I finally got blog back. Well,there has been quite a bit going on around here. The ship came in last Thur. with the new station crew. This was a little traumatic for us because of the disruption this brought. But it didn't take long for everybody to become of the family here. Wed. we say goodbye to the winter over people and they sail home. There are 5 of us that will stay here until the end of Oct. boat.

I had my birthday here on the ice Sunday. it was a great day. Everybody on station went out of there way to wish me a happy birthday, and the that evening the cooks worked up a 44 pound lasonia for me,Sunday is find your own food day around here because the cooking staff is off but the put together a great meal. Everybody on station came to the dinner and stayed late in the evening socializing. That is kinda a strange for Sunday. Sunday you don't see many people, everybody does their own thing. Instead of cake the cook made me a limon marainge pie. My favorite . Unfortunatly the sea ice was to thick and I could make my plunge into the ocean like I had planned for my birthday. But I will jump in as the ship is leaving on Wed. Thats a tradition around here, it brings good luck for those on the boat.

It's been a good week so far. Had perfect weather on our day of,sunny, no wind, no snow, no rain, perfect. I took advantage of that and went out boating. Made a trip out to the Bahia , the Arg. Ship that sank down here 20 years ago. the tide was out so part of her 400 ft hull was sticking out of the water. The water is so clear that you could see the whole ship. Man, made me really want to go diving. After looking at the Bahia for awhile, we moved on to Old Palmer Station. If you read my peace on the history down here, you know that is the original site of the science base down here. At one time it was attached to Anvers Island by a glacier. Over the years that glacier has receded leaving Old Palmer alone on it's own island. We hiked around the island. It was nice to get out and walk on some new ground. There are no structures there any more, they were removed long ago. I got some good photos of "glacier bit" , giant chunks of blue , whats left of the glacier. I was really hoping to see some wild life, still haven't seen a Penguin. Soon they tell me , this place will be crawling with life, Penguns, Seals, Whales, and Birds. As i Sit and write this i can hear a bird out side calling, Like a sea gull, It is strange because during the winter down here we are the only thing here that makes noise. Well, us and the cracking ice.
Everybody have a great day. No Worries.

It has been a pretty busy week again, we said good bye to some dear friends, we had a costum party, we've had weather changes( it was above freezing and raining yesterday and now it's snowing again.) and lots of work in the mix. The LMG left us Friday morning taking with her some of our family here. It was sad to see them go. The next boat will take most everybody else and leave me with a new crew to get too know. The new family.But the people that are here now will always be the ones I will feel closest too, because they where my first family on the ice. The ones that took me in when I was a stranger in a strange place. It will be a sad day when they leave. But then I will have a whole boat load of new friends to make.
The night before the boat left we had a party , a costum party. Wow, after all the tension of the last couple of weeks it turned out to be quite the party.
And now once again the weekend is here. I may sleep all weekend. just kidding, there's way to much i want to see and do here for that, but I may sleep in. I hope everyone is doing good. Wish you could be here.

well after many hours of work , all once again is working here as it should. I've been given today off to make up for working through the weekend. I slept 13 hours last night. Best sleep I've had since I've been here. I've been just lounging around in my PJ's all day. I did add some pics to my flickr page, and cleaned my room. So I have been a little productive.
The weather is holding up pretty good so I'm heading up to the top of the glacier to watch the sunset tonight. I hope all is as well in your world tonight.

No Worries.

Yesterday the LMG finally was able to dock at our pier. The fishing line was recover on Thursday. Our medivac patient is now in Punta Arenas in the care of her mother and the hospital staff there. Thus ending our 2 week soga. Every one on station is tired from long hours and hard work trying to fix our situation. With this in mind our station manager has given us a 2 day weekend so that we may recover and as a reward for a job well done. This situation I think really defines the type of people that we have on station, the type of people that would want to come to Antarctic to work. The willingness to give it your all, to be an innevative thinkers and problem solver, and to be daring. We have a great bunch of people here. It reminds me alot of Special Forces and the type of people I worked with there.

So it's Saturday, and everybody is in a relax mode but there's no escaping problems; our main generator is leaking oil into the coolant and in danger of over heating, the back up generator is disassembled for a ongoing rebuild, our Satalite antenna has gone down so we have no coms with the outside world, The ship left yesterday, and it seems that every little thing on station is breaking down today. So there is no rest for us. It's a harsh continent . But the weather is great today!

We had a big change in plans. Yesterday when I showed up for my ice cutting duties, we learned that there was going to be a medevac now, and that all the people that were going to leave on the 5 Sept. boat were leaving now to. So. we had to walk ropes out on to the ice and put markers on them so the ship could break ice to them then pull them a board. Then we could drag a boat across the ice with people and luggage. So, I now have the honor of being of the few people to walk on Arthor Harbor in the last 9 years. Anyway,we did are task then set up to start our boating operation. after the ship moved in and we had moved the first load of luggage we desided to check the ice and just walk the passengers to the ship. so once again I was back out on the ice, this time it was a little scarier because the ship could have opened up some cracks that we couldn't see. It was a long slow walk. when we determined it was safe, why they thought a boy from Texas could determine how safe sea ice is , is beyond me, me and one other guy started escorting passengers over to the ship in pairs. It was a pretty awsome evening, the situation sucked because we were medevacing a friend and saying good bye to many other friends that were leaving prematurely. It was just one of those once in a life time things and I was dead in the middle of it all, which seems to be were I like to be.

After 8 hours on the ice and loading and unloading boats, it was late and all my energy was spent, and all I could think about was how great it is to be here. Then I slept for 10 hours.

Well, we all survived the night. Progress is slow at best. Today we will continue our shifts breaking ice and pulling up the line. With any luck the ship should be able to make our pier by tomarrow morning.

Tonight the whole station is breaking ice. The LMG is outside our harbor waiting to come in, but we are ice bound and there is a rope under the ice that could cause problems with the ship’s prop baerings. So to night we work in 2 hour shifts out on the ice breaking it up with hammers and chain saws to free the line. It’s going to be a long cold night. The ship is due to return to PA soon and needs to drop off supplies and pick up people. This is not going to be the safest operation we have pulled off by far, but i guess thats part of the reason we came down here, to live on the edge. I plan on jumping in the water before I leave here, just hope it's not to night and not under the ice. No Worries.

Here is a video of our boating ops on Youtube.com. Click on the above link.

Snow, Snow and more Snow. Yesterday, about 4ft. of snow fell on us. Most of the people on station are from up North and when it snows like that they can't wait to get out in it with their snow shovels. I think it's a gene they have. Me I just wanted to play in it. By the end of the day the kid in everyone had taken over and we were swan diving into the drifts. We had a blast.
At the end of the day we had to work to unload the ship. Something that is going to be my theme for my weekly writing. So stay tuned it was a first time event and was quite an adventure. I hope to have some pics and video.
Hope all is well at home. No Worries.

Hey every body, All is well in this winter wounder land. Still snowing and colder than ever, but thats what the taquella's for. This has been a busy week as far as work goes. I've finished one project and I'm moving on to my next. Thing do move slow around here.
Today at break I was sitting in the galley ( the ski lodge) and out the window was a pair of fur seals fighting. One would win the other running away, then the winner would go after the looser again. Then the looser of the first battle would win. Around and around they went. The first thing that came to my head was that I'm living with the Dicovery Channel all around me. Who needs TV.
Till next time No Worries.

Morning every body. This 2 day weekend is coming to and end. Of course the weather has been bad all weekend so I haven't done much. I did get another Photo published, this time on a news web site called Nowpublic.com. It was published with a story on how Austraila, North America, and Antarctica were once all one land mass. It kinda neat.
My daughter Sara has been sick this last week and will be going in for surgery soon. Please keep her in your prayers.
Hope every one is doing good. Keep up the email. Letters from home are chicken soup for the soul. No worries.

Yes it's Friday. We have a 2 day weekend this week. Hopefully the weather will hold and I can get out and explore some more. Some of us were talking about a camping trip to one of the islands, but the weather is to finicky right now for that. If the winds get up above 20mph all boats are recalled. Or we could get trapped out on the island until the winds die down. So camping is out but we may still get out to the islands to hike around.
Life has been good here. Moving right along on my projects. It has been snowing here for most of the week, and the winds have been blowing between 25 and 35mph. ( the wind can make miserable here. ) Been taking alot of pictures as always. I'm developing a following of sorts. Alot of the science people have been using my photos for there reports or web pages. That's been a nice complement. Just need to find somebody that will pay for my photos,LOL.
Hope all is well with you at home. Always waiting to here what's going on at home so keep those emails coming. Have added some things to web site , links, photo's, so browse the site. My next essay will be on global warming I think. Hope to work on that this weekend.
No Worries.

Howdy everybody, I've just added some more pics to my Photos page. Just to prove that I really am working here and not just on vacation I'll be loading up some pics of my work later this week. It's pretty impressive copper work if I don't say so my self.I didn't know I could squeeze so much into such a small place. It's been a chore. I'll share later on what it is exactly that earned me a chance to be here. Hope all is well. I hope none of you are being blown around to much from those hurricanes that have been hitting Texas. No worries.

Today was our day off and we actually had some pretty descent weather. A couple of us Hiked up the Glacier braving the 35mph wind. It's a pretty good hike up the glacier but the view at the top makes it all worth it. when we did make the top the wind died down for us and we where able to see forever. I just never get used to the pristine beauty of this continent. It's everywhere, all around you and the light changes, and with it the whole view.

I'll put my Glacier pics up on NGM. Follow the link on my links page. Also this pic was of me out photographing a sunrise caught on station security camera.

Just added a link on the links page that goes straight to my pics. Will be adding more pic either tomarrow afternoon or Sunday. Enjoy

Hey everybody, Hows that heat feeling about now? There is a high chance we will be getting snow tomarrow. Just wanted to rub that in a little. All is going good here. Been a tough week as far as work goes. Trying hard to get one of my projects done. Everything moves so slow here. It can easily take hours to find parts. No supply house to run to. A lot of the parts they did send for this job are not what I need, so I have to improvise a lot with what we have on station. The things we can't do with out we call forward from our warehouse in Punta Arenas. That can be weeks or even a month from getting here. Anyway I hope all is going good in your world. keep up the email. It's a great deversion.

If you go to ngm.com and look at myshot members I have some more pictures posted under James Walker. If you search Antarctica then click on my name it will show you my pics, Please sign in and rate my photos. I want to get published in the magazine.I'VE FINALLY MADE IT ON TO THE PAGES OF NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. LOL