Holy Dinah, things change fast!

It turns out that I spoke too soon when talking about giving up my apartment, putting my stuff in storage, and hopping from site to site. I've been on time off all week, but I decided to check my work email just to make sure I wasn't missing anything. It turns out I was missing something. A coworker in the office went on an earlier-than-expected leave, and I'm to immediately take her position. In fact, we won't even have any overlap for me to learn what it is she does. 

Starting tomorrow (Monday), I begin work in the office under the title "Project Coordinator". It's actually a pretty cool opportunity for me since it's a  big step up from my previous clerk position. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing though. You see I left my apartment, put all my stuff in storage, and took Molly on the ferry to Victoria to go live with my Dad. I got the email while in Victoria that I am now to stay in town, and work out of the Burnaby office. 

Pros:

- It's a better position and is probably a good career move

- I get to live in Vancouver = I can play music, train for the half marathon, not freeze my butt off in a northern climate

- I get to have an apartment of my own, and my cat with me

Cons:

- I have to find said apartment of my own, move my stuff again, and move Molly back from the island (poor cat)

- I probably won't make as much money, even if I get a raise. I was working 80 hours a week (tons of overtime), and will now be working 37.5 (no overtime). They'd probably have to triple my wage to match my income.

- I won't get field experience... well not right away anyways. That's probably the biggest kicker. 

Well, I suppose I'll just have to see how it goes. Things change so fast, and they could change again just as easily. Wish me luck tomorrow!

Goodbye, Fort Mac

Well, I'm writing now from Vancouver. We finished the project the day before yesterday, and I was happy to fly home. I get to relax now for over a week, then return to work at the office the following Monday. I'll definitely have to visit my friends and family in Victoria in there somewhere.

Looking back on this experience, I have to say it was an extremely positive one for me. I learned a ton during my day-to-day job, and feel like I went from knowing nothing to having a hand in almost everything in the project. The people I worked with were so helpful to me, willing to teach me everything, willing to answer my often silly questions, and willing to give me a chance to prove myself.

I'll definitely miss certain aspects of this job: having three meals a day provided, along with as many snacks as you can eat; the dry winter season; the northern lights; but most of all I'll miss the people. I made some good friends at this job, and I intend to continue some of those friendships now that I'm back at home.

There are certainly things I won't miss: the smell of tailings ponds; the feeling of guilt that I'm working, although indirectly, for the devil; the scarred, clearcut landscape; and the bitter cold.

I'm finding myself in a position now where I want to share my experience and everything I learned about the oil sands industry, but somehow I just don't feel that I'll do it justice. Perhaps I'll just refer you readers to a book I read while I was in the Mac. It's called "Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent" by Andrew Nikiforuk. I picked up this title on the ferry to Victoria, of all places. It's a David Suzuki Foundation sponsored book, so you can probably guess what he might be preaching. If was very informative though, and made me consider things I would never have thought of.

On my last day on the job, I finally got to do what I've been dying to do this entire project: run an excavator. It was not as hard as I thought it would be, but I'll definitely need more practice! They are pretty neat machines, and the skilled operators who really know how to use them area even more incredible.



Trying out the Linkbelt 350

So, you may be wondering, would I do it all again? Absolutely. In fact, this week I'm moving out of my apartment, putting my stuff in storage, and living a transient lifestyle for a while. My Dad has agreed to look after Molly for a while, which was really nice of him. I think she'll enjoy the farm lifestyle. I think I'll just spent the next chapter of my life hopping from site to site, and staying in hotels or with friends and family while I'm home. You can expect some more blogging on the next one.

Bye for now! 

The end is nigh

It's really starting to feel like the end of this project. Well, I suppose it is getting to be that point. If all goes to plan, we should be out of here in two weeks or less. If it doesn't go to plan, well, I may be stuck here FOREVER... or just a few extra days.

Stress levels are fairly high on site and in the office with everyone bustling around trying to get everything done. I'm busy as can be, and the days are just flying by.

We managed to have time to get together for a group photo though. You can spot me because I'm the only one with a green hard hat (lame).

The usual suspects

Although this picture unfortunately turned out blurry, I still like it.

And as an added bonus, here's me in an excavator

One day I'll learn how to run one of these

Moose and Dave Grohl

Ok, NOW it's starting to feel like winter up here. We've only had one day of snow, but for a west-coaster like myself, that's plenty for October.

Boreal forest with the first snowfall of the year

I think I can say that there's also been more moose activity lately. They must like the cold weather. The bears are gone and must be hibernating or something, but the moose are lively! Here are some pictures of a moose fight today on site.  Unfortunately, I missed this, but a coworker managed to snap a few pics.

On the 25th and 26th of October, I flew home to see the Foo Fighters. Unfortunately, I didn't get more of a break, but it was totally worth it. You see, I cover for me while I'm away, and I do a crummy job of covering for me while I'm not in the office, so I try not to stay away from the office for too long.

I decided that if I was flying two days in a row, I might as well have the best concert experience possible. I spent all day finding floor tickets to the show, and selling my seat tickets. I showed up 4 hours before the Foos were on, and got right up to the front of the stage. Here's what I saw:

Dave Grohl is my favourite musician. Ever.

Ever!

Just for the record, I'm not normally so lead-singer obsessed. In fact, I often appreciate bands that have singers that act more like instruments. Tool is a great example of that, with Maynard standing in the back of the stage near the drums. Dave Grohl is the exception here. He is amazing, and the Foos wouldn't be the same without him. Nor Nirvana, Queens of the Stoneage, NIN etc. etc. etc.

A horse named Thor

Thor and I

I went horseback riding last Saturday. I thought that was a nice way to spend my time off. My horse's name was Thor and he was very nice. I thought he was going to throw me off a cliff, but it turns out he just wanted to eat some tasty greens near the cliff edge.

I managed not to fall off, and even to get him to go where I wanted him to go. I think I'll have to do it again some time.

I am spoiled. It's official



Proof that I am spoiled

 I'm going to take a whole blog to brag about the fabulous things people have done for me on my birthday.

Today, flowers arrived to my desk (see picture). They are absolutely gorgeous, smell fantastic, and are going to sit on my desk until they die (and maybe even after). We have a subcontractor that brought 7 or 8 guys to our site for the next week or two to do some liner. They found out it was my birthday yesterday, and drove the hour drive to town to bring back flowers. How nice is that? I'm going to have to get a vase of some sort.

Yesterday, Brandon surprised me. He somehow managed to talk to some people, pull some strings, bribe the mail man... I don't know how he did it really... and sent me a package. The package was cleverly disguised as a delivery to someone else on site.  Inside, carefully wrapped in hand made packaging, was a gorgeous necklace, a cup of my favourite spicy instant noodles, a framed picture of my cat who I miss dearly, and... a two little chocolate birthday cakes. The cakes came full with four candles, a pack of matches, and those funny curly party things that you blow into.

Tonight, since we didn't get a chance last night, we're going out for dinner. Happy 25th to me!

I am truly spoiled.

Birthday in the Mac

Well, today is my 25th birthday.

I think this might be my first birthday out of province. I can't say it really feels any different. So what's new about being 25, rather than being 24? I suppose I can now rent whatever car I want, in any country. I think that's about it. From now on I'll be looking ahead to the seniors' discount.

I was going to go out with the crew tonight, but there's a lot of work to be done tomorrow on a very tight deadline, so we decided that having the crew hungover would be a bad idea. Maybe we'll go out tomorrow night.

The trees have lost almost all their leaves now, so it must be winter. I think this morning was the first morning where I couldn't feel my nose. I think everyone else on site is used to the cold from working other jobs, but it might take me a while get get used to. I think the cold won't be so bad so long as it's sunny, and it's sunny almost every day here.

Last Thursday I went for a visit to Firebag (a Suncor site further north of Fort McMurray) to check out a potential landfill project. It was quite the drive, I have to say. It took about 2 hours to get there, 1.5 hours of which was on dirt roads. I love road trips anyways.

The new landfill site was formerly wilderness. They chopped down all the trees and stripped away most of the brush. All that was left was small branches laying on the ground, moss, plants and the smaller animals flying/scurrying around wondering what happened. We were also informed that there was a wolf den in the nearby trees (that were spared the wrath of the loggers), and sure enough a large wolf trotted by while we were there. Wolf paw prints were everywhere, showing that these wolves were very familiar with the site. I was surprised how large the paw prints were, so I took a picture of them next to my own foot.


Wolf prints next to my workboot (oops camera string) showing scale

I don't think I have to explain why I felt upset as I was leaving the site. It's just a perfect example of what's going on up here. Economy vs. Ecology.



Here's an idea of how beautiful the landscape should be... minus the garbage in the bottom left



Existing landfill. Ravens love garbage... apparently



 

Autumn is coming, but only the trees know it

The leaves on the trees suddenly turned yellow. I thought maybe it was a gradual change, but that I noticed on one particular day. Looking through my site photo history, though, they literally changed overnight. On September 22nd the leaves were all green and on September 23rd they were yellow. I think the trees maybe know something we don't - that Autumn is coming.

The trees, having turned yellow overnight

According to Jeff, a co-worker and Alberta resident, Autumn in this region lasts about 5 days. He says it's Summer, then 5 days of Autumn, then Winter. That must mean winter starts on September 28th. Better get my long johns ready.

 

Just for the record, it's about 21 degrees and sunny as I write this.

I've been feeling a bit cabin-feverish this week. I guess we usually take trips to town at least once a week, but usually twice. I've been here for 8 days (or has it been 9?) and I haven't left once. I think tonight I'm going to have to go in, even if it's just to pick up english muffins for the kitchen. Sometimes one just needs a change of scenery, and a reminder that civilization really does exist outside of site and camp.

The highlight of my day today was going for a rock truck ride. We have two rock trucks on site right now, and one of the drivers agreed to take me out for a ride. It was pretty cool! Our trucks are pretty small compared to a lot of other sites up here, but I was thrilled nonetheless. 



View from the rock truck cab

Has it really been so long?

Wow. I'm a terrible blogger. It's been a while since I've updated. Unfortunately, I just don't have all that much to say.

The nice weather went on a vacation and three days of rain was it's replacement. You don't have to be a rocket surgeon to imagine what three straight days and nights of rain does to the thick layer of fine dust that was blowing around everywhere. You guessed it - mud, mud, mud! I think this is the worst mud we've seen yet. Good thing my boots are waterproof. If only they resisted mud. This week's forecast is looking much better though, with temperatures in the 20's. Clear skies this morning.

I joined an NFL football pool. I really like following hockey and thought maybe I'd try football too. Besides, it's an office pool. It's a whopping $2 to enter, and the prize seems to be $50 or more, depending on how many people play each week. I might have a shot at winning this week, but it mostly depends on what happens tonight. Go Giants go!

On my last time off, I got to check out the new apartment. Brandon did a fabulous job unpacking our stuff, and there was only a bit left to do when I got there. He spoils me. Seriously. We bought a new table and chairs at Ikea (amoung other things) which are so cool! The table is lime green and the chairs are hot pink. Now we just have to make the rest of the apartment equally as cool! I'll try to post some photos soon.

In the meantime, here's a picture of my cat enjoying the extra-large windowsills in the new place.

The "loaf" position

Shootin' grade in the sunshine

Today was fun for everyone because the office folk got to get out in the field, and the field folk got to do something other than push dirt around. For me it was fun because I learned something new. I learned how to shoot grade.

For those of you who don't know what that is (and I expect that's probably most of you), it's basically just figuring out whether or not you have to dig more, and how much digging needs to be done. Now, I bet all three of my readers are incredibly excited to read on! Well, let me first tell you about the lasers. Yes, that's right. LASERS! We use a stick with a laser thingy attached to it that sends signals to another laser thingy that's on a tripod. Basically, you hold up the stick every metre or so, then it tells you whether you have to do up or down and by how much. Then you, the gradesman (... err... gradesperson, perhaps to be PC?) communicates this information to the excavator operator, and they dig away. Good operators can dig precisely 3cm (not 2cm, not 4cm) in one swipe of the bucket. I'm constantly amazed at how they can operate these machines with such grace, such... finesse. Operators who are just learning, though, are a different story entirely. I hope to learn to run one at some point. It might not be at this job, but I have a few offers from people willing to teach me.

Here are some pictures of me... not doing anything particuarly productive at the exact moment these photos were shot. I swear I'm not as lazy as I appear.

This is a pretty typical look for me. Notebook in hand.

From right to left: Me wearing my green hardhat (so everyone knows I'm a newb), our safety guy, and one of our best excavator operators.

Just as a side note, the weather is really nice here again. I think we're officially out of the rainy season. This week, the temperature varies from 5 degrees in the morning to 30 degrees in the afternoon. Just try dressing appropriately.

Cold mornings and hungry bears

It's starting to get a bit cold here, well at least in the mornings. The tempurature in the mornings hovers just above freezing, but the sun warms up everything as the day goes on. By the afternoon, a light hoodie is really all you need. I suppose by Alberta standards, this is still considered summer weather.

I suppose the bears are noticing that the weather is getting colder too, because they're eating everything in sight to prepare for hibernation. There are tons of them around, and they don't even seem to care if you're there. They're no longer afraid of cars, air horns (which we originally bought to scare them off), or heavy equipment (we tried to chase on away with a dozer, but it just looked at us like "are you stupid?").  I think this is their territory anyways, and they were here first. They deserve to eat whatever tasty patch of clovers they please, without human interference. The only problem is, they can rip you apart with one swipe of their claws. I'll just have to remember that although they look like fuzzy, cuddly little creatures, they're deadly in the wrong situations.

Here's a black bear next to our sea can, just behind the office.

The weather has been good for work progress here, with much less rain than we've had to date. Morale is really high with the team, and everyone laughs a lot (and I mean A LOT). I'm continuing to learn tons of new stuff every day, and getting better at what I already know. Things are looking good for getting re-hired into a better position next project.

We have a hockey rink at our camp, and I'm looking forward to having the temperature stay below zero consistently so we can fill it up. I might have to buy some hockey skates up here plainly for that purpose.

A collection of things on my mind, in no particular order

It's been a few weeks now and I've forgotten to blog. Apologies to anyone who may have been anxiously awaiting my next post... *cough*...

Let's see... what's new? I seem to be taking on a lot more work and responsibility at work, which I see as a positive thing. I think my original job description only really included a few things, but I quickly found out that these tasks only take a few hours in my day. It turns out I can be slightly more useful than anticipated.

The project in Fort Mac will likely continue into mid-November, and then I'll be reassessed. If they like my progress to date, they'll probably hire me full time. There have been hints already that this will be the case. Now I just have to decide what I want to do! I have a very vague idea about the sorts of things I'd like my next position to include.  Ideally, I'd like the following: to live at home (i.e. a project in the lower mainland), to work long days like I am now with lots of overtime, to learn more of the technical aspects of the project(s), to spend a few hours a day on site, and to work with awesome people like I am now.  Well that feels nice to put in writing.  I still have no idea what sort of position I might want though.

I'm on my time off right now. This weekend, Brandon and I went to Saltspring for a little overnighter trip, which was really nice. We spend time pedal-boating around, swimming, lounging on the rocks and hot-tubbing at night. It's sad to say, but I feel like that was my entire summer - wrapped up neatly in one weekend and bow-tied with a red ribbon. Perhaps I'll have to go somewhere hot and sunny this winter. People do that, right?

My last day-and-a-half off will be spent packing to move. When I get back, we'll be in our new apartment, just a few blocks down the road from where we are now. I can't remember whether or not I mentioned this in a previous blog post, but I'll say it now anyways. The apartment is perfect. It's on the ground floor of an apartment building in the Kits Beach area. It has a nice sliding-glass door that opens onto a little patio area, which will be perfect for Molly to come and go. It's a good sized one-bedroom apartment with lots of other young professional-type folks living in the building. You'll all have to come over for a house warming in September! I'll be back September 10th-ish to see it myself.

On another note, I saw aurora borealis for the first time a few weeks ago. I guess I forgot to mention it in my last blog. I was in town with a few coworkers, enjoying some bluegrass music, and there it was - a green, wavy streak across the sky. It looked like a green, wispy curtain blowing in the wind. Even with the city lights, it was bright and gorgeous. The one streak lasted about 30 seconds and there were other smaller ones that lasted a few minutes after that. I'm definitely looking forward to a whole lot more of that now that the nights are getting longer and the skies clearer.

Well, I better go pack up the old apartment and get going on my day if I want to get everything done. I've been told that I need to start packing warm clothes for this rotation. I shouldn't need snow pants or anything until after the middle of September, but I think some gloves and sweaters are in order.

Fuzzy bear bums and big machines



Bear eating clovers

 We have had a few bears around our work site and around our camp.  Here is a picture of a young black bear eating clovers.  I think that must be a particularly delicious patch of clovers because this bear is around the area all the time.  He's pretty cute and doesn't seem to be causing any trouble.  We had another bear on site today (maybe his mum?) who was much bigger and was getting in to all our garbage cans.  I think she (I'm only guessing that this bear was a she) has been around for a while because even though we didn't have any food in our garbage cans, she still recognized the cans and went rooting through.  I caught her this morning with her head and front paws buried in our recycling can, fuzzy round bum sticking out.  She's adorable.  She's been hanging around our site all day today, and she even left us a little "gift" (well it was rather large, actually) in our tool crib. 



Bucketwheel

 Yesterday we had the day off and a few of us decided to visit the Oil Sands Discovery Centre.  It's a sort of museum dedicated to the evolution of technology, as well as some more recent research topics in the oil sands industry. They've got some stuff for kids (training the little ones to one day become oil sands workers, I assume) and lots of stuff that's educational.  They also have an outdoor "garden" of some old equipment like this one you see above.  This is an old bucketwheel.  It basically rolls that wheel and scoops up dirt (or whatever you want it to scoop), then dumps it onto a conveyor belt which goes wherever you want it to go.  Bucketwheels are still used today, but today they are of course a more refined (less wooden) technology. 

 

Bucketwheel detail

 Here is a closer view of the bucketwheel from the other side.  You can see a bit of human scale here with a few of my coworkers (they're rock truck drivers, by the way).

I bought some terribly tacky souvenirs (tacky in the best way possible), such as a fleece vest with an embroidered Cat 797 truck on it, as well as some other things that will be gifts and will not be discussed here as to avoid ruining the surprise!


 

Me next to a Cat 797 tire

 If you're wondering what a Cat 797 is, I believe it's the biggest rock truck in the world.  It can hold up to about 400 tons and are seriously impressive machines.  Just to put that in perspective, the rock trucks we drive on site hold about 25-30 tons, though we've had as big as 40-ton trucks.  Here is an idea of what ours look like:



A Linkbelt 350 excavator and 25-ton rock truck



First rotation complete, and I'm home at last

I'm home in Vancouver for a whole 4 days.  Normally our time off is longer than this, but I have to get back to cover for other people going away.  I suppose working more is better for the most obvious of reasons: more work = more money. I'll just keep telling myself that.

I have to say, I'm glad to be back on the west coast.  It's just so beautiful here, that it's hard not to miss.  I went for a jog outdoors which is something I haven't done since I left.  We aren't really allowed to run (or even walk) on the roads on site because there are simply too many trucks going by.  I don't think I'd want to run there anyway because there are also mosquitos the size of the trucks, bears, moose, coyotes, and probably a whole host of other animals that would enjoy having Marlaina for dinner.  It felt pretty good to enjoy the views from the seawall, but I have to say: I'm so out of shape! I ran a few times on the treadmill at camp, but I just can't run on a treadmill for more than about 20 minutes.  It's just so boring.  I'd like to run the Fall half marathon, but I don't really see when I'll be able to train for it.  I might have to wait for the Spring half.

What else do I have to say about home? Well, it was great to see Brandon and Molly again, and I hope to see lots more people (Willow, Chelsea, Mom etc.) over the next few days.  I have a bunch of little things to do while I'm here (pay rent, get my car window fixed, donate yard sale leftovers to charity, catch up on sleep) but I should have lots of free time to enjoy the sunshine and fresh coastal air.

Things I see and do

I thought I should start taking pictures of my day-to-day life up here, to give anyone who might be interested a taste of what I see.  Well, I hate to disappoint you all, but I haven't done a very good job.  Here are a few crummy photos I've taken out of obligation.

My room

Above is a picture of my room.  As you can see it's.. well... small. I like it though.  The bed is comfortable, it has all the storage I need, it's quiet, and I even have a rather nice little view of the forest out my window.  The guys on the other side have to either look at the trailer next then them or at the parking lot.  I get the sunrise reflected off the silvery-white bark of the birch trees.  It's rather nice.

Suncor

I went for a drive on Sunday night.  Highway 63 is the main highway around here, and it leads to two of the main oil sands plants: Suncor and Syncrude.  Our company works for one of them, but I won't say which.  Above is probably the only half decent photo I got while I was on my trip.  I had to stick to the main roads and stay in my truck because I didn't have the proper PPE (personal protective equipment) or authorization to get out, walk around and get better pictures. 

Syncrude looked like a desert.  Oil SANDS no kidding! Seriously, though, there was white sand for miles and miles.  I don't recommend playing beach volleyball on it though.  The main plant is huge.  There are multiple flare stacks (basically giant pipes in the air with huge flames coming out where they burn off all the excess gas) throughout the plant and a gross haze of pollution surrounding the area.  You can smell it from miles away.  

Suncor was very much the same.  Although I didn't show any flare stacks in the picture above, you can get an idea how much crap they're pumping into the air 24/7.  But anyways, the purpose of today's blog is not to crituque the oil sands business. 



Cat 777 (I think)



Here is a terrible, blurry picture (taken from the inside of my car, windows rolled up) of one of the rock trucks I saw at Suncor at an area they call Steepbank.  The area is exactly what it's named for - it's a steep bank with a switchback road and these HUGE, fully loaded rock trucks zipping up and down.  I don't think I can really explain exactly how giantic these things are.  I recommend googling Cat 777 and seeing if you can find an image of one of them with a person standing next to it.  That'll give you an idea of scale.  They stack the spare tires on their sides three- or four-high near the work area which creates this massive wall.  It was really interesting. 

Well, I think that's about all I have to say for now.  I think I'll be heading home in about a week for my break.  I understand they can't allow you to work more than 24 consecutive days without taking 4 days off, by Alberta laws.  I left home 17 days ago. 

The tale of the full moon, mosquitos and the meeting invite from hell

It was a full moon yesterday.  They say, that makes people a bit crazy.  The abbreviated version of yesterday goes like this: we had a pickup truck crash, we had so many safety-related things go wrong on site that they actually shut everything down to talk and regroup, we almost lost our jobs because of a misunderstanding of the rules by a certain tattle-tale, rumours spreading like wildfire about which married person is sleeping with who, and a stupid amount of work for me to do in a stupidly short period of time.  Whew!

On a completely unrelated note, I am being eaten alive my mosquitos.  As much as I’m trying to work on my will-power to NOT scratch them, I still seem to scratch without even knowing it!  I’ll scratch in my sleep and when I’m working at my desk and I don’t even realize it.  At least the after-bite I bought before I came is coming in handy.  That stuff sure works.  Other people here say that it’s not just the mosquitos that are biting.  We have deer flies and some other bugs called oil sands beetles.  There are also TONS of black dragonflies here, but I don’t think they bite.

Now, I'm trying to take on more responsibility now that I'm getting the hang of my basic job description.  I was asked by a coworker to send out an invite, using MS Outlook, to a bunch of people I don't know, about a meeting that I'm not invited to, in a place I've never heard of.  Long story short, I had to send out 6 updates - two were a mistakes of mine and the others were just plain old annoying changes that needed to be made.  Needless to say, I drove everyone crazy.  I apologized and explained that I'm new (even though most of it was not my fault).

Today was definitely better than yesterday.  It's no longer a full moon, we have these burning coil things in the office that chill the mosquitos out, and the meeting is a go.  I even got my entire to-do list done! How's that for an improvement?

In case you're intereted, this is what I look at all day.  For the record, this was taken on break.

I'm starting to be more of a help than a burden, I swear!

Since we got rained on so hard yesterday and last night, hardly anyone showed up to work this morning.  The roads and site were too muddy for the trucks to operate safely, so only a few people came in with excavators for water management and with laptops for paperwork.  That definitely made my life easy! I only had to keep track of a few people and pieces of equipment, all of which I knew the names of.  Overall it was a good first day without the PM by my side.  I got lots done, and was able to lighten the paperwork load from other people.  That makes me feel at least like I'm helpful.

I spent about an hour today away from paperwork to go on a tour of the site.  Originally, it was just to be a tour of our landfill site, but it ended up being a huge tour of the entire oil sands area!  Boy was that ever interesting. 

The type of oil sand mining they're doing up here is called SAGD: Steam Assisted Gravity Draining.  Basically what they do is drill two wells in an L-shape with one horizontal part about 5m below the other.  Picture them as nested L shaped wells.  They blow super hot steam down the top well which heats up the oil (you science folks know that heat reduces viscosity) so that it runs downwards through the sands and collects in the lower well.  Then the crude oil, and whatever water ran down from the steam, is pumped out from there up the second well.  The horizontal wells are maybe 100m below the surface, which is pretty impressive!  Above ground you see the wellheads and some piping, and sometimes a steam generator, storage facilities for the oil, and some buildings for workers. Anyways, if you're interested in this stuff, it's probably best to just google it.

Tonight we had steak & prawns for dinner.  I've been told we have something special like that every Saturday night.  The food is so good here, I have to say.  Luckily they always offer a ton of fruits and vegetables, including healthy snacks you can take with you whenever you want, otherwise I'd be getting really... large.

I wish hiking was a possibility around here.  The forests are so beautiful and I'm getting pretty tired of riding in trucks and never walking anywhere.  We aren't really allowed to even walk on the roads because there are too many trucks going by.  Maybe there is somewhere I can go to and explore.  Perhaps on my day off.  When we went in to town the other night, I saw some of the things you can go and do.  It's exactly what I thought: rodeo, gun range, racetrack.  I might have to try the gun range.

Well, now that I've bored you readers to death, I'll stop talking. 
Goodnight!

Hello Fort Mac

It’s Friday: Day 2 of being on site.  I suppose since I haven’t blogged since Vancouver, I should start there. Apologies in advance for a long blog.

I left Vancouver Monday morning, picked up my new hardhat and the company truck, and started off down the road.  The truck was nice, but much larger than I’m used to.  I drive a sporty little Mazda3, and this was a giant Chevy Silverado.  I got used to it by the time I’d driven out of the parking lot though, and it turned out to be a rather comfortable ride.  I can’t say much about the drive on Monday, except I saw a black bear near the side of the road.  It was just small, so I bet it was a baby.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures. 

Here is a terrible self portrait of me in front of the company truck

I arrived in Jasper Monday night.  It was exactly how I thought it would be: a little tourist-y mountain town with spectacular views and fresh mountain air.  My Dad told me to promise him that when I got there, I would look up.  He meant that I must have a look at the stars at that elevation, and away from the city lights I’ve been amongst for so many years.  Unfortunately, these are some of the longest days of the year! It was 11pm, and the sun had barely gone down.  If I was going to get a good night’s sleep, I’d have to save the star-gazing for another night.  I did wake up in the middle of the night and try looking outside, but the clouds had formed a cover.  Bummer.

It sure was beautiful on the way to Jasper

On Tuesday morning, I woke up early and started out on the road again, knowing there was a Tim Hortons in the next town about an hour away.  I loooooove my Timmies! I had only driven a few kilometers when I saw them.  Three sets of antlers were crossing the river.  Of course I had to pull over and check it out.  They say you shouldn’t get too close to the wildlife because you might stress them out, or sometimes put yourself in danger.  I wasn’t too close to I got out of the truck and brought my camera.  The next thing I knew, three beautiful elk were climbing onto my side of the riverbank, shaking themselves off and walking right towards me!  They munched on the grass and came very close.  I suppose they see enthusiastic tourists like me all the time, so they acted very tame.  I got lots of pictures, of course.




Wait a minute... are those antlers swimming across the river?

Here are two of the three elk

I tried to keep my distance to avoid stressing them out, but they came right up to me!

The rest of the drive on Tuesday wasn’t nearly as interesting.  I headed towards Edmonton, bypassed it, and continued northeast towards Fort Mac.  After Jasper, the landscape changes drastically into flat, grassy prairies.  Beyond that, the landscape was still fairly flat, but covered with thin, white-barked, leafy and sometimes burnt trees.  I found out later that these trees are called Aspen trees.  They smell fantastic, except of course when they’re burnt.  I suppose forest fires are rather common in those areas. 

Crispy trees

Tuesday evening I arrived in Fort Mac.  Luckily, my employers put me up in the Quality Hotel which is quite a nice hotel, it turns out.  I didn’t do much else that night except relax and have dinner.

On Wednesday, I had my H2SAlive training all day.  Evidently, hydrogen sulphide (H₂S) is very common in oil sands projects and landfills.  It can knock you down and stop your breathing at certain concentrations, and it a killer for workers on these sorts of sites.  We were taught how to avoid it, detect it, and rescue others when they encounter it.  It was pretty interesting, actually. 

After my H2SAlive, I drove to site.  Tom met me at the gate, and I was glad to see someone whose name I knew.  It turned out, he didn’t look at all like how I had pictured him… but then again how many times are you right when you’ve only talked over email?  Tom is fabulous, that’s all I’ll say.  Oh, and we saw a coyote.  That was pretty cool.

Thursday was my first day on site.  I met many of the people who I’ll be working with, all of which are really great.  It’s not very often that you immediately get along with everyone in a workplace, but I think I’ll fit in just fine.  As with most first days, I was confused a good portion of the day.  But that’s all part of the learning process, right? I think the highlight of that day was first thing in the morning.  Two moose – a momma and a baby – were walking around on site.  They were too far away to take any pictures, but they sure were funny-looking creatures, even from afar.  The mom had spindly little legs and a huge upper body, and the calf bounded along energetically behind her.  That was the first moose I’d ever seen.

Today was much better than yesterday.  I was understanding a lot more, and actually contributing in some way.  I think I had better mention the weather today, though, since it was different from the hot and sunny weather we’ve had for the rest of the week.  We showed up on site at 6:45am for our morning safety meeting, and by 7:30 it was dark out again - the rainclouds had moved in quickly, blocking out the sun.  Thunder and lightning crashed through the clouds and raindrops the size of gumballs poured down.  Our dirt roads quickly turned into mud so deep that even the largest rock trucks and dozers couldn’t drive in it.  Progress was shut down numerous times throughout the day, and almost everyone went home by 1pm.  I stayed until 5, but I work in the office so weather doesn’t affect my work as much.  If you’re wondering, the moose were spotted on site again this morning.  I think they hang around every morning, then go back into the forest when we turn on our noisy trucks.

The Project Manager is away for the weekend, attending a wedding, so I’m left alone to figure out my job for the next few days.  I should be fine since there are lots of people I can ask, including the PM on his cell phone.  I should be fine.

As I write, I’m in my room in camp.  It’s small, but comfortable and clean.  It’s very stormy outside.  The thunder and lightning are about 7 seconds apart.  I was trying to read, but kept finding myself listening and counting the seconds.  Each thunder clap sounds as though the sky is made of wood and that wood is breaking, tearing open and the rain is rushing out.  The water is hitting the roof of our portable homes hard, and I can see from the view out my window that the water levels in the ditches are rising quickly.  Even living on the west coast, I don’t think I’ve seen this much rain before.  It’s running off the roof in a giant sheet, so it looks like I’m viewing the outside from the backside of a waterfall.  It’s great!

Thanks for following! Please comment if you like.  I’m interested to see who’s following.

To Alberta I go

It's Sunday.  Tomorrow, I leave for Fort Mac.  Well actually, tomorrow I leave for Jasper.  You see, I've volunteered to drive one of the company trucks up there.  There were two trucks that needed to be moved up there, so I'm taking one and our H&S guy is taking the other.  I figure it'll be a great way to see the landscape change, rather than being shocked when I get off the plane.  Besides, I get to stop wherever I want for the night, (it's a 20 hour drive, so I'm definitely breaking up the trip over 2 days) so of course I'll stop in beautiful Jasper and enjoy the scenery! 

I have to say, I'm pretty excited! I got a really great email from a fellow named Tom, an employee from the Lower Mainland who is already up there in camp.  He is new to the company too, having just started a few weeks before I did.  He gave me some info about what camp is like, and some of the things I might want to bring.  It was a rather lengthy email, but here are the main points:

1. You get a small, private room while you're there equipped with a bed, desk, dresser, shelf and TV.  

2. The ladies get a separate area, and our own washroom.  I think there are three women in total, including myself. All the living areas are really clean.

3. The food is really good.  This has been confirmed by a few folks!

4. There are moose and bears in the surrounding forest, but they are sensible enough to stay away

5. "There are also mosquitos," Tom says, "the size of helicopiters (either that or I'm being bitten by helicopters)".  He suggests I bring bug spray and some sort of after-bite remedy, unless of course they really are helicopters, in which case bug spray likely won't work.

The other details aren't really worth mentioning, except to say that Tom stressed how great it was up there.  He said he was nervous about the camp too, but it turned out to be awesome.  That's comforting.

Well, I guess I'll talk a bit about what the rest of the week at the office was like.  I think we left off on Tuesday? Well, I finished all my safety training.  That took a while, but it was reasonably painless.  I have also been familiarizing myself with the software I'll be using.  It's called HeavyJob, and it basically allows you to track man-hours, equipment, materials, subcontractors and expenses.  It can then help you make projections as to what you final budget will look like, figure out where you need to make changes, and let you play with different scenarios.  My job will be to simply track all the costs and input them into the software so the Project Manager can do all the fancy stuff with the numbers.  Now, tracking all the costs may not be as easy as it sounds.  It involves chasing people around, asking them about their hours, who they had lunch with and where the receipt is, how much gravel they installed today, and all those sorts of things. Apparently there's already another gal up there doing the job while I'm on my way, and she's a real hard-ass and gets the job done! 

On a completely unrelated note, I'm especially excited to see the stars again.  I've living in the city for so long that I've almost forgotten to look up.  I remember one time, just outside of Duncan, BC I was with my Dad at a folk-fest.  We went out, away from the camp, into the darkest spot we could find, and looked up.  Wow.  That was my first time seeing the Milky Way, and boy was it every spectacular.  I can't wait to see that again. I suppose I'll also be in Aurora Borealis territory, since I'll be so far north.  I've never seen that before, but I hear it's rather... magical.  

Well, I suppose that's about all for now.  I'll try to blog again when I reach Jasper tomorrow night.  I hope I won't arrive too late.  I expect it to be about a 10-hour drive + breaks.  If I leave around 9am, I should be there before nightfall.  I'll try for some photos too! 

Cheers!

First days at the office

Well, it's Tuesday and I've officially started work. For the first week or two I'll be working in the office in Burnaby doing things like safety courses, software training, and all those sorts of things they can train me on while I'm here.  After a week or two, they'll be shipping me off to Fort Mac!

So far, the first two days have been good.  Everyone is super nice to me.  I've even made a friend (at least over email) with someone who is also new to the company and is in Fort Mac right now!  On my first day, I got my picture taken and wrote a little blurb about myself that was sent out around the office so everyone would know I was new and would know who I was.  I suppose it got sent to some people I'll be seeing on the work site as well.  I got an email from a lovely fellow named Tom who warmly welcomed me, and will be giving me some insight into the lifestyle in "camp".  So far, he says it's clean (which leads me to believe that "camp" doesn't mean tents??) and the food is good.  Either way, it's nice to know someone - at least by email - before going there.

Tomorrow I'll finish off my 7-hour safety training course, and start on something new.  Let's hope it gets more exciting!  By the way, everyone in the office is looking at me with great pity since they've all been through the training and feel the need to remind me how unbelievably boring it is.  They're correct.

It's finally here!

The formal job offer letter arrived today.  It felt like forever waiting that week between the call that said I had the job and the actual written offer.  For those of you who are interested, my official title is "Construction Site Clerk", which doesn't really tell you much about the actual position.  The job description is basically this: monitor construction progress, record-keep, and cost control (make sure they stay on track and on budget).  My first day of orientation here in the Lower Mainland is Monday, June 27th.

While this isn't exactly my specialization, it's in my field and that's what counts. I missed out on a lot of work experience having not completed an undergraduate degree in engineering, and need to catch up now.  This means taking crappy jobs for a while, impressing the pants off of my employers, and climbing the proverbial ladder.

As for the nitty-gritty details, it pays about the same as I'm making now, which is good.  I'll be travelling back and fourth from Vancouver to Fort Mac - a few weeks on site, long hours, long weeks, then they fly me back to Vancouver to have a week or so off.  I'll find out more details on that stuff during my orientation, in case any of you were wondering.

How do I feel about all of this?
Well, I suppose words such as excited and nervous are the obvious choices.  I'm sure going to miss my easy west coast lifestyle, my amazing friends, my fantastic boyfriend, my adorable cat.  I'll be experiencing real Canadian winter for the first time.  I'll need to buy steel-toed boots and a parka or something.  Maybe I should try some new outdoor activity that I can do while I'm there.  Snowshoeing perhaps?

Well, I suppose that's it for now. On a completely un-related note, it's Game 7 tomorrow of the Stanley Cup playoffs.  Boston vs. Vancouver.  GO CANUCKS GO!

I've been sittin', waitin', wishin'...

Hello everyone.  This is my first blog post EVER.  Let's hope this comes across how I'd like it to.

Let's get straight to the point. I'm blogging because I have a job opportunity in Fort McMurray, Alberta.  The purpose of this blog is, at the very least, two-fold.  First, it's to keep my friends and family updated as to what I'm doing, where I am, and whether or not I've frozen myself to a tree.  Second, it's to keep myself sane by emoting to the world how awesome/lousy the job is.

As it stands now, I'm still waiting for the formal job offer.  I was told last Monday that it I had the job, and that the written version of the offer would be sent by email.  That was a week ago.  Let's hope it arrives soon!  I expect it'll tell me when I start, what I'll be paid, travelling and accommodation details etc.  I'll keep you updated.

I'll be bringing a small camera with me to take pictures of Fort Mac, and upload them here.  That way you can see how big the bugs are in the summer, and how big the snow drifts are in the winter.

Thanks for following me!
M