May Days in the Bogs

Posted by Kim

     

What is this?  A new post?  Nothing since last July?   What the what is THAT about?

New computers sometimes don't play nice

Well, I'm here to tell you, things have happened, and things are happening now.  Caitlyn and I are just finishing up the start of the Summer 2019 season and it is good to be back doing field work.  Not too many stories (we've seen snow and bears and monster mosquitoes and some kind of Mustelid and almost hit a Kestrel and saw hawks and ravens galore and broke through ice and changed out 72 resin tubes and set 1500 crank wires), but we surely have had a productive time.  Life is somewhat allergy-ridden here for me in Fort Mac as I type, but we are off to Edmonton by tomorrow eve.  Things just keep on moving.   

Here are some pics:

Would Kel be proud?  mmmmm 

Bears, Fluxing, and Fert

Well, the fire still burns, but we are busy with our fieldwork and the team is gaining momentum.  Two teams today split up and one fluxed and one fertilized.  It was a busy, successful day.  We had hoped to get to Fort McMurray by now, but access is still restricted and so we continue to focus on our NSF project.

By my count, we have collectively seen at least 4 bears – one of which came walking by our front door and explored the yard.  That is a seriously respectable number for our short stint  up here thus far.  We’ve seen a host of fox, several coyote, tons of deer – some of which have decided to race our trucks and then cut us off – some of which are in our front yard.  We’ve seen so many birds of all kinds, and squirrels and we’re pretty sure there is a wolf skeleton at one of our sites.  We are teaming with all kinds of wildlife and I hope to see more. 

I’m at the end of my first trip up here for the summer, but really it is just the start for us all.  The crew is great - Tough and Smart and Funny and hard working and they still seem to all be enjoying themselves, so that is a good start.  

Cheers to a great summer!   

Mildred Burned

Posted by Kim

Well, we are pretty solid on our Mildred site burning pretty much as I type this.  It is located very close to the Syncrude/Suncor main stacks and ponds as you can see in the satellite image below.  We had hoped to wander up in that direction tomorrow, but it is looking less and less likely that we will be able to visit any of our sites up there for quite a time.  We will keep you updated.

To the right you can see the overall fire activity this morning.  Today we plan to hit our Red Earth Creek and Utikuma sites which happen to be the furthest sites west and away from this area.  There appears to be a small fire under control north of Red Earth Creek, however, it seems like those sites are all in the clear. 

In other news, it is good to be here in Athabasca again, and the weather is projected to be a lovely 80 F and sunny today.  It is a good day to do field work, but probably not a great day to fight fires.  Keep your fingers and toes crossed.