24 November, 2000

FYI answer for 11/23/00

> Science research takes place in Antarctica because of three common principles: it is research that cannot be done anywhere else in the world, it is research that is the highest quality science, and it is research that contributes to solving a global problem.

It's beginning to look a lot like a winter wonderland. I know you won't believe it, but it snowed all night long. We awoke this morning to a fresh layer on the two or three that we've gotten this week already. There was not going to be any traveling today. The next best thing besides sleeping in, is to get up and make a great big brunch. Scientists get hungry. Now if we don't get working one of these days we may have to be exercising scientists. Cory, Elizabeth and I decided to make an after-Thanksgiving brunch feast. We had almost-homemade biscuits, powdered eggs, fresh-cut potato hashbrowns, and juice.

The temperature for the day seemed warm, so to speak. It wasn't warm enough to make good snowman packed snow, but eventually it was the small snowball kind. We didn't have too much wind on our side of Big Razorback,o Katsu, Elizabeth and I went over to retrieve a camera and data logger that we had attached two days ago. We found the female and pup right away. This time Katsu got the head-bag on the mother and then handed the ropes to me. Usually the pup will move away during this and cry out until the mother is released. We have had some that move away and just take a short nap. Katsu had the wire cutters we use to cut the attachment off. This mother seal was very energetic today. She took me down twice. To hold her you hold the rope and straddle her back, but you do not sit on her. She rolled too fast and her fin tucked around my leg and I dropped. The new snow was a nice cushion. The first time I was between the crak and her. Katsu and Elizabeth grabbed the rope and rolled her back. You'd think I'd be ready, but a short time later, she got me again. I was kind of slow, too much breakfast. This time I at least had the sense to fall and pull my leg back before she rolled on me. It is also nice that the females have lost quite a bit of their body mass by now too. Just call me a Weddell wrestler. Of course I'm 0-2.

We had had enough of sitting inside too. Since the wind wasn't too bad we grabbed a pie tin and decided to play Frisbee. It lasted until the wind picked up too much. We did some picture taking and tried a game of football using a half-full water bottle and tossed snowballs at one another for awhile. We had energy to burn. The snow fell on and off. I shoveled a few paths between the buildings and to the outhouse again. Otherwise you needed bunny boots to keep your feet from getting snow in them just walking around the huts. Katsu and I also used the gas-powered ice drill and made six new holes for our gray water (waste water) which is permitted by the regulations of a field camp. That's like our dish water after doing dishes, old coffee, hand washing water, liquid drained from things, hand washing soap, etc. We drill about two to three feet down. When they fill up they will freeze so we make more holes. We have fourteen holes, eight are filled and frozen.

We finished off the day with an attachment job that was a little different. All seven of us walked over to Big Razorback and we attached two instruments to a mother seal and for the first time we attached a data logger to a pup. It went very well and didn't take long with seven of us working on the mother and pup at the same time. After we finished, with the snow still falling, we decided to head into McMurdo before any more snow or storms stopped us from getting in for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner.

FYI

McMurdo Station has a ______________ alley, a weight room, a library, a band room and gymnasium. There are aerobics classes and yoga, ___________ lessns, and art and ceramics classes. There is a ____________ station and a television station. There is a chapel, _________ _____________ and store, a barber shop and newspaper office.

Drilling holes in the ice for waste water

Now I am anesthetizing the mother, just trading jobs to learn and experience more.

Dan and I wait for the epoxy to dry before removing the head bag.