Brian and I are back home, safe and sound, but we think about Churchill all the time. We check Spaceweather, and on a day when the sun is active, we wish we could get ourselves to Churchill for a visit to the dome. Most days we check the Churchill weather to see just how much warmer we are now! Actually, I miss the cold air. When people say they could never take the cold, I tell them, "Well, it's a dry cold, so it doesn't seem so bad!" Sounds crazy, but there is some truth in that. On a damp, rainy day here at 38F, I find myself thinking that I'd prefer the dry cold.
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| This is one of the many tundra ponds. |
So speaking of a dry climate, and remember that Churchill is really located in something close to a polar desert, I made this short video I had meant to share. One of the first things you notice when you walk anywhere in Churchill, is that your feet are squeaking like crazy as your boots come in contact with the snow. This is snow that will never make a snowball- at least not at the time of year when we were there.
I made this video on the day I went out to a local pond with my friend Phillip, CNSC's very capable maintenance staff. It was my day off, and Phillip invited me to accompany him on a water run
. CNSC pumps water
from the bottom of a tundra pond into a 1200 gallon tank. It
only takes about 15 minutes! Most of the tundra ponds are wetlands and
drainage areas, and only a couple feet deep. Not surprisingly, most tundra ponds are frozen solid. This one was about 6-8 feet
deep with 4 feet of ice. Phillip drilled the hole without power tools, and voila! Icy fresh water. Back at CNSC, in a state of the art green building, the water is filtered, treated, and ready for use.
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| Phil drills a hole through at least 4 feet of ice. |
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| Here is the tank, which holds 1200 gallons. |
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| This is a photo I took on the day I went out with Phillip. |
The landscape was quite beautiful, with the
icy surfaces reflecting the blue sky that day. I loved looking down through the ice, and I've included a few photos that Brian took on an Ice Crack Photo Shoot with his buddy Roger Starman Woloshyn. Sounded crazy to me, but I was very impressed with their photos!
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| They arrive at their destination! |
