Edmonton, Red Deer, Sylvan Lake, Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, Mountains, Friends.......

Mightiness of Sunlight Bottom!!
It's been quite awhile since I've written anything on here (getting close to a month now!), and that's been for two reasons. Firstly, when I'm at the mine, I don't really have much to write about. I work, and I sleep, neither makes for very interesting blog reading. Secondly, since I left the mine a week and half ago, I've been so busy I haven't had time to write anything. Now I'm going to! :)

I got out from the mine on Tuesday, June 24th - arriving back in Yellowknife at around 1:00. I spent that afternoon and evening getting my clothing washed, buying supplies, and packing, and then Wednesday morning at 5:30 I was up, and on my way to Edmonton. Armed with a tank full of gas, and a stomach full of McDonald's breakfast, I headed out for the longest bit of driving I've ever done. The first couple hundred kilometres were a little slow, as there was a lot of thick fog that I had to be very careful going through - I really didn't want to run into a bison! Once I got out from around the Great Slave Lake area though, my progress was much faster. The only other delay was a bridge with a posted speed limit of 5Km/H. I tried my best to only go 5Km/H - there must have been a pretty good reason for them to not want people going quickly across this bridge, and I wasn't keen to find out what the reason might have been - but I was only able to actually maintain a speed of about 10Km/H. I don't think I've ever driven twice the speed limit before!

I was able to get as far as Enterprise, NT, before I had to get gas, and I went from there to High Level, AB. I drove the entire trip from Yellowknife to Edmonton in about 16 hours, stopping only for gas and to use the washroom, and that time even included a 1-1.5 hour detour that I accidentally made. There was one point where the highway bifurcates, and I thought I wanted to go more towards Grande Prairie - which I didn't actually want to do. All well. Fortunately I didn't run into any police anywhere along the way. :P

I got to Edmonton a little before 10:00, but I wasn't able to get in touch with Ryan (my friend from Sainte-Anne's, which whom I stayed the night). After calling the number he had given me (which turned out to be the wrong number), and knocking on the doors a few times with no answers, I drove around the city until I found a free wireless internet signal that I was able to use to contact him through MSN Messenger. Whew!

Since then, I've been doing all kinds of things here in Alberta. I met up with Lara the next day, and spent a couple of days at her place, we went out to a stampede in Ponoka which was really fun. I was able to meet up with a friend of my family's, Dave, who is in Red Deer working - it was so wonderful to see him and to spend some time talking with him! After a couple of days I came back to Edmonton to connect up with Ryan again.

On Monday Ryan, Lara and I all got together, packed up the car with camping stuff, and headed off to Banff. We spent that night checking out a rainy Banff, trying to setup the tents between periods of intense rain, and trying to make a fire start with a dying lighter, an old magazine, and wet firewood. Thanks to Lara's perseverance, we actually got the fire going! Sometime after midnight some people a couple of sites away from us started setting off fireworks laterally within the campground (Canada Day had started...) - they got a visit from the RCMP a little while later.

The next morning we got up at about 7:00, got the site all packed up, had some breakfast (a bit of an adventure at McDonald's trying to deal with servers who didn't really speak english), and headed out. I wasn't feeling very well, so Lara drove all the way to Lake Louise, where we stopped to get some pictures, and to take a short break from the driving.

The mountains are amazing, and enormous, and beautiful. As amazing as this trip was, I would still love to get back and really spend some time in that area - it's really something special. We saw all kinds of wildlife, including a Bear and her two cubs, a couple of Ravens, lots of Elk, and some Mountain Goats and Sheep. There was even a deer beside our campsite Tuesday morning when we got up - and we saw lots more Tuesday night once we were out of the mountains.

The best part about the trip though wasn't the wildlife or the scenery, it was that I was able to spend time with a couple of my bestest friends. We had an awesome time together for that day and a half, and it's a trip I'll never forget.

Yesterday, we all ended up together again at one point. Lara and I met up and went to the West Edmonton Mall, to use a couple of free Galaxyland (the indoor amusement park in the mall) passes that she had. Unfortunately the big rollercoaster was closed, but we went on a whole bunch of other rides, the preferred of which was the "Space Shooter" - a ride the goes straight up (with a force of +3 Gs!), and then straight down (providing a -1 G force). We went on it three times I think - and Lara was even able to get a video of the last run! Later on we picked up Ryan and all went out for dinner before taking him to work.

I'm going back to Yellowknife tomorrow morning I think, and I'm sad to be leaving. This has been one of the most amazing times of my life, and I can't think of anybody I'd rather have spent this time with than these two amazing friends. It's been absolutely incredible.

Now I'm starting the countdown until I'm back in NS - the summer is only a little more than half over, but I'm already starting to really look forward to being back at the University in the fall. 49 days to go - when I look at the days like that, it doesn't seem like very long!

Check out (select) pictures from the trip here. There are 41 pictures in the album, from a total of 389 taken on my camera - I think there's about that many on Lara's camera too!

Back at the mine

Last week was a complete whirlwind. I flew to Nova Scotia on Tuesday with Mom, spent wedesnday through to saturday running around visiting Grandma at the hostpital, helping Mom get our stuff out of her house so she can sell it, playing video games with Megan at the Labyrinth, visiting everybody down at l'Université Saint-Anne, fixing Grandpa's computer, etc. etc. Sunday morning I flew back to Yellowknife. A completely crazy trip, that was a complete rollercoaster ride of emotions; happy I was able to be there, sad to see Grandma in the hospital, tired from the trips, thrilled to get to the shore for an afternoon, sad I wasn't able to spend a little more time with Dad, worried that if Megan goes travelling I might not see her for over a year... by the time I got back to Yellowknife sunday night I was completely emotionally mixed up (spending 10 hours in the Edmonton airport probably didn't help). Monday wasn't much better.

Now that I'm back here at the mine I've been able to sort of set my head straight again. It's been great today to have tasks to concentrate on, things to do other than just think about everything that's been going on and getting back into a regular schedule. Even though I had only been here once before on my last rotation, there's a familiarity here that is comforting too, especially with Mom still being in Nova Scotia, Yellowknife felt pretty lonely yesterday.

I've recently realized a few interesting facts. Firstly, once I'm done my current rotation, I'll have completed half of my work for the summer! I'll only have two more two week rotations here at the mine to complete, and then I'm back in Nova Scotia to get ready to go back to school. If I take into account my trip to Alberta on the 25th of this month, I've really only got one more set of two weeks in Yellowknife too. It's weird, because I had felt up until now that I was going to have lots of time over the summer to get to know the city a little better, to start to really make it feel a little like home before I left; but it doesn't look like I'll be around long enough for that to happen. It's been cool to spend what time I have in the city though, I certainly never thought that I'd be living in Yellowknife even for a day, much less for a long as I have been.

The mine still amazes me. About once a day I look around me and think "WOW! I'm working at a DIAMOND mine! How cool is that??" It's pretty awesome to be here knowing that just a few hundred metres from where I am they are pulling diamonds out of the ground. When I first got here one of the vice presidents did a little presentation as part of the site induction meeting, and during that he pointed out that when we see on TV the shows about extreme mining, they are talking about operations less extreme than what's happening here at Diavik. The operation they (we) are running here is as extreme an operation as they come. Not only is it being done on an enormous scale, and with mind-blowing amounts of resources, people, and equipment, but it's being done over 300 kilometres northeast of the closest town, which is itself extremely isolated! The entire operation is completely insane, and absolutely amazing. The more I learn about what is happening here, and how it's being done, the more flaberghasted I become. It's unreal. I'm not going to talk about it any more here, but if you're interested, the Diavik Website has lots of information and photos of the mine site.

Anyway, the experience is still awesome, life is still going on, things are good. Please leave comments, even just a 'hello' so I know that someone is still looking at this site! Thanks,
-Liam

Not quite in Yellowknife

Mom and I flew to Nova Scotia today to spend some time with Grandma Killam. We had a long, long day yesterday flying home, and had a evening driving home with Aunt Monica, and then chatting for a bit with Aunt Mary and Uncle Terry.
I spent parts of today at the Hospital visiting Grandma, and with Megan and Mel, part with Aunt Monica when we all went out for lunch, and then later back at Dad's, and finally well into this evening with Grandpa and Grandma Hanks. Whew. What a day.

Pictures of the flight are here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=121700&l=62419&id=570225360
Pictures of today with Megan and others here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=121704&l=0cc61&id=570225360

Um....

So... It's been a while since I've written anything on here - Yes, I've been lazy.
Mom and I went on a road trip yesterday to Hay River. It is an odd town, much larger than either of us had been expecting, but nonetheless, it had an air of being slowly dying... like it was hanging on to a much more glorious past, and wasn't quite keeping its grip. We drove around, and left...being 500km away from Yellowknife, we didn't have much time to hang around, even if we'd wanted to. We left home at about 8:00 in the morning, and didn't get back until after 8 that evening, all in all about 1000km driven. In fact, if had we just continued going south (from Hay River, and not come back to Yellowknife), it would only have been about another 500km to Edmonton. haha.
We say BISON! WHOOHOO. We'd driven around for about four hours a couple of weeks ago trying to see a single one, and this time we must have seen hundreds. They were everywhere! Beside the road, on the road, crossing the road, standing, sitting, laying down, running, walking... eating grass... basically being bison. Bison are amazingly interesting for about three minutes the first time you see them. The babies are good for about four. Then they are simply bison - things you have to slow down for when you approach a group of them on the highway, generally a bit of a nuissance. But, I have seen bison.
We drove through Enterprise, NT. If Hay River is hanging on to a glorious past, Enterprise is just sort of hanging around. The place consists of two gas stations, one called Winnie's, which isn't selling gas at the moment due to a disected gas pump, and another place called... well, something. They have three gas pumps (!), all of them working. All the other buildings are slowly disintegrating shells; it's kind of depressing. In any case, I was thrilled to be in a place called Enterprise. I've been to the Enterprise! :) And I have a picture to prove it...
We took the ferry across the Mackenzie River. I never thought I'd be traversing the Mackenzie River. It was another one of those things where the thought is much more romanic than the reality. For hundreds of years people have been using that river as a means of transportation to and from the north. Its connecting waterways go on for thousands of kilometers, and I've had the experience. Somehow sitting in your car on a ferry, watching the water gush up between the grating at the front of the boat, peering into the mirror to make sure the semi-trailer parked eerily behind you is staying in one place, is not really how I'd thought the experience would be - but it was awesome nonetheless.
Aside from the bison, we say tons of ducks, and a few Sand Hill Cranes, which were very cool, but they would always decide at the very moment I was trying to get a picture of them, to go for walks through the woods. I did manage to get a couple of nice pictures though.

To save me some hassle, and to allow me to make all of my pictures available to everyone, I'm going to post a link to where I've postyd my pictures on Facebook - they say the link can be viewed by anyone, even if you're not a member. Here it is:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=120614&l=bd82b&id=570225360
Please let me know if it doesn't work.

One Week

Well, I've been here at the mine for a full week now, and things are going well. My rotation is half way between the two IT people who work here; they are cross-shifts, meaning each one does the same job for the two weeks while the other is off - cross shifts may never actually meet each other! My shift means that I spend one week with one of them, and the second half of my rotation working for the other. They are very different people, but I think I'll be able to work well with both of them.

I was really starting to feel like I'm finding a place for myself here today. I had things to do, and had interactions with people on a sort of 'co-worker' level, not on a 'I'm new here and have absolutely no idea what's going on' kind of level - which was nice! I'm also getting to know some of the people we often have interactions with (administrators in other offices etc.), so that's been nice.My supervisors changed shifts today, and my new supervisor spent the last twenty minutes today going through all of our 'work tickets' - all of the computer problems that people have notified us of - and getting me to indicate which ones I can look after. That means that tomorrow I'm going to have lots to do, yay! It was starting to get to the point today where I was sort of wandering around the IT section wondering what to do sometimes.

I found out today that the environment department has to do regular monitoring of the number or caribou moving through this region, which they do by going for helicopter rides, and counting caribou - they are apparently recruiting summer students to go up with them to do this, so my boss was advised that someone was going to be coming to steal me for a good part of a day to go do that! I'm pretty excited about it!

To answer some questions from last time, my job is really just general IT. Any computer problems that people have they have to email off to a central place in Salt Lake City, and from there they get sent to us in the form of a service ticket. Then we (the IT department) go and fix the problem... So they've been teaching me how to create user accounts for the network, and just little things like that that can take a big load off them, so they can focus on the more complicated network issues. I'm also still spending quite a bit of time just following my supervisor/s around learning all I can about the setup, and how things work here.That's all for now, I don't really know what else to say!

If anyone has more questions, leave comments, or send emails etc. - I'll post things on here for all to see! :)

-Liam

At the mine

I'm just going to post a little something here for now, more details soon! I've been at the mine here at Lac de Gras since Tuesday, and things are going really well. I'm working in the IT Department, and I'm learning TONS. They have an enormous computer network here, and they're using technologies and systems I've only dreamed of (and some I haven't). I have a driving permit on site, so I was out with my boss today driving around a little bit, seeing some of the other office buildings they have - eventually I'll probably be going there sometimes on my own to look at computers etc. It's crazy to drive past trucks so big they can literally drive over your truck without noticing that there was anything there (I've talked to someone who's done it... they had set it all up... and it's completely true, the drivers of the big trucks don't notice a thing)!

Anyway, that's all for now; it's getting late. I don't have much time in the evenings for chatting/emailing/blogging, so I have to try to do a little bit of each every night! Thinking of everyone,

-Liam

Cameron Falls

Yesterday Mom and I went about 40Kms from Yellowknife along the Ingraham Trail to a beautiful waterfall, named Cameron Falls. It's about a 20 minutes hike in from the road, and the walk, and the falls are amazing. There was still some ice along the side of the falls, but it was mostly clear, and mom said there was way more water than when she had been there in September.

On the way out from the falls we came accross what we think to be a Ptarmagan who's coat is changing for the summer. It walked right up the path towards us, then wandered its way a few feet into the forest to get around us - we didn't seem to disturb it at all. I was able to get a few nice pictures on the way by.

Our final stop of the day was at the end of the road. Literally. We drove to where the Ingraham Trail goes straight into a lake - during the winter months the road continues as the 'Winter (or Ice) Road', during the summer, there is only a sign saying that the Winter Road is closed. Use at your own risk. haha.

In other news I am now officially a summer student employee of Diavik Diamond Mines Inc. - I'll be starting my first rotation on site on Tuesday (tomorrow!), and I'll be up there working 12 hour days until they fly me back here to Yellowknife on the 27th. It's nice to know that I'm finally going to be starting a job, and making some money this summer, but this also allows me to plan the rest of my summer a little. I know now that my last day is August 19th, so I'll be able to start looking for deals for flights home etc, and I'll be able to plan what I'm doing while I'm not working - I will have two weeks to kill every two weeks, for the rest of the summer! I've already starting working on one plan...more about that as things become more solidified.

Pictures follow:



The end of the raod. You can still see where the Winter Road ran across the lake.


Cameron River, after the falls.




Walking Bird.






Liam.


Cameron Falls.


Liam and Mom. Happy Mother's Day!

New Jobs, Dinner Out

Mom and I both found out yesterday that we have new jobs, both of them are with Diavik! Mom is now officially the Assistant to the President, and I have a student summer position with their IT department.

We decided to out for a nice dinner to celebrate, and we went to 'Le Frolic'. We had a wonderful appetizer of bread with grilled Brie cheese and onion marmalade, followed by (for me) a Pikeral dish served with various grilled veggies, and little bits of fresh fruit over the fish, and some sort of sauce, it was incredible! Mom had an interesting Fettucini dish. We each got a dessert; Peanut Butter cheese cake with chocolate and coffee sauces over it (mine), and mom ordered a trio of crème brulé. The entire meal was fantastic.

I had foolishly decided not to take the car, so we had to walk home... it was not an easy walk after a meal like that!

Another Sunset

A couple of evenings ago Mom and I got out to watch another sunset. We got up to Pilot's Monument just in time to see the sun dissapear behind the hill. I got some more nice pictures, and another picture of the progress of the ice melting on the Great Slave Lake. Pics Below:

Compuer Troubles

As seems to happen to me wherever i go, I have been spending a fair amount of time recently working on computers. This time it is my own. I discovered a few days ago that my computer appeared to be infected with a virus. After running several different scans and pursuing other options, I came to the conclusion that I had no choice but to re-install windows on my computer - something I have not yet done with my laptop.

I started, as is normal, by copying all of my data (files, pictures, music etc.) onto another hard drive I have with me for just such occaisons. I succesfully re-installed windows on my computer, but when I attempted to copy my data back onto it, I was not able to access the hard drive. In the time between when I copied the information, and was ready to copy it back, something happened to the hard drive! It was truly a worst-case scenario.

Fortunately I had made a copy of my most recent pictures onto another medium, so I haven't lost anything recent, and I have another backup of all my data from a couple of months ago back at Dad's house, so all in all I haven't lost much. I spent a good part of today trying to track down a device that I could buy that would allow me to attempt to get my information off the dead hard drive, but unfortunately I've been unable to locate such a device here in Yellowknife. I'm just going to have to wait until i get home to get most of my files back onto my computer.

One of the places I went looking for this device was Staples (thanks for the suggestion Dad!). I had met mom for lunch, we had some wonderful bagles at a café downtown (Javaroma: Keeping people awake since 1996!), and afterward I decided to walk around Frame Lake to see if I could find what I was looking for at Staples. It was a fairly long walk! And after not finding what I was looking for, I had to walk home empty handed. It was a nice walk though (about 2.02Km, one way).

On another note, I've had a strange craving for more fruit lately... not sure what to make of that one yet... but for some reason chocolate doesn't seem as appetizing as it used to be... very odd.

Hiking Frame Lake

I spent a couple of hours on Sudnay hiking around all of Frame Lake with Mom. We started on the half of the trail we had not yet tried, it's the half that doesn't really have a trail. There are posts in the ground, and you make your way (usually over rock) from one post to the next. The trail provides some amazing views of the lake and the city, but it is a long, tiring trip. We walked on rock, through snow, waded through a stream or two, climbed the side of cliffs, and finally ended the hike by walking back down the other side of the lake, which is all nicely paved. Whew. We barely made it back to the car.


Downtown Yellowknife as seen from the far side of Frame Lake.




The Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly Building, with downtown in the background.


The somewhat wonky boardwalk that made up part of the trail.

Ice Melting

Just another picture from yesterday showing the progress of the ice melting on the Great Slave Lake. It's not as noticable in these pictures, but when you get down close to the lakes, the ice is really starting to melt/sink etc. There's lots of water out there now!

Northern Lights

We finally got out last night (well actually really early this morning) so see the northern lights - and they didn't dissapoint! I was able to get some pictures, and they turned out, for the most part, far better than I had expected. In order to get these shots though, I had to leave the shutter open for a whole 15 seconds (good thing i got a tripod!), and they've all been brightened afterwards too.

We were out there at around 1:30-2:00 am, and in a couple of the pictures it is possible to see how light it remains, even this early in the year, all night long. Even though the sun sets, it stays fairly close to the horizon, and during the night it is possible to track its progress (due to the dawn-ish glow that remains all night) from the point where it set, to the point where it rises again in the morning. In the last picture you can see the unusally light night sky, the stars, and the northern lights, and this was really how the night was, you could look in one direction and see the pink glow from the sun, and in the other were the northern lights! How fantastic!!

I'm sorry for the horizon in these pictures, it was incredibly difficult to see how straight the camera was!

Frame Lake Photos

I took these pictures a couple of days ago. Yellowknife is build on the shores of the Great Slave Lake, but completely surrounds a smaller lake named "Frame Lake". They've build some really nice walking/biking paths all around this lake, and we've been making use of them from time to time. These pictures show some typical views from the trail. The pictures were taken between about 9:30 and 10:00 - it gives you an idea of how light it is here, even this early in the year!

Getting out to take these pictures is the most I've done in days... haha.

No Northern Lights Tonight

Well, we went out last night to try to get some pictures of the Northern Lights, at 11:00... the sky was still really light! I think I'm going to have to wait until I have insurance on mom's car, then I can go out at 2 or 3 in the morning to try to get some pictures of them. It's amazing how light the sky stays, even now!

I did get some really nice pictures of the downtown area, and of the evening sky from Pilot's Monument (My favorite picture taking spot). Pictures below:

Melting

I didn't do too much today. I woke up late, played guitar and listened to some music for while - I'm continuing to explore country a little, and I've actually created a playlist of some songs I really like. I still can't belive it.

I met Mom for lunch at about noon. We went to a cool restaurant called "Our Place" right in downtown Yellowknife. They make a fantastic cream of mushroom soup and a pretty good ceaser salad.

I noticed while I was walking to and from lunch that things are really melting here. It only got up to about 10 degrees, but there was a steady stream of water running down both sides of our little street, and the puddle behind the appartment was HUGE. There were about 4 inches of water... and there's no way around it. I had to walk through it a couple of time. It's weird though, because it always recedes during the night, and then by lunch time it's filled right up again. It's nice though, because it means the snow is leaving, and warmer weather is coming right away. It's really amazing how much it's warmed up here just since I arrived. It hasn't been anywhere near the -20 it was when I landed that first evening! And I'm very happy about that...

Watching the Sunset

We just went out this evening to watch the sunset from Pilot's Monument. The view was amazing, as you can see in the pictures below, and the light across the whole city was beautiful. I was able to test out the incredible zoom on my camera too, as evidenced by the shots of the birds, and the close ups of the sun. Very cool. See photos below.

Pictures - April 28th, 2008

Another shot showing the Great Slave melting. It was amazing because even compared to yesterday, the ice look softer, and it was easier to see that there is in fact water beneath all that ice!

Close-up of a seagull. Mom said this is the first time she's seen them here, so they may have just returned from more southerly places.

Me and Mommy!

Mommey and Me!