Airplanes & Time Flying By

This is the C-17, (US Air Force) which flies in from Christchurch with passengers & cargo every other day. It's the reason we are on nights. The weather is way too hot for it to land in the daytime so it lands between 2-4 in the morning and Dave and I refuel it. It's gorgeous on the inside too. It took almost 15,000 gallons this morning which was an hour and a half.

This is an LC-130 (US New York Air National Guard). They have skis and fly to and from the South Pole and field camps. They fly throughout the day; I was on a morning LC-130 refueling shift for two weeks.

A field camp in the Dry Valleys that Dave got to fly to with a helicopter on his return to Station.

Flying home from Marble Point.

We had rough weather my last week at Marble Point, so much so that this group of scientists and the helicopter crew got stuck there with us overnight. The chief scientist asked me if I had seen any algae around in my hikes and if I could take them there to gather some samples. Ildi doing science, yessss! He had a rough Russian accent which made it even more glorious.

The annual McMurdo Alternative Arts Gallery fashion show, where you get to make your own outfit. It was a lot of crocheting, glue gunning, feathers, fiber optic cable and even sewing.

Pre-Christmas dinner toast in our room. Christmas dinner with Julie & Adam, awesome!

Julie and I emcee'd the Women's Soiree, which is an all woman talent show put on for the community to raise money for charity. We raised almost $3,000 during this event for a charity in Christchurch that does in home mentoring. It was a lot of fun!
Time flew by since Thanksgiving, and we just had our last two day weekend for the season at New Years...which was a chili cookoff and lots of live bands playing at Icestock. Dave and I are on nights until the tanker leaves (February 8th-ish). I love how quiet it is and the colors in the sky are incredible. I'm still anxiously awaiting my first penguin sighting. I followed penguin tracks next to the fuel line for miles the other day but no luck. Love you all.

Fuel Cache & Leaving for Marble Point

The baby seal I fell in love with and took way too many pictures of. Adorable!

Mom & Baby.

Seals, iceberg and Mt. Erebus in the distance. Bay of Sails, Marble Point.

Posing on our ladies Bay of Sails Sunday afternoon hike. What a treat!

Sunday day off hike with the ladies. Perfect weather for it and views!

Landing at Marble Point, where I'll be until after Thanksgiving. Crunch and Gavin in the photo.

Flying to Marble Point in an A-Star Helicopter w/Scottie the Pilot, Peggy & Julie Katch.

Dave and I on our Fuel Cache trip on the continent, past Mt. Discovery, Road End.

KBA DC-3 (Basler) plane that we flew to Road End.

Yep, this is what fuel cache testing is all about, digging until you find it. Lots of digging. Dave is in the orange jacket. This hole ended up being over 8 feet deep.

Five Fuelies and four volunteers flew on a DC-3 (Basler) to Road End/Nunatak to dig out, reposition and test a fuel cache. It was my first fuel cache; Dave was to this one last year.

Dave and I on the plane. Great views of Mt. Discovery. Exciting to get to work w/Dave so much this season...I've really enjoyed it! Going to definitely miss him this month, as I'll be at Marble for two weeks while he's at McMurdo and then we'll switch. We will get to overlap here for Thanksgiving and that is a weekend I'm very much looking forward to. Maybe an 8 hour hike like last year...hopefully lots of baking again.

Windy October at McMurdo

Dave on snowmobile, fuel hose deployment project on one of many stormy days (this past Saturday).

Me, believe it or not, smiling at the camera. This has been my typical outside outfit this season because it's been so windy. I'm in front of the Pisten Bully tracked vehicle I've been operating for our hose reel project. So far, I've been on the project for 3 weeks now, and I get one more before leaving to Marble Point field camp in the Dry Valleys for a couple weeks. Dave got put on last week, and will remain on the project until it is finished. We are currently a bit past halfway done.

Getting fuel hose deployed to Pegasus Airfield (14 miles of hose). We're lucky and have a great crew and we laugh a ton at the worst jokes ever.

Dave climbing out of the ocean observation tube. It's plastic & metal, beautiful views!!!

Dave and I under the sea ice in the observation tube. We saw so many creatures and a Weddell seal kept swimming by and checking us out. Tons of small fish, pink angel fish, jellyfish & huge rectangular ice crystals. The tube is in a different spot (water intake pipe) than last season, so no red starfish, but many more fish.

View of the underside of the frozen sea ice and ice crystals from the observation tube.

Dave climbing down the tube. Awesome way to spend Halloween! As usual, time here flies by. Maybe it's because the days are long and the one day off. It's amazing to me that it's November already. Dave's been working out, I'm making hat #7 already and I'll be bartending at the coffee house a couple times a month after work to do something different. I'm really excited about my upcoming trip to Marble Point refueling facility coming up this Saturday. I'll be there for 2 weeks, and will be joined by Dave for Thanksgiving, and he'll be here for 2 weeks after that. We love you and miss you heaps.

Autumn & Deployment #7

Our bedroom window view of Observation Hill. We're in the same dorm, same floor as the last couple seasons.

The view from our outside stairwell. The blue bldg. is the galley where we eat and internet.

Downtown Christchurch was a heart wrenching visit. It's still in ruins and the center is still cordoned off and abandoned. It's eerie, like and end of the world movie.

It's terribly sad to see almost every single church in shambles.

No sounds in the central area, just birds singing, no people walking around and incredible damage in every single direction.

We were very lucky to have an extra day in Christchurch to stroll in the gardens. In addition to the Botanic Gardens, we explored two other gorgeous gardens we'd never seen before. One of them is a rustic preserve with native trees and kiwi birds with lots of jungle vines and songbirds.

Dave and Wendy strolling in the Botanic Gardens. A gorgeous spring!!

The magnolia trees were my favorite! The flowering fruit trees a close second.

Uncle Dave and Grandma Bette with Abby in Fort Wayne. Abigail is adorable!

Aunt Ildi with Abigail at Isaac's 5th Birthday party.

Atop Mammoth Mountain in California. We took the chairlifts to the top, such a view.

We took Mom and Dad to the Ancient Bristlecone Forest as well. Oldest trees in the world!

So blessed to get to spend time with family this fall!! It was wonderful to see everybody, and I feel very lucky! Spent time in Reno & Fort Wayne with our families. We even got to see Brian and his family in Atlanta and at the lake house. Caught an awesome IU football game and time just flew by. The whole summer as a matter of fact. And it's an absolute time warp here on the Ice. It's great to be back and in the bosom of our friends, my stomach is sore from laughter. It's a different sort of season because 45 out of each 60 days this winter in Antarctica were above freezing, when it's normally around -90F. So the sea ice didn't set and there are huge cracks, and we won't get to take field trips, the scientists can't set up their research camps on the sea ice, and we have to move the airfield quickly. I'm on the hose deployment team of 5 people again like last year. But this year we're deploying 14 miles of hose instead of 13, to Pegasus airfield, which is ontop of the permanent ice shelf (it's a glacier that runs down the mountains and becomes flat as it hits the ocean). It's a very special project and great crew, but I will be walking every step of that 14 miles deploying the hose, checking the torque on the connections, planting flags to mark the hose, etc. Good exercise. Dave is well and excited to be as such. Love you all!

Family & Hike, August 2011

With Grandma at Echo Lake. We took a trip around Tahoe with Her & Dad.
Wildflowers on the trail.
Cornflowers & aspens on the trail.
It was a lush spring (in August) with fields of flowers all over: indian paintbrush, forget me nots, cornflowers, columbines, shooting stars, yarrow, mules ears, lupines and lots of others.
Dave
Still plenty of snow in the mountains and on the trail, which was covered in a lot of places.
Happy as!
Markleeville, CA (Where we met up on the PCT in 2009)
10 Anniversary Pose; this hotel in Santa Rosa is where Dave and I first met each other.
Bodega Bay, California
Kings Beach, Lake Tahoe
Tons of flowers up in Mt. Rose Meadows past Mt. Rose summit.
Walking in Mt. Rose Meadows.