Station Closing

Hello Friends!
So with the departure of the last plane not too long ago things have been super busy down here while we prepare the station for the winter. Most of us put many of our normal duties on hold while we worked on closing down "summer camp" (where I used to live), digging up the fuel lines and closing down the fuel pits, and putting out flag lines from the main station to some of the outer buildings. With the departure of all those summer people there came a lot of laundry! Our doctor, Ella, spent the better part of 3 days just doing load after load of laundry. I spent a lot of time working outside digging up the fuel lines, and boy was that hard work! Every hose line had to be dug up (some were deeper than others), and as many of them still had fuel in them they also had to be drained. I mean, i know i did a lot of shoveling as a kid but never in weather this cold before! One of my friends down here said something while we were working that i really thought held true. He said "I am so sick of being freezing cold and sweating so much at the same time!". You are working so hard that your body gets warm and sweats, but its so cold out that you are also super cold at the same time! But with that said, I continue to be amazed with how warm my ECW (extreme cold weather gear) keeps me. Usually its only my hands and sometimes toes that get cold, but that problem is solved by putting hand and toe warmers into my mittens and boots! In order to save as much fuel as possible any building that can "go cold" during the winter months is shut down. This included all of the summer camp jamesways, and most of the other buildings around station. Its basically just the main station, and the science facilities like the telescope, ice cube laboratory, and the NOAA clean air facility that remain open. There are a few other shacks we keep warm for people who work outside to retreat into and warm up, but other than that everything goes cold! So because many of the buildings that do stay open are a bit of a walk from the station flag lines are put out to keep you from getting lost when the weather is crappy and its dark out.

During the winter every person here on station is a member of the emergency response teams. There are 4 teams: 1st responders, Logistics, Fire, and Trauma. We have drills every month to practice different situations and working together as teams. Over the summer i was a member of the trauma team, so I am remaining on this team for the winter. However, I am also the "medical comms" person, which means in the event of an emergency i am on the radio in the clinic relaying information about any victims back to the doctor so she can prep for when they are moved from the scene to the clinic.

I am looking forward for the sunset to begin (it will take weeks for the sun to drop completely below the horizon), and to continuing my antarctic adventure. I will try to be better about updating this blog, and posting more pictures of the station and my life here!