Bears and now coyotes....

     Yes, Aimee ran into a coyote the other night. It was late, full dark so after 11:30 as it's still light until after 11, and she went down to her car and in the parking lot, wandering around, was a coyote. Scared her a little, I think. I think I might be scared if I ran into a coyote too.
     The smoke situation was on and off last week, but has been clear the last few days. We're pretty sure we've seen the last of it, as the big fire (which has grown steadily bigger) is moving north east towards (or maybe even into already) Saskatchewan. We had rain a few days, not steady rain for 4 days like we needed, but a good amount of rain. The grass actually started to green up around camp. It is still dry, but not that moisture-sucking dry that it was before the rain.
     Camp is not full, but at a better capacity than we've been for a while. There were changes since I left, the front desk area has been re-painted and re-arranged. We all got new uniform shirts. The lunchroom changes are fantastic, and we sure here lots of positive comments about those. And today, I am taking the new shuttle service to the airport. I'm leaving on my days off today. I know it seems crazy that I have only been here 8 days, but whenever you are away for extra days, when you come back you fall into your same rotation, so....I am on my days off again. I am flying to Calgary, meeting up with Thor, and we are driving to Vancouver through the mountains. I'm pretty excited, since I've never been to B.C., and I am looking forward to seeing the mountains again, and the ocean. The weather doesn't sound fantastic, but I'm prepared. I will be checking in with pictures!

P.S.

     After some watering, my orchid has recovered beautifully and the bamboo as well. And I did do the walk on Sunday, but only 3 km. We couldn't walk outside as the smoke had rolled in, and after 36 laps around the track, we were getting a little dizzy. I did feel slightly out of breath for a while after, which I attributed to the smoke, since I wasn't even pushing it like I usually do when I'm walking laps.

Well, it was clear

     Yep, when I got in Saturday, the air was clear. Smoke was back a bit on Sunday morning. Cleared out. Back again today more than Sunday. We did get rain here though today....not enough, and I heard that lightning started 3 or 4 new fires, but that they were reported and extinguished before too much damage had occured. I read that one of the smaller fires joined up with the great big one, and now the total size is 571,000+ hectares, or 2,262 SQUARE MILES is burning. They have been successful at containing it around the "values at risk" as they call it, to the south which is where we are. The fire growth is to the north and east.
     On the positive side, the air conditioning in my room is REALLY working. It's almost cold in here and I've had to stack books on my vent. I feel really bad, because there are a lot of people complaining that their rooms are too hot and the a/c is not working....so I just shut my mouth and put on a sweater when I get back to my room!
     There was a lunch for all ESS employees today, with some VIPs from the organization in attendance. The occasion was 30 incident-free days (meaning no reportable accidents or injuries). Actually it was 55 days, but I guess that is not one of the "milestone" numbers. Chef put on a nice lunch though, bbq'ed hamburgers, chicken breasts and all the fixin's and coleslow, potato salad, pasta salad, steak fries and the famous Albian Village cupcakes too.
     I have to say I am finding it very disorienting to be going to sleep when it's still full daylight out, and getting up when it's full daylight out. I don't see any daylight when I am in my office though, as there is no window so it doesn't really make any difference during the day, and I don't go anywhere near windows much either. I do like to sit by the windows in the dining room though.
     Apparently the bears have moved on, there hasn't been a sighting in a few days now.

Clear air....

     Arrived back at camp this afternoon to a beautiful, clear day. Very strange coming in on the plane, the skies had some big fluffy clouds, but there were clear areas, and because I had a good vantage point (window seat on the side of the plane facing north) I was able to see some of the fires from up high. Of course, I really couldn't place which fires they might have been, but still very interesting to see them from above. It was certainly not the massive, huge fire but there are still many fires burning in the province, almost all of which are now under control but still burning.
     It has been almost 3 weeks since I've been here, and I have to admit it feels good to be back to work. I had a nice relaxing day today (I know it won't last). Got in around noon, picked up Trish's truck which she left at the airport yesterday when she flew out, stopped at Wal-Mart for a few supplies and arrived back here around 2:30. My room was still the way I left it, although my beautiful Mother's Day orchid is in sad shape, and my bamboo had NO water in it at all, but is still green. I unpacked, visited around a bit, grabbed a rice krispy square and headed back to my room to doze a bit, and read. Had dinner and visited around a bit more, then came back to my room to finish my book, shower and now catch up on blogging.
     Tomorrow morning I will be walking with Amanda around camp....she was supposed to walk in the walk for a cure for Juvenile Diabetes tomorrow back home, but she ended up staying longer in camp and has to miss it. I said I would join in the 5 km walk tomorrow morning.
     Camp is still not back up to full capacity yet, but I imagine as the week rolls on we'll have more people returning. The dining room was pretty empty.
     The drive up was nice, being daylight hours and all. Speaking of daylight hours....
Stratford.....sunrise 5:43 and sunset 9:03
Fort MacKay...sunrise 4:34 and sunset 10:15
I have to admit I like the extra daylight and was missing it when I was back home. Ok, I don't really miss the sunrise at 4:34, but I do miss the late sunset. On the drive back, it was apparent where fires had burned through, and it is amazing to see the regrowth already started. It can't hide the tall burnt tree trunks though. The good news is there is a 60% chance of rain on Thursday.
     So apparently the bears are just getting smarter, it wasn't that people were leaving the garbage out in the open. Bears have been seen opening up the bear-proof garbage bins and just pulling out bags. Also, lifting up the door to the grease trap and just diving in. Yummm....kitchen grease.
     Anyway, I just have 8 days to work and then I'm on my days off. OK, I have to sorta smile at that thought . Of course I do have the grace to feel slightly guilty about it.

A map of the fire

     Finally someone posted a map of the big fire with place names on it. Keep in mind this is just the portion of Northern Alberta that is known as the Bitumen Complex. http://www.industrymailout.com/Industry/Home/5321/22967/images/Bitumont%20South_June%207-11.pdf This link will open a page that shows the big Richardson Fire MWF007. Look for Albian Village near the middle of the map. According to the scale, the actual fire looks to be about 7 km or so north of the Village, and about the same to the west. Looks like the river is holding the fire so far. As you can also see, there are other camps that are being directly threatened by the fire itself, and a lot of the fire-fighting is surrounding those areas to build firebreaks and keep the edge wet down. The smoke is really bad again in the area, but according to a smoke forecast map I found, it should clear out as the winds will be changing again after tomorrow, and blowing it northeast. As for the size of it, I wasn't sure exactly how large a hectare was, so I googled a conversion tool and 1 acre = 0.4 hectares. So when they speak of this fire being over 415,000 hectares large, I guess you can double that, plus some, to get an idea of how many acres are burning right now. That puts it over a million acres just in that one fire. Again, around Albian Village there are a couple of big mines, and by mines I mean they strip mine, so trees, brush, vegetation is gone. Notice some of the camps like CNRL and Joslyn Creek have fire right at their doorsteps. I just wish it would rain!!! I'm afraid, judging by the size of that fire, it would need to rain for days on end to make a dent in it.
     Anyway, as far as I know now, I will be heading back on Saturday.

Not so fast...

     Of course, situation changed again and smoke rolled in pretty thick yesterday, so I am home for a few more days. I wish it would rain and rain and rain there and put that big fire out for good.
     Aimee comes home today, it will be strange having her here the same time I am. Oh wait, she will only be here overnight as she has a few days away planned with a friend. I will pick her up at the airport tonight, and she will be off again tomorrow.
     Congratulations to Caitlyn and Ryan who got engaged on the weekend. We had cake yesterday (also to celebrate Ryan's birthday).
     Aimee is bringing home her laptop which I will be able to work from for a few days while she's away anyway. I will finally be able to really catch up on the things that I normally do at work.

And back to work I go....

     Not that anything has changed with the fire situation, it's still out of control and nearby, but the area has been smoke free for a few days now so those of us working from home have been summoned back to work. I have been ready to get back, it's frustrating trying to do some things from home because I'm missing parts etc. So now I have to get to work eating up all the perishable groceries I bought last week, haha.
     So last week at camp a bear found a way inside the fence and was helping himself to the garbage outside one of the dorms. He was right near one of the back exit doors of one of the dorms. Some surprise that would have been for anyone coming out that door. Oh, hello bear! Excuse me, I think I'll just go back in and maybe stay inside until you leave!
     Will update once I get back to camp.

And back to camp they go....

     So apparently whatever they were expecting to possibly happen last night did not happen, and everyone was "recalled" back to camp. The weather has cooled, and they actually had...yes, you are seeing it right...SNOW last night and in the early morning. Not a lot, of course, but snow in June. I don't think there was any in May, but other than that, there has been snow there every month since September.
     I am expecting to possibly get a call back myself in the next day or so. Will update.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.....

     OK, back at the camp....I had word that yesterday and the start of today were beautiful, smoke-free, clear skies. I was starting to wonder if I'd get the summons to go back to work, then next thing I hear...they are evacuating the camp. I guess the fire is close (within 2-3 kilometers, or about 1 mile, 1 1/2 miles), and the winds picked up to 40km hr, and they made the decision that everyone had to get out. I'm not real sure exactly what's happening with everyone, but I know that Aimee is going to another camp about 45 minutes away, and the hourly (union) staff are being bussed to Edmonton or Calgary. The buses were leaving tonight. I am eternally grateful that I am not there right now, and have the opportunity to keep working from home. I'm updating procedures and things that need to be up to date, and I can do that from anywhere. Just one of those things that keeps getting put off because nobody can find the time to do it, so it's perfect to keep me busy. Aimee starts her days off on Sunday so she just has a few days of the evacuation to deal with. It is just so crazy that they can't get the last couple of fires under control. With the wind picking up, of course it is not helping at all. Most of the fires were contributed to natural causes (lightning) but there are a few that have been traced to humans.
     Anyway, my thoughts are with those back on site and hope everyone is safe and in a safe place!