Minor difficulties...

So the weather has started to get a bit nicer here. I have had 2 whole days in a row with no rain. The work has been going well, we have had a few bumps in the road but overall it’s been working out fine.

First off, our helicopter broke. The other day our A-Star (which is infinitely better than our underpowered Long Ranger) was taking off from camp to go get the 3^rd crew (out of 4) and the engine died. So, it happened at the best possible time in the best possible place – on the ground, in camp. But it still meant that we had 8 people in the field that needed to get home. We were lucky that there is a NWT Geological Survey Camp nearby so we were able to borrow their heli to pick up our crews. It was still 9:30 by the time they were getting back.

So, we had to wait to get another heli, our underpowered Long Ranger came back. How sad. Then the fun part was, the Pilot and Engineer ordered oil for the heli and it never came and it never came…Then the other morning we rushed to be ready and we were 10 minutes early for the 7am flight and the Pilot said that we should go back to bed. No oil = no flying. Apparently the oil had been shipped by the helicopter company to the hangar, but never made it on the plane. Whoopsie. So we had a day in camp to plan. Brad, our data/computer/safety guy took a picture of the ‘most expensive paperweight ever’:

Note the file folder under the skid. Apparently we will be getting a new engine on Tuesday so they will just do a switch and hopefully we will be up and running in the A-Star shortly after.

Other than that, we have been seeing lots of wildlife. From the helicopter the other day, one crew saw a big grizzly with a freshly killed bull caribou. We had our wolves hanging out in the one area we were going back to quite often. The wolves liked to howl in the morning, which was quite a creepy way to start the day. I’ve been nearly run over by a number of caribou in the last week. I think they are nearly blind. It meant that I was able to get some very cool pictures though. Here is my favourite one of a wee caribou who spotted me:

Keep in mind that it is quite zoomed in, I’m not actually getting too close to most of the wildlife.

I’m quite excited because in 4 days Micheal is going to be in my camp. He was nice enough (crazy enough) to decide to spend his short break in our camp. I don’t get my actual break for quite a while yet, so I’m pretty sure this will save my sanity. He won’t have much more time in the field, so he will likely be home in Edmonton at the start of August. That way, he can go back to watering the plants and picking the snails out of the fish tank (thanks Nat and Dad!).

Well, take care everyone and see you soon,

Mel