Work Posts – Page 5 – Rainwater Rambling

Northwest Territories

June 14, 2014 richardt

Work Posts

I was back up to Wood Buffalo National Park for a week to continue work on one of our new sites. The first day out to the site we saw the first of many Bison.

Fort Smith is the closest town, it sits on the Slave River.

Pelican Rapids, the white dots are American Pelicans that spend the summers in the area.

A beaver that came swimming by the shore.

Along with the Bison, we also saw a lot of black bears along the highway.

The Salt Plains.

Walked out onto the Salt Plains, the last time I came, it was too muddy and didn’t get very far. Some bison tracks on the Salt Plains.

Some bison droppings, it’s like a cloud in the sky, what does the dropping look like?

The salt plains are formed from salt that was left behind about 390 million years ago, when a prehistoric saltwater sea evaporated. Today, underground water dissolves the salt. The water is forced to the surface and evaporates and the salt is left behind.

The mosquitos were plentiful out on the Salt Plains.

These are the only salt plains in Canada and part of the reason Wood Buffalo National Park is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

This bear ambled across the highway and then headed for the power pole on the left. He stood on his hind legs and started rubbing his back against the pole.

The last day at the site, this bull was in the clearing, before heading down the power corridor.

These photos were taken from the back of a pickup truck.

By the end of the day he made it down to the far end of the power corridor by the highway and was soaking up the sun. These things are enormous.

We stopped at the Little Buffalo River Waterfalls.

One of the guys had his fly rod and was trying to catch some pike.

The plane we were going out on. Only Northwestern Air services Fort Smith. We had a friday morning flight back to Edmonton. I’ll be back a couple of more times this fall to complete the installation and probably for the opening of the site. Parks Canada is a partner and they are looking to make it a big deal for the site opening with first Nation elders and school groups involved.

The white patches are the Salt Plains from the plane.

First time I have seen an ice cream vending machine. Almost as cool as the beer vending machine I saw in Levis, QC. This one was at the Edmonton airport.

Delayed and Cancelled Flights

June 6, 2014 richardt

Work Posts

airport

I was down in Champaign, Illinois this past week for work. I had flights booked from Toronto to Chicago to Champaign for the Monday. My 8:00 flight on United was delayed almost 3 hours due to unavailability of a flight crew, the plane was there, but the previous nights flight was also delayed and therefore they had to wait for the crew to get their required rest.

I had to re-book my connecting flight through our corporate travel centre, in April we switched to a new supplier and they are still working out their growing pains, which results in long periods of being on hold. I managed to re-book for 13:10 out of Chicago.

The cartoon above was pretty spot on. I got to my gate and it said we would be boarding in x number of minutes, well that time passed and they made an announcement they were waiting for the flight to land. A storm had gone through the O’Hare area and there were delays. Eventually they came on and said the flight to Champaign was cancelled. It was a smaller regional jet and due to the time it was holding to land it probably had to turn around due to low fuel. I got in line to re-book, I had a seat on the 18:45 flight to Champaign…the next day…Tuesday! Champaign is about a 3 hour drive from Chicago, so I headed to the car rentals. I managed to rent a vehicle, got to Champaign for my meetings and cancelled my flights to and from Champaign.

What’s you working to?

May 23, 2014 richardt

Work Posts

newfoundland wildlife

I spent the week out in Newfoundland for work. I flew into Gander and was picked up by one of the regional techs out of St. John’s. We then headed to Head of Bay d’Espoir.

The forecast for the week was cloudy and showers everyday, but as always wait 5 minutes and the weather will change. Wednesday turned out to be a great day. The evening ended with a nice sunset.

At lunch one day the cook came out from the back and asked us “what’s you working to?”, it took a few seconds for me to process it to english, to figure out she was asking ‘where we were working’.

It was a good trip for wildlife, I saw a moose on the highway down to Head of Bay d’Espoir, a black bear near the site, and some caribou on the way back to Gander.

I drove back to St. John’s with Brent to catch my flight to Toronto. It was a good drive, only a few showers along the way. While in Newfoundland I only encountered 4 traffic lights, one in Gander coming out of the airport and three in St John’s, not bad considering I drove close to 800km. After three weeks on the road, I’m back for a week, before heading to Champaign, Illinois in a couple of weeks.

Things I remember…

May 20, 2014 richardt

Rainwater Work Posts

newfoundland

When I was a kid, I remember Dad going to Winnipeg. When he had the roll of film developed, there were probably pictures of relatives, but the one I remember is the picture taken out the window of the wing of the airplane.

These days I take between 30-40 flights a year and usually choose an aisle seat. This week on my way to Gander I was seated at a window. Upon looking out the window I saw the airplane wing and the first thing that came to mind was Dad’s picture taken almost 40 years ago. As a kid airplanes were such a mystery, and my only encounters were what you saw in the sky or when we went to the old Terminal 1 at Pearson to meet arriving relatives.

I didn’t fly on an airplane until I was 15 years old, now I take it for granted and just consider it part of my job. Here is my photo of the CRJ-200 wing of Air Canada flight #8862 from Halifax (CYHZ) to Gander (CYQX).

Island Falls, SK

May 16, 2014 richardt

Work Posts

big things maps saskatchewan wildlife

This past week had me up in northern Saskatchewan for work. I was doing an installation at our Island Falls, SK site with two other guys. The site is located at the Island Falls hydroelectric power generating station. This is the view from A-dam.

Most of the ice is off of the Churchill River.

There was a groundhog (Marmota monad) that kept showing up at the same time of the day near our building, makes me wonder if one of the operators feed it.

Making a run for it.

The copper smelter was closed in June 2010.

Before heading to the airport we stopped at the local tourist park with the statue of Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin, a science fiction character from the novel “The Sunless City” by J.E. Preston Muddock.

Flinty is 24 ft tall and was constructed in 1962. It was designed by cartoonist Al Capp.

To get to Island Falls, it is either an 8 hour drive from Saskatoon or a 1 hour flight from Winnipeg to Flin Flon and then another 3.5 hour drive from there. Here is the flight path from Winnipeg to Flin Flon. Calm Air is the only airline going there now that Bearskin Airlines no longer has daily flights. While we were waiting to board our flight a RCMP jet came in with a prisoner to make a court appearance in Flin Flon. The provincial court sheriffs were there to take custody of the prisoner. When they are arrested they are shipped to Prince Albert to await trial and then flown back to the local community.

Sleeping Giant

May 5, 2014 richardt

Work Posts

maps ontario

I was up in the Geraldton area for a few days. It should be the last time for awhile as I have turned the site over to one of my junior techs. I always stop in at the Terry Fox Memorial whenever I go up.

The Sleeping Giant.

There was still a lot of ice on the lakes, but the snow was gone. A map of the flight path from Toronto to Thunder Bay. Geraldton is another 3.5 hour drive north-east of Thunder Bay.

Flat Valley Solar

March 28, 2014 richardt

Work Posts

big things saskatchewan work

I was out in Flat Valley, Saskatchewan this week installing a solar array at one of our temporary sites.

We are set-up on the property of the landowner who holds our lease for our permanent site about 1km away.

A view to the south, we should no problem finding the sun.

On the way back to Saskatoon, we stopped in North Battleford to see the giant Mountie on a horse. It is 23 feet high and was built in 1963.

Nearby is this buffalo that is made from barbed wire.

Down East

February 20, 2014 richardt

Work Posts

nova scotia

Work had me down in Nova Scotia this past week. We took a detour through Lunenburg on the way to Bridgewater.

Even in the drab days of winter the brightly painted buildings make it a nice place to visit.

The only downside in winter is there is hardly anything open, including restaurants.

There was quite a bit of snow in the park.

Ice Road Trucker

February 15, 2014 richardt

Work Posts

northwest territories work

For 10 months of the year, the only way to access our site is by plane from Yellowknife. Given the time of year we were going in, the option of the ice road was possible. The road into the site opened at the end of January. The NT Power Corp flight schedules would only get us in, to get out we would have had to charter our own plane out. Going in by road made more sense if we could swing it. There were two of us from Toronto and one of our NT Environment colleague’s from Yellowknife. It is about a 4 hour drive from Yellowknife.

We crossed the first big lake (Marian Lake) and traveling at a speed of ~50-70km/hr it took an hour. The roads on the “ice” are wide and smooth for the most part.

The portages between the lakes are another story, just paths cut through the bush. The worse part was probably the small stretch of road going into the Snare Rapids hydro facility. It was extremely rough.

Snare Rapids, NT

February 14, 2014 richardt

Work Posts

northwest territories work

I was in Snare Rapids, Northwest Territories for a week. The site is located about 140 km north of Yellowknife. With the ice road open, we were able to drive in to the site. The closest town is Wha Ti, which is only accessible by vehicle when the ice road is open.