Kirstie distracting a seal mom as Katie and Michael tag the pup.
Mt. Erebus
Alasdair (our sea ice instructor) opening the hut
The anchor that broke, leaving Shackleton's food supply crew stranded for two years.
Pictures the men left behind in the hurry
Kitchen table
Ok, fine yeah, here's a pic of Emperor Penguins. We get to see these guys every now and then. It's awesome!
Seal Team 6... see what I did there?
Eric, Katie, Kirstie, Terrill, Michael and me...
(we're standing over a pile of frozen seal blood. Yeah sounds intense, but bites and squabbles are day to day in the seal world. They have such wonderfully insulating fat layers that even deep looking cuts, while they may bleed a bunch aren't serious at all. We get to play in all sorts of seal fluids... more on that later...)
So anyway there are so many things to write about but before I do, I simply wanted to share a short video I shot today that gives an idea of life here in camp when the weather is less than, let's say Florida-like. No claims of an awesome video by the way, simply good music to go with it. We're currently at Con 1 (condition 1) which means visibility, winds and cold are at dangerous levels. Currently our temperature is not too low (in the single digits to negative single digits) but the wind is extreme and the visibility is at times less than 20 yards. So... that means we stay inside. We relax, tidy up the place, drink tea, read a book, maybe temp one another to run outside in our underwear - no pics... - listen to music, the wind and one another. So anyway, enjoy a small glimpse at the wonderfully strange life we're living at the moment. By the way, the black building in the video named Center of Excellence, is our most important building... the outhouse. The other containers are our kitchen (the yellow building) two sleepers (the center two containers) and our gear shed/boss's sleeping quarters (I don't envy him his own place since that's where all of our seal soiled garments hang and dry - or rather thaw. Doesn't smell very nice in there...). Hope you enjoy!
j
(At the time of posting this, the weather has intensified from what the video shows... simply imagine more snow, wind and way less visibility. we now run from building to building instead of walk :) enjoy!)
Who is that on tenor, Jon? It's very nice, very calming & smooth -- just like your images (NOT!)! :] I love your Blog. I was hoping you'd author one! How about some music? If you send me your email address, I could put some nice stuff on Dropbox for you!
ReplyDeleteIt's Cannonball Adderly on alto actually, off his Cannonball with Strings album. That entire album is awesome! I'll send ya my email soon. that'd be great! glad you're enjoying the blog.
ReplyDeleteCan't believe you've already been there for nearly a month! Have you named any of the seals yet?
ReplyDeleteI know the time has been flying by! Haven't named any yet but man they're cute!
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