Rain on the windshield, heading West

We seem to go from dead stop, to dead run these days. From cold as hell to cooking hot, bored stiff to overwhelmed.



The weather has been pretty much crap, as usual.




A couple of days of sunshine thrown in just so no one ends up in the garage swinging on an extension cord, but for the most part, its been cold and rainy. The Jetstream, I'm told, in these parts isn't behaving as it usually does. Apparently, it would normally move well north of us this late in summer.

I believe that theory, as the cold arctic air over most of extreme northern Canada shrinks in the summer due to being slowly heated by the longer summer days and more direct sunlight. Looking at the weather map though, it looks like it comes across the prairies nicely, keeping the cold air well north and the hotter air and milder weather below it. Right around the Saskatchewan border though, the jetstream takes a hard right and heads well south into the USA. Once its safely past me, ensuring I get stuck with the cold arctic air and whatever moist weather systems it kicks up along the border between these air masses, it decides to head back into Canada, right around Toronto.



We did have a couple days of sun though, as I mentioned. My co-worker was off on vacation and we had little or no flying to do as well. So, long days on the deck with the shorts on and shirt off. Tore through a few books as well.

I read one book in particular that I found quite interesting. Its called “ My Jihad “ by Aukai Collins. I won't turn this into a book review, but I do recommend this book if you are interested in seeing things from a different point of view. Just so you know, it doesn't try to justify or glorify terrorism in any way, although the writer is a Mujahadeen and a devout muslim, taking up arms in Eastern Europe. We've heard what CNN has to say about the matter, there's precious few other voices out there that aren't equally as shrill or laughably “un-partially “ reporting the news these days, on more than just one side of the issues...

The rest of the time was odd jobs around base, including sand-bagging...ugh.

It could have been worse actually. We had been watching the lake level since over the last few weeks the unceasing rain had finally completely saturated what little overburden we get out here, over the hard impermeable pan of the underlying rock of he Canadian Shield.

Since we basically sit on top of a solid sheet or rock thousands of kilometres in diameter, the only soil on top is that which has been created since the last ice age retreated from the area and let the vegetation get started on turning air, water and minerals into ....dirt. I don't know the numbers in years ( read: arg. I'm not looking it up,..you have the internet...you do it... ) but it hasn't been all that long. Unlike our prairies, which sat at the bottom of an ocean during that time, collecting all manner of organic material to get the dirt pile started, we just have rocks and maybe a couple of feet of dirt. That's part of the reason we have all these lakes the sportsmen flock to as well. The water really has nowhere to go. The land isn't tilted dramatically enough to move it in any hurry, nor is it able to soak it up and send it hundreds of feet underground.

I digress.... all of the rain we had had finally saturated the ground. It couldn't hold anymore...since the rains haven't stopped, its been steadily raising the level of the lakes. In particular the lake in front of our base has been getting very close to its banks. Last week, it finally started lapping at the tops of the shoring we have along our shore and securing our floating dock to the shoreline.

We've also got AvGas storage tanks and fuel lines and pumps to worry about.

The boss saw how close it was to all this stuff, and the fact that it was slowly starting to wash some gravel away from parts of the shoreline that we use...and decided it was time to bite the bullet and start sandbagging so we weren't caught totally off guard if it kept going.

I was dreading this, as sandbagging, in a word, sucks. Two people have to work in tandem, one holding the bag open and the other scooping sand in. We didn't have very many bags, so after burning through them, the boss called the local city works yard to see where they were getting theirs as he had seen them putting up a few sandbag barriers in town.

“ oh, we're filling them here and have them available to pick up. “

“ oh.... how much per bag? We need quite a few. “

“ they're free. '

“ we're on our way. “ click.

That was so sweet. I don't care how many loads of them we have to pick up or stack, as long as I don't have to fill anymore. Seems the local works yard had put a troop of Ministry Forest Firefighters to work filling bags as all the rain had made them temporarily redundant.

Thanks guys! and girls too, I saw more then one female out there doing the heavy work with the guys.

Work successfully dodged, we carried on with the tanning and reading drills till my coworker returned from his holiday.

Once he got back, the sky clouded over again, signalling that it was time to go back to work.

This time, we were booked to go up on one of the flights and get dropped off at a camp, do some end-of-season work and start getting it ready to winterize and shut down. After that, we would get picked up by the plane on its last run of the day, relocated to another camp, and do the same thing there. After we were done, we could take the rest of the day and do some fishing and then spend the night at the cabin, to be picked up the next day.

The only wrinkle in this plan, which otherwise, would have been a nice break from the usual routine, was that my holiday was due to start the morning we were to be picked up and in fact, I had to hit the highway that morning to make my afternoon flight out of nearest-big-city-ville which was a six hour drive away.




We got all the work done as quickly as possible and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves finally getting a chance to do some of the world-class fishing that our guests keep raving about.



A nice fish-fry dinner ( which, I am happy to say I am starting to kick ass at. ), a few beers and a great sleep in the quiet of the wilderness.



Unfortunately, the next day brought low clouds, drizzle and even a bit of mist.

The pickup time of 0730 came and went without the sound of a radial on the horizon. I think I might have sprained an eardrum listening for it.

I counted down towards my drop-dead time, after which, I wouldn't be able to make the drive in time to catch my flight and get home for my holiday time off. That time came and went.

Broke out the satellite phone and called the base for an update. Hard as hell to get decent service on our sat phones, you get enough time to shout a sentence off and wait for the reply, if you're lucky, before the call drops. Took me three or four calls to find out the weather was crap at their end too and they were just waiting for the first break to send the plane.

We spent most of the day just being ready to go and sitting on our thumbs, ready to race out and get the hell out of camp if the plane showed up. Finally, around four o'clock in the afternoon it looked like there was no chance, so we went out fishing again. Partly for something to do, partly to get something for dinner.

Being end of season, most of our cabins are actually pretty well stocked with food. As guests come and go during the year, they bring all kinds of food that they end up leaving behind. Mostly non-perishable staple stuff. Boxes of pancake mix, canned foods of all varieties, pasta, condiments, spices, you name it. Occasionally a half-bottle of booze or a couple beers can be found as well. We weren't going to starve, but with a lake full of delicious walleye, who wants to eat a neglected can of spaghetti-o's?

Out we went in the boat and sure enough, we get set up and our lines in the water, turn our heads and theres the plane, already touching down on the water. We didn't even hear him come in over the sound of our own boat motor. In a mad panic, we raced for the dock, to beat him there. Jumping out of the boat and running out to the end of dock to catch the plane, just in time, and we get the bad news.



Sorry boys, get her tied up and covered up, we're not going anywhere in this weather.

They had picked up a load of guys that were due to be brought out of camp that day and taken back to base, but hadn't got very far before the weather that had hindered departures from base all day, had finally moved north and precluded their ( and our ) trip south.

We offloaded the disappointed guests and their gear and then went back out to resume the fishing. We had a few extra mouths to feed now.

A phone call was made out to the base and everyones wives, employers, etc, would have to be contacted and notified of the delay so no one would panic. In my case, my plans were pretty much shot to hell.

To make matters worse, my family had a memorial service planned for my father, who passed away last year, for all of us to be together for the ashes-scattering. I wasn't going to make it, and my family is so scattered that it was probably not going to be an option to reschedule the ceremony. I was more than a little disappointed in the fact that I wasn't going to be able to make it. Its frustrating when you know, there is absolutely nothing you can do about it either.

In hindsight, I think the decision to send us up north, particularly overnight and in the face of approaching weather, was a poor one on my employers part. I'll take my share of the blame as I didn't see the incoming weather as being nearly as bad as it was, or perhaps I would have protested the decision. However, they knew I had to be back or else. The risk was all mine and the reward was all theirs.

It wasn't a life or death decision, but it was a decision that was made for me, by someone else. I think it was a poor decision, either through a lack of foresight or a lack of consideration for the consequences to me. Either way, its not one that makes me feel confidence in how I might be treated in other situations.

They always talk about multiple causes and the " swiss-cheese " model of accident causes. Its not one thing that takes down an airplane or causes any other such disasters, but a " lining up " of a lot of different factors or causes, all adding up to the end result.

This particular incident has set off a little bit of an alarm bell for me. Just a quick momentary whiff of something burning. Something in the back of mind sits up and takes notice that there are people on whom I depend on making good decisions for my life and my livelihood, and they are only human.

Its not like I've condemned them over this one incident, but you can be sure I will be watching closely to see if it was simply a misjudgment or if there is something I need to be concerned about. I haven't spoken with anyone since it happened, so perhaps there is some form of acknowledgment forthcoming.

In any case, there we were. Luckily, these guests had over-packed on food as well, so there was tons of fresh food and meat for us to make a nice dinner out of. They even had a case of beer left over. Very important if your stranded in the bush for a night.

Fish caught and cleaned, beer chilled and rationed out, we had a nice supper with these guys and turned in for the night.

The next morning, the ceiling had come down even further and we could hardly see the other side of the lake through the mist. Those that woke up as early as I did, around 0500, simply took one look outside, groaned and went back to bed.

I ended up staying up with one of the " dudes " ( as guests invariably get called )and we chatted for awhile.

He was from the midwest and bemoaned the fact that his life was relatively boring for him. Living from one paycheque to the next, house, kids, clothes ,vacation, repeat. I told him the wife and I had lived overseas before and were considering ways to make it happen again. He was jealous and said he wished he had my life.

We talked about this for awhile, and I pointed out that there is always a price for living like that. We went away before and came back to seeing our friends and family moving into their new house, popping out kids left and right and generally proceeding along an orderly path, forward, with their life. We picked up right where we left off, or even slightly behind. The time away was time spent not " progressing ". I'm okay with that, but you have to know that you are making that choice.

I've met lots of folks who wanted to do something out of the norm, and found themselves knee deep in a place they did not want to be.


Plane finally arrived and we made it back to base. The Lovely Wife had been dancing with the airline for the last two days, so she picked up the hot-line they had installed for her and once again booked me on a flight home. This time I was able to jump in the car and book it for six hours to make the flight.

Went through a lot of rain on the drive over as well, so all that weather is heading towards base. I'm thinking they will be making a few more trips for sandbags before I get home in a weeks time.



So, now I'm out on the gloriously sunny west coast. Enjoying some time with The Lovely Wife, but unfoirtunately, no time with my family, there having been scattered back to the four corners of the earth from whence they came.



I knew it was too good to be true that we would all be in one place at one time.

Night Danger

I always found the wording on these signs just a little off. I guess it gets the point across in the least possible amount of words, but I have to admit, it makes it sound like the night is more the problem, not the moose.




Sun finally decided to show up around here. Got all the way up to the mid twenties yesterday, that was a nice treat. The lake has really warmed up too, so it was nice to spend some time swimming yesterday in the nice cool water. Usually I'm running up to the shower, just to warm up.

Myself and the other dockhand are alternating some time off right now. He left this morning to go off to the nearest big city and visit with his folks for a couple days. Once he gets back, I'm off to Vancouver to see The Lovely Wife for a whole week!



We're also having a little get together on my side of the family to have a little memorial service for my father, who passed away last year. We had the official memorial last summer, but this is more of a private ceremony and we're planning to spread his ashes at sea.

One thing I always remember growing up was his insistence that whatever I do, I be happy doing it. I suppose the flying is me finally taking his advice and doing something I love, even if it makes absolutely no sense on so many other levels..haha.

Had another pilot party this a week. After going to three or four of these now, I can really tell that how small the local scene is. Before I came out here, I thought there were a couple hundred pilots in town, not a chance, more like thirty or forty, tops.

We took the boat, normally verboten, but the boss-man was driving. No flying was planned for the next AM, so we knew in advance we were going to get our drink on.




We did however, have a full day of flights and camp checks prior to going out there, so we didn't actually get back to base till almost 7PM, when we had started at 0400.

The day seemed like it just kept going and going and going. We went to eight camps in total I think. Dropping guests, picking up guests, weed whacking, fixing docks, loading fuel drums, unloading fuel drums, pumping gas, checking propane supplies, dropping off full tanks, picking up empties and cutting firewood. The last three camps or so was just a death march. We were all dog tired and just slogging through. You get to that point where you have no more hustle, but you have lots of work to do, all you can do is put your head down and put one foot in front of the other.

Surprisingly enough, we get back, changed, cold beer in hand and we were ready to go.

The trip out by boat to the party was slooow. We had put the wrong prop on the engine and it didn't make for very good speed. We had a choice of two props, one big, one small. Bigger is better right?

Not. Not if the engine doesn't have enough power to turn it fast enough. We would have been better off with the smaller prop, developing higher RPM, and more speed. Oh well. Sun was setting as we went out there and was almost down by the time we got in. We were almost the last to show and it was already in full swing. Some people more fully swung then others.

Once it got dark, a fire was started. Someone thought it would be a good idea to throw a tirew on the fire to really get things going. Luckily, someone else kicked it off the fire before it got going. We joked about the camp fire lacking the true ambiance of a good tire fire.

I was drinking beer most of the evening, but later on, as a few people started to leave, out came the Jager. A round of Jager-bombs for the surviving partiers ( Red Bull and a shot of Jagermeister ). That convinced most of the saner folk that it was definitely time to split. Those of us that remained starting passing around bottles of booze...not good.




Eventually, we made our way home by moonlight in the boat.

The ride home was fun, there was a few of us going out at the same time, so a little bumping and racing was in order. A 9-Horse outboard motor can only go so fast, not to worry.

Felt pretty good the next day. I think drinking straight spirits really helped avoid a bad hangover, less sugar to deal with along with the usual dehydration.

Cant believe this summer is starting to wind up already. It looks like I will be cut loose from here right around the middle of September, still waiting on an exact date. The other fellow working here with me is probably going to hang around till mid October to help out with moose hunting season, but there isn't really a need for both of us. I'll be glad to get home as well. Really looking forward to being able to spend time with the wife, even just watching TV or walking the dog.




It'll be nice to get back to my old job as well. Radial engines and props are great, but I'm overdo for a little dose of jet-A.



Once I'm back from my little holiday here next week, I'll do one more round of resumes before I leave the area. I'd still like to make a little road trip out of the last couple days here and visit all the locals and semi-local operators to put my face out there for next year. It'd sure be nice to find something in Vancouver, or anywhere in BC for that matter, but being out here and able to pop in and see the operators here is a big advantage to just firing out resumes by email.



I've been thinking of maybe doing my multi-engine rating this winter if finances allow. I know my finances wont allow me to do my IFR, which I'm looking forward to doing eventually, but the multi might help a little bit.

Someone was telling me the other day, that it was rumored that EI was coming around to the idea of funding people to get their instructors rating. Makes sense, its a job skill and might be able to land someone employment in the end. Thats the point of EI, skills upgrading to help those with unemployment issues. Seasonal workers or workers in struggling industries.

From my understanding though, in order to qualify for any type of EI skill upgrade monies, you have to be unemployed. Seeing as I am going back to my old job, I don't really qualify.

Its funny, back when I was doing my flight training, I read so many times and heard from so many people; " enjoy your time during training, make it fun ". I always did to some degree or other, but I guess I never realized till now why its such good advice. I remember going up on flights to the local training area and slogging out a dozen steep turns, or practice forced approaches. I would get so intent on " nailing it " that I forgot sometimes where I was. I was in an airplane, on a sunny day, calling the shots and free to do whatever I wanted..kind of.

What I wouldn't do now for a couple hours in a 172 and a sunny day!!!

Oh, a while back I wrote about my search for a new beer for the summer... since the beer I previously enjoyed at home ( Sleemans Honey-Brown ) was waaay too expensive out here.

For awhile, I was drinking Labatts Blue. Very popular in these parts, very available.

However, that only lasted for about a month. I was turned onto a smaller label, available at the beer store in town, called James Ready, or JR.

They're a fairly new, smaller brewery and the beer is quite good. They've got a couple little marketing gimmicks that are fun as well. For instance, underneath all the caps is printed a little saying. Some of them made by the folks at JR and some of them were sent into their website by drinkers of the beer, and posted under the caps. Some of them are really funny, others just a little...weird. The theme of the website, where you submit the suggestions, was " How Can JR Help You? ", so you would send in your plea for money for some cause or other, or a little tip to put under the cap on how JR could help the world in general.

Reading through the website and peoples submissions was actually a little depressing. I lost my job, JR please buy me groceries. JR, please help me pay for my kids kidney surgery. JR, please poison my exhusband who ran off on our family.

The caps are a little funnier though. We've been collecting them. Heres a little sample of what you can find;

If you get this cap, buy another case, its the rules, man.

If you run out of fresh water, drink JR.

Name your dog James Ready

We dont drink Cranberry Juice, but we understand if you do.

The next bottle contains the antidote.

Do not drink with bra.


And then the " How Can We Help You? " caps;

Landscape your garden?

Lobby Ottawa to create a James Ready day and make it a national Holiday?

Give you the answer to a skill-testing question?



I don't think they sell JR in BC. I don't think I can afford beer in BC though, so its a moot point.

Out here, a " case " in a 24-pack. Back in BC, That would be called a " two-four " or occasionally a " box " of beer.

Out here, the sale of alcohol is still heavily regulated by the government liquor control board. The good thing about that is that beer prices are pretty much standard across the province, you'll pay the same price next door to the brewery as you do 1000 miles away. A caswe / 24 of beer out here is 28 bucks. Back home, its closer to 42. argh.

Thats alright though ,all the weight I lost at the beginning of the season has come back now that I drink beer every day. If I'm going to cut out the heavy manual labour, I better cut out the beer to balance things out a little.

A good old tractor pull.

Hey brother, can you spare an Ark?

Holy rainballs batman.

Will this rain never end?? Everyone back out West must be wondering the same thing with the sun and heat, but out in the middle here, its getting pretty freaking soggy.

The sad thing is, when I was out west, and I looked at the weather map you could only see a little ways into what was coming your way. Most of our weather in Canada moves from West to East, and Environment Canada only publishes weather data ( that I know of ) out a few hundred miles into the Pacific. So, when you look up your weather and see a low pressure system moving in off the coast, you know what the next day or two has in store for you.



Low ceilings, rain, maybe some wind and in the winter, maybe some ice. Out here, I can look at the weather all across the prairies and see what is coming my way for like the next week. Unfortunately, lately, that has just been depressing. I'd almost rather not know.

I can see the next low pressure system moving in and over us ( where it will indubitably decide to cease forward motion and die a slow lingering, wet and soggy death over top of me ), and I can see the next one a day or two behind it.

Sigh.



I left Vancouver at the end of a long, typically soggy winter and came out here to the tail end of a cold, soggy spring. I'm anticipating going home next month, just in time to catch the beginning of the West Coast's long, soggy winter. I better go dry out my rubber boots. Maybe in the oven, I think thats the only place around here thats not wet.

Anyhow, enough complaining about the weather, it is what it is.

We did actually have a decent day yesterday, with a little bit of the sun in the afternoon, of all things, to make an appearance.




We finally got the go-ahead from the owner to rig up a boat and motor for us to use around the lake, which is super-cool. We had previously been strictly banned from getting our boat on out here, due to previous dockhands poor decision making. We never got the specifics of the incident that lead to the suspension of boat privileges around the base, but it must have been fun if they wont even tell us what it was. If it was something dumb and unpleasant, they'd just tell us, as a deterrant. If it was something fun and ingenious, then they might clam up, so as not to give us any ideas.

My guess, is that they used the boat to run into town and partake in liquid festivities and avoid the OPP checkstop on the only highway leading from town back to our base. The river that runs in front of us, leads under the bridge on the highway and will take you into town. Tie up on the dock and your within stumbling distance of a bar.

The proviso of the new boat freedoms, was that we were NOT to go under the bridge. We can go as far as we want in the other direction, and you can go REALLY far, but not under the bridge. I think you can actually get to town by going the other direction, it would just take you the better part of an hour to wind through the lakes and channels that would lead you back around from the other side.

The boat announcement actually came at the tail end of another little episode we had out here. There was some mechanical issues with the aircraft that had to be dealt with at the dock, and the " crash-boat " had to be moved from its spot on the ramp, to be tied up on the side of one of the docks. I'm pretty sure I was the one who moved it and subsequently tied it up, which you can imagine my dismay when it was noticed missing the next day...haha.

The mechanical issue was interesting, I got to see a large radial engine almost completely tore down and rebuilt. Without getting into specifics, the mechanics had to take apart half the engine to get at the part that needed replacing. This is known as " splitting " an engine. It was neat to see all the bits and pieces you knew were in there, but had never seen up close and personal. Also interesting to see the procedures that seem to be specific to aircraft mechanics, in the safetying and lock wiring of everything.

In a large radial engine, in particular, there is a lot of vibration when the engine is run. If your car vibrated and shook like this, all of the nuts, bolts and screws that hold it together would simply rattle themselves loose and parts would start falling off. Bad enough for that to happen on the freeway on the way to work, at 5000' in the air, its a whole nother story. So, all the bits and pieces, after being tightened down to the specific pressure, get a little piece of lockwire run through a hole in the nut and bolt ends and twisted up. The little bit of wire serves to keep the nut/bolt/screw from rattling off. A lot of times, a big gob of sealant is then applied over the top of the whole thing too, to serve as a seal and tamper-indicator. Sometimes its just a little line of the stuff, running from the top of the nut, down onto the bolt, so you can visually see if it is vibrating loose ( the lines no longer line up ) and sometimes its completely coated with the stuff, like a big blob of used gum.

Almost all the fasteners in the engine get the same treatment, its pretty impressive. Time consuming too, trust me.

Out there on the dock, under makeshift two-by-four and tarp home-made hangar, running tools back and forth to the mechanics and helping out.. ie..." hold this, don't let go, its heavy. ". or my favourite... " Shit, I dropped a screw. Did you see if it fell in the lake? "

But, all in all, it was a fantastic opportunity to take part in and get to see and do stuff that is actually fairly rare.

The particular engine we run on our plane is made in Poland. Its a PZL ( Pezetel ), 9 cylinder, 1000HP, radial engine. It was actually invented by the Wright Aircraft Company and designated as a Wright Cyclone. Wright designed the engine originally to put out 700 and change horsepower, but the Polish company licensed to build them added a supercharger and other modifications over the years and brought it up to 1000 HP.

I found out that the name " Pezetel " is actually a bastardization of the pronunciation ( think polish accent ) of the initals P - Z - L. The Polish name of the company is something else entirely, but they go by the PZL name.

Anyhow, after the engine work was complete, the pilot and the mechanic jumped in and taxied out into the lake for a run-up and flight if everything went well. Everything went fine, which was impressive for a mechanical undertaking of that size, and under trying conditions. But as they were taxiing around, I mentally ran through what I would do if something untoward were to happen during takeoff. First thing I noticed was the absence of the crash-boat. My next two options were,

A. Jump in a kayak and paddle out there, in order to...do nothing once I got there, since the kayak only seats one.

B. Run around screaming like a little girl.

We figured it out the next day that it had actually come undone at some point during the night ( we had a few storms with high winds, to accompany the ever present rains ) and was most likely downstream somewhere.

On a flight the next day we did a few circuits around the lake and spotted it up in the weeds at the end of a bay.

We got one of the old spare boats all set up with a motor and gas tank and went on a little rescue mission.

Once we got to the boat, we found it filled with water. duh, its been raining for-EVER!. Found out how to " power-drain " a boat. On the back of these boats, at the bottom, is actually a little plug. When you pull the boat up onto land, you pull the plug so that any rain water that gets in simply drains out. Remember to put the plug back in before you push it into the water though. To power-drain it, you simply get it up to speed, or as much speed as you can manage, considering the boat is pushing around and extra thousand pounds or so of water... pull the plug out and the the suction at the back of the boat sucks the water out the drain hole. If you slow down though, the suction stops and water starts coming back in, so you've got to be quick on getting the plug back in.

We tied the runaway boat to the rescue boat and dragged it back to base, draining it along the way. Bailing them out by hand sucks.



Ended up going out fishing for an hour or two as we've had such crappy luck off the dock the past few weeks. No luch though. Truth to tell, we weren't very patient though, so anxious to get around to all the little spots we had seen people fishing ( and catching ) from their boats that we just rushed around from spot to sport without any serious fishing-style patience.

Most of the fish we catch up here are Walleye.



Walleye are awesome for eating, which is handy, because I don't think theyre good for much else. They're not terrific fighters on the hook, nor are they immense fish that you can hang off a scale or mount on a wall. None of these things interest me much, I'm more into eating them.

Two more weeks till I get to go home for a few days to see The Lovely Wife!!!


Oh, and this....this is a dock spider. Yeah. Oh Yeah.

Festivus

I think I survived an evening at the beer gardens at our local summer festival.

My hangover took one full day of bed-rest plus another day of moping around with a headache.

I always remember the next day why exactly it is that I don't drink to excess anymore. I suppose its a bit of a tradition around here though, so when in Rome...

I went through my camera to see what I had to post this week and found this one.



It pretty much sums up the latter part of my evening at the beer gardens.

As in.... vague details, blurry images and spending a good deal of the time not quite knowing what was going on.

I don't remember taking any pictures, and I have absolutely no idea what is going on in this one. It kind of looks like a double exposure that you get with a 35mm camera, but this is digital. I think it is just the result of taking a picture, in the dark, with the flash off, and an extremely unsteady hand. What I was taking a picture of, I have no idea. I think I see someones face on the left side, but it looks like people dancing in the background on the middle right.




I did take a little video of a fly-past we did, over the town, on our last flight of the day before we shut it down and headed into town for the festivities.

Please excuse the dirty windshield, we had a little oil issue, it looks worse than it is.




The weather here for the last week has been absolutely horrible. We just keep getting one low pressure system after another. They roar across the prairies, leaving thunderstorms in the unsettled air behind them and pushing huge bands of rain and cloud ahead of the warm front side. Except, when they get to us they seem to pick this spot to finish occluding and die right above us. We aren't getting a lot of the intense thunderstorms or heavy rains that occur while the system is at full strength, but we are getting the clouds and showers it leaves in its aftermath, sitting right on top of us for days at a time.



We did get a few thunderstorms, which is kind of nice for me. As long as we don't have to fly in it, it makes for a great show. A show we don't get to see very often on the west coast.



One night we had a lightning storm that was pretty intense. The sky was lit up like a strobe light that kept going off. I had to get up out of bed and go outside to watch it for awhile. I tried to video it, but with less than satisfying results. Of course the intensity and frequency of the lightning died off the minute I started shooting video. At one point, the thunder was so continuous that it was just a dull rumbling, with no start or finish.


The lightning was cool too, as it wasn't hitting the ground, it was arcing across the sky. Sometimes spreading out in multiple forks like fingers as they raced across the clouds. I've never seen lightning like that before, I suppose it was sheet lightning?

Not much chance of the lightning setting off too many forest fires, everything up here is absolutely drenched.

We had a group scheduled to fly out of here today, but they ran into trouble at the border and they wont be arriving apparently. Bummer for them, that has to suck.

We were going to fly them out and then go over to another camp and cut some trees down and skin them to make poles for a new boat dock. The skinning has been described as a bit of a nasty job. These are pine trees that we will be using and they have a lot of sap under their bark. The trees get cut down and the branches cut off with the chainsaw. Then, they bark is removed with a pull-knife. The knife looks kind of like a flat blade with a handle on each end, so you can " pull " it down the tree and get the bark started to peel off. The sap of course gets all over you and your hands. I'm not a big fan of tree sap, the only way to get it off is to wash it with gasoline apparently, even then I'm not too sure.

Since their are no guests to fly out though, we're going to save this job for another day when we can combine it with a revenue trip. So, not much to do today. Too wet to do much around the base as far as maintenance.

Everyone keeps saying August is usually nice.

It came to me the other day... We're holding out for ONE MONTH of summer? argh.

I Spy...

Had an interesting little experience this week..

We went on a charter flight a couple days ago, to an area we dont normally fly over. I was along for the ride and there was some new territory to check out.

On the way down, I was actually looking for signs of the recent Tornado we had in the area, and I got a couple shots of a swath or two of downed tree's.




Couldn't find the destroyed outpost lodges though where the injuries and deaths occurred.




I also noticed a Red Ford Explorer sitting a few kilometres off the main highway, in a gravel pit, near where they were doing some construction on a bridge. I remember looking down into the windshield to see if I could catch a construction worked from the bridge project sneaking in a nap. I do remember it looked a little out of place there, but then also thought that it was near enough to all the construction commotion, that if there were really something nefarious going on, that the crew would have already soused it out.

Didn't think much about it till the next day when I was driving into town with one of the owners and her we got to talking about a recent case where a woman had checked out of a local motel on Sunday morning and hadn't been heard from since. This was on Friday.

She mentioned that they had sent us a flyer with the womans description and also a description and photograph of the RED TRUCK that they were also looking for.

Uh-oh.

I told her of the SUV I saw off in the sticks and we decided to check the flyer as soon as we got back to base.

We pulled back into base and there was an OPP ( Ontario Provincial Police ) cruiser parked next door. We offloaded our stuff and the officer walked over. He had a flyer in his hand and was basically going around to all the fly-in lodges and making sure we had all the info to pass along to our guests.

I told him of the vehicle I saw and looked at the flyer, sure enough ,they weren't looking for a truck, they were looking for a Red Ford Explorer. The photo on the flyer was the exact vehicle I saw.

I gave him the location and he got all my details. We even scoped it out on Google Earth to see if I could spot the gravel pit from there, but the resolution wasn't high enough in that area. The officer talked with his superiors on the phone and at one point I spoke with the head-honcho of our area on the phone as well. I was able to give a pretty specific location, but other than that, I didn't have much to add.

Next day, ( yesterday ), I saw a little blurb in the news that they had found her vehicle, and right where I had described seeing it. Wow, it was hers after all! I kind of thought it would turn out to belong to one of the guys on the construction site or something.

Now, today, they found her, alive even!

Six days after checking out of her motel room, they found her a little ways away from where her truck was found. Covered in bug bites apparently, but relatively uninjured. I'm very interested to find out what happened to her. Maybe stopped to use the " off-road facilities " and stumbled off a embankment into the river? Who knows!

I'm pretty chuffed as well that I had a small part to play in helping them locate her as well. Obviously, my role had more to do with dumb luck than the kind of dedication and effort put out by the searchers and police, but chuffed nevertheless.

I actually had a few moments the day before yesterday, where I started thinking terrible what-if scenarios where my not reporting it for almost 24 hours cost the poor woman her life. Truth be told, I had only heard a brief snippet of conversation about the case prior to that flight and had no idea they were looking for a vehicle. However, the thought did cross my mind briefyl while I flew over the truck...it being out of place..there being a missing woman... but then I brushed that aside for what I figured would be the more likely scenario of a construction workes nap hide-out.

Had a couple of days of nice weather, which sure goes a long way to making a hard days work more enjoyable...



Looks like we got a few days off this week, and whaddayaknow..the rain is due back for the rest of the week. Oh Joy.


According to the map...there should be a tower around here someplace...

Powered by Red Bull and held on by Four Bolts

Wow. Exciting week, to say the least.

I've got a few stories for this post, so if you need to take a leak or grab a coffee, now would be a good time.

I'll start with the engine failure.

The otter's pilot speculated, and was pretty much bang-on it looks like, that the cause of the failure was the blower or the blower seal.

The blower is a supercharger basically, it takes power from the engine, by means of a gear off the crankshaft, and runs it through a shaft, up to a metal fan that takes the air the engine is sucking in and compresses it.

Piston engines eat air and fuel, you can pump, pour and slosh fuel into it without much trouble, in fact a lot of planes simply let gravity dump the stuff down its throat. The air is a little trickier, enter the supercharger and turbocharger, which both take the air and compress it before shoveling it down the cylinders to be gobbled up with the fuel.



Superchargers run off the engine by means of a shaft, they have the advantage of instant power, the engine turns over, the supercharger turns over. But it takes power to turn that heavy shaft and blower, power and weight. You gain power in the process, but it costs you a fair bit as well just to make it go and then to lift it all up in the air.

Turbochargers basically harness the power of the exhaust gasses that are leaving the cylinders and use that power to turn a fan. That fan is linked to another fan by means of a shaft, and the second fan is the one that compresses the air that is coming in. Its kind of like installing a hydro-electric turbine to your toilet in order to power your lights with each flush. Free ( kind of.. ) energy is very cost efficient. I'm pretty sure turbochargers are a lot lighter as well, but perhaps someone who knows more about it can confirm or deny that... One of the disadvantages of turbo chargers though, is that there is a lag between the time you ask the engine to give you more power and the time it takes the two fans to " spool " up and give you more power.


During the actual failure, we didn't lose much manifold pressure, ( the measure of how much the air being eaten is compressed ), so the theory was that the seal had gone where the shaft enters the blower ( its coming out of the oil-filled crankcase ) and oil had poured into the blower, then into the engine and then fouled the spark plugs.

The fouled spark plugs then caused the engine to run rough, as not all the cylinders were firing, and the oil that was pouring through was being burned in the good cylinders and pouring through into the red-hot exhaust pipes from the cylinders that were not burning.

If you've ever been to an airshow and seen them trail smoke out of their planes, that is simply oil being squirted onto the exhaust...so we kind of got the same effect.



The company I work for uses one plane, and uses it very efficiently. One of the dangers of this is when the inevitable mechanical issues come up that would ground the plane ( like not having a functional engine ), things can get a bit hairy, to say the least.

The owner however spares no expense in maintenance, both corrective and preventative maintenance. I mean, how could you not, right?

So, we actually have two more engines in stock. One of them is waiting to be sent out for a complete overhaul, the other is sitting at the overhaulers shop, finished and ready to go. Only problem is, the overhauler is located in a little town in Arkansas. The plane that requires the engine is here.... we had a very urgent need to dramatically decrease the distance between these two items.

It was decided that the otters pilot and I would jump in the pickup, grab a trailer out of storage and drive down there and get it. This being the fastest possible means, commercial shipping would be over a week and way too risky for this vital and relatively sensitive piece of kit.




The mileage worked out to 2100 Km's each way ( 1305 Miles）and we had to drive down there and back non-stop. Driving and sleeping in shifts, we did the whole trip in 46 hours. 4200 kilometres round trip in less than two days. This is a new record for me in long-distance endurance driving and frankly, this one will stand, there is little chance I will ever do anything that crazy again. It was an adventure though.

We got the full-on Welcome To The Excited States of America treatment at the border. Truck searched from top to bottom, pockets emptied, passports examined, rapid-fire questioning by some very serious looking border guards. They asked us to empty our pockets on the counter and I had the grand total of two items, my leatherman and a tube of chapstick. The other fellow had his pockets crammed with all manner of stuff, so that was kind of funny. The border gaurd examining his things picked up each item in turn as he was asking random questions and actually sniffed each item. That was actually kind of bizarre looking, to see him so seriously sniffing lighters and notepads.

The truck was searched, and it took almost an hour. At one point we could see them with handheld spray bottles spraying something onto the headliner and around the doors..not sure what that was to detect, my suspicion is some kind of drug-residue detector perhaps?

At one point, an officer passed through the area where we were waiting and we asked if it would be much longer. " It may be a bit, it looks like we've found some marijuana " she says.

That was more than a little disconcerting. Its been a long time since I ever came in contact with any of the green stuff, and my companion pleaded the same. The truck however, was used for shuttling guests around from time to time and we hadn't cleaned it out before heading south. It hadn't occurred to either of us to do so, but it was the only thing we could think of in light of our current situation.

Another ten minutes or so went by and they came walking back towards us, one of them was obviously holding something in his closed hand.

Once inside, he told us that they had found something in the truck, and he opened up his closed hand. He held two little evidence bags that had something inside of them and were tagged and numbered ( presumably with what would become our new prisoner numbers in US Federal Jail) and a bottle-cap sized clump of Marijuana. Our eyes bugged out of our head as we both leaned over to view the object of our demise... The officer said, " But, it tested negative, so you're fine ". Looking at it now, I could see that it was a clump of compressed grass clippings, like you would get on the underside of a lawnmower, or off some poor dockhands boot who didn't stomp his feet off before getting in the truck.

The drive, and the border crossing were pretty much like flying. Hours of boredom followed by moments of sheer terror.

Moment of sheer terror had passed and we were off and running.

We stocked up on road food at the first gas station. Beef Jerky, greasy chicken skewers, a couple 4-packs of Red Bull, some bottled water, some chewing tobacco and sunflower seeds.

The first 20 hours were pretty much as you would expect. 8 hours or so of this-is-cool-look-at-that! kind of road trip excitement. Followed by another 8 hours of boy-I'm-getting-tired-keep-talking-and-pass-me-another-red-bull. That got us through the easy part, the last hours were sand-in-your-eyes, watching the sunrise and tasting what it feels like to have second degree red bull burns on your tongue.

We made it though, down into deepest darkest Arkansas. Hillbilly country to be sure. People sitting out on their porches, old trucks littering the yards and sideroads. Thick accents at the gas station and blank looks when we told them where we came from, until we said Canada. The look changed again when we told them we came from Canada, last night.

The landscape in this part of the world is pretty neat as well. I had heard of the " Ozark Mountains " but had never actually seen them. It is quite hilly country, maybe not mountains by Rocky Mountain standards, but mountains none the less. The foliage is dense, almost tropical and the roads snake around the the hills and rock outcroppings like they do in BC. There just isn't 6000 feet of mountain towering over top of you, otherwise, at eye level, it is quite similar.



We were shocked at the heat and humidity as well. It was like being in a jungle. The last time I remember these kind of conditions was in Japan. 36 degrees celsius and 90% humidity. Absolutely brutal.

At one point we were at a gas station and I came walking back to the truck. Alarmingly, there was a stream of water pouring out of the bottom of the engine, like someone had left a tap running. We popped the hood as we thought we were overheating, and found it was just the condensation coming off the air conditioning canister. I've seem them do this, but its usually a few drips or a little puddle after a few minutes of sitting. The humidity was so intense here that we were distilling an amazing amount of water out of the air with the cold sides of the air conditioning equipment.

They are very big on their churches down in this part of the world. We drove through on a Sunday and saw one church in particular that had well over three hundred cars in the parking lot. The church itself looked like a mall, it was that big. It even had a giant jumbotron out front that flashed graphics and the topics of this weeks sermon. THe radio dial was full of religious talk shows and Christian music of all types.

Another little back-woods church we passed had an interesting sign out front. On one side it said " God hates homosexuality " and on the other side it said " But God loves homosexuals ".


We had about two and half hours at destination, talking with the fellow who did the overhaul on the engine. The man was a wealth of knowledge about large radials and this model in particular. He told us he had started in this business when he was seventeen and that was all he had ever done.

Part of me thought it was pretty cool to be so incredibly knowledgeable about something, where people seek you out from so far away, and your reputation, by name, not company that you work for, is recognized around North America. Part of me thought it was kind of sad though, that this is literally all he had ever done. He seemed happy enough though, so I'm glad that for him that was enough.

The pilot offered to take the engine mechanic up for a ride one day if he ever came up north. He laughed and said " No way, I don't ride in those things! ". That made me laugh. I'm sure more than one pilot has climbed back into their plane for the first trip after having the engine re-done by this guy and briefly considered the fact that the mechanic was not willing to ride in the machine he just fixed...

The big crate with the engine was loaded on our trailer and secured for the trip home and we were off and running again.

Both of us had our second, third and possibly fourth winds, after having driven though the night. That first night, it was hard sleeping in the truck, particularly when you felt an obligation to stay up and help keep the other guy alert. We both probably got 2 hours of interrupted, little here, little there napping on that first night.

Going back though, the sleep came a bit easier. We both stayed awake till nightfall,where we started alternating driving / sleeping in earnest. We got a routine going of one person driving for a tank of gas, then switching drivers when we pulled in for fuel, more red bull and road food.

A tank was getting us about three hours driving on the way back, with load in tow. So for the three hours you were "off-duty " you would spend the first hour chatting and letting your head un-wire a little. Then the pillow came out and the seat went back and if you were lucky you'd pass out for an hour and a half or so. Then the bladder would wake you up and you'd be watching for the next gas-stop.

At one point, the cars ahead of us flashed their brake lights and one of them pulled over to the side of the road. As wegot closer, we passed a deer, obviously dying and still twitching in the middle of the road, the cause of the stoppage in play. The car that had pulled over had its occupants out and inspecting the damage, so it couldn't have been too bad for them. It was about as bad as it gets for the deer though, and it was a reminder to us of what waited if we were to not keep our attention on the road.

We discovered that Red Bull is very effective. However. Caffeine and sugar buzzes, while momentarily effective at restoring alertness, are usually followed by a crash of commensurate proportion to the lift that was gained. So, you basically had to keep drinking the stuff once you started. My liver may never forgive me. The memory of what true mung-mouth is all about will stick with me for awhile.

Long drive short, we made it back.



Just in time too, as the mechanics had the old engine off, and were ready for the new one to arrive so they could start transferring all of the accessories over to the new one. Things like starter, carb, mags, exhaust, etc. We arrived just as they were ready for us, so there was very little time wasted there as well. In fact I'd say the engine swap went about as smoothly and in as good a time frame as the engine pickup. Everyone pulled out all the stops and there were very few serious snags to get in the way.

This part of the job took another ten hours or so. I didn't make it that far before I crashed. I stayed up for another fours hours or so after we got back and helped them unpack and offload the new engine, and get it into the garage along with the old one, before I had to hit the bed.

I laid down at 6pm and slept straight through till 6 am, where we had to get up and load up a group of guests on the last charter flight.

During all of the charters that we did, I got to see a few new airplanes up close and personal. We charted a Standard Otter, another Polish Otter and even a couple Beech 18's.

I definitely prefer the Polish Otter as far as functionality and performance are concerned, but I have to admit a soft spot for the Beech.

We were loading the Beech one day and a group of obviously well-to-do folks were boarding. They had in fact just been driven down to the dock from their private jet at the local airport.

One young guy looked at the Beech before climbing in, and I'm pretty sure I saw a bit of a sneer while he said " so, uh, how old is this thing?? ". The pilot answered back with no hesitation whatsoever " 1991 ". He did it so deadpan, I almost believed him. The young man did and boarded without any further fuss.

The Beech 18 was manufactured between 1937 and 1970. There are still plenty of 1940 and 1950 vintage ones still flying and this could very well have been one of them. His deadpan delivery and perfect comedic timing were awesome, to say the least. I'm going to file that one away and keep it handy, I suspect I will get some good use out of that line myself one day. A lot of the planes involved in this kind of bush flying are of similar vintage.

After the charter left, the serious business of the engine swap resumed.




They had stayed up till midnight the night before transferring everything over and getting the engine ready for the re-mounting. at 0630 the Boom Truck showed up to do the lifting onto the plane while the Mechanics attached the four bolts that held the engine mounts to the airframe.

I found it interesting that its only four bolts that hold all of that power onto the plane. All of the 1000 horsepower that this engine puts out, all of that forward thrust pulling 8000 lbs of airplane through the air, is through those four bolts.

I think there are probably a lot of this that we never think of. Critical cars parts, ladders, bicycles, roller-coasters, elevators, and that kind of thing, all depending on four bolts.

I've assisted in swapping out transmissions, engines and other major car parts, along with some pretty knowledgeable mechanics. Usually these major jobs are filled with all kinds of unforeseen snags. An old rusty bolt snaps off inside a critical housing and needs to be drilled out. Things seize up and wont come apart, Things don't line up just right, bolts get dropped into amazingly inaccessible recesses of the engine.

This went off like nothing I'd ever seen before. From my standpoint, it was picture perfect. Once the engine was on and a runup done at the dock, the mechanics piled in and off they went on a test flight. A half hour later they were back and there was nothing left to do but clean up and do the paperwork. I was impressed.



Working on airplanes is so much nicer than working on cars. I can see why someone with a mechanical bent, and no interest in aviation, would pick planes over cars. Other than being so obviously sexy, they are incredibly clean compared to a car. Very little rust, no dirt or caked on lube grease, mixed with gravel and for the most part, if a part is questionable, you replace it, you don't mess around trying to rebuild it.

So, we are back in business, with a working airplane and all. We've got no guest changeovers for the next two days though, so we've got a whopping two days off. Coupled with the muscular atrophy I got from sitting in a truck for two days straight, I'm going to have some serious weight training to do before the heavy lifting part of my job resumes.

Oh, and the cause of the engine failure. With the old engine off, the carb was taken off so we could look down into the blower.

This is the opening of the blower, once the carb was removed.




We couldn't see the seal itself, but what we could see was pretty alarming. A bolt from the bottom of the carb had someone gotten loose and dropped into the blower compartment. The blower, spinning at some 30,000 RPM, spun that bolt around for enough time to rip most of the fins off the blower and pit up the entire inside of the blower. We're not sure yet where the bolt went after that. It may have continued on into the engine, once it cleared a way for itself through the blower fins, or it may have ground itself down to nothing being bounced around the blower like that.



The engine is now being packed up and made ready to send down for overhaul and we wont know the final verdict until they've opened it up.

I suspect it did get ingested into the engine and there is going to be further damage discovered. But who knows, maybe the trip round the blower a few hundred thousand rotations was enough to chew it into a manageable meal for the big old radial. Lets cross our fingers that it made it into bite-sized chunks, these engines are not cheap.


Just before we left for Arkansas as well, we had a little bit of thunderstorm activity. In fact, we've been getting a fair bit of thunderstorms out here in the last few weeks. Usually just after passage of a warm front.

In my last post, I took a picture of some neat clouds that were passing over with a pretty big storm. These clouds are called Mammatocumulus clouds .





Turns out, this exact storm actually spawned at least one tornado in a little town south of here. I didn't find out until the next day.

Two outpost lodges were picked up and thrown into the lake, complete with the guests inside them.

These lodges are typically built sitting on top of foundation posts, but really, very little holding them down., They rely pretty heavily on gravity to do that part of the job for them. For the most part it works out well. A thunderstorm however, and a tornado in particular, can trump gravity in terms of force and thats what happened to these guys.

This is all rumor and hearsay, but apparently one cabin was moved about 75 feet and dropped into the lake, with all surviving.

The other, was picked up and the remains of it found over a kilometer away. The three guests inside this one all died.

I can only imagine the chaos inside the cabin with stuff flying all over and going end over end as it disintegrated over the lake. Very Sad.

The guests were from Oklahoma too I think. It seems they couldn't escape the tornadoes that frequently stalk that part of the world.

I've also got another trip back home booked for next month. I cant wait! I really do miss having The Lovely Wide with me for this adventure. I've always depended on her to help me get my head off the ground and up into the clouds, both literally and figuratively. If it wasn't for her, I never would have dreamed I could go down this road, the pragmatic side of it most likely would have scared me off.

Too often I get bogged down in depressing realities and I wish she were here with me to help me see the rainbows and unicorns that somehow she is always able to spot. I hope I do the same for her in some respects as well.

Its been a difficult summer for us both, in terms of our relationship and functioning at a long distance like this. We've reached the halfway point now though, and I'm hoping that somehow, someway, we are able to make this career path work for both of us without anymore time spent living apart. a couple days or even a week here and there isn't too unthinkable, but spending a summer away from her again is pretty much a non-starter, its just too hard. It seems like that would be a major hurdle, but I've met more than a few people that made it work. You just have to want something bad enough and there is always a way to make it happen.


And this suspect was seen again, stalking a local family of ducks.....

2nd Period

Before I started this job, I actually managed to have a little email exchange with a fellow who had worked here previously. He gave me a lot of really good info about the operation and how the season would play out. So far, he is batting a thousand...everything he told me would happen has happened, and everything that he told me wouldn't happen, hasn't happened either.

I came across this guy by doing a bit of snooping around on Google and Avcanada for the outfits name and stumbled on a thread in the forums where a few people mentioned it by name and the content of their posts led me to believe they had worked there.




I emailed one of them and he gave me, no word of a lie, a four page dissertation on things. I've been meaning to email him back as he asked that I check in with him mid-season and let him know how things went. I'm going to point him here, in case he wants to see some familiar sights as well...if you're reading this...thanks again for the info.



This week has been alternatively boring and dramatic.

We've had some nice weather and things have slowed to a managemable pace... Some of our daysd are less than 4 or 5 hours long and we're done. Other days, particularly the wekends can be a bit longer. Tomrow is a good example. I twill most likely be a 12-14 hour day. We start at 0400 and there are at least four flights going out, so that means the last flight will return at approx 4 in the afternoon.

The drama, came yesterday, in the way of a partial engine failure on the way back from dropping guests off and working up north art a couple of the camps. I was riding in the back on this flight, keeping the fuel drums, shovels, rakes and implements of destruction company.



On takeoff we all noticed the engine wasn't running normally, there was a little vibration and it felt rough. Power was backed off and reapplied, and it seemed to run smoothly again. We took off, climbed up around 3000 feet and headed home. An hour later, ten minutes out from base, the engine suddenly began running VERY rough. Everyone was wide awake and paying attention now.... not that anyone..ahem.... was sleeping or anything...

We limped the last few miles with the engine running rough, but still giving a decent amount of power. On landing, smoke poured out of the exhaust..so much smoke that we completely obscured the bay in which we had landed, it was quite the sight. The smoke was even starting to find its way into the cabin. Later, we found out that over six gallons of oil was missing, and most likely all burned up in the exhaust after landing.

So, that was the drama. But theres more coming.

Now, the airplane is down. We're chartering flights from some of the other companies in the area to keep the flow of guests uninterrupted, while the new engine is being prepared.

It looks like sometime next week, we will be doing an engine swap, right here on our dock. This should be interesting. Unfortunately, very expensive for the owners, but for me, very interesting.

There is talk of someone having to drive down to the Deep South USA to go and pick up the new engine, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get tapped for that job, that would be quite the adventure.

Not a lot of pics to share right now, but there will be some coming soon, I promise.