The sun is up!  The end is really coming, the cycles really do continue to, well, cycle.  The amazing laser horizion shot was taken by Kris Amundsen at about 3am one morning a couple weeks ago.  Pretty stunning.  But now, after a several-day storm of high winds and white-out conditions, things have cleared and now we actually see the sun above the horizon.  Missed all the crazy refraction and green/blue flashes to the white-out but nevertheless it is quite nice to see the lovely rosy/golden glow on things-- as the photo below is trying to show.  Plus a snow-scape fresh from the storm before the sun starts to ablate the snow (that's evaporation of snow/ice rather than actual melting...) 

You can actually see what it looks like here in real-time via the NOAA webcam on top of the ARO building (seen reflecting the new sunlight in this picture).  The webcam looks back at the station.  Check it out!

http://esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/spo/livecamera.html

Some folks have asked what exactly is it we do down here for our 'lives', in addition to our work of ultimately supporting the scientific research that goes on.  Well, what follows is a smattering of leisure-time activities but by no means all examples.  Just a bunch of fun, really.  Enjoy.



Bingo is a regular event during the winter... this was earlier on in the season and the theme was "Skua"... come dressed or somehow utilizing our Skua resources (Skuas are scavenger gulls that live closer to the coasts... so our Skua embodies the concept of "don't need it, leave it; need it, take it", one person's trash is another's treasure sort of thing.  In the winter there's a room dedicated to Skua and various boxes for Skua toiletries... so here Jono wears his skua-ed pants and tshirt while kneeling to use JP's skua-ed dental floss...



We play radio darts with other stations around the continent-- someone has a turn, throws a dart, and reports that over the radio to the stations on line.  Of course everyone is honest about what they shoot... bullseyes and all.  The story goes that one British station 'played' for years, kept winning, and in the end no one had actually ever touched a dart!  Or so the story goes...



Cynthia points out her just placed, I mean thrown, bullseye... clear evidence of her skill and prowess as a dart player.




We were able to watch the EuroVision finals (not in real-time though of course), and voted and everything.  We did ont agree with the official outcome, I think we put the Russian Grandmothers on top though Sven the Swede was proud of his country's claim to fame.  This was a major effort in cross-cultural education for us Norteamericanos... they've got a good thing going in EuroVision.  Here Carlos and Sven give their best Jedward imitation... they need a little work on hair and costume though...

  

Jedward in all their glory...





Music is an important part of the experience down here and though there aren't too many musicians on station this winter we had an open mike night... with synthesized DJ music, three bands, some spoken word/poems, and over all a really good time, even some dancing!



There are some after-hours culinary adventuring... several creative efforts by Cynthia Chiang including these 'breadgehogs' (helped by Jase Grimm one of our chefs).

There was a Yuri's Night celebration-- occurred on all seven continents, a world-wide remembrance of Yuri Gegarin and his momentus first flight into space and the whole space exploration movement.



The B3 lounge, aka Club Deep Freeze.  Various space-themed attire was highly encouraged and well represented.




Can't have a space party without a space craft (and the token aliens...)




Preparing for take off...





For the 4th of July the VMF (vehicle maintenance facility) put on a pig roast barbeque... with their custom-made grill just outside of the heated shop building, but inside the protective arch (no wind but just as cold as outside... which is on the other side of the big doors to the right of the picture)



Meat on the spit.



Cap'n Jack Sharp, VMF supervisor; lead roaster, carver, and pirate.



The VMF cleaned out their shop to accommodate the party, but didn't get rid of everything-- like the LMC tracked vehicle behind the beverage sled.  In this bay of the shop, they set up Corn Hole, with boards painted by our talented Mel Ordway-Cook, one of our aptly-named chefs





An excellent bird'e eye view of the shop... corn hole was in the left-hand bay while below here was horseshoes... complete with sand pits and smack talk.




Shawn Duheme our crafty mechanic set up a home made cotton candy contraption (again with art by Mel, we're so lucky!)  A heat gun warmed up a spinning metal cylinder that once you poured dyed sugar into it, would heat the sugar till it melted and streamed up into the cardboard casing, to be twirled up onto a stick.  Cle-ver!




Robert is amazed.




We had a special guest, one of Cap'n Jack's faves...



THere's a fair amount of sports activity that goes on... here we see a volleyball game in process (some of the people are blocked out but this was only a 2 on 2 game of the Sunday 'pro league'... while the 'all comers' games are on Thurdsay nights... we've had a few six on six games here recently-- great to see folks come out.  The exercise gym above the full court is heavily used as well, various groups doing P90X, Insanity, TurboFire, yoga, and personal programs... it's a fit bunch this winter! 




Hockey with home made sticks was popular for a while before a few injuries set in.  There's also relatively regular basketball, dodge ball, and badminton.




Every winter there is a design contest for the next year's Pole Marker-- which is placed during an official ceremony on the first of the year.  That is during the summer seasons so the winterovers aren't acually present to see the placement of what they consider to be 'their' pole marker... but that's what makes it special to have both crews be part of the marking of the geographic pole.  The placement changes each year due to the continual movement of the ice so that adds to the 'special' feeling of the marker ceremony.  This is the marker made last winter by the machinist Steele Diggles (stunning acid transfers of the two famous "south pole achieved" photos-- Scott's party here on the one side and the Amundsen group on the reverse).  This marker was placed at the Pole on 1 January 2012.  The new marker, being made currently from a design by this winter's machinist Derek Aboltins will be revealed to the public on 1 January 2013.



Drive-In Theatre has been very popular this winter, with a couple of our two-day weekends (very rare) packed full with movies shown on the 'big screen' (sheets tacked to the rear wall of the gym). We move couches and recliner chairs into the gym and they galley sets up a nice table of goodies (even 'fresh' cold UHT milk and warm cookies for one of them!)



We also had a pool tournament-- about 24 people participated!  Two leagues, two matches per league per week... went on for a few months.  A nice way to get the crowd out, interact with folks you don't often see in the course of your work (even though we all live in the same building, between 50 people we all actually work quite independently and don't always see folks from other departments or shifts very often depending on peoples' schedules... when they eat, if they come out for community events, etc.)



The final match...



And the final winner, Greg Cocco.







Most recently we had our Sunrise Dinner which, in a neat departure from the regular fancy dress up and dining tradition, was 50's Diner themed, with Grease showing in the background during the meal.







Menus as place mats, with kiddie activities on the back and crayons provided at the table!



 

Johnny in full bus-hop, waiter attire







And the galley crew:  Mel, Jase, and Kasia (Spencer is just peeking over Jase's shoulder...)

 Good times in a great place.

Well, just a few tidbits, recent pictures since midwinter.  We're now closer to the end than the middle... and I can feel it.  Thinking about projects I wanted to do that I haven't started yet, or just barely anyway...

The chamber is looking good.  Disease is still taking the cucumbers but there's a new crop of seedlings so we'll see how they'll go.  The one Arbason tomato plant that started back in March has come into its own and is producing nice toms... not full size beefsteaks by any means, but not cherries either, and there are more good ones than ones lost to blossom end rot.  So I call that a success under the current regime.  New Gold Nugget cherry toms are growing well, hopefully we'll get some good fruits from them before we leave.  Can only hope that we get some more Chiquita cherry tomato seeds for next season-- they were the BOMB last winter.  Sweet, thick red flesh... y.u.m.

Other fun things, Paramo and Britney bell peppers-- fantastic.  But they're DeRuiter seeds, which has just been bought by Monsanto... so I'm not too psyched about getting more.  Sadly though b/c they're doing great in the chamber.  Stronger plants and thicker walled fruits than the Islander variety that had been the most successful kind previously.  Always pays to do a little 'experiementing'.

Ok so on to the pics.  Plants of course.  But what else?  We had a 'country fair' last weekend, with several booths (reading the runes, a theramin station, I put out my spinning wheel and loom, pop-up card making, and silly photos... then there was a pie eating contest and a chili cook off, then finally an auction with the proceeds going to the fellow who was recently medivaced to Christchurch for an appendectomy.  His medical care was covered but wages lost, and his wife back in the states just had a baby... so we're sure the money will be well received.

Did I say something about pictures?

Oh, we also had a 4th of July celebration with a barbeque in the "heavy shop"... which is our vehicle maintenace facility.  Pictures of this to follow too.  Promise.  Now I have to go watch a semi-final pool tournament match, and drink some home made ginger beer.  Then I'll be back.  If the internet is up.  Stay tuned. 

I also went camping.  For real.  It was -100F outside.  And I was inside of two sleeping bags, with four hot water bottles (ok, five).  And lying on top of two more sleeping bags.  And had 4" of insulating foam below that.  But I was outside the station, and inside the tent.  And my breath was frosting over everything.  In the morning (I stayed out from 10pm till 6am), everything was fully frosted over, had frost falling on my face all night from the inside of the sleeping bag that was covering my face... and my handwarmer packets weren't working but luckily one of my hot water bottles was still dang hot so I cozied my fingers up inside it's insulating cover (one of my grey 'elephant trunk' socks) to get them warm enough that I could function enough to get back to the station to have a real warm up before heading back out to bring in all the gear.  I actually dragged my sleeping bag(s) out of the tent to have that "under the stars" experience at the Pole... but it had clouded over so I got a few stars but mostly mist.  And no auroras either (which I was hoping for).  Got those the night before as I was setting up.  But by god I knew where I was, camping at the South Pole.  Pretty sweet.

OK... pictures.  After the game, I promise.   :)

I'm back.  Game won via a scratch which left an easy ball-in-hand eight-ball shot.  Too bad, so sad.

Right, pictures.  Voila:



"Plate of Noms" by Cynthia Chiang.  This is from the last Farmer's Market event: mango pepper salsa, quinoa tabbouleh with fresh parsley, bell peppers, and scallions, and fresh melon.  Yes, I said melon.  Keep reading.





This is more fresh melon.  Plus prosciutto.  Nothing but the best here at South Pole.  I think it was left over from the centennial schenanigans when the prime minister of Norway visited last summer.



Here is the melon.  Sun Jewel variety-- some asian type thing from Johnny's Seeds.  They're about 7 inches long, and taste like a cross between honeydew and cantaloupe.  Took ~75 days to mature, seed to fruit.  All these fruits were from one plant, which died as they all matured more or less together.





I love these guys.  Easter egg radishes.  Different colors all in one packet.  This is how we grow them-- in individual rockwool cubes in the trays and with enough light they do just fine.



And this is them harvested.  Now all I need to do is carve little faces into them and we'd have a real sweet shot :)



Fun greenhouse tricks.  We've run out of seeds for our spicy globe basil which is the best grower we have-- doesn't succumb to "black leaf" and makes really nice globular plants with small leaves-- you can use the whole plant to blend up into pesto, or pick the small leaves or sprigs for basil lemonade, a favorite here this winter.  So with no seeds, I've started a cutting program to propagate this variety until we get our seed resupply order, hopefully with more globe basil seeds included.  Any member of the mint family will readily root if you put a cutting into water.  These start putting out roots within a week.  Then I just wrap some rockwool around the rooted stem, stick it into a tray, and off they go.  Sweet!



Sweet wee seedlings.  I love these shots.





These Tristan strawberries just keep chugging along.  This plant is grown from a runner-- I cut off the runner when it started to send out root nubs at the bottom of the node, then stuck it in moist vermiculite for several weeks until it had a healthy root mass, then stuck some rockwool around it for structure/protection, then stuck it in a tray and here it is.  Nice 1.5" fruit on that one.  Y.U.M.




Healthy home-made micro mix of greens: pac choi, mizuna, and kale.  Turned out nice.




I think this might be my favorite picture of the season so far.  Colors colors colors.  Healthy greenery.  Happiness.  And, the dang white balance of the camera is spot on for once!




Here's a "check-in" on our carrot project-- planted several varieties in a bin of vermiculite.  We thought it was a bust until we started digging and found these wee nubs.  They're still growing and the Kinbi variety is the winner... will get some good baby-type carrots in a week or so.  Exciting!!!  I tasted one of these wee things and believe it or not, it tasted like carrot.  Big flavor in a small crunchy (ok, one crunch) package.




This photo is cool for three reasons.  Well maybe four.  1) We have a Shrek Pet.  2) His hair is arugula sprouts, not chia sprouts.  Arugula does the same mucus thing that chia seeds do if you soak them for a day or two.  Who knew?  3)  That is corn growing behind Shrek.  4)  The corn came from germinated popcorn kernels that had been soaked-- part of the process for making popcorn here.  Our popcorn is so dried out that it doesn't have enough moisture in it to get hot/steam and pop the kernel.  So we have to soak our popcorn first.  And there were some kernels that apparently hadn't given up the ghost of their former productive lives yet, and sent out some nascent roots.  They were brought oh so carefully, with wonder and awe, to the greenhouse for safekeeping and nourishment.  And thus I encouraged them.  And now we have popcorn plants.  Wonders will never cease. 




Our bumper crop of Arbason tomatoes.  Yay!




And here's the chamber itself.  Front view.  Three systems.  Greens, herbs, peppers, amaranth, eggplant on left and right.  Tomatoes, cucumbers, melon, and taller such crops in the middle.  The hibiscus is now is a bucket out of the system-- wanted just 'new' plants in there, the hibiscus has been growing strong since LAST WINTER!  They're champs.  I"m starting some cuttings of them too-- they'll root eventually if you take a good strong branch and stick it in water-- but keep the water fresh not nasty algae-y (do as I say, not as I do...) 




Left side.  That wilted plant at front left is Tokyo Bekana, a highly adapted radish, and it's got root rot... I'll have to pull it tomorrow.  Forgot about it today.  Today was computer report and staff meeting day.  There's that globe basil in the middle of the upper rack, then kale and eggplant and cutting celery at the back.  Mizuna, chinese cabbage, lettuce, and nursery/herbs at back.




Middle system.  Cucumber seedlings.  C'mon sweeties!




Right system.  Calendula in foreground, then lettuce, then scallions (bunched onions), all the way back to the strawberries.  Pac choi and kale on top foreground, then chard and the pepper forest all the way to the back.  The amaranth is the big bush straining up the back wall.  Weed is right.  And the hayfever-producing pollen to prove it!




Happy pepper harvest.



Well,we're past the halfway point!  This last weekend we had our mindwinter celebration, marked by a big dinner, "drive-in" movies in the gym (projected onto a a big 'screen' made of old sheets on the back wall, plus we move in couches and cozy chairs, have popcorn, and for midwinter-- warm cookies and cold milk... and this was special because it wasn't the watery powdered stuff we usually get in the gally but a secret stash of UHT milk in boxes... not fresh from the cow but as close as we're going to get!), and two days off.  We also had a brunch sponsored by the greenhouse, where an assortment of Farmer's Market type things were served including homemade ginger beer.

Part of the spread for the midwinter Farmer's Market Brunch.

Enjoying brunch and basil lemonade on the 'verandah'....

The pepper harvest before midwinter dinner... wow!  We ate a bunch of that lettuce too.

During our dinner, our station manager read a piece crafted by the station manager from McMurdo which she then worked on to fit South Pole.  A nice representation of this time of the season for us.  We all had a lovely evening, and the moon came up a few days later which was a nice change from the darkness outside.  though right before it came up, I took a brief excursion outside to get rid of some greenhouse trash and took a moment to enjoy the scene-- dark, crisp sky, little wind, and just fresh cold air coursing into my lungs and wakening my face.  Sounds rather ordinary but sometimes you just have to allow the ordinary to become more than that.

 

Mid-winter Dinner - 2012

by Katie Hess (and Harry House)

 

Mid-winter day is a time of great significance here in the Antarctic and especially at the earth’s axis.  Celestially, on Thursday at 11:09am the South Pole was tilted the furthest away from the sun that we would all winter and marks our steady return to a position where the sun will once again be visible above the horizon.  Early explorers would mark mid-winter with feasts and commemorative toasts to loved ones back home and to each other.  For them, the day provided a much-needed morale boost after many months of isolation. 

Much has changed since the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration, both on the ice, and back ‘in the world’.  There are no Poles to discover any longer.  Now we seek to discover more about dark energy, dark matter and find elusive energetic neutrinos.  Nations no longer wait breathlessly in anticipation of our safe return, carrying word of feats of endurance and discovery, at best a newspaper will print that the fastest time skiing or kite skiing to South Pole has been beaten by a matter of hours.  We can converse with our loved ones back home in real time – most of the time, so our feeling of isolation is much reduced from 100 years ago or even 30 years ago.  Certainly, we now enjoy many of the comforts of home by comparison, though at times we all lose sight of that.  It is easy, and reasonable in many ways, for us to feel our contributions pale in comparison to the legends of the past.  It is understandable that many of us no longer feel any connection to those that came before us, or even to the legacy of the continent of Antarctica.

While all of this may be true, it misses the point.  Having the privilege of working here in one of the most isolated places in the world, where we know that it will be only the 50 of us here together for 9 months, where the weather can disorient you or cause severe frostbite in minutes during the winter, where it is possible to break the world’s coldest temperatures records, this is still one of the most unique opportunities in the world.  Because of this, we are all now members of an exclusive group of individuals that share a common bond.  This bond extends not only with each other, but across all the stations on the continent on this special day.  It transcends time as well.  If the early explorers were alive today, they would be just as interested in our sense of being here as theirs.  They are indeed with us tonight in spirit, and they also would appreciate a place at the table.  Please make room for them if you can.

And so, on this special evening, I propose a toast to all the Antarctic Heroes, past and present and future.

Everyone gussied up and enjoying a social hour before the dinner service.

Robert and I standing in front of the wall of midwinter greetings-- a tradition for all wintering parties to extend invitations to their festivities.  Take a look at ours, and others around the continent, on Robert's website at http://www.antarctic-adventures.de/2012/spole12.html

The galley decorated for dinner.

Enjoying the fine food produced by our fine galley staff.

Our fine galley staff, in regalia espepainted/created by Mel one of the cooks (third from left)

Menu item: Salad of local greens topped by grilled shrimp skewer and creamy cilantro (local grown too!) dressing.

also!  I see the questions that a few folks have posted... I will answer them soon if I can figure out how to do that individually, or will just post the answers in another blog session.  Especially Dani-- sorry I've delayed so so long!

A peek into the greenhouse going-ons... every month I've been hosting a Farmer's Market event-- a chance for folks to taste some fresh goodies while chatting and relaxing in the chamber.  Among the offerings have been Mango-Sweet Pepper-Cilantro salsa; various pestos made from chard (silver beet), radish leaf, and arugula;dill/chive goat cheese spread topped with radish or cucumber slices; hibiscus-lemon balm spritzer; Italian-style pico de gallo (with tomatoes, bell peppers, scallions, and basil instead of cilantro/tomato)... pretty yummy if I do say so myself.  Here are some nice shots of our recent gatherings...

Folks enjoying the humidity and goodies!

 

 

 

Mashing mint and lemon balm to add that fresh pizazz to the hibiscus spritzer.

Strawberries!  My personal feeling of success this season...

Robert in the strawberry zone.

Me very happy about the huge luscious sweet juicy berries.

Back to Farmer's Market goodies-- silver beet pesto, mango-pepper-cilantro salsa, and cucumber-topped chive-goat cheese spread.  Y.U.M.

Our cute radish crop.

More goodies-- arugula pesto, pico de gallo italian style, and dill-radish-goat cheese spread.  No we don't have goats to milk but how cool would it be if we did?!

Written feels like ages ago (maybe a month?), but ran out of internet time before I posted.  Now I'm finally back to post... and will put more up soon, I promise.  Don't laugh or roll your eyes.  I will.  It's totally dark now, and the greenhouse is full after undergoing some serious work.  Stay tuned...

---------

My have things changed since my last post.  It's just about dark now, though when I went for a ski yesterday there was a lovely orange glow still on the horizon, while on the opposite side of the sky the full moon presided, the light from the old sun and the new moon competed for what was going to give off the most shadow.

No more pictures from my bedroom window-- all windows are now covered with cardboard to minimize the amount of light from the station leaking outside... there are cameras on the roof of the station that pick up auroras and are very sensitive from any light that might escape from the station.

We had our sunset dinner to celebrate the coming darkness-- a lovely event with spectacular food.  The greenhouse provided some fresh flowers and greens for centerpieces as well as a yummy salad for dinner.

On a little walk about about a week or so ago... nice sunset light, shadows, pink tones...

Sastrugi-- the wind blows and makes ripples, humps, ridges, valleys in the snow... reminds me of blowing sand dunes and sedimentary rock formation... can get some really neat shapes and etchings.

Attempt to document myself, not just what I'm interested in taking pictures of, at the South Pole.

But here are a few pictures that folks have taken over the last couple of weeks.  It's been a beautiful time-- we didn't see the actual sunset, but about a week after the sun went below the horizon the weather cleared and what we did see was sunlight refracted through the Earth's atmosphere that was then reflected off of clouds near the horizon, and it looked like the sun-- an intense globular area of fire red peeking out at the horizon between the clouds-- but it was just intense reflection off of the clouds of the refracted light.  The sun was more than three degrees below the horizon at the time... some of the "old timers" say that's the latest they'd ever seen sunlight like that after the true sunset.  We even saw some green and blue light along with all the reds and oranges in the refraction spectrum.  Pretty cool.  OK then, on to the pictures:

First, Robert's shots.

A chillly station...

One of the science outbuildings-- the Dark Sector Lab with the 10 meter South Pole Telescope that looks at light/heat signals from the earliest origins of the universe to help explain how the universe is structured.

More sastrugi... not so easy to walk over, nicer with skis but you still have to watch your tips!  Science outbuildings in the background.