12/27/2005

WELCOME TO MY E-MAIL PAGE.

This is where I will post my "Hello All" e-mails and other significant e-mails that I felt are significant or humorous (that are shareable of course) in chronological order.

I'm sure you'll say by the end of the page (if you manage to get that far) "This was a waste of time", but I hope you find some humor or something interesting in there to make it worth while.

NOTE: Letters to Dad and Barley are e-mails between Barley and me (DUH!). I've included them because I felt they were humorous and because Barley is my favorite buddy, even though his sense of humor is a bit skewed from mine.

October 4, 2006

Hey Everybody,

My penguin timer tells me that there are 29 days left before I am freed from the icy grips of the South Pole, and only 16 days until we see our first flight to arrive bringing much desired fresh fruit and all kinds of unwanted guests to our private home on the ice.

Even though we are almost done, a few of us started getting restless and wanted to start knocking that little old ball around the course. Well, we are not ones to wait for trivial things like warm weather, green grass, etc. to play golf. Instead, we decided to put in our own 9 hole course and play last weekend. This was complete with tee boxes, course map, score cards, and greens. We decided to eliminate the course marshals and that we didn’t need to be concerned with replacing divots. I think we forgot to hire a drink cart girl though, because I never saw her the whole round. Even though it is spring time here, we felt we could adapt winter rules for our play. After all, it was 80 below zero here.

I have finally added new content to my web page (photos of the golf tournament), which can be seen here http://www.gregsfrontporch.com/South%20Pole%20Invitational/index.html

Be sure to take a look.

If I get enough harassment, I could be motivated to add photos of the ice tunnels where I worked for three miserable weeks last month (thanks Master Dave Bates).

In the mean time, I’m going to continue dreaming of lying on the beach with a cool tropical drink and lots of scantily clad bathing beauties.

See ya soon,

Greg

July 10, 2006

The Lunacy Never Ends

As of today, one more crazy act is behind me.

The temperature finally dropped below -100 F today. The official time was 0502 7/10/06 when it hit -100 and has been there all day.

Of course, as soon as it hit -100, folks started heading down to the sauna for the 300 club. That is, sitting in the sauna till it reaches +200, then running naked outside and once around the pole.

I just got my initiation a few minutes ago. The temperature was -102.3 with a wind-chill of -145, the physio elevation was 11,080 feet.

People have been running naked down the hall and outside all day, some of them going two or three times. For me, once was enough. The cold wasn’t a big deal. When you sit in the sauna to 200 your body stores a lot of heat. For me the big problem was freezing my lungs. I think I did a pretty good number on them today. As I said, the physiological altitude is currently 11,080, which means that in order to get any oxygen in your lungs you have to breathe pretty hard. Silly me, instead of walking like everyone else, I trotted out there, and now I seem to be paying the price.

Oh Well. Where else, but the South Pole?

June 21, 2006

Hello All,

Happy Solstice! To most of you it is a summer solstice. I would gamble that a majority of you have never received a solstice greeting before. Until now, neither have I. Let me assure you, from my perspective the solstice is pretty significant! It is a winter solstice here. This means the sun is on its way back in my direction to soon rise in the north and your days will start getting shorter! I sure do miss those evenings sitting in the backyard with a fire and my dog and it is just starting to get dark at 8:30/9:00. I suppose I will see those days again soon enough.

It has been a while since I have sent out a “Hello All”. The reason for that is there really isn’t much to say. It is dark. It is cold, and everyday is the same. We work 9 hours a day, 6 days a week. I see the same people everyday, eat in the same place and am confined to a small piece of ice.

I have watched enough movies to last a life time, and have taken up reading Louis L’amore. I can get one or two Louis L’s down a day. You know the feeling when you go to Blockbuster and just stare at the shelves because there isn’t anything new or interesting to watch? Imagine what that stare becomes when you look at our movie shelves. We have a pretty good collection considering the resources, but by now it is really getting old. Tonight, I think I am watching “The Sound of Music”. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before.

If you’ve gotten this far in my letter you may be getting the hint that this is going to be a letter of gloom and pity. I promise not to fill it full of melancholic news, but I think it is important to share my experience of this winter’s social experiment. To be sure, my attitude is going down hill. For those of you that know me, know that I don’t have the brightest of personalities to begin with, so you can imagine what it is like being around me by this time of year. I’m not quite as gruff as say, Sam Elliot’s character in “We Were Soldiers” (for those of you who haven’t seen it, he was a damn scary character), but you wouldn’t expect to hear a cheery “good morning” from me for a few months yet.

It is an interesting place here in many ways. I have seen the summer activity here. There are many people that have spent numerous summer seasons without staying a winter. To them, I say they have not experienced the South Pole in full. In the summer, the station is full of activity. There are lots of people coming through the station. The sun is shining 24 and 7. Everything is bright and white. I remember seeing my first sundog in December. I was excited for several days following that experience.

I got to fly back to McMurdo for R&R in January. That was a beautiful trip. I would say that flying over the Transantarctic range is more exciting than flying over the Rockies, especially when you have spent 3 months isolated in the flatness of the south pole. In late February we saw our last plane leave. We looked around us and saw the only 63 other faces that we would see for the next 8 months. This was a time of excitement. The sun was still up, we had seen everyone leave, and it was a relief. We were all glad to settle into our winter home. The sun began to set, and seemeds to take weeks to go down. Everyday the sun got lower on the horizon there was a new scene to see outside. After it had set the sunlight was still visible over the horizon for many days, even weeks. Once the sunlight had gone completely it became very dark here, and has been for a couple of months.

There are those here that were glad to see the sun go. They refered to it as “The Death Star”. I think that was just their way of saying “I’m tough and ready, bring on the winter”. I was certainly interested in seeing a polar night, but I don’t think I could totally dismiss the pleasure of sunlight with such enthusiasm.

Now that the sun is gone, the night is upon us. The stars shine in the sky when the sky is clear. The auroras light up the sky. They are incredible to see, but they are not always active. You have to catch them at the right time. Sometimes they are brilliant with green, red and blue lights dancing like clouds on a very windy day. They are not clouds though and there is no wind blowing them around. Other times they are simply green ribbons going across the sky. Seeing the sights I have in the sky down here have been worth the trip itself.

The moon just seems to appear in the sky at times. I have been outside when it is pitch black out, then the next day everything is lit up with moonlight as the moon is sitting high in the sky. It is surprising how quickly it can pop up. When the moon shines, this is a whole different place. There are incredible shadows from the buildings and the sastrugi. Sastrugi is the name for the formations made by the blowing snow. They are kind of like miniature sand stone formations. Do a Google search on Sastrugi, you’ll certainly find a lot of pictures. The snow forms a hard crust that makes a loud sound when you walk on it. It is really hard to describe this sound. You will just have to visit the continent in the winter to experience that for yourself.

So far, the temperatures have not gotten much colder than those I had experienced in early/late summer. There were a couple of days that have gotten in the 90’s and several in the 80’s, but it seems we have had many days in the 60’s this season. I have even seen it get into the 30’s once this winter. The reason for the warm temperatures is that there has been a steady wind blowing most of the time. It’s never been more than about 20 something knots, usually about 10 knots or so, but this has been enough to keep it warm. We have not see a minus 100 yet, so we have yet to have a 300 club. The 300 club involves sitting in the sauna to a temperature of +200 while it is -100 outside, then running outside without clothes for a quick trip around the pole. Yes, I will do it too!

As I said earlier, we are now into the social experiment phase of the season. This is the time of the season where we all begin looking for and pushing the buttons of our co-workers. The result we are looking for is what we call “watching the monkey dance”. If you push the right buttons, you will get a reaction and the monkey will dance for you. We are all doing it. I asked Liesl our station manager the other day how she is able to rise above it and not play the organ grinder. Her reply was that there was enough of it going on that all she has to do is sit back and watch the show. This place is like high school all over again.

What is going on is that we are all bored and there is nothing better to do than stick your neighbor with a pin (figuratively) to see them jump. Of course there are some here who are better at pushing buttons than others. There are also those that are better at hiding their buttons (though we all have them). Me I am afraid to say, seem to wear my buttons right down the front of my shirt. I just maintain a gruff enough attitude that only the biggest and worst of the organ grinders try to get to them. The down side is that I get the biggest and the worst of them to play my song. Boy you should see me dance!

I think of home quite a bit. I miss the sound of rain, or a car passing down the street. The sound of children playing. I miss my dog, and jumping on the truck on the way to a fire call. I think a lot about the landscape back home. I look forward to seeing the desert mesas and arroyos of New Mexico as well as the Front Range of the Rockies. I look forward to eating good New Mexican food and sipping margaritas in Northern Mexico. I miss all of my friends, a frequent round of golf, and having a cigar with a Guinness in the bar on Sundays. These things all seem so remote from where I am now. Maybe they seem that way because they are.

My penguin timer tells me that I still have more than four months before I will see the next airplane. It will then be several months beyond that before I will get to enjoy the many comforts of home. I expect to go around the world on a diving trip. I hope to visit Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Eqypt, Jordan, Brazil, Costa Rica, perhaps Cuba and Mexico before returning home. I wonder if anyone will recognize me by the time I return?

I know this letter has gone on much too long. Good thing I didn’t have much to say. I ask that you bear with me a few moments longer and enjoy the following words by my buddy Jeff De Rosa. I felt impelled to share his words with you as he has a great way of saying things. Jeff wrote this for his blog www.jeffderosa.blogspot.com He has a lot of good stuff on his blog about the pole, however I caution you that you may see more of us than you care to if you look at his page!

So with this, I wish you all a “Happy Solstice”. Please check out my web page at www.gregsfrontporch.com and go to the MID-WINTER link or click on this link http://www.gregsfrontporch.com/Mid%20Winter/mid-winter.htm and see the mid winter greetings shared by the Antarctic stations this year. There are lots of them there to see. It is almost like posting holiday cards on the mantle. This time of year has taken on so much more meaning than I originally thought after reading them all.

I miss you all very much,

Greg

Winter is tough, no doubt, but it is that element of struggle that makes it so special… so rewarding… so unique. Anyone can come down here and spend a month or two during the summer-time but the same is not true for the winter months. It takes incredible resilience to endure the trial of a South Pole Winter.

For those not allergic, a single bee sting is no big deal. But what if there is more than one bee? We all understand the difference between a few bees and a swarm. People who winter-over at the South Pole are forced to deal with a swarm of little challenges, none of which are a big deal on their own. But that’s how they sneak up on you, because stressors that would seemingly pose little threat have brought friends and that gang really, REALLY wants to kick your ass!

So without further ado, I bring to you the members of the South Pole Gang:

COLD: It’s unanimous. Cold is the leader of this gang and he (yes, cold is a “he.” Don’t argue, just accept it) is the one member of this clan that can take you out all by himself. We do our best to battle cold with government issued weapons of mass destruction including generators, solid walls, gloves, parkas, bunny boots, heat packs, etc… but still, Cold manages to do a number on our own gang of 64, basically making it unbearable to go outside for too long. You’ve all seen George’s ear, and I now have a big bubbly blister on the bridge of my nose because of Cold. Curse you cold. CURSE YOU!

DARK: By shear brute force, Cold was made leader of the gang but everyone knows that Dark is what nurtures the entire clan. What Cold does to us physically… that’s what Dark does to us mentally. Dark penetrates even our best defenses. We fight her off with artificial light, but dark knows that artificial light can’t substitute the benefits of good old fashioned sunlight. Dark fights us mentally. She alters our sleep cycles, creates chemical changes in our bodies, and turns all of our skin butt-white. Yeah… Me and Dark are gonna have some words with one another real soon…

DRYNESS: Dryness fights you from the inside and out. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Dark leaves us pale and miserable, dryness creeps in and turns that pale skin red with irritation as empty lotion bottles litter the station. Internally, dryness makes you thirsty… all the time. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Drink and pee drink and pee drink and pee drink and pee drink and pee drink and pee drink and pee drink and pee drink and pee drink and pee drink and pee… I believe I’ve already taken four or five years off of my bladder.

ELEVATION: Elevation makes the event of crawling out of bed a cardiovascular workout. Perhaps this is why I lost thirty pounds during my first three months here? BOOO ELEVATION!

LANDSCAPE: Flat and White… it’s like spending a winter in North Dakota without the luxurious option of going to Fargo to get piss drunk before passing out on the linoleum floor of your buddy’s bathroom. Wait… what???

TIME: Cold is the kingpin here, but I am of the persuasion that Time is actually running things behind Cold’s back… sort of like what Tony Soprano is to Junior Soprano in Season One (which I just watched this past week because what else am I to do?). Without time, none of these other gang members affect us in any way. Time however… man, that’s a daunting calendar. My Penguin Timer tells me that I leave inexactly five months to the day. I wonder if I will be clinically insane by then, or only by the standards of those who currently love me but will change their minds as soon as I come home all hairy drooling over myself while flinging that drool across the room with my disconcerting twitch.

ISOLATION: No Fruit. No Mail. No option for vacation. No option to leave even if my over-used bladder decided to fall out of my ass (hopefully that doesn’t happen), no car, no where to drive a car even if I had one, no radio, no live sports, no trips downtown or to the beach or to the woods or… anywhere except for ¼ of a mile away from station where Cold will track you down and beat you to death if you stay in his neighborhood for too long, No shopping… for that matter… no doing anything for yourself… cooking, bathing (not that someone bathes us… but we really don’t bathe here), thinking… no trips to the movies or the restaurant before the movies, no… I’ll stop because I’m whining.

WEATHER: Clear and cold. Clear and cold. Clear and cold. Clear and cold. Windy. Blowing snow. Clear and cold. Clear and cold.

OUR OWN GANG: I’ve been looking at the same 63 faces since… for a long… long time. All good people… but damn.OK, whatever. I’ve spent far too much time writing this when I should be putting my energy into something else like… staring across the room at the wall on the far end with my mouth agape.

Jeff De Rosa

www.jeffderosa.blogspot.com

4/23/06

Today is Sunday the 23rd. my taxes have been paid and as of last Friday, the 21st it is six months till we will see the first plane arrive with the new summer crew. I have now been here for six months. Its all down hill from here.

It is pretty dark outside now. There is still a sliver of sunlight visible that circles around the horizon. The past few days we have had very strong winds with lots of blowing slow, making visibility outside very poor. It sure is weird walking outside when you can't see more than 20 feet in front of you. Even though it is a place you know like the back of your hand, everything changes when there is lots of blowing snow and its dark outside.

The winds subsided yesterday and the skies cleared opening up the skies for the most spectacular light show I have ever seen. I got to see my first aurora yesterday. It was incredible. The sky was lit up with green and red lights dancing around in the sky. There were large curtains and rivers of light waving all around. I have been looking forward to seeing this display, but I never imagined it would be this spectacular. I saw a show yesterday that very few people have ever witnessed. It was a real experience. I was lucky enough to have my camera with me and I believe I caught some great shots. These are up on my web page, as well as the long promised set of sunset photos. The aurora photos on my web page are compressed photos and seemed to have some defects. if anyone would like to see the full sized photo, send me an email. I will be happy to send you a copy. The full sized photos are much better. They are about 3 megabytes each.

That's what I have for today.

Please stop by www.gregsfrontporch.com to have a peek at my latest photos,

Greg

4/20/06

Dad,

I got my first rabbit today, I tumbled several times in the chase but I nabbed the little guy. Of course Grammy started to yell at me as I came around the corner with him in my mouth. So I dropped him. Still a victory!!!!

Oh by the way, I'm scheduled to be snake trained on the 29th of April. Grammy can't take me, cuz she has a class to teach, but Uncle Bill will take me. I'm not scared of no snake!!!!

I'm going to cool of in the swimming pool now.

Later, Barley

4/14/06

Dad,

We were on a regular walk over the mountains, and today I came in contact with my first rattle snake. Dad I almost got bit by the snake, I was only 2 to 3 feet away from him when grammy yielded at me to move. Oh my God!!!! I have to do snake training when it becomes available. My lil brother and Data have been snake trained and they knew to stay away.

Dad it was something else!!!

No, Grammy did not have the camera, she says if she had the camera she would have taken a picture of the snake and sent it to you.

I have to rest now!!!

Barley

4/11/06

OK Guys,

Here's one for the books. Something happened to the heat in the bar today. I know I can talk about temperatures here, but when we are inside, its supposed to be at least 60. As I said something happened in the bar and it was f***ing cold, I don't know how cold, but cold enough to see your breath. I had 6 whiskeys while playing poker tonight and my f***ing ice didn't melt. Now can anyone top that one?

By the way, how do you like my new shop sign?

Greg

4/6/06

Well the sun has set, and has been over the horizon for a week or so now. You can still see daylight along the horizon. It keeps circling around us letting us know what time it is. Pretty soon we will be telling time by the constellations of the southern hemisphere instead of the sun. Its not quite midnight dark out yet. You can still see pretty well by the daylight on the horizon, but today I saw the first stars of the southern constellations. They were the brightest stars of the southern cross. They aren't quite directly overhead, but they don't miss straightup by quite 10 degrees. Night time is approaching.

It has been a somber day on the station today. At about 8:40 this morning we suffered a power failure. The power came back up quickly enough as it should indicating that the back-up power system works, however any power failure here is cause for action. As of yet, it is not clear to me what happened. We have three very large engines that operate to create our power, and heat. I think they only run one of these at a time, perhaps two at a time during periods of high load demand. I believe they have these running again now. We also have a second power plant with a couple of large diesel engines as an emergency back-up system. When we have to rely on this back-up system, things are not good.

The engines running in the main power plant are not the problem at the moment. Apparently, the problem lies with not being able to get power to the fuel arches where our tens of thousands of gallons of fuel are being stored. Without power in the fuel arches, getting fuel to the power plant becomes a bit of a problem. I don't know, I guess if worse comes to worse, we simply run a bucket brigade or something to transfer fuel. At our current rate I am told we consume 50 gallons of fuel each hour to generate about 530 kilowatts. I don't think it will come to running a fuel brigade. I am confident there are some pretty brilliant minds here that could come up with much better solutions than that. The electricians have been working all day to install a new transformer and bypass the place of the problem. I don't think they are working tonight, which indicates to me that there is a degree of confidence that they can fix the problem tomorrow. It is hard work, working with cable that is frozen here. It freezes so hard that the jacket breaks off when it is plied and it is very stiff. I know they were originally thinking about running a new feed to the arches, however after evaluating the condition of the cable, they changed tactics.

Anyhow, I'm not writing this to scare anyone. I don't think there is any reason to worry. As I said, I think they have the fix in the works. The reason I am relaying the story is because I thought it is one worth telling. Activity has been quite around the station today. We operated on reduced power, which means many projects are not going on today and the lights in all the work spaces are reduced. It has put a quite hush on the station. The Galley reacted quickly and began moving supplies to our emergency pod. If we lose the power plant, we can all retreat into one wing of the station that is equipped with the emergency power plant, kitchen, and berthing to support the population. Believe me, if we all had to huddle together like that for another 6 months, I don't think many of us would come out alive. Thankfully the power came back up (still in a reduced state though) and the galley staff was able to get a nice meal of made to order grilled cheese and meat of choice sandwiches, beans and franks, polish sausage, sauerkraut, ice-cream and plenty of other stuff. Our galley crew really rocks!!!

Well that's the story I have to tell today! Don't worry, all is still great. This is just part of the big ride. I have a sunset gallery to add to the web page to be posted soon, hopefully sometime before sunrise.

Keep those emails coming.

See you soon,

3/2/06

Can you believe it? Two "Hellos All"s in one week.

I just want to let everyone know that I finally added a few more pictures to my site. There is a video of the Dodgy Bar grand opening that Phil T. put together (Mickey you know Phil). This is a new feature of Gregsfrontporch so I'm anxious to hear how it works for everyone. If things work well, I will try to include more of these. I also have a few more photos of the bar on the photos page with narration.

Mardi Gras was Tuesday, we all celebrated by wearing beads in the galley and a meal of "suck the heads" mudbugs for dinner. Cajun music played all day long. The next day I was Galley Boy and had to work in the galley all day. It was a long day but I enjoyed the break from routine!

So give me feedback on the video, and stay tuned, cause I expect to be putting more stuff up soon.

Greg

2/26/06

Well it has happened. The last flight of the season has come and gone. I was sitting in comms tracking the flight. They left in a blaze followed by a billowing contrail, turned 180 degrees and did a flyby over our skiway. Most of the station was out on the deck waving the plane off. It was a dramatic moment. As I was in communication with the aircraft, I was able to pass on a hearty thank you from all at the pole, and wished them a successful service in their next support assignment.

The temperature is -51 F outside with a -83 F wind-chill.

It seems that we have been working up to this moment for several weeks now. A few weeks ago I was feeling a lot of apprehension about staying for the winter, however as the station population has reduced, so has much of the stress and I am feeling much better about the situation. With the passing of the last flight, a new chapter has opened in my South Pole adventure.

The temperatures in the past month have been taking a steady drop. They were in the teens (negative) through January. These were very bearable at the time. They began to drop to the neg 20’s which started to feel cold, the 30’s came, 40’s and now 50’s. We are wearing heavier clothing outside now. Not all of our vehicles operate at these temps.

The sun is sitting lower in the sky, making longer shadows. There is a seasonal change taking place down here indicating that winter is on its way. It will be 8 months, October 21 till we see another aircraft down here. During that time a lot will happen here at pole.

Tonight we are showing “The Thing”, first we will watch the original filming, taking place at the North Pole, followed by the John Carpenter version with Kurt Russell, taking place at the South Pole. We have all been advised to bring our flame throwers and favorite bottle of whiskey. If you haven’t seen the movie, then you probably won’t understand. It is a tradition here at pole. We will show the Shining for the middle of winter.

OK, so the last flight came in about five days ago. It is amazing how relaxed things become on station once the flights end. There is still a lot to be done. We all still have jobs to do, its just the pressure is relaxed now. I am in Comms again. We still have to do flight followings for flights traveling between McMurdo and Christchurch. These will go on for a few more days. A flight following means that I am sitting in Comms, listening to the radio and waiting for the aircraft position reports. What that really means is that I can sit in here for a few hours and write emails and read a book.

It is Saturday today and the station has a two day weekend. The first I’ve had since New Years. Tonight we are having a grand opening for our new bar. This is really my big news. They are closing down the dome this winter to save on fuel and since the new station does not have a smoking lounge, we had to come up with a new location for us smokers. What we were able to do is convert the old gym into a lounge. The conversion process has been a blast. I feel like I am 10 years old and am building a new club house again. The old gym is much larger than any bar the station has ever had. We started by putting a fresh coat of black paint on all the walls. Then we dragged a couple of bars in from summer camp which is also going cold over the winter. We moved the poker table into one corner (we had our first game last night, I won $50!). We took the old squat rack and converted this into an entertainment center with large TV and great sound system. We installed another sound system for the bar music. The electricians have spent many hours installing conduit and a great lighting system. We have black lights, a dart board and many amenities. The project has really turned out great. It is still a work in progress, but it is in fine shape for an opening tonight.

The traditional name for a bar here is Club 90 South, however we have been toying with the Kiwi given nickname “The Dodgy Bastards Bar”. I’m not exactly sure what dodgy means, but the name is catchy. I will be sure to include pictures, before and after of the bar very soon.

Since the dome is going cold, everyone has moved into the new station. I moved up here about two weeks ago and boy is it nice. I have a much larger room ( a whole 9 ½’ x 8’). It is very comfortable. I have a desk and a phone. It is right down the hall from the galley. I can walk to breakfast in my slippers now. Give a month or two and I am sure to be found in there in my pajamas as well.

The food has been truly punishing since the station closed. By this I mean it has been great. The cooks have really risen to the challenge and each meal seems to get better and better. I have never eaten so well in my life. There are three scheduled meals a day that are delicious. All I need to do is show up and fill my plate with all I want. What could be better?

On Sundays, the galley staff has the day off, and they have declared this as “fend for yourself day” This means the whole kitchen is open for us to cook what we want. Everyone has risen to the occasion for this. Tomorrow morning, Safety Bill is cooking omelets. For dinner my department is going to make Mexican food. In addition to this, we all have to pull a galley day, which is a 10 hour shift doing dishes and helping out in the galley. Everyone on station will have to do this two or three times over the winter. It is a hard day of work, but it is also a good day. It is a diversion from our regular jobs, and it can be fun too.

The last few weeks before closing were really productive as far as cargo and fuel are concerned. These are two very important tasks for the summer season. Getting enough supplies on station for food, construction, etc. and receiving enough fuel to get us through winter. This year we set records. Our scheduled # of flights (333) for the year was already a milestone, beating the previous record by many flights (how many I could only guess). We pushed this number past our scheduled # and finished with 377 flights. There are 7 C-130’s on the Antarctic continent during the summer season, and these aircraft supply not only South Pole, but the whole continent. At the beginning of season we have to share these aircraft with all the other stations. As these other stations close, we get more flights coming to pole, as many as 7 a day. This makes moving cargo an ominous task. Additionally the bulk of our cargo arrives at McMurdo via sea vessel (the Tern) late in the season. Once the Tern arrives in McMurdo, there is a big push to get all of this cargo offloaded, sorted, and the South Pole cargo flown down here. There were a lot of complications with the Tern and ice breaking this year delaying the Tern’s arrival by a week or so. At the end of the season, a week becomes a very big deal, possibly leaving us without enough supplies for the winter.

The Tern finally arrived and thanks to good weather the flights started coming in non-stop. Our fuel tanks are filled to the brim and so are our cupboards. Of particular interest to me and many others here about the Tern’s cargo was our liquor supply. The cabinets were clearly running bare, and because liquor shipments take a lower priority than food and other supplies, you can understand that we were becoming a bit anxious on this issue. Now as most of you who know me, know that I’m not a heavy drinker, but I do enjoy my spirits a bit more than most folks (OK, I guess that makes me a heavy drinker) so you can understand my anxiety of imagining a winter season stuck down here with nothing to drink.

The liquor did make here finally. We received pallet upon pallet of the precious cargo. I was told 38 pallets in all. Stay posted to my web page, and I will show you photos of the arrival. Many people turned out to help shuttle the liquor down the halls to its storage. We now have rooms filled with booze and beer. Each room is dedicated to a different brand. We have a scotch room, a vodka room, a bourbon room, rum room, and many different beer rooms, much to my delight these include a sizeable Guinness room and a Monteiths Black room (a kiwi dark beer I have taken a particular liking to).

In addition to this bounty, one of the guys on station had set up a connection with one of the pilots on the C-130’s so we could place a special order from Cheech. We found a great liquor store in Cheech called Whisky Galore. I recommend looking them up on the web. Susan, you recall how you observed that everyone looks giddy in Applejacks (a Denver liquor store)? Well take a look at Whisky Galore’s page, and I’ll show you giddy. Anyhow, we found this store, and placed an order for about $2,000 (Kiwi money, about $1,500 US) worth of single malts and cigars. This was between me and a few other of the guys. Needless to say, I have a wonderful top shelf in my room that is guaranteed to keep my belly warm for the winter. The owner of Whisky galore was great. I asked him if he could get me in touch with a good cigar shop in town as well, and since I was placing such a sizable order, he said he could get the cigars for me at wholesale. Since I have a taste for good cigars, and New Zealand has access to a special flavor of cigars we can’t get at home, I had to take advantage of this offer and added a couple of boxes of New Zealand’s finest to my humidor.

My collection of cigars has become quite a story in itself. It seems over the past few years that cigars have become a vice I particularly enjoy. Its one that I have no intention of relinquishing anytime soon. You can imagine my anguish of spending a year in a place with no cigar store on hand. How do I build a supply to last me this long? I initially set out thinking that I could get by with just one or two a week, and I came down with a supply of about 75 full sized cigars and about a 100 small cigarillos. After only a few weeks down here, I discovered that my rationing discipline is not as good as it should be, so I sent out a distress signal to Jay Bollinger, a good buddy from the fire dept. in Golden who was on his way down, and loaded him up like a pack mule with a large order of cigars. I believe this added about 350 cigarillos to my supply. Finally with the 50 robustos that I ordered from Cheech (which are pure heaven), I have the most well stocked humidor I have ever had. Keep your eyes posted to Cigar Aficionado, as I intend to have an article in there sometime soon titled “A Cigar Smoker’s Survival Guide to Living at the South Pole”. It should include a picture of me with a stogie at the pole.

I think I have about talked myself out for this version of my “Hello All”. Sorry that it has taken so long to come out. I am the great procrastinator. I do look forward to everyone’s email so please keep them coming. Once again, stay tuned to www.gregsfrontporch.com for new photos and information. Yes it has been a while since I’ve updated it. I have many ideas to keep it interesting such as links to other Polies’ web pages, a frequently asked questions page (get you questions in now) however I won’t promise that my answers will always be truthful or even correct, and of course many more of the photos I have already promised.

Best wishes and love to all

Stay warm,

Greg

1/15/2006

Hello All,

I looked at the calendar today and realized that it will be one month from today that the station will close, February 15. Typically this is a celebration, seeing the last plane leave, however this year we are doing what they call a soft close. This means that the station staff will scale down to the winter crew, plus some cargo and fuel’s personnel as they will try to extend the season ten more days to try and get more fuel on station. The extra personnel will leave on the last flight at the end of soft close, then we can have our big party.

It is with mixed emotions that we arrive at this part of the season. It is good to decrease the station population. This means that there will be a lighter work load, less stress, and much more room for us to stretch out. It is kind of like the end of a holiday when all the guests are finally leaving. It was nice to have the guests visiting, however by the end of the visit everyone is ready to move on.

So the summer crew is going through their redeployment meetings, making plans for travels and returning home. It will be another nine months before I can share this excitement. I believe it will be a much more intense thrill then, and expect it to be worth the wait.

Today, we had a group of four adventurers arrive on station. They were re-enacting Scott’s trek to the South Pole back in 1912. They arrived in authentic period clothing and gear. I met one of them this morning, and he told me the trip took 17 days to travel 200 miles (they didn’t make the whole trip from Scott Base). He said that the snow wasn’t very cooperative and made pulling the sled difficult.

I have seen some good pictures in the galley of their arrival. I will try to find them on the shared drive and post them on my web page as soon as I find them.

The weather is warm today, about -1 F, with a nice 10 knot breeze. I took advantage of the weather and flew my kite this afternoon. I have two kites here. The one I flew today is a foil, 2.7 square meters and in any stiffer wind than today’s you really have to dig in to keep it from dragging you across the ice. So I had a good fly today.

Hopefully, we will get a card game going tonight, then back to the salt mines tomorrow.

I hope the best for everyone, and look forward to hearing from you sometime soon.

Greg

1/08/2006

Hey All,

I'm back, well not quite back yet, I'm sitting on a C-130 right now heading back home to the south pole. I bet most of you didn't even know I was gone. Yes, my employer gave me and nine others of my winterover crew, an all expense paid 7 day vacation in sunny northern McMurdo. Wouldn't everyone like to spend their vacation there? Compared to the pole, McMurdo was a nice vacation. All of the winterover crew gets to spend a week there for R&R. They will send us in small groups, I was part of the first party.

McMurdo is a small base on Ross Island, on the coast of Antarctica. It has a population of about 1,500, and is the base of operations for most stations on the continent. This is where we deploy through and where we get all of our supplies. The weather was in the 20's and 30's while we were there, which by pole standards is really warm. It was very nice to take a break from the daily work routine. We were able to sleep in, take lots of long naps, drink lots of alcohol, and take long hot showers every day. At the pole we have to conserve water, which means we get two, two minute showers a week. Being able to take unlimited hot showers was a real treat we all took advantage of. There are stories of pollees in the past taking folding chairs and a six pack into the shower and bathing until the six pack was gone. No one in my group was this extravagant, however we did enjoy ourselves.

In addition to just being lazy, there were a few nice diversions for us to occupy the time with. McMurdo has a very cool two lane bowling alley, with an old fashioned pinsetter. We had the alley to ourselves twice while we were there and had a blast both times. We listened to disco music and worked hard at making good fools of ourselves. It was hard to decide which was more fun, pin setting or bowling. As a pin setter we could heckle the bowler, which was loads of fun.

There are a couple of bars in town, with pool tables and social exposure (something us pollees are not used to). There is a coffee house, 24 hour internet (although very slow), 24 hour phones, and TV. I missed the games on Sunday (today) as I am on the plane flying home.

I also got to take a wonderful 9 mile hike to Castle Rock one day. The weather for this hike was almost too perfect. Of course you have to prepare for the worst down here, but we could have easily done this hike in t-shirts and shorts, it was so nice.

I also got the chance to spend some time on my web page. I added a page that has a selected set of my e-mails (including this one). I am also working on adding some South Pole info in there too. I have added more pictures, and finally got around to adding comments to the photos added previously.

So please stop by the web page, www.gregsfrontporch.com and don't forget to say hello.

Greg

12/27/2005

Dear Dad,

I got your e-mail, or at least part of it anyway. We read your letter,
but there was some kind of attachment with it that was so big it blew up
the computer here. Aunt Jackie and Uncle Bill say that their e-mail out
here on the ranch (we're waaaaaay out in the country), is so slow, they
can't receive anything bigger than about 100K or 200K, and that sucker
was about 3M. Anyway, they were able to go directly to the mail server
and pull out just your letter, without the attachment, so at least we
got to read that.

Attached is a picture of all of us after a hard day's work. Each night
we have to decide who is going to sleep in what bed, but sometimes we
double up, and sometimes we change around, and sometimes we don't even
use a bed. But at the end of the day we are really TIRED after all the
mandatory activities. And then there are the RULES !!! I'll have to
tell you about that another time.

Love,
Barley and the gang
(That's Barley on the left, and of course brother Junior taking the king lounger on the right. Notice the vigilant eye on Barley to make sure he doesn't come steal it?)

December 26, 2005

Happy Holidays All,

I have yet to ever send a Christmas card, birthday card, etc. on-time, so I see no reason to start good habits now.

Yes Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Kwansa, or Festivus. At the South Pole, everyday is white, so a white Christmas is not that special, what is special though is being at the South Pole for Christmas. I have been here for two months now and I haven’t a single regret for embarking on this wonderful adventure. I am living and working in an incredible place with great friends and witnessing history in the making.

Our Christmas this year was a special celebration. Of course we had a wonderful dinner that consisted of Beef Wellington and Crab Legs. On Christmas day we celebrated with our annual Race Around The World which as a wacky trek twice around the geographic pole for a total of two miles. I encourage you to look at my web page for the photos. What made this Christmas really special were the guests that we shared the celebration with. On Friday the 23^rd we received the South Pole Traverse which is a caravan (actually a traverse) of tractors that traveled all the way from McMurdo on the coast to South Pole. They carried with them their own fuel, supplies, housing etc. much like a large gypsy caravan. They also brought us a D8 Caterpillar and another tractor. Once again I invite you to see my web page for their photos and more of their story. These guys are adventurers in the true sense of the word.

I have received lots of e-mail from many of you. These are all a real joy to start my day with. Thank you all. If I haven’t responded to any particular e-mail, be sure that I have read yours and thank you. I try to get back to as many as I can, but due to my procrastinating nature and a very long work day, some of them slip through. We only have satellite coverage for a few hours a day. This is the only time we can access the internet and receive e-mail. Right now, these hours are early in the morning.

That’s what I have for this holiday. I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season.

Greg.

www.gregsfrontporch.com

12/26/2005

Dear Dad,

We sure had an exciting Christmas here at the ranch. We opened presents
on Christmas Eve, then we went for a hike on Christmas morning. There
are lots of things to eat, and lots of toys to play with. I want you to
know that Sunny is a playin’ fool. She even threw me for a couple of
flips while we were wrestling, and she beat me once (but ONLY once) when
we were playing tug-of-war.

I was looking forward to a big turkey for Christmas dinner, but it was
70 degrees here, so we had a barbeque and had steak. Yum! (I wonder if
it’s 70 degrees in Ohio, and if they’re having barbeques there, too.)

We went on another hike today. There sure is a lot of stuff to smell
around here.

On Christmas Eve I chewed the pocket out of Aunt Jackie’s coat that was
hanging on a chair, so I could get the cookies out of it. She was NOT
happy. Well, what does she expect? If she had left the cookies on the
kitchen counter where they were supposed to be, I could have gotten them
off of there with out messing anything up.

But Aunt Jackie says that those were not dog cookies, but HORSE cookies!
She says that I’m going to turn into a horse for being a bad dog. Is
that true? Have you seen these horses? They are BIG. Aunt Jackie says
that they all used to be golden retrievers that looked just like me, but
they turned into horses when they stole horse cookies. Well, how was I
supposed to know they were horse cookies?! They just tasted like COOKIES
to me. I sure hope that’s not true!

Sadie said that she is going to teach me how to dig up gophers and eat
them while I’m here, but I haven’t seen her catch a single one yet. I
was beginning to think that she was just making up stories, but Riley
says it’s true. He says that she digs up gophers and swallows them
whole, alive and kicking!

It turns out that Sunny is already in training for gopher catching. Her
first catch was a kangaroo rat, but Aunt Jackie took it away from her
before she could swallow it. Then she dug up her first gopher, and Uncle
Bill took THAT away from her. Sadie say you gotta be quick and swallow
the thing whole right away. If you act like a retriever and take it to
them, they take it away. I’ll try to remember that when I catch my first
one.

Well, we’re worn out from all the activities here. We’re going to take a
nap to rest up for dinner. I hope that you’re taking lots of naps, too,
so you will be real rested up when you get back, ’cause we’re going to
have a lot of playing to do.

Love,
Barley (aka, Barls at the ranch), and Junior

We forgot to tell you about another big event that happened on Christmas
day....   SOMEBODY took a Kong toy outside in the yard and pooped on
it!!!! Boy, nobody's talking about who did that!!! You should have
seen Aunt Jackie out there with a hose and a stick trying to clean it off.

And, Oh, Wow!!!! We thought Christmas was over, but tonight we learned
that we hadn't emptied out our stockings yet! They were full of toys
and yummy stuff!!!!!!!!!!!   We're worn out from all this activity!! We
hope somebody comes and gets us soon so we can get some rest!!!

Well, don't come too soon. We have a lot of stuff we have to eat first.

Love,
    Barley & Junior

12/22/2005

Dear Dad,

Junior and I are at the ranch for Christmas. René said that she had to
go someplace to cool down after all the excitement we’ve caused lately,
so she’s leaving for Ohio today. I guess she’ll be back in a few days.

Junior is showing me around the place here. He says he knows all the
places the food is hidden, so that will make it easy to carry out doggie
burglaries. Aunt Jackie and Uncle Bill said that they are going to weigh
me in today, and weigh me out when René comes back to see how much I
ate, but Junior says not to worry about it.

We went for a hike when we got here this morning, and we got to sniff
lots of interesting stuff. Riley has an excellent nose, and points me to
all the interesting stuff. Sadie shows me where to dig, and Sunny points
out the rabbits. I got to chase a jack rabbit this morning on the hike.

Yesterday we came out here for a practice hike, and there were 9 pooches
altogether on the hike. Unfortunately, I missed the good part when
Shadow rolled in a great big pile of fresh green cow manure. But I did
find the flattened cow pie afterwards, and several of us had a little snack.

I’ve attached a picture of us in front of the Christmas tree here at the
ranch. If you look closely, you’ll see that I slobbered all over René’s
pants leg so she’d look better in the picture. It made her real happy,
as you can see by the big smile on her face.

Love,
Barls (that’s what they call me for short when I’m punching cows at the
ranch)

(That's Barley on the left with his brother Junior on the right)

12/20/2005

(Barley Series)

Dad.............. and Uncle Bill too,

Thanks for the nice Xmas card. I just read your letter to me, and it is funny that Grammy and I were just going to e-mail you about Xmas. It appears that Grammy is going away for Xmas so bro and me are going to Aunt Jackie and Uncle Bill's house for awhile.

Grammy has these stupid scarves she says she is going to ask Aunt Jackie to put on us Xmas day. I, at first said no, but Grammy started to cry and said she wanted me to wear the scarf that my mom had worn last year for Xmas. I told her I would be honored to wear my moms Xmas scarf. So my point in all this is, and this is where Uncle Bill comes in..... He has a camera and I think he just might have it together better then Grammy does when it comes to cameras, he might if we ask him to, take some pictures of me and bro and send them via e-mail to you for Xmas. What do you think Uncle Bill????

We got what Grammy says is our Xmas Bath yesterday, and yes me and Bro are lookin pretty good. I'm not sure I think the bath was necessary but Grammy seems to think it was. All the brushing and stuff, well I guess I do smell nice!! I weight about 79 lbs. but look pretty slim, of course Grammy is not feeding me enough, and yes I still look everywhere for food!!!

Well enough for now, lets wait for a response from Uncle Bill and I will try my best to stay clean for Xmas.

Boys Rule!!!!

Barley

12/10/2005

Well I've been lax on email again lately so another "Hey All" is due. This is my lazy way of catching up on all of the great individual emails I get. I really do look forward to getting up each morning and checking my email to see who has written me the day before. Thank you all for your emails. Please keep them coming.

My best email this week came from Robbie. It was great to hear from you buddy. Sounds to me like the "Keys" are a bad career move for you lately. Really sorry to hear about the news. I am sure you will prevail though. Maybe it is time to start-up Sternholm inc.! That was a great looking snook you caught (everyone please see attachment). Did you catch it on a fly? I bet that was a blast. Keep the great jokes and stuff coming please (sorry folks, they're not appropriate for the wide audience).

As for South Pole news, the weather is getting warmer and the work is getting more busy. It is currently -9 outside today. This is practically a heat wave here. It really is nice. I understand it was -5 in Denver last week, well believe me, I would take -20 here over a -5 in Denver any day. Here the air is typically crystal clear, and if you an keep your back to the wind, it is very pleasant.

As I said, I've been working long hours this week. As the weather warms up, we have more activity going on, meaning more work for me. I learned how to splice a fiber cable this week. I thought that was pretty cool. This requires a fusion splicer, which is about a $15,000 tool. It is very tedious work, but I really enjoyed it. Now if we get a break in a fiber cable, I'll be ready to repair it. This would typically consist of splicing 96 fibers twice, somewhere out in the snow. They will erect a splicing shack complete with heat, power, table, and light to help me with the task.

Also as the weather warms up, we get visitors to the pole. As I was at the RF shack this week looking across the snow I saw a couple of skiers coming in pulling sleds. As I understand, these guys were dropped off a few hundred miles north of here and skied in to the pole. They stayed in tents out by the pole for a couple of days while waiting for their plane to come in and pick them up. It is funny how someone walking across the snow here can stand out. It is just very out of the ordinary to see anything traveling across the snow or in the sky because they just don't belong there. I am told that occasionally an errant bird will make it down here, but once gain, this is very out of the ordinary.

In the entertainment department, we have a weekly poker game going here. I'm currently behind on this one, but it is a good time. It's an opportunity for me to smoke a cigar and have a few drinks. My cigar supply is going down pretty quickly. I brought a supply of about 85 premium cigars with me, and after a month and a half here, I bet I am down to about half of them by now. Fortunately I have a buddy due in next week bringing a whole fresh supply. Yippee!

We have a small smoking lounge in the dome called the Black Box. It is a tiny room, about 8 feet wide and maybe twelve feet long. We call it BFK's place for a guy named "Big F'n Kevin" (BFK will be down for the winter in January) It is equipped with a table for cards, computer for music and movies, refrigerator and glassware. We have a regular cribbage game going on in the Black Box, the other day we had ten people crammed in there. Everyone smoking, and of course I'm not giving any ground with my cigar, it gets pretty stuffy in there. We've been getting pretty creative with the cribbage games. For instance we had a round with 9 players that one night. This consisted of three teams of three players and the dealing team gets an extra card to toss in the crib. (non-cribbage players will have to look up the rules themselves, sorry) You won't find any rules for a 9 player game though. This is a local version.) Last night we spiced up an 8 player game by giving the non-dealing team a 5th card, then they had to pass their extra card to the player on their left, so they could discard to the crib. It added an interesting twist to the game.

I got to watch a recorded Bronco/Chiefs game last night. I bet that was an edge of the seat game to watch in Denver last week. The first half had some big plays in it. It just isn't the same watching a game that you know the final score of. I think one of the things I miss the most here is Sunday afternoons watching football at the old cigar bar, guzzling Guinness and smoking cigars. Those were great afternoons!

We haven't gotten any mail here in what seems like a month. I was hoping to get more regular shipments, but they just haven't been coming in. Mail takes a back-seat to science cargo and fuel, and as we have been missing a number of flights due to weather our mail keeps getting pushed back. If anyone sends anything down, please indicate in bold that it is for a "WINTEROVER". This should give it a bit of attention. I have to say however, there really isn't anything I can think of that I need (other than contraband). People have been asking what I need that they can send down. I really can't think of anything I need. Thanks for the thoughts. Surprises are nice though!

I have been getting many nice comments on my web page www.gregsfrontporch.com .Thank you all for stopping by. Have patience with the page, I have many changes/improvements planned for it, I just need to feed my web designer (me) the time and alcohol to get it done.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season, and I look forward to hearing from y'all soon.

Greg

12/02/2005

Dad,

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you!!! I had a great day yesterday I hope you have a great day on your birthday.

Grammy is calling me and my brother her "little boy men". My brother and I are getting along pretty good, we play together and take long walks every day.

We do have to go out side lot when Grammy is away, she says I get into things, I should not get into. She says you can tell I was raised by a man, whatever that means!!!!

Don't forget Grammy is a good witch.

Bye for now

Barley

11/28/2005

Hello All,

I hope that everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Here at the pole we celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday (That's Friday for you folks). Having it on Saturday allowed us to take a 2 day weekend. This gave me time to add some new pictures to my webpage. We had a wonderful dinner with all the wine we could drink, and of course plenty of good food. The galley staff really outdid themselves with dinner. They worked through three seatings, while everyone else had a good time. I think the galley staff enjoyed themselves too. I lent a hand on Thursday preparing vegetables, and helped serve wine and bus tables during the first dinner seating.

I've been here at the pole for 5 weeks now, and it just keeps getting better. The weather is warming up, its up in the 20's now (below 0). While that sounds cold, we really are enjoying it. The sun shines bright 24 hours a day here, and on a good day (or night) if the wind isn't blowing too strong standing in the sun is pretty nice.

It has warmed up enough that we now have a shuttle van running which we can call and ride between buildings. This is very convenient when we have gear that we have to carry back and forth. Because it is warming up, we are near peak capacity on station with about 240 people, and there is all kinds of work going on. Some of the big projects to accomplish this summer include adding the metal skin to the new station, drilling 8 holes out at Icecube (last year they only got one hole drilled). Icecube is a big project here that studies neutrinos. To do this they are drilling 8,000' deep holes and dropping sensors down them. There is also a plan to lift the old bio-med arch, which is a very large metal archway buried under about 35' of snow. This is a real project. Many other projects are going on as well.

As I said, I am having a good time here, keeping busy and getting better at my job. I have finally posted some new pictures to my web page. I have one gallery showing Thanksgiving dinner, and another gallery showing the trip down here. I hope to post more photos of the South Pole and the station itself very soon. I hope you can all take a minute to see them. www.gregsfrontporch.com

I have enjoyed reading everyone's emails, and I hope you keep them coming. I appreciate everyone's support while I am here.

Take Care,

Crazy at the Pole;

Greg

11/21/2005

Hey Guys (Robbie and Mickey),

(This following message worked. Thanks to Mickey I actually received two 1.4 liter bottles of listerine (spelled Maker's Mark). It took a while for them to get down here as they held our mail up in Christ Church for a long while. Guys take note, Mickey can count on smoking some cubans once I'm back thanks to his efforts. OK, truth be known you should all be able count on a cuban or two, but Mickey has teh lion's share coming to him!)