day 4: another day of calm...
the weather today was absolutely beautiful :) clear skies and hardly any wind. was a chilly -22 degrees (centigrade) and well, today has been my favourite day so far and it's only the fourth one! woke up again before my alarm went off and pulled myself from under the 2 duvets, woolly blanket and cotton sheet i'd bundled myself up in the previous night. it's not actually cold in the room, i er, just like being ridiculously warm. and these duvets are good :)
got ready to leave about 8.30 and omg it is such hardwork just putting on all the layers lol. there are thermals, fleece trousers, another long sleeved top, a fleece then the thick arctic pants and then finally the massive parka with furry hood. i had to make a mad dash back to my room this morning to put in contact lenses. and then about 9 we left! we get taken to the various sites on basically a wooden box tied to a sled type thing. let's just say it needs suspension... me and jose (i still can't believe my partner is the former president of costa rica) were assigned the forest-tundra area this morning and the snow was thigh depth. i fell over multiple times and at one point i was so deeply buried in the snow that i couldn't actually move to get up. carley had to haul me up lol.
but anyway. i haven't actually told you guys about the measurements we're taking. we basically dig a pit of snow along a transect. there are 3 sites along the transect so at the end of the day we have 3 sets of data for each site. the sites are divided up into tundra (little or no vegation), forest-tundra (some trees, on the edge of 2 areas) and forest (lots of vegetation). the pit we dig is where we collect most of the data. we have to take temperature readings every 5cm up the wall of the pit, count the different layers of snow and then take mass readings for each and also calculate the density for each layer. it's a lot of work lol and when the snow is really deep it can get quite challenging. today our pit was almost a metre deep, we had to make steps to get into it. then after the pit data has been collected we have to take 33 core samples at random across the site. these are the most difficult things ever when the snow is really deep! we get a long plastic tube, stick it in the snow, see how deep the snow is and then haul it out, ensuring that there is a plug of earth at the bottom so no snow is lost and then we weight the contents of the tube with something that looks suspiciously like a newton meter thing.
got back from the field around 11.30 and i changed back into my jeans. had a nice lunch and oh god there was lemon meringue pie... i wasn't going to eat pie today... but it was warm and fresh and completely amazing and none of us could resist it's gooey crumbly goodness... but hey, we went out again in the afternoon lol. we were looking at a tundra site this afternoon and it was SO much easier than the previous two. the snow wasn't nearly as deep and the snow was really compact. at the bottom of our pit we saw some beautiful snow crystals, i wish i'd taken a picture. they were so awesome! they were like little diamonds! we finished our site this afternoon in really good time and er, we were given the option of walking back to the CNSC but i was tired so i waited for the other 2 groups to finish. journey back was amusing, pete and krista raced the skadoo things so we had a really really bumpy ride home. got back, had dinner and then cleaned up in rapid time. me and ali were told we were really really quick and efficient. all that practice of cleaning the kitchens at work and school have paid off! this kitchen is so damned awesome. they have an industrial washer thing that gets so hot it, wait for it, STERILISES the plates and dishes. i am going to get one installed in my future kitchen. think of how clean my dishes will be....
evening we had a short lecture on the northern lights and it was interesting. i was (and still am) really tired though so bits of it went over my head. i know they have something to do with magnetic fields, sun spots, solar flares and other things but ask me to explain and i couldn't... all i know is they look pretty lol ;) ahmed also had a crate of wine delivered! so um, we drank quite a bit of that... and still are! and i had a cigarette with him and we discussed how maddening it is to live here 24-7 lol. i love it, i do. but it is so extremely isolated. we can't leave, we're 30 minutes outside of town (and that's on a good, clear day). but yeah.
right i think i am going to go find another of the amazing cookies i've been eating (they're cinnamon oatmeal raisin!) and go update my written journal.
love to all!
charlotte xxxxxxx
got ready to leave about 8.30 and omg it is such hardwork just putting on all the layers lol. there are thermals, fleece trousers, another long sleeved top, a fleece then the thick arctic pants and then finally the massive parka with furry hood. i had to make a mad dash back to my room this morning to put in contact lenses. and then about 9 we left! we get taken to the various sites on basically a wooden box tied to a sled type thing. let's just say it needs suspension... me and jose (i still can't believe my partner is the former president of costa rica) were assigned the forest-tundra area this morning and the snow was thigh depth. i fell over multiple times and at one point i was so deeply buried in the snow that i couldn't actually move to get up. carley had to haul me up lol.
but anyway. i haven't actually told you guys about the measurements we're taking. we basically dig a pit of snow along a transect. there are 3 sites along the transect so at the end of the day we have 3 sets of data for each site. the sites are divided up into tundra (little or no vegation), forest-tundra (some trees, on the edge of 2 areas) and forest (lots of vegetation). the pit we dig is where we collect most of the data. we have to take temperature readings every 5cm up the wall of the pit, count the different layers of snow and then take mass readings for each and also calculate the density for each layer. it's a lot of work lol and when the snow is really deep it can get quite challenging. today our pit was almost a metre deep, we had to make steps to get into it. then after the pit data has been collected we have to take 33 core samples at random across the site. these are the most difficult things ever when the snow is really deep! we get a long plastic tube, stick it in the snow, see how deep the snow is and then haul it out, ensuring that there is a plug of earth at the bottom so no snow is lost and then we weight the contents of the tube with something that looks suspiciously like a newton meter thing.
got back from the field around 11.30 and i changed back into my jeans. had a nice lunch and oh god there was lemon meringue pie... i wasn't going to eat pie today... but it was warm and fresh and completely amazing and none of us could resist it's gooey crumbly goodness... but hey, we went out again in the afternoon lol. we were looking at a tundra site this afternoon and it was SO much easier than the previous two. the snow wasn't nearly as deep and the snow was really compact. at the bottom of our pit we saw some beautiful snow crystals, i wish i'd taken a picture. they were so awesome! they were like little diamonds! we finished our site this afternoon in really good time and er, we were given the option of walking back to the CNSC but i was tired so i waited for the other 2 groups to finish. journey back was amusing, pete and krista raced the skadoo things so we had a really really bumpy ride home. got back, had dinner and then cleaned up in rapid time. me and ali were told we were really really quick and efficient. all that practice of cleaning the kitchens at work and school have paid off! this kitchen is so damned awesome. they have an industrial washer thing that gets so hot it, wait for it, STERILISES the plates and dishes. i am going to get one installed in my future kitchen. think of how clean my dishes will be....
evening we had a short lecture on the northern lights and it was interesting. i was (and still am) really tired though so bits of it went over my head. i know they have something to do with magnetic fields, sun spots, solar flares and other things but ask me to explain and i couldn't... all i know is they look pretty lol ;) ahmed also had a crate of wine delivered! so um, we drank quite a bit of that... and still are! and i had a cigarette with him and we discussed how maddening it is to live here 24-7 lol. i love it, i do. but it is so extremely isolated. we can't leave, we're 30 minutes outside of town (and that's on a good, clear day). but yeah.
right i think i am going to go find another of the amazing cookies i've been eating (they're cinnamon oatmeal raisin!) and go update my written journal.
love to all!
charlotte xxxxxxx