Some Photos

I have been taking the odd photo here and there over the last few weeks. I have been meaning to post them here, but have not really got around to it. Here are a few from the road in British Columbia and Alberta. I have a hope of one day been able to capture all the animals that I am lucky enough to see on camera. But so far I have not got great photos of any really. Sure, I like my Coyote photo (see previous entry) and I like some of these, but they are in fact nothing fantastic. The reasons are varied, but minimal come down to the camera and time. I have a little Canon A80 which is a great little point and shoot camera but gets streched a bit when it comes to big landscapes and wildlife. There is no way around the fact that animals need really big lenses on good cameras and we have not the money or reason to throw that sort of cash around (as much as I would love to). Add to this the fact that I don't take real time over the shots and there is nothing great yet. By real time I mean waiting for good light, spending time just watching animals and trying to make an approach. I simply pull the truck over to the side of the road and shoot. Hence the average results. Still, here are a couple shots


This first one is taken on the Alaska highway heading over to toad river. Its a beautiful river valley leading into the Rockies.

Just outside Toad river there is a wonderful river, with glacier blue tinged water. That's the truck on the left. I think this is one of my best shots to date.
Did I mention that I just stop on the road and shoot. Sometimes that's easy as the animals just don't move. Take these Caribou (or reindeer) Tried to get arty and shoot into the light.

Took this at the end of last week in the middle of nowhere. A couple of bison in the snow. There was a herd of about 20 just walking next to the road. Untroubled by me in the truck.

Sponsered!

We finally got around to doing something today that we have been talking about for a while. Today we sponsered a child through World Vision. We have both been talking about doing it for a while, but like too many things in life, we talked a lot and did nothing.
Last night I was in High Level after a long days driving and we were talking on MSN. So at last we just did it and found out everything. Then this morning we let the computer choose a little girl from Kenya and finally made our contribution. Its a good thing to do and you do feel a little better about yourself after doing it. Anyone out there thinking of doing it, don't just think about it, but do it!

Yesterday was a tough day actually with a 450km drive home and then straight back on the road for another 2.5 hours to another site. It was snowing and pelting freezing rain and the roads were not in the best shape. Most of the second trip was on dirt road, which got very slippery in places. Thank goodness for good winter tires, but I still had a few heart in my throat moments. I even resorted to 4x4 mode in the truck, something I try not to do . Going into 4x4 mode is like admitting you are a crap driver and can't handle the conditions. Enough said, but at least I got there and back safe and sound without putting any dents into the truck.

The pleasant South African winter like weather has broken and the mercury is diving for the floor again. -10 outside now. Funnily enough Wen-shu and I both feel quiet fine at -10 now and are waiting for something colder. There is a bit of snow around too, but not enough to really cover everything. Enough for Wen-shu to be digging the car out in the morning though, poor little thing!

Howling of Wolves

Finally I have heard the true sound of the north. This morning I was driving north on the Alaska highway, heading out to a pickup at 8 in the morning. It was around 6, and I was exhausted from not enough sleep, so for the first time in my driving career, pulled off for 30 minutes sleep. I choose to stop next to a river, miles from any town. I got out to have a stretch and in the early morning silence heard a couple of wolves howling in across the river. A truely beautiful sound. I got back in the vehicle and went to sleep, well pleased with this moment.

I awoke a little later and was fine to do the pickup and drive home. 640km today and feeling a little tired. Took the shot above on the way back, of the Peace River which is the river that dominates this part of the world.

Also took the one tonne challenge. I included the truck in the survey and discovered I account for a massive 44 tonnes of pollution per year. Without the truck I reach the national average of 5.5 tonnes. Can we reduce this much? Not that easily. Wen-shu and I are pretty good in terms of reducing a lot of the charactristics already. Mainly due to cost actually, but certain we feel good about doing the right thing too. In fact we get penalised for some things that we in fact do well on. For example I don't use ethanol fuels as in reality they don't decrease emissions as they are much less efficient. So the car might produce less emission burning a litre of fuel, but it needs more fuel to cover a set distance, negating this effect. I actually use some acetone in the fuel on occasion and this improves my consumption by around 10%, but only on non ethonal diluted fuels.
I'm thinking of trying acetone in the truck to get better consumption there too. 10% would be good as it is a guzzler.

The Autumn that would not die

Earlier I wrote about the impending winter and the bleak landscape. That was a month ago, and yet now a month later the winter still has not come. We had a week of winter, complete with snow, ice and -15 degrees. But strangely it did not last, and today was 12 degrees again. Amazing. This autumn is breaking all the records for the warmest temperatures recorded for this time of year. Global warming is truly here, in the sort of climate altering temperature changes that will seriously stress the planet. And yet the government of the little third world excuse of a country to the south (the USA) still won't admit to it or reduce their world leading emissions.

Wanna Park this in Taipei???

Today I was listening to the CEO of GM (who are busy going out of business) complaining that Japan should not be allowed to import the number of cars into North America that they do, and that GM should be allowed to send more cars to Japan and Korea. As if the problem with their company could be blamed on factors beyond their control. Bullshit, they make crap cars. I drive one, and I really like it to be honest, but as good as it might be, you cannot sell it in Asia. If you have spent more that an hour in any Asian city you will realize that a 6.6l engine and massive frame is impossible to navigate around a city with. So the main product line of the GM company, big SUV's and trucks, will simply not sell in the Asian markets. And their small cars are unreliable and inefficient on fuel, with dodgy build quality. Compared to the average Japanese car, reliable, fuel efficient and well finished, there is no grounds to sell a single one in the orient. It's not that the East does not like foreign cars. German cars are common and indeed desirable in the far east. They just don't like crap there, like everyone else. Even most North American's are catching on and buying real cars, like European ones and Asian ones. Make a worthwhile, environmentally responsible, reliable and cheap car and you might recover GM, but stop whinging. America likes to think they invented the capitalistic society, or at least perfected it, then whines when their crap doesn't rule the world. Grow up or go home! And use a foreign car to get there, or you might break down on the way................

If you feel like I do about American cars (and hummers in particular) try this site on for size.

The sweet smell of Pasta

As you all know Wen-Shu, my wife, is a great cook. But the other day she outdid herself. I came home to the smell of garlic and herb and sat down to a dinner of pasta. They pasta was simply amazing, some of the best I've ever had. Turns out she made it with the pasta making machine we have. She added herbs and garlic to the mix of dough and produced simply amazing pasta. Because the seasoning is in the dough, she didn't even need to add a sauce. Delicious!

Pee on your headlight

So the other night I had just finished an install. I got in my truck and started to drive out of the floodlit site. As i got onto the road out, I noticed I couldn't see much. In fact I thought my headlights had not come on (they are automatic!) So I turned them on manually. Nothing. Hence I got out the truck and had a look.

Turns out that a day of driving on wet snowy roads had plastered the whole front thick with dirt. Totally. The dirt didn't simply wipe away either, which left me with a little problem. I needed to wash my headlights, but I had very little water and it was -10. The solution?
Simple, piss on them. Cleaned them up enough to drive with and got me safely to the hotel. Next morning while cleaning the windows at a petrol station I also wiped off the lights.

Well, another week of long drives and cold installs. Three installs of dishes this week and 2000km has be interesting and tough. The best part has definately been the drive. Above is a picture of a coyote taken on the side of the Alaskan highway. Most of the time you get to see these little wonders trotting away from the highway as you approach. For the first time this one simply stayed at the side of the highway a I drew level and took out the camera. With almost no traffic on this section of the highway I got to spend a couple minutes with this beautiful animal before he finally headed back to the security of the forest.

I also got to see my first wolves of the north, but sadly they were not in the same shape as this coyote. Both were frozen stiff and lightly covered with snow, having been shot close to the location I was installing a dish.

Thursday might have been my worst day in a long time. After digging half built dishes out the snow, dismantling them and packing them into the truck, i drove 100km past the sight of my 2nd install and then had issue after issue getting the system running. Finally I got everything up and running around midnight and started back to Grande Prairie. I got in at 4:30 and to finish the day had Chili (our car) break down in the middle of the parking lot. I had to get Wen-Shu out of bed at 5 in the morning to help me push Chili out of the way before finally heading off to bed.

Great chinese cooking

As mentioned earlier in this blog, I actually miss some chinese food. Fortunately Wen-shu, my loving and super wife has been on a true chinese cooking mission of late. The beef noodles have been amazing and I never thought I would be happy to come home chinese, but have been more than happy to tuck into the recent chinese food. Again, check her blog for more pictures of the food, but man, it rock!

Thanks for the food honey.

Oh yeah, she acutally made bagels the other day. Bagels!!!!!

The Weekend of the Chair

We've just started out setting up our home here in Grande Prairie and there are a ton of things that we need to get done. Getting things to sit in, sleep on, put stuff in and entertain ourselves and our cats has been one of our prime focuses. Luckily the few people that we know here have been good enough to help us out with bits and pieces that they don't need. Fred, my boss, had a couple chairs lying around which he could spare, so handed them to us.

Lacking in furniture as we are we decided to paint the chairs and get them into the living room. So Wen-shu and I headed off to the local walmart to buy some cheap fabric and spray paint. Around $10 later thought we were ready to go. So off to the basement (its -10 outside folks) to spray the chairs. Well, that didn't work so well and three quarters of a chair later we were both headache ridden from the fumes. Butter, our weird cat seemed to linger in the basement, taking hit after hit of the airbourne narcotics. Anyway, we gave up on the spray paint and went to the local totem to get some real paint. After a few coats of this and some hard work with a staple gun and the fabric we have transformed one chair. The first one is always the hardest, so it should get easier from now on in.
In case you are wondering why there is chinese writing all over the chair, I stole the picture from my loving wife's blog. She has all sorts of cool stuff about our place on there, so if you really want to know more about our day to day life here, thats were to look. And although it is all in chinese, the pictures are cool. Its fun to guess what she is writing about anyway.

Dishes and stuff

So this is what I do, I install satellite internet "simply anywhere". A lot of our work is with the oil and gas industries that need modern communication technology in the most remote places. This rig is from the Zama oilfields, in northern Alberta. And I do mean northern. Its only a couple hours drive from the border with North West Territories, which is the 60th parrallel. The shot above is of our dish, with a service rig in the background. Its only 6:30ish at night and not much less than -2, which is mild and easy conditions compared to the winter that lies ahead. Right now it is -8 outside here in Grande Prairie and a layer of ice coats everything outside. The roads are getting a bit slippery and the drive out to the above site was a little hairy at times. I do have a good truck mind you, with the best winter tires we can get, but there are some driving skills I need to polish a bit.