material girls

the "material girls"

just moments after finishing inventorying 100 tons of food in the dome!!!

insulated bib overall covered in snow.... inside a building!parkas covered in snow.. the door was left open all winter... great.

the 'cheese palace' or palace de queso ( as i like to call it) where all of our extra ECW (extreme cold weather) gear lives

All the current women of the south pole celebrating a great milestone!

i drew the sign and leslie and stephana painted it in!
greetings from a post thanksgiving week!

i hope you all enjoyed the holiday with the ones you love, here it is a chosen family of sorts!

i washed dishes and helped to serve wine, the meal was amazing, especially because myself and my colleges -the 'material girls' (leslie, elissa and myself) litterally touched each package of food as we collected and delivered it! we have this name because we are simply materials people, in charge of all materials here at the station with the exception of FEMC, which is construction. from food to toilet paper and everything in between we control, inventory and deliver! i am in charge of all ECW on the station and am regularly filling requests for lost/broken clothing items essential for survival, as shown in the photos of the 'cheese palace'. someone left the door open over the winter and i spent the 1st day just shoveling my way into the building, both from the inside and out... thankfully the temps never rise above O so i don't have to worry about snow melting on all the gear!!

there were record snow drifts this winter, over 12 feet around the station, there's a whole crew that works 24 hrs a day just to remove the snow and place it down wind so that we can operate. the majority of the drift happens in the winter. we are lucky to enjoy cold, but mild weather during our short season, with the occasional clouds and ice crystals in the air. it's been getting steadily warmer, about a degree a day, today is -20, but it's been so clear and beautiful, it's amazing how quickly the body acclimates to it's surroundings, thank goodness! i've been working in the post office on sundays, we're getting quite busy as everyone is feeling the holiday rush... i know this sunday will be really crazy, the advantage for me is that i don't have to wait in line!! sorry it's taken so long to get this post up, the satellite times are all during my work hours, with the occasional surprise showing after dinner, which is how i am writing this now!!

~oops! as i was finishing this entry the satellite went down and it's now sunday and i'm on my way to work in the post office and enjoy a lovely brunch! my next post will hopefully be within the next week and i'll include photos of the dome. until then, be well and have a beautiful day!

take care, karengrace

polar happiness

Greetings from the south pole of the world!
we made it in on a herc on monday the 2nd, it was fun to spend halloween in mc murdo! we were given tuesday off because there have been a large number of medivacs due to altitude sickness. it was -86 the other day and the altitude was up to 11,000 ft- quite difficult to acclimate to after being at sea-level in mc murdo for a month! my computer also had a difficult time acclimating and the hard drive died the other day- i mailed myself an external hard drive here and i hope that the IT folks can retrieve my info and back it up so that one day i can have a working machine again! there have been many hard drive failures this season so far... it's a harsh continent! i will be unable to post photos until i can get my machine up and running, but you can certainly reference the photos of last years blogs! our satellite uplink is only active from 7:30 am to 2:30 pm, which makes things difficult more me because that's when i'm working! so, i will endeavor to write here every sunday! i am so happy to be back, there's an 80% return rate due to the crappy economy, it's like summer camp all over again!! i love my new position, i am driving loaders and moving materials all over the station, lots of food so far, but this will change as the season progresses. one of the major missions this season is to empty and dismantle the dome, which is the symbol of the south pole, but it's been up for over 50 years and it's becoming dangerous, it will be sad to see it go, but it's progress i suppose. today is my 1st shift at the post office, i am beyond excited about it, i am going to take all the stamps from the philatelic (stamp collectors) mail and make a collage for the post office, a perfect summer project to keep me out of trouble! well, i'm off to eat brunch and enjoy this 1 day off! hope you are all enjoying a lovely autumn day wherever you may be! take care, karengrace*