Monday, June 15, 2009

Week two on the Herbert

Well firstly I'm exhausted!!! This week or the 10th-14th, my five days on the ice, were 12 hour days and lots of hard work. This is how my day usually goes:
5:30- alarm goes off, time to get out of the warm sleepingbag and out into the cold (round 40 degrees in the am, get dressed and use the "facilities"
6:00- Out in the dog yard scooping poop, feed all 36 dogs (on my side) Jamie does her side, then scoop poop again
7:00- Our breakfast hour, brush teeth get ready for the day, put sunscreen on(though apparently it doesn't work cuz I still got burnt)
8:00- back out in the dog yard to check - all of the dogs feet, put suncreen on the pink parts (Nose, ears, and privates) body weight check, and general physical exam.
9:30-6:30 tours can be scheduled all day every hour on the half hour, the helicopter arrives at about 25 after and then we go over sled safety and we're on our way!
7:30- dog yard scooped, dogs fed, scooped again, dump buckets in the poop cube ( i'll get a pick next time I'm up)
8:30- Time for dinner if we have energy to cook
9:30- turn the heater on for 30 min, turn it off before I have to open the flap and the heat drives me out, then lay down to read and i'm usually passed out within 10 min!

So thats how a day generally goes, after each tour we switch out leaders and maybe 5-6 of the dogs so they all get an equal amount of running in. There are other chores however that need to get done if we don't have tours in the alloted times which include: leveling of the dog yard ( the snow melts all around the houses faster than it does underneath and so the houses fall over and creates an uproar in the yard) which also means our tents need to also get moved at least once a week, Trail poop needs to be picked up once a week, hair needs to be raked off the snow (THE WORST JOB EVER!) I can pick up poop all day but rakeing snow into piles and waiting for the snow to melt so you can pick out the dog hair! UGH!

Oh I am Safe for the season! I will not be loosing my job, unless the season goes completly dead, or a crevass opens up in a spot we can't avoid, or we loose too much snow, which we have been losing a lot of snow, so the season may end early, we'll see when we get there.

On the 10th I gave 5 tours in a row, two of which were to people from Tiwan and didn't speak a word of English... those were quite tours, however I did get told I was beautiful and a lady wanted to have her picture taken with me :-) I burnt my arms to the point they felt like they were on fire and behind my ears to the point were they blistered... that was after applying sun-screen at least 3 times!!! OUCH
On the 11th I woke up to a huge crack of thunder and then a sound that reminds me of the surf when laying in my room at the point at night listening to the ocean (which meant there was a lil-avalanche) I spent most of my day trying to convince Jamie to stay and not leave... I'm gonna miss her if she leaves early, she's become a really good friend and it makes the time go by faster... Up at 6:00 am then gave tours from 10:30-4:30 without a break ugh! good thing I had a big breakfast or it'd have been hungry! I got one $20 tip from one couple... common people! anyways I'll save that for a later date.
the 12th turned out to be a blessing in disguise, I didn't feel like giving tours after the previous days tours, and I got my wish, We woke up to a 500 foot cloud cover and and rain, an hour before the first tour the ground fog came in and we were in a white out! The rest of the day was cancelled as well, but we worked elsewhere in Dog Camp. We each (Rick, Jamie and I) moved about 2000lbs of snow ( its like shoveling that really heavy wet snow and ice.....) raked hair into rows and then shoveled it into piles by the time I was done my back was killing me and my arms felt like Jelly! It was also the first day I was cold, actually wearing my long-johns and underarmor shirts, only to strip them off when I started shoveling. We did get a break since we were all so dead after all the moving of snow and Jamie and I washed our hair and made brownies! mmm we made a 13x9 pan full and they were gone by sunday AM :-I hehe
Saturday and Sunday were slow, lots of chores not so many tours and then I cam back down on Sunday, I was so tired I slept till 9 am this morning (which if you know me thats LATE!)
Well I'm gonna sign off for now and make some mac and cheese and watch oceans eleven with Jamie and prolly fall asleep, we went downtown today and went in just about every shop and I'm exhausted!!!

Love you all,
Cait

3 comments:

  1. Could you save me some of that Dog hair? I'm thinking huskie toupee'.

    Mike

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  2. oh, so now I am huskie, is that what your saying, Mike?
    I readily admit to needing a toupee, but seriously, huskie?

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  3. Although that does sound like a shit ton of work, I'd gladly do it over what I'm doing here in Iowa! Gahhh.. lol. But glad to hear things are turning around for ya :)

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