Heading Home....I hope!

Heading out of Churchill, unfortunately delayed so we're having to spend a night in Winnipeg and hoping to get out of there tomorrow, though that is still to be determined! It's been a whirlwind few days, but very informative and a good taster of what I can bring the students to hopefully next year. 

Quadrat!  

Getting ready to get wet! That white bump above Phoebe's head - it's a beluga! 

Getting in at Cape Merry. 

Our faithful bear watchers! 

Thirsty work all this snorkeling. 

A beautiful sunset over the center. 

The Miss Piggy plane crash from the 50's. It is called Miss Piggy because it carried all the sweets and good stuff  to Churchill. 

Inukchuk. 

Signs up all over town. 

The closest we got to a Polar Bear! 

Belugas! 

Belugas! 

More Belugas! 

Even more! 

And More! 

The eskimo museum - very cool! 

And a storm for the last day in Churchill! 

In the arctic

Made it to Churchill yesterday and today has been a full day. Phoebe and I are only here for 5 days to check out the research station and find sites for an educational program next year. Today it was checking out sites, tomorrow it'll be getting in the water! 

Science and guns. What could go wrong?

Looking out to Hudson Bay

The wreck of the Ithaca! 

Tundra plants - so beautiful. 

Phoebe, excited about science! 

Sled dogs! 

The Churchill Northern Studies Center

More beautiful tundra plants. 

The white bumps are beluga whales! And there's ice bergs in the distance! 

More Beluga whales!

Looking out over the estuary. 

Snow geese!

Let the science begin! 

Excitement of the evening - a flat tire 15km from home, with no tools, no communication and in the middle of polar bear alley. Fun fun fun. it's was a SLOW drive home! 

The latest in my collection of outhouses of the world - in the middle of Polar Bear alley! 

House project #1!

The week it was a holiday - July 4th, so I took the 4th and 5th off to get started on a first house project - building a kennel in the basement! Brandon came over and helped me out. We managed to get Phase 1 finished (inside area) and eventually we'll put up and outside area and connect the two with a doggy door. Barkley is still apt to head for glass windows when distressed, so this safe area for her is going to be a plus if I need to go shopping for an hour or two this summer when it's too hot to leave her in the car. It's quiet, dark and cool down there, and i'll get her a nice comfy bed and toys for it, so i'm hoping  she'll come to like her little area. It also doubles as a spot for Brandon to leave his two dogs when he visits, as they usually sleep in a small kennel in his garage, so a home away from home for them. 

The bonus too is that we decided to just frame out a room the traditional way and line it with chicken wire instead of drywall - so if I ever want to change it, I can drywall it and it'll be an awesome pantry (in fact, I think I want another room walled off to be a pantry!). 

Brandon putting up the first wall! 

Barkley checking out her new area and giving it the paw of approval! That's the crate she was shipped over from Hawaii in. We moved that, it won't be in there to remind her of that, it was just a handy table for the day! 

The finished Phase 1! You can just about see the chicken wire. Now just to decorate! 

I own a home!

I own a home. Once more for effect. I own a home. Not only do I own a home, but I own one in (in my opinion) one of the most beautiful spots on the planet. The closing went smoothly, because it was hot outside my agent asked me to bring Barkley in rather than leave her in the car (again, I love maine!). Barkley spent almost the entire closing with her head firmly planted in the closing managers lap getting cuddles (and the lady was thrilled to have her there). So I think maybe I should change my statement - Barkley and I now own a home!

A huge sigh of relief and feeling like life is both moving forward and has finally settled.

Update!

Life has been hectic, and great, all at the same time. So many exciting things coming up. Here's the breakdown -

- Last friday we went out to Monhegan and did the first major dives of the technical course. It went great, hard, but great. I definitely learnt a lot, and gained quite a few more bruises from all the extra equipment you have to wear.

- Miss Barkley has had her summer "do"! Such a cutie pie. They did leave a pom pom on the tail again though. Folks are trying to convince me to keep it. I think it may go away this weekend.

- Friday, at 5.30pm I head to Halowell to sign my life away for the next 30 years and FINALLY buy the house! I'm excited, and relieved, i'm just ready to stop the flow of paperwork! And it means the neon pink bathroom can go bye bye!

- I'm gearing up for several trips - in 1.5 weeks i head to the Arctic with Phoebe, to check out the Churchill Northern Studies Center in preparation for bringing students up there next year. We're only there for 5 days, and it'll be busy, but....we're going to see Belugas! Maybe even Baby Belugas. In the Deep Blue Sea....:0)

- Then it's off to Chile in mid August. That trip will be hectic but fun too. And what's really cool is i've been asked to guest blog on the National Geographic News website, so our expedition will appear there. It'll just be a couple of posts over the whole 2 weeks we're away, but still, pretty cool!

And that's about the scoop for now. I'm excited to get friday out of the way, and sleep for the first time in my own home. Feeling like i'm moving forward. Now just to get a job past the end of next year....:)

Barkley Bear

Barkley Bare!

The guardian.

There's only one dog I would trust in guarding the ice-cream maker, and that is Miss Barkley. There is no way anyone will get into the ice-cream without her being right there. I know my ice-cream is safe in her hands.....

Weekend.

Another weekend, and another good one. Kicked off on Friday was some good friends coming over for a BBQ to celebrate one year of Barkley being a Maine dog! She's such a huge part of my life now, that it's hard to remember it was just one year ago that I drove to Boston to pick her up from the airport, after a long journey from Hawaii. So we declared friday Barkley Day! 

Saturday saw putting up a washing line (yeah! I don't have a drier, so it's excited to get clothes outside to dry rather than squeezed on a rack inside), building veggie boxes and enjoying the sunshine by having lunch and dinner on my deck. Today it's been filling the veggie boxes with soil and planting (tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, peas, basil, two types of lettuce, chard and kale), a nice 2 mile hike to coveside with Barkley, washing washing and more washing (i'm just about caught up....just) and general house stuff. Even managed to fit a short nap in there too....:0)

What a great weekend - the weather has even been glorious (70F days, 50F nights), and the forecast is definitely "summer" for the rest of the week. Hope you all had a great weekend too! 

Barkley on the Coveside trail. 

My new veggie boxes and washing line in the background. 

Most of my garden only gets sunlight for a few hours a day (there's so many tall tall trees). So ever the scientist I remembered I had some underwater light meters in my office, and decided to put them in the boxes and around the graden to see when, and how much, light each location gets. Really I should have done this before I put the boxes down, but oh well! I planted mostly shade veggies anyway, but I do have a row of tomatoes and cucumbers that I would so love to grow! 

A weekend in the woods!

A birthday weekend in the woods of Baxter State Park. Quiet, calm, friends, food, outdoors. Couldn't have imagined a better birthday! 

Kathy cooking up some breakfast bacon on the deck of our cabin at Kidney Pond. 

Our deck, looking out to the other cabins. 

Rod preps the kayaks for a day of kayaking on saturday! 

Kayaks away - with the camping cabins in the background! 

Mt Katahdin in the distance - the end of the Appalacian Trail! 

Rod and Kathy show how it's done - with Barren Mountain in the background! 

A loon on her nest. So many loon calls - so beautiful and serene!  

A drive by Slide Falls - the benchmark. Love finding these in the woods! 

Slide Falls. 

The view over Kidney Pond at sunset. Now add in loon calls and you'll get the full picture! 

Add caption

Back from DC and have dived right back into work......literally. It's Open Water scuba week and i've been helping Chris with the undergraduates in my new found position of Dive Master. It's been 11pm + nights and 6am mornings, and looks to be the same all week......until friday....which brings a cabin in the woods of Baxter State Park for the weekend.......where no phone, no email, no nothing but moose will find me....I hope. That's if we make it through the week. The weather has been wet, really wet. Which translates into 3ft visibility below the water. Which translates into loosing all 6 of your students within seconds of descending........

DC

Fun few days hanging out in DC with the DDdd's! 

Dahlia, Diane and Davin take a pit stop at the zoo yesterday. 

We tried for a group shot.....but Davin was not having any of that....

Dahlia and I are such angels.....

Today I had an afternoon to myself around DC. First stop the National Geographic Society!

So very cool. I had a hard time getting the Nat Geo theme song out of my head all day though.....

Since i'm now a legal alien, I decided to pop by the White House to say thank you to Obama. 

.....and then the rains came down, which made for a perfect excuse to hang out at Smithsonian museums at the mall. I made it through the Natural History Museum, the Air and Space Museum and then took a quick look around the castle before heading back to NIH to meet Diane and pick up the kids.