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.