Marine Tech job

Here are a few photos from previous cruises that the person working in this position took to try and explain what a part of my new job will entail. I will be making sure the instruments I am in charge of are ready to be put in the mooring string and are ready to collect data. The moorings are often in place for up to a year at a time. Our instruments are at a depth of 30 to 500 feet. Other instruments, from other researchers, are also on the mooring string, typically.

The instrument, at bottom of picture, (a spectrophotometer that uses an ultraviolet light source to measure how much nitrate is dissolved in the sea-water) and the battery pack to power the instrument, at top of picture.

The frame that holds the battery pack and instrument.

Loaded frame.

Deploying the mooring.

The rail car wheels that anchor the mooring to the bottom of the ocean. The orange buoys in the string keep the instruments in a straight line (sort of. strong currents can cause the mooring to tilt)

A small mooring string. The yellow tube is a remotely controlled release mechanism. When it is time to take the mooring out of the water a radio signal is sent and this thing releases itself from the chain/train wheels keeping the whole string of instruments under the water. The orange buoys you see above the release mechanism bring the instruments to the water surface.

Putting in the Floor and some logging

The following work took place over the last week of June thru the first week of July. Now I am ready for the logs to arrive. That should be the middle to end of July.

Foundation logs from David's property and milled on his bandsaw sawmill. Very heavy green logs!!

Wood I-beams going in.

All in and mostly square.

12 inches of insulation.

3/4 inch flooring on and first coat of paint on. Paint was salvaged from the transfer station! The shape is just from running out of one color and going to the next. When I looked at it later I thought I should have gone for a Ying Yang design! Next coat will be all white, again free from the transfer station. The paint is just to protect the floor from water during the log stacking process. In the end the floor will be covered with carpet or something else.
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Some photos of hauling logs on July 5th from David and Sarah's land out on Chena Hotsprings Road. I cut down 5 trees, 4 to serve as floor joists for the second floor of my cabin and one for a ridge pole.

Tony, David's oldest (12), backing up the log hauler (built by David). The log tongs grab the log and you use the winch to lift that end up off the ground, allowing a pretty small machine to pull logs that weigh in excess of 500 lbs.


A surly pre-teenager

Floor joist logs being peeled so they can start drying a bit before I use them later this summer

New Job training in Seward

June 4-15 I drove to Seward to spend 2 weeks training for my new job. The first week was rainy, typical for this coastal town. My first weekend and the following week was sunny, but windy so it didn't warm up much. By the end I was missing the warm Interior weather, but you can't beat the scenery in Seward.

View of Seward from Mt. Marathon.

Panoramic from the top of Mt. Marathon

Mt. Marathon from the parking lot of my hostel. You can see a trail going up. I took a less steep path on the way up that went to the right thru the forest and then left along the whole ridgeline you can see, going from right to left. When I came down, I took the steep path. Every July 4th, there is a race up the mountain (the steep path) and down again. It is 1.5 miles up (about 3000 feet) and the same down. This year was the 80th year of the race. The winning men's time was 46 minutes and the women's time was 52 minutes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Marathon_Race

View of Mtns across the bay from Seward



Exit Glacier about 8 miles from Seward


Grooves in the bedrock next to Exit Glacier carved by the ice. Very cool.

Cement pads

After a couple of days of moving rock around to make the berms wide enough in the right places and getting the grade level (thanks to a laser level from David) the forms were ready to be put into place. The wood for the forms came from the nearby garbage transfer station about 3 miles down the road.

55- 80 pound bags of cement were mixed 2 bags at a time.

Cement mixer with totes of water hauled from a nearby "pond" of water in the road ditch.
A growing wood pile in the back ground.

Cement pad with steel wire to re-inforce.

Cement blocks filled with cement to make them more stout. They will serve to get the cabin further off the ground.

Before and After Gravel Pad and Driveway

A few shots of the gravel pad foundation and driveway.



May 22nd, looking south
Sad about having to cut down a couple of nice birch trees.

May 24th, looking south.
Swimming pool? No, just saving on gravel.

May 22nd, looking down driveway.

May 24th, after going over the new gravel with a walk-behind compacter.
Nice.

Awesome skid-steer I rented for a day. It was quite an ordeal. The day the gravel came, I had asked for 6 loads. Then it looked like I needed more. The driver had "other things to do". The owner of the company was not happy with him. The next morning I was up at 5 am to get ready for the owner to bring me another 6 loads. The skid-steer was supposed to go back to the rental place at 10 am. They gave me a few extra hours by making it their last pick-up for the day. I was done at 11 am!

Camper

Found this camper in Big Delta. I had driven down to get a different one, but after complications that I won't go into I saw this one in a yard from the road. I stopped, asked if they would sell it and they did!! 1.5 hours later I had it loaded and was on my way home. I went to Delta for a camper and I came home with one!! I didn't have the right wires to hook up the lights, so the last 45 min. of driving home, my rear end was dark. Luckily no cops or incidents with other motorists!! It now sits next to the DC-6. I'll get a pic of that later.
The propane stove, heater and fridge all work. I'll be living in it this summer as I work on the property and work at the Univ. Hopefully the cabin will be built by the time it gets too cold.....




The camper sitting next to David's DC-6 airplane that will eventually be finished out for a very unique rental! My property is just south of the plane (behind the end of the plane about 75 yards)

Clearing Trees at Property

May 7-9, worked on clearing trees to open up the area to let in more light, etc.

Looking west from the driveway

Looking North

Looking South/Southwest