Update on the last few months…

So it has been a while since we have blogged and since Levi did it last time, I guess it is my turn.
So here is a quick rundown of the last few months.

Last winter while Levi was up on the slope I tried to keep myself busy so I joined the Fairbanks Community Band and when it was warm enough, I tried to get out and do some skiing.

Last January we had a pretty big snowstorm that knocked down a couple trees on our property one of them took our the power line that connects to our cabin. Since there was so much snow that weekend and so many people without power I didn’t have power to the cabin for about 3 days. It was kind of interesting with Levi and our landlords being out of town, but I managed to heat the cabin by turning on the propane oven and leaving it open for a couple hours at a time. Also the water pump needs power I didn’t have water during that time either, good thing I have a gym membership so I could still shower :) Oh the adventures of living in Alaska!

Since Levi has been back we’ve had a good time fishing, biking and hiking. Well at least until about Memorial Day. Since Memorial Day we’ve been getting a lot of rain, which I am told is very uncommon for this time of year in Fairbanks.

A couple weeks ago we did a road trip with Levi’s parents starting in Anchorage drove up to Paxon and across the Denali Highway, which is a 150-mile dirt road, which is only open during the summer time.

We stopped along the way to do some fishing.

We came across this old abandoned fishing lodge, which had a creepy morgue freezer in one of the cabins.

Then we stopped for a couple days in Denali and saw some wild life and explored the park.

Our last stop was back here in Fairbanks; we did a gold mine tour, riverboat tour, and ate a lot of really good food.

We also tried fishing in Fairbanks at a few places in Fairbanks, but we were pretty overwhelmed by mosquitoes…

Overall it has been a pretty great summer so far :)

Kuparuk Oil Field

I wrote this last week before I was on R&R...

It’s Friday February 25, 2011. I’ve officially been working remotely for 4 weeks and 5 days now. First off, I get to go home and see Sarah for 4 days starting next Thursday. I’m quite excited to go home for a break. Overall the time has gone by fast but the days can be very long and busy.

A little about the oil field: In the 60’s oil companies began exploration of the area. The local natives had reported locations of black liquid seeping out of the ground. After a few exploration drills they found the oil. Prudhoe Bay is North America’s largest oil field. Kuparuk, about 40 miles to the west is North America’s second largest oil field. From what I hear there is plenty more oil to be had. This is what the oil field looks like… flat and covered in snow:

Day light changes very fast. From the first part of December to the middle of January the sun doesn’t come above the horizon here. When I first arrived (January 24) the sun was just barely coming over the horizon and we had about 3 hours of daylight. Since then the area has been gaining about 8-10 minutes of sunlight PER DAY and now it is pushing 10 hours a day. By the time the project wraps up in May the sun will be up almost 24 hours. My first few weeks the sunrises and sunsets were spectacular because the entire day was one big sunrise and sunset. Here are some photos:

Camp life here is very different. We live in a mobile camp that ConocoPhillips moves around depending upon the construction season. It’s essentially a self contained village compromising of 20 or so trailers all connected together. Water (for drinking, toilets, and showers) and fuel (for heat and electricity) are brought in everyday to storage tanks. Sewer waste is pumped out of storage tanks every day. What do they do with the sewer you ask? Logically treating would be good. But the EPA’s regulations for building a sewer treatment plant up here are so stringent the cost would be astronomical. So… the sewer water is ejected back into the earth through old well heads. They put it in the old strata layers where the oil has already been removed. Yup. Don’t ask me how the EPA is okay with that but not drilling for more oil… damn government.

More about camp life… We eat in a chow hall that can sit about 40 people. All our meals are provided free. The food is usually pretty good and can range from hamburgers to stir fry to prime rib with everything in between. The sleeping rooms are about the size of a dorm room and we all have roommates. Housekeepers live in the camp and wash our sheets and give us clean towels. The Conoco employees live in a permanent camp about 2 miles away named Kuparuk Operations Center. That place is really nice… library, movie theatre, workout rooms, basketball court, etc. Here are some photos our camp:

The weather varies a lot. I’ve seen 30 degrees above and -65. Right now we are in what is called a ‘Phase 3’ blizzard. No travel allowed. All I see is white outside my office. It doesn’t snow a lot (maybe 30” a year) but if the wind picks up (like now it’s 50mph to 70 mph) what snow is around gets blown around. Many of the trucks parked outside our office are buried right now. There is a video but until you step outside in a 60mph blizzard you have no idea what it’s like. I have to lean into the wind to walk about 30ft from our office to our camp.

My work schedule is a bit grueling. I go to a foreman’s meeting at 6AM and another one at 6PM and work in between. 7 days a week. But the pay is good (I’m on a day rate so I get paid for everyday I work). I don’t want to do this forever but Sarah and I are thinking a season or two up here will give us a good nest egg. One bonus is that there are LDS church services up here. There is a group (ranges from about 4-10) that meet every Sunday at 7:30PM. We share a quick lesson and then administer the sacrament. It lasts about an hour. As far as the projects go we are replacing some pipeline that was installed in the late 70’s when the trans Alaskan pipeline was first built. The size of equipment up here is crazy… everything is big. The tundra is monitored religiously by the EPA, we are up here in the winter because we can build ice roads along the pipeline to perform our work. Come the end of April the ice melts away there is now sign we were even there (hopefully). Here are some photos of our project work:

Sarah Frampton’s ALASKA!!!!!

So first off I want to say that I love living here, it seems like everyday is an adventure. Our first week here in town we were initiated by a historic ice storm. Here in Fairbanks they cancel school for rain and not snow!! It warmed up and rained quite a bit, then got colder so all of the roads were like sheets of ice. I am pretty sure I would have been better off ice skating to work rather than driving… lol! Here is an article on the storm.

http://www.newsminer.com/view/full_story/10413545/article-Ice-storm-unprecedented-in-Interior-Alaska--meteorologists-say?instance=home_lead_story

Even though I love living here is has been quite an adjustment living here, it is not uncommon for people to live here in cabins with no water. Levi and I are living in a cabin but luckly we do have water, and hot water at that!

Here are a few things that I defiantly miss about my former life:

1- Not having to choose between hot water and water pressure.

2- Sunlight

3- Having a seemingly endless supply of water (we have a 1000 gal tank that we have to get filled every so often)

4- Warmth and Sunlight

5- Waste collection (we haul our trash down to a transfer site at the bottom of our hill)

6- Sunlight

7- Not having to do laundry at the laundry mat.

8- Not having to worry about Moose that think they rule the road.

9- Having a real freezer (right now we have a couple of coolers on our porch and I use the trunk of my car)

10- Dogs that eat the food out of our freezer and get into our garbage.

OK but let me tell you, there are some things that I just love, love, love about living here! I can see Russia… ur I mean Denali from my house! I love the snow, and I love all the cross country ski trails around here, we have some right behind our cabin! The hiking is amazing, and it doesn’t take long to get into “wilderness”. I am also super stoked for the summers, and being able to go mountain biking in the middle of the night, or making a 2 AM tee time.

So here are a few pics of our place, and around Alaska.

So Levi is in Prudhoe Bay (which is famous for the show ice road truckers) and no he has not become a trucker… he is working as a field engineer for a pipeline company. I am sure that he will be writing about his experiences up there. He will be up there until the end of May with a couple of breaks to come home and visit. Its hard but I am staying busy with taxes at work, and thank goodness for phones and skype!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudhoe_Bay,_Alaska