Friday, August 6, 2010

I am trying to catch up to present day as I write this I have already been here one week. The camp in much more then I expected. I have my own little camper with an indoor bathroom( I thought I would be using an outhouse). I can sometimes get internet at my camper but bring my laptop the the main house each am. The main house has a den, kitchen , pantry & bathroom with a shower. There is running water and internet. The power is supplied by a 5kw generator and each am and pm they switch to the 25kw generator to give the water heater time to heat the water. No cell phone coverage for me altough I remember my nephew had it up on the hill last year when he was here. I think that was when the cell companies still have analog signal going out I think it is all digital now so thats why I dont think I will have service. So for now I use my phone as my alarm clock. My day starts at 6:30 am I go to the main house and make breakfast and the guys are gone by 8am. The first few days I was here the sink was leaking BAD I finally hounded my brother enough that he fixed it and while he was at it went ahead and hooked up the dishwasher. Now all that was needed was a little electric which Greg hooked up the next day or so. Dennis also brought a MPV sound system to the kitchen for me to rock out to while I am Lalegaging around the kitchen.
Dennis and I were back in Palmer with more supplies and stuff to get before scheduling our flight back into the mine. Greg kept texting Dennis to get him to bring beer to the pilot who was bringing fuel to the camp that night. Well Dennis and I were enjoying a nice dinner and had no plans on driving back to Palmer to buy beer for the camp. We bought supplies and flew out to the mine the next night, Friday night. We got there about 10:00 and when I got to the cabin there was a KFC box on the table!!! There is a guy working at the mine that has a plane and him and Paula went for a little ride to get beer and KFC!!! Paula said it was her good buy ride as I am her replacement here at the mine. I got to spend a little time with Paula before she left. Paula is Greg sister, she lives in Iowa and is the mother of two boys. One is just finishing up basic training in Columbia SC and the other is 9. It was really nice to have her at the mine before I came because she had the place organized and clean. We got to spend time looking for foxes and blueberry picking before she left on Sunday. She flew out with the same operator (Meekins)we flew in with the second time. I hesitate putting this next infromation in because I dont want my family to worry but on a very sad note Wild Bill" Michel, 61, died Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010, in an airplane crash at Denali Park.This is the pilot that flew us in the first time we came. We didnt fly in on the plan that crashed but I took pictures of the plane and they are the ones I posted on Facebook. The plane that crashed is the one that was used in the movie Conair. Bill has been flying into this gold mine for 4 years and he was very well liked by everyone. He has been flying since he was a teenage. You just never know when your last encounter with someone may be so I am fortunate to have met him.
My brother picked me up at the airport in Anchorage Alaska around 930pm and it is still daylight outside. They are losing about 3 minutes a day now. The weather is warm and there are mountains all around us. We left the hotel in the am headed to Palmer and woops I left my pillow at the hotel luckly we hadent gone very far at all so we turned around and I watched my brother drive right past the hotel. When I told him he said he thought it was on the other side ***** because we were going the wrong direction anyway so off we went again. We had all kinds of supplies to get and we were in contact with the pilot to see if it was a good day to fly out. We went to the Cargo plane area and talked to wild Bill. After a few houre we got the gohead and loaded about 7 sheets of steel and misc supplies into a cargo plane. I was going to stay behind but Bill ( the pilot) said we could all go so off we went. It was a beautiful flight into the mine area. If you go to google earth and look for Busch Creek Alaska you will see what looks like an A that is where the runway is and camp in just down the gravel road. After a brief flight and quick unload and meet and greet I met all the folks at the mine and Dennis and I flew back out with Bill back to Palmer.

Friday, July 30, 2010

So I said to make a little bit of money but I didnt say how/where. I will have to find the coordinates to show you where because there is nothing there but mountains. I will be working in a gold mine for the next few months. There are only 6 workers there now and one will be leaving when I get there because she is the cook. I got to meet everyone yesterday but we(my brother and I) didnt stay because we still have to get food supplies. I also got to meet wild Bill, the pilot that brought us there. He was a poor farm boy from New York who came to Alaska in the 70's. He had his first plane at the age of 14 that was 5 years before his first car. Got stuff to do for a while but remember the movie ConAir, I'll post pics later I got to ride in a Cargo plane yesterday.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Day one

So my oldest daughter suggested I write this Blog and I know nothing about Blogging. So I guess I start with a little bit about myself. I am married and have 2 wonderful daughters several step childern and their kids but I wont (or dont think) I will bring any of that into this blog. I am a terriable speller and dont always use the best grammer. I left my real job in 2006 to get ready for our move to Florida. I teach scuba diving and crew on a boat more for fun then for the money. My husband is a scuba instructor too and he retired before we made our move to Florida. He keeps telling me I need to get a real job but I will put that off as long as possiable. So the reason for this adventure??? To make a little bit of real money and spend some tome in a beautiful place with family(my brother). I left the hubby at home with the dog for 2 months . So the adventure began by the hubby driving me to the airport 1.5 hours away and I left my cell phone in the car So I asked a complete stranger(since you dont know me that was quiet a feat for me) could I use his phone. Called the hubby back retrieved the cell phone and started this blog .