of the whole kitchen yet. Here is what I have right now.

Fall colors....

When I left on the 27th there were a few leaves turning yellow but most were still green. Sandi sent me some pictures of the yard last week and wow what a fast transition! We don't have the brilliant red trees that they have on the east coast but our orange and yellow is amazing. We are going to spend the last week of October and the first week of November in Maine so we will get to enjoy all the colors we might have missed out on here. We went to Maine in early October last year and it was just a little too early for full color so maybe we will hit it this year.

I don't have much new to report as I am still stuck at work on this island in the middle of the Colville River Delta. We are however having unseasonably warm temperatures here, but nothing exciting. The tundra is a beautiful brown and there isn't any ice yet so all is good. Alaskans for Global Warming! Those that oppose global warming don't spend their winters here I can tell you that much! Ok I will admit that a polar bear told me last week he was tired of having to swim farther and farther each year to get to the sea ice but he has a thicker parka than I do so the cold and wind don't bother him as much. I told him the bright side was that he looked to be in better shape this year!

Here are a couple of pictures from around the yard, the first is one I took the morning I left of the pavilion after I got the roof boards cut to length, and the rest Sandi took last week around the yard.

Finally.....

I have been busy as well as a little too lazy to post much lately. I just got back to work last Wednesday and had a busy time home. We have been working on fencing for the horse and alpacas so Thane and I put in about 40 fence posts. Last summer I at least had some free labor from my Dad and his friend Gerald Carnes from Texas. Why would anyone want to do anything more on a vacation to Alaska than put in fence posts? After this week I realized how much I really did appreciate the extra help.

After fencing I started putting the roof on the pavilion and got struck in the head by a branch of a bolt of lightning that hit in the trees beside the lawn. I felt it hit my head and go out my ankle, luckily it wasn't the main part of the bolt. The erie thing is about forty five minutes earlier I had heard thunder way off in the distance (but only once)and actually thought that it would be bad to be struck by lightning. Then BAM! Dad had actually pulled into the yard just a minute before and was walking onto the lawn when it struck. I guess it was just because I was on top of a solid wood structure that I didn't get the full force, but let me tell you it will certainly get your attention.

After changing my shorts and finishing the pavilion roof I started working on a set of concrete countertops for a new house some friends are building. They are going to turn out really nice. We put a lot of glass and stones into the pieces before we poured the concrete. When I get home I'll finish and install them.

Not much going on here except the weather is great we have been having record high temperatures for the arctic this time of the year. The high's the last few days have been in the high 50's and low 60's. I hope it lasts!

Well that's about all for now.......

Here is a picture of the pavilion before I trimmed the roof boards and our lawn mower on an ugly fall day at home.

Flooding.......Mother Natures House Cleaning

I got home from work Monday night and finally got to go kayaking today. TJ (my sister) and I ran Willow Creek today for the first time since the water level has come back down from flood stage. It is amazing how high the water got last week and it is even more amazing how much cleaner the whole creek looks. All of the rock walls were polished clean of all the moss and other vegetation. All of the little nooks and crannies in the rock walls that had filled with sand over the years have been emptied, and beaches that were covered with cobblestones and sand have had all of the sand washed away. There is one beach that used to be mostly rock and some sand is now piled high with sand. If we had a little sun it would be a great place to lay around all day. Lower downstream out of the canyon all of the overhanging brush has been cleaned away from the riverbanks. The creek looks like it had the cleaning and gardening crew from Disneyland spend a month cleaning the rocks and pruning the brush.

It was a beautiful day on the water, although every day on the water is beautiful. I am probably the only one around that wouldn't be upset if it decided to rain some more.


Here is a couple pictures of TJ and I on the Cowichan river on Vancouver Island BC last April.

Brrrrrr......

Thirty three degrees and breezy. We walked on the runway tonight and it was sure chilly. The grass has almost all turned brown and all of the duckling's are quite big and getting ready for their trek south. The closer winter gets, the closer I am to renting a beach house somewhere. If we could farm out the dogs and fit the alpacas and horse into a big duffel bag, we could head for the beach.
Actually we are probably going to go to Maine and enjoy the fall colors the last of October and first of November so I guess the beaches will have to wait.

With fall comes hunting season. Hunting season means that most of the animals start heading down out of the mountains and into the trees for a little cover and to spend the winter. Sandi sent me a picture she took last week, she thought that SHE had finally captured Bigfoot on film for real,lurking in the woods........


After all of the
excitement it
turns out it was
just me peeling a
willow for roasting
marshmallows.

So much for fame and fortune! I don't think this picture will make it into mysteries of the unexplained, but I think people that know me are pretty sure that I could.

I have been watching the water levels drop on the USGS realtime gauges all week. A welcome sight for those who's property flooded last week, but a disappointment for me because I think by the time I get home the levels will be back to where they were when I left. Oh well, hopefully I'll get a day or two out of it.

Concrete countertops.....

This time home I have another kitchen to work on. I don't know the colors yet but it is going to be a good project. Here are a few pictures of the last house I worked on. We used concrete for the front entry, the hearth, and the bar countertop. All of it was sand in color and accented with a copper fern for the entry and mother of pearl and ammonites throughout all of the pieces.

My first editorial.....

Last year when Dad was in the hospital after his aneurysm I wrote more than I had ever written in any one week. A few people suggested I write more, and a few thought I should try writing editorials. Today I submitted my first editorial. Here is what I wanted to submit:
________________________________
On 8/24 The ADN reported on BP's recent compressor shutdown which dropped Prudhoe Bay's output by 90,000 Barrels a day, in that same article (as with most articles written recently) they also included the details of the oil spill that BP had in March. It seems that all topics get back to the enormous March oil spill. Here is what ADN reported:
Its troubles began in early March when a leaky pipeline released an estimated 201,000 gallons of oil onto the frozen tundra. It was the largest North Slope oil spill in nearly three decades of production there, and the event attracted scrutiny from federal pipeline regulators, members of Congress and criminal investigators.
I am particularly disturbed that when the media reports on the oil industry they always quote production in Barrels, however when there is a leak or a spill it is always quoted in Gallons. For those who don't know there are 42 gallons in each barrel of oil.
In March when BP had a pipeline leak that made national news, however I did not see a single article that reported 4785 Barrels of oil spilled onto the frozen tundra. I am also very bothered by the fact that after all the national attention BP has received since their March spill; I did not hear or read a single article about CITGO's recent spill in Louisiana. What spill you say?
The Lake Charles American Press reports (07/05/2006), 71,000 barrels (2.9 million gallons) of slop oil containing hazardous chemicals that leaked from the Citgo Refinery waste oil tank on the Calcasieu River may well be the largest oil spill and the largest hazardous liquid spill in Southwest Louisiana. The spill happened June 19 after a violent rainstorm.
An estimated 25,000 Barrels of that was released into Calcasieu River. Let me do the math for you, that equals 1,050,000 GALLONS of slop oil. I did not see this in any paper or on any major media channel, nor did I hear about any federal regulators or criminal investigators on the news.
The bottom line here is that since the lower 48 is not trying to develop new oilfields in environmentally sensitive areas the US media doesn't seem to care what happens to the environment. In my book it is much easier to clean up 201,000 Gallons of oil off of the frozen tundra than it would be to clean up 1,050,000 Gallons out of a river.
I am more than disappointed in our media and how they report the news.
_________________________________________

Since they only allow 225 words here is what I was limited to. Oh, I used every one of the 225 words allowed.
_________________________________________
On 8/24 ADN quoted this about BP:
"Its troubles began in early March when a leaky pipeline released an estimated 201,000 gallons of oil onto the frozen tundra."
I'm disturbed that when the media reports on the oil industry they always quote production in Barrels, when there's a spill it's always quoted in Gallons. I didn't see a single article that reported 4785 Barrels of oil spilled onto the frozen tundra in March. I'm bothered by the fact that after all the national attention BP received since that I didn't see a single article about CITGO's recent spill in Louisiana. What spill?
The Lake Charles American Press reports (07/05/2006), 71,000 barrels (2.9 million gallons) of slop oil containing hazardous chemicals that leaked from the Citgo Refinery waste oil tank on the Calcasieu River may well be the largest oil spill and the largest hazardous liquid spill in Southwest Louisiana. The spill happened June 19 after a violent rainstorm.
An estimated 25,000BBLs was released into Calcasieu River. That equals 1,050,000 GALLONS. I didn't see this incident on national news.
Since the lower 48 isn't trying to develop new oilfields in environmentally sensitive areas the media doesn't care what happens to the environment. Alaska's Oil Industry is held to a higher standard than any other I know of, yet gets scrutinized more than anyone else when things don't go right.
_____________________________________________________

I don't know if they will print it but it was worth a shot.

Although I work for a major oil company I am very concerned about environmental issues and protection. Without environmentalists I have no doubt that the North Slope would be just as polluted as the rest of the country has been by industry. I am perplexed however that our society is more concerned with the conservation of the small section of ANWR that the oil companies wants to explore and develop than they are about the pollution of the Gulf Coast by industry. Think about how many people visit and live on the Gulf Coast versus how many people in this country will ever see ANWR.

Now think about how many people are upset by the increase in oil prices, yet how many of us are really conserving fuel or investing in alternative energy sources? Until our society as a whole changes it's daily fuel consumption and dependence on fossil fuels we all need to think really hard about how critical we are of the companies that bring these products to market.

OK I'm done ranting.

Fun's over the fog is gone.....

Well the fog cleared today and we were able to fly back to Alpine around six this evening. Last night was pretty uneventful and I don't have much to tell so I'll post a few more pictures of Sandi and Billy from this summer.

Stranded on the Delta.....

As some might know the oil field in which I work is the newest oilfield to be brought online in the US, we started production in November of 2000. It is nice to work in a place that is new and has state of the art equipment, however with todays environmental standards there are many challenges. For starters our whole production facility, living quarters, 1 drill site (all of the wells), maintenance facilities, warehouse, water treatment, wastewater treatment plant, airstrip, and heli pads are all sited on a 90 acre gravel pad in the middle of the Colville River Delta. We have one drill site in production that is two miles away that is currently producing oil and one about four miles away that is near start up. Right now I am at our newest drill site (called a sattelite field) this one is about four miles north of Alpine in sight of the Arctic Ocean, but the catcher is that due to the vast amount of wetlands we had to make it roadless. It is only accessible by air in the summer. There are several flights in the mornings and several in the evenings to get out here to work. The catcher is that it is the foggiest place on the Delta and when there is fog there isn't transportation to or from the pad. So, since it fogged up about an hour before time to go we are all still here. The living quarters are not like the ones back at Alpine. There is an Emergency Living Quarters (ELQ)on the pad that serves as an office, sleeping quarters, and kind of a kitchen. There are two things that I am not really excited about, the first is sleeping in the same room as seven other men (but I can get over that), the second is that there is not any potable water, water supply or waste water handling. That being said, my least favorite thing is the incinolette. What is that you say? Let me tell you, it is a toilet that burns what is left in it so there is no disposal. I won't go into details but it makes life interesting. Things could always be worse. Like had someone not had the foresight to order a gas grill for out here, or had Mark Dugas not had the forsight to bring a case of hamburger patties out last week we might not have enjoyed such a nice dinner.




The cage (bars) behind me is to keep the polar bears out of the ELQ (no kidding).

Well I am off to sleep.......

Receeding water??

Well the water levels at home seem to be decreasing a bit. I guess it just depends on how much it decides to rain this week as to what direction all of the river levels will do.
Sandi sent me a few pictures she took at two of the bridges that cross Willow Creek.






Sandi said the clouds have lifted a little and she is able to see Denali for the first time in more than a week. She sent this picture tonight of a rainbow that was right above her garden.




__________________


Before all of this flooding I was planning on posting some of the pictures we have of Sandi on her horse (Billy) this summer. Here are a couple to start.

It could always be worse........

I got an email from a friend today complaining about a week of rain, I woke up this morning to snow. Normally I'd take snow over rain any day, but not any day in AUGUST! I have some friends from Longview Washington and they had 51 consecutive days of rain last winter, so a week doesn't seem too bad.















FLOOD STAGE.........................................................................

This year is 20 years since the last time Willow Creek and surrounding area flooded. That flood changed Willow Creek quite a bit, I'm curious to see how much the character of the creek changes after this flood. With any luck maybe we will get a few more playholes and waves out of it.

Bad scheduling....

I just seem to be just a bit off with my schedule. Usually I get lucky with my 2 week on (at work) and 2 week off (at home) schedule and catch the best weather. Not this year! I missed the week of 80 degree weather we had in May that was totally unseasonable, and now I am missing the monsoon season. Most people would want to miss out on the rain but if I had my choice I'd rather be home for the torrential down pour than the constant drizzle we've had every time I've been home. I know that doesn't make a lot of sense so let me explain.

DRIZZLE= not much precipitation, not fun to work in, not great to play in
TORRENTIAL DOWN POUR= tons of precipitation= lots of run off= increased river levels= GREAT KAYAKING






These pictures are last summer on the Little Susitna River at a flow of 1200 Cubic Feet per Second (CFS). Right now this same little river is at flood stage and is running 4810 CFS and peaked at over 8000 CFS. Willow Creek is the creek I live on (well close to) and it is at flood stage- 5680 CFS. Normally it is around 700 to 1200 CFS right now. Last time I was home all of the river levels were too low to really paddle. It didn't rain enough to bring them up enough to paddle. Now I'm stuck here and everything is completely flooding.
Damn the bad luck!

It tried to snow today! In the Arctic that is....

I am at work this week, and for those who don't know I work on the north slope of Alaska 600 miles from where I live. The site I work at is completely remote and in the middle of the Colville River Delta (second largest in the US to the Mississippi Delta), we can only be accessed by air or water in the summer and after January we usually have an ice road that connects to the Kuparuk/ Prudhoe Bay road system.

So today it tried to snow. Blech, I am not at all ready for this. Would someone from New Mexico or Texas please take a big box and fill it with some hot afternoon air and mail it to me!

I have been posting pictures of our house and a few of our projects from this summer over the last few days. We started working on a "cabin" during the summer of 2001 then decided to turn it into a house that fall. Since then we have been working on getting the house, yard and Sandi's garden as presentable as it is today.

Our house is timber frame construction, with the same traditional joinery of timberframes from the past several hundred years. All of the joints are held together with wood pegs.
When we started our house project the three things I wanted to do the most was cut the timber frame, build the cabinets, and make the concrete countertops. In the years since we started I have acquired the tools for all three of these specialties (plus quite a few more). If you aren't familiar with concrete countertops they are much more than a slab of sidewalk on top of a cabinet. Liquid stone might be the best way to describe concrete counters, the only limitation is your imagination.
Last year I decided since I had all of the tools I would start a small business; Hatcher Pass Timberworks & Custom Concrete. To date I have only made countertops and haven't had a chance to do any timberframing but my lawn pavilion is kind of an advertisement for what I want to do with my timberframing skills. I don't have the desire to build houses but I would enjoy cutting frames for cabins and gazeebo's.

Here are a few concrete countertop pictures from our house. I will post some of my other projects later. My male model is my son Thane.

More construction Pictures

Today I'll just post a few pictures from around the house.

This is a photo of the Pavilion as it stands now and as it was during cutting.












































This is the barn slab on the day of the pour.






This is our house from the yard.



























Here is Thane working as a crossing guard for the Alpacka herd.





Thane on his John Deere.

Alaska Summer

Global warming my rear!
This summer has been quite cool in comparison to the last few that we have had, I can't complain though because it is still summer after all. Now it is almost September and the rainy season is here (still). It is kind of funny, I am hoping to get another four to six weeks before it snows and in the Lower 48 everyone is having record a heat wave!

Our '06 construction season (summer)got off to a busy start. In June we cleared a nice spot in the woods for the shop/barn and in July we poured 50 yards of colored concrete into several slabs. The largest of them is a 40x48' slab with radiant floor heating in it for the shop/barn. The other thick slab is a 10x20 gazebo/pavilion, and we had enough to pour a 6x12x6" slab for Sandi a greenhouse.
All of the concrete was colored (Davis Concrete Color-Mesa Buff) a tan color but after it is finished it looks like a light mocha color. I put different kinds of aggregates in the pavilion slab and then ground it down just like I do with the concrete countertops that I make. It has a sand color to the concrete and lots of color with the different stones and looks like a countertop.

We raised the lawn pavilion in August and just need to get a roof on it before it snows. The plan is to add an outdoor fireplace in the pavilion for those days we need a little cover and a nice fire.




More construction photos to follow......

Heat wave!

We went from -40 here in the arctic to a balmy -3 today! Yesterday I watched a lone caribou scratch the ground for something to eat. I couldn't help but think what a lonely existence it must be for them here during the winter. It amazes me that people choose to live this far north year round. It is so amazing how diverse and completely different life is in all parts of the globe. I saw a poster the other day of a grass hut on one of the French Polynesian atoll islands and thought about how nice it would be to lay in the sun there and do nothing for awhile.

Luckily I am escaping soon to sunny San Diego for a couple of weeks, it is for training for work but at least it will be warm and sunny.

I haven't written for awhile but I must say that nothing exciting has happened. All work no play it seems like.

Happy New Year!

Well I am a week late here but since I spent New Years Eve and New Years Day on the couch unconscious with a head cold I don't feel too bad. Theraflu is a miracle drug, even better with a shot or two....

I was at work until the day after Christmas so I ate well and missed out on all of required obligations that people expect of you during the Christmas Holiday. I thought I was the only one who thought Christmas was too commercialized and didn't mind skipping out on it, but I found out that it must be genetic. My Dad threw himself down on a curb and broke his hip just so he could skip out on it! I need to talk to him, I'm not sure but I think it is less painful and a little more lucrative to volunteer to stay at work......

Luckily for Dad 2005 is officially over! Now if he can just get moving again, two major recoveries in three months. WOW. I know he is still tougher than me!


So far 2006 has given us little snow and 2005 has left us lots of ice. I am optimistic that we will get some good snow sometime soon, but until then I think I'll crush up some of this ice and have a margarita!

Just kidding, I'm at work and they have breathalyzers here too!

Oh well.
Happy New Year

The Lights of the North Pole are bright!

Just over the horizon I can see the glow of lights from the North Pole. If you listen verrry closely you can hear the elves calling out children's names as they load the toys into the sleigh. The only thing I was able to make out today was that they were loading a big box of tissue for Ted Stevens, since all of his opponents got their early present today.

Rudolph has the gang ready to go, they have been doing touch and go's on all of our roof tops getting all practiced up. Time is getting short and they really need the practice. The first attempt they made cost Donner his front left leg and us a satellite dish! He is going to be out on medical until next year. Luckily for him he filed his claim before they cut the medicaid budget.

I am keeping the faith that they will be ready on Saturday though.

I'll keep you posted.

Or is it the ice cream and pastries causing laziness?

Could it be the ice cream or the cookies, or maybe the really good pastries the baker has been making. I am not sure but I do know my motivation has been pretty low lately.

I did actually get some pretty amazing pieces of concrete molded for a fireplace surround. The have many compound angles and were pretty tricky but turned out pretty good. I will post some pictures soon.

I finally decided working in the cold is really not any fun so we are going to build a shop/barn this summer. It was cold the last time I was at home and it seemed everything I had to work on was frozen. I had my truck full of sand and aggregate from mixing concrete and what was left froze in the back of my truck and I had to chop it out with a splitting maul. If I would have had a warm place for my truck it would have taken a lot less effort.

I will be at work for Christmas so anyone that was going to send me presents at home can just give them to Saint Nick and he can drop them off on his way over.

Rachelle told me that Sydney is not allowed to say Merry Christmas at her school, it has to be happy holidays. It amazes me that as over commercialized as Christmas has become in our country that we aren't even supposed to refer to as Christmas anymore. I say get rid of the commercialization and let everyone continue saying Merry Christmas and there would probably be a lot more happy people in the world. At least then nobody would be let down when they didn't get a gift from me!

Well I haven't thought of to much to say lately but I am trying to get back into the writing mood.

Cold; does it cause laziness?

I haven't written in a while due to a severe lack of motivation. It is mucheasier to just get off of work and lay in bed than to entice thoughts and put them into words. It has been between -50 to -60 degrees (including windchill) so about -35 or so ambient. That in itself causes me to be unmotivated. Luckily I go home on Wednesday for a couple of weeks to get out of these frigid temperatures. Hopefully I will get a little more time to write in the next few weeks. Everyone have a good Thanksgiving.