Category: Work Posts

Out to Saskatchewan

June 14, 2013
Work Posts

I spent four days this week driving around the province. Between Monday and Wednesday afternoon I put 1868 km on a brand new Jeep Cherokee that only had 23 km when I picked it up. The final destination was Pinehouse.

Pinehouse Lake map

I was also out at Flat Valley on the Monday, looking for a location to setup a solar powered collector down the road.

The rental after one day.

The last time I was here I had to cut a trail through the forest to mark out a clearing, here is the result.

Despite all the clear cutting, there were still some flowers in the clearing.

Saw a squirrel on one of the wood piles.

One time I was walking back to the car and when I looked up I spotted a moose down the road.

It kind of watched me for awhile before crossing the road and heading into the forest.

The next morning I saw a couple of more moose at the side of the highway heading into Beauval. There was a small calf with the mother. It is behind the mother’s head.

The moose were going through their annual molt.

I was finished sooner than I thought I would be, so I changed my flight from Friday to Thursday and headed back to Saskatoon Wednesday afternoon. Saw lots of deer, a few wolves, moose, a rabbit and had I duck fly up from the side of the road and almost hit my windshield.

NADP Spring Meeting

April 26, 2013
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I was down in Madison, Wisconsin this past week for work.

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I flew out of Toronto Monday morning with a connection through Chicago. I didn’t experience any delays due to the air traffic controllers being on furlough, I did experience a 90 minute delay due to a broken latch on the cargo door. The meeting hotel is right across from the state capitol.

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The Solidarity Singers Have been protesting daily at the Capitol against Governor Walker. He was the one who passed into law the measure to strip most public union workers of many of their bargaining powers, while forcing them to pay more for their benefits. It led to massive protests back in 2011.

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Looking down State Street.

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This the third Wisconsin Capitol, it was completed in 1917.

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Chalk protest.

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The capitol building at night with a full moon.

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I flew back Thursday, but not before more delays, my flight left Madison on time. When I landed in Chicago my connection to Toronto was already delayed two hours, in the end it was almost three hours late taking off. I came back on American Airlines.

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Geraldton, ON

February 22, 2013
Work Posts

I was up in Geraldton, Ontario this past week installing a new monitoring site. The site is half way between Geraldton and Longlac. Flew into Thunder Bay and then a 3.5 hour drive from there.

There was a lot of snow in town, they received a good dumping of snow just before we got there.

Everywhere you go in town, people get out of their cars and leave them running. Not just to run into the local store, but when they go in for dinner or the grocery store.

On the Wednesday, it was -26°C and -38°C with the windchill, but Thursday was a balmy -13°C with the windchill.

On Thursday evening we went to the Geraldton Curling Club to watch the Northern Ontario Senior Men’s Provincial Curling Championship. There were eight teams from around Northern Ontario playing for the right to play in the Canadian Senior Men’s Championship to be held in PEI in March. Among those playing was Al Hackner, a mainstay at the Labatt Brier during the 80’s and into the 90’s. He won 2 Brier’s and a World Championship.

On Friday we headed back to Thunder Bay to catch our flight back to Toronto. There is a giant snowman in Beardmore, ON. It stands at 35ft.

My colleague had never been to the Terry Fox Monument, so I made him stop to see a piece of Canadiana.

It was another challenge getting home, we boarded our flight, and before I had boarded they had already made an announcement that there was a ground closure at Pearson Airport due to snow in Toronto. They only had one runway open and with a backlog of flights, they delayed us. We spent one hour sitting on the plane, before they de-planed us and waited for another hour before we boarded again and were able to take-off.

Flat Valley, SK

January 26, 2013
Work Posts

I had a short trip out to Flat Valley Saskatchewan to mark out a new site. This site has a lot of deciduous trees, so it would be easier to mark it and move around in the winter. It was a flight into Saskatoon and then a three and a half hour drive north west. Latitude wise it is further north than Edmonton.

The night we arrived there was 10-15cm of snow added to the already foot of snow on the ground, the only good thing is the snow is so dry, it is easy to move around. It was also easier when following the many deer trails. As we walked in there was one laying in the bush that jumped up and took off.

The forecast was for cloudy and overcast, but the closest city that the forecast was based on was 65km away. The sun was in and out throughout most of the day.

Our site is on the edge of a 150 acre forest.

We are in the middle of farming country, mainly hay and grain.

North of the site it is wide open fields.

Was able to change my flight when I checked in to a direct flight to Toronto, rather than my connection through Calgary. It was suppose to get me home 3.5 hours earlier. When we got to Toronto we were delayed and circled 25 minutes due to the snow. Then there were mechanical problems with the plane so our baggage was delayed and then had the usual friday afternoon taxi line followed by another hour in traffic on the 401. Probably should have declined the direct flight.

Saturna Island

January 19, 2013
Work Posts

I spent the past week on Saturna Island. It is pretty quiet this time of year on the island. Not a lot of options available for food, so we have to buy groceries in Sidney before catching the ferry over to the island. My flights were good, our flight from Toronto to Vancouver arrived 17 minutes early, that has never happened before.

There was a backlog at the Superport on the mainland, so there were a lot of container ships sitting among the islands.

The weather for the week was forecasted for sun, but that changed with an inversion. It was snowing when we left the site the first night.

There was a bit of a sunrise on Wednesday morning.

The feral goats are still around.

Thursday morning we started the day with a power failure, it was a planned shutdown to replace some of the poles, it was suppose to be back up by 9:00am. It did allow us to take in the sunrise at the B&B.

We stayed at Sandy Bay B&B.

We had a good day of weather on Thursday and were able to go up to Mt Warburton Pike for lunch.

Looking over towards Pender Island.

There were a couple of bald eagles.

We took a drive down to the Saturna Island Winery.

Back at the site the deer were out in the sun.

After work we headed out to Winter Cove. We did the trail out to boat pass (the middle of the photo).

Along the trail.

There were a few sea lions in the water.

Catching the sunset over Winter Cove.

This is Boat Pass.

A view of Mt Baker in Washington state.

Along the beach in Winter Cove.

When we got back to the cottage, there was a bald eagle sitting on the shore rocks.

Our final day started off in cloud and fog.

The container ships were still sitting there.

A Week On The Rock: Part 2

December 7, 2012
Work Posts

I was back in Newfoundland this past week to upgrade one of our sites near Head of Bay D’Espoir-Milltown. It is about a 3 hour drive from Gander.

The weather for most of the week was overcast and light rain/mist. We arrived to find out that there would be no power at the site from 7:30am – 4:30pm everyday. The site is located on Newfoundland Labrador Hydro property and they were replacing some of the power lines in the area the site was. When I made the arrangements a few weeks ago to come, they forgot to mention this. They did arrange for us to borrow a generator, but still not ideal. In the end we were without power on Tuesday and Friday, and they cut the power further along on Wed/Thurs. This was the view from my motel room.

The Vancor Motel is the only accommodations in the area. It also has the only restaurant in town.

On Friday, the temperature dropped and the winds picked up, making for a more pleasant day with some blue skies.

There were even patches of sun.

Our site is located next to the dam. We are behind the fenced area and the sign that says “Danger, Keep Out, Access Beyond This Point May Result in Drowning”.

The side of the dam.

I saw this place when we had arrived in Gander, so when we came back we headed there for lunch. Inside there was a sign “Reduced Menu Available”, that didn’t mean the prices were cheaper, it meant there were only a couple of items on the menu available. It was an odd restaurant, it looked like they had converted from a fast food type to a sit down. When we paid, I noticed the date on the licence was Nov 30th, 2012. The place had been open less than a week. A google search indicates this use to be a KFC, while we were there a couple of people had come in looking for KFC. The lady that owns this and 10 other KFC restaurants in Newfoundland decided to not renew her KFC franchises and is converting them all to Oppy’s home cooking restaurants. Will have to see if these catch on.

As you can see in the picture there was snow in Gander, along with winds and ice. My flight was delayed leaving Gander by about 45 minutes, not good when I only had an hour for my connection in St John’s. I walked off the plane in St John’s and walked right on the plane to Halifax-Toronto. This should be it for traveling until the new year.

Nova Scotia

December 1, 2012
Work Posts

Spent last week down at Kejimkujik National Park for the annual site audit. The weather was good for most of the week, the snow showed up Thursday night. It was my fourth trip to Kejimkujik this year.

Stayed in Liverpool this time instead of the usual Bridgewater.

I reached Air Canada Elite status with this trip. I have logged 35 flight segments and over 33,000 status miles since January 1, 2012. Next year I’ll have AC Lounge access and priority boarding. This cartoon is like the security line-ups at Pearson, upstairs lines are always packed, but the downstairs lines usually let you walk right up.

A Week On The Rock

November 11, 2012
Work Posts

I spent 6 days out in Newfoundland and Labrador the past week. This trip completed the missing piece to my 2012 Canada puzzle. In this calendar year I have visited all 10 provinces (and one territory) either through work or pleasure. I left Monday for Stephenville, NL via Halifax and Deer Lake.

I was resolving problems at our site in Stephenville on Tuesday morning and then it was a drive back to Deer Lake to meet up with one of our contractors who was identifying possible new sites to replace some of our existing ones. It rained all morning in Stephenville, but started to let up around noon. Do you think this company might have a little conflict of interest? What better way to boost the first part of their business name than delaying the second part of their business name.

Stephenville is the site of Earnest Harmon AFB which was run by the Americans from 1941 to 1966 when it closed. The airport is still operational, but there is no major airline that services it.

My drive back to Deer Lake turned out to be a sunny drive once I reached the Corner Brook area. This is Breakfast Mountain

Legend has it that Shellbird Island, at the base of the mountain is the location of treasure buried by pirates. It is watched over by “The Old Man”, whose features are clearly seen etched in the side of the cliff.

Heading into Deer Lake.

On Wednesday it was out to the Grand Falls-Windsor area to look at some new locations. This was north of Bishop’s Falls at the water treatment plant. The beaver dam had flooded the road.

Again we had great weather, but knowing we were headed to snow in Goose Bay.

Heading back to Deer Lake after a day touring central Newfoundland.

It was an early flight from Deer Lake to Goose Bay via Halifax and St John’s.

Landed around noon and got off the plane to 24 cm of snow on the ground.

Most of it fell as wet snow and was still clinging to the trees.

The temperatures were around -5 most of the day.

The bridge crossing the Churchill River, this the Trans Labrador Highway.

Looking across the valley towards the old Pinetree Radar site.

The Churchill River.

On Friday there was another 10 cm of snow, wasn’t sure if my flight would get out. Looking out my hotel room around noon.

I had a late flight which left 5 minutes early but arrived in St. John’s 30 minutes late, due to de-icing and the head winds.  I spent about 7 hours in St. John’s, before I had to be up and back at the airport for my flight to Halifax.

I arrived in Halifax to sunny skies. A plane going through de-icing. My flights were on time and I was home by 11:00 am on Saturday morning.

Fort Smith, NWT

October 19, 2012
Work Posts

After 10 years in this job, I have finally made it to the Northwest Territories. This past week I was in Fort Smith, NWT to locate a new monitoring site in Wood Buffalo National Park. Fort Smith sits on the border with Alberta and the National Park straddles the border with the majority of the park in Alberta. Our new site will be on the NWT side.

It was more of tramping through the bush marking trees that will be cleared for a new site.

In the existing clearing, the wood bison are frequent visitors as noted by their calling cards. The white stuff is snow.

This vehicle was along Highway 5, not sure what the story is behind it. It looks like it either hit a wood bison or a moose. The bison graze at the side of the road, but they don’t move that fast, so it’s hard to believe it was a bison that was hit.

We only saw four wood bison, but I think 3 and 4 were the same. The wood bison harvesting (hunting) had just finished the past weekend, so they may have been deeper in the bush.

Here is a close up of the wood bison as I drove past.

Not often you come across warning signs for buffalo.

Wood Buffalo is the largest National Park in Canada and has the world’s largest herd of free roaming Wood Bison. There are over 5000 in the park, along with about 5000 wolves to keep them in check.

It was looking like it was going to be a nice day when we were leaving, although a little chillier. I was flying Northwestern Air from Fort Smith to Edmonton.

My flight out of Edmonton to Toronto was late 30 minutes leaving Edmonton and then as we approached Toronto we must have circled about 4 times, resulting in us arriving 50 minutes behind schedule.

Portland, Maine

October 6, 2012
Work Posts

This past week I was down in Portland, Maine for meetings. This was the fall version of the meeting I went to in the spring in Portland, Oregon. I flew down Monday connecting through  Philadelphia. There is a direct flight from Toronto but it is on a small Beechcraft prop that holds about 12 passengers, opting for the regional jets was a much better choice.

Definitely ate too much while I was down there, even though the meeting hotel was out by the airport and not right downtown. The first night we had dinner at the Portland Lobster Company. I had the Downeast Feast which came with a 1 1/4 lb lobster, 6 steamer clams, corn on the cob, seafood chowder, fries and cole slaw all for $27.

When you order, they give you a lobster with a number on it, when your order is up it starts flashing and vibrating.

The next night it was back downtown to J’s Oyster Bar. The oysters (from Chesapeake Bay) were cheap, 1 dozen for $12.50, we had three orders at our table. I had a cup of their Lobster Stew which was amazing and then the Seafood Bouillabaisse which was packed with seafood.

Of course with all this food we needed something to wash it down with, there is no shortage of local microbrew pubs like Sebago, Sea Dog Brew House and Gritty McDuff’s.

The final night we had dinner at Gilbert’s Chowder House on Commercial Street. This time I had the seafood chowder and the Fried Maine Whole Belly Clams in crumbs. All of these restaurants are not very large and wait times could be long depending on the time and size of your party.

Finished off with some ice cream at Captain Sam’s homemade ice cream. It had just opened and as we walked past there was a guy standing outside eating ice cream, one of the guys in our group asked him how it was and he said it was amazing and he was going back in for more. After walking a bit we decided we had to go back and try it. I had Kentucky Derby ice cream which had bourbon, almonds and chocolate pieces. The portions were huge and it came with a wooded spoon, not a flat ice cream spoon, but a wooded shaped spoon.

(all photos were downloaded from the internet.)