First Day Off After Nine

Early morning: This was my rousing view of clouds and the foothills of Winnemucca Mountain when I awoke this morning. This photo now seems to represent what was a somewhat inspirational beginning to what turned into a busy, erratic day. Perhaps the day was also a bit like the clouds: scattered.
Early evening: It was a hectic day, seemingly, and I'm finally relaxing with a cold beer — a Rotator IPA in a Ruby Mountain Amber pint glass. I think the only reason the day seemed hectic was that I did things other than what I planned, things that weren't on my TTD list, so I felt as though I didn't accomplish anything. Instead of relaxing and blogging (both were on the list), I did a modicum of unpacking, a bit of arranging, and quite a bit of rearranging. I did get two things on my list done, including having a relaxing hot bath. And, for things not on the list, I accomplished the hanging of a peg strip near the front door of the apt, which now looks like this (sign compliment of furnished apt):
By the end of the day, prior to beer, I didn't find a Father's Day card to my liking. Whereas it seemed that the cards in our moved-away-from town were dorky and quite repetitive year to year, it seems as though the cards in this new town, while ostensibly or superficially quite varied, trend overall either toward the overly sentimental (for either myself or the way I view my dad), or they are raucous musical and noisy things that I'm pretty sure he wouldn't like. Consequently, because I'm already late in mailing anyway, I'll probably dig through the many cards I have on hand, which I've bought for myself not to use but to look through and enjoy (art cards), then I'll pick one out and hopefully get it sent by tomorrow afternoon when the mail gets picked up at our nearby apt-based boxes. With any luck, the card will arrive in AK by Monday, only one day late.

In the meantime, I'm expecting a phone call from MOH. He's on his northern adventure, checking out oil fields and small towns in northerly areas that I've never visited. (I'm jealous, in a way, but am getting daily pictures of campsites, rivers, and the way my old truck currently looks as a mini-RV. One thing I've learned is that the Yellowstone River is quite beautiful, though a long way from here.)

And now, my beer is still cold but needs to be refreshed with a new one, the sun coming through the open-to-the-freeway window — open to let swamp-cooler air on high out — is warm. After beer I'll have a dinner either of mint chocolate cookie ice cream or mini-ravs and milk. That will be the end to what I now see as a good day.

P.S. The "our town" tag refers to the old place in the hinterland of eastern Nevada, and the "wnmca" tag refers to a uniquely named town in north-central or north-western Nevada (depending on how you view Nevada geography).

P.P.S. I am finding myself, as I've mentioned before, considerably shorter on time for blogging while working the industry-wide normal 10-hour days and having a door to door driving/riding time of 45 to 60 minutes, depending on particular logistics. These logistics create what are actually 12 hour days, longer than my previous 10-hour work days plus 30 to 45 minute max round trip times (10.5 to 10.75 hour days compared to ± 12 hour days). I'm still adjusting, rather slowly, to my lack of blogging time. I'm not awake enough in the morning to do much serious (or very good) writing or link finding, and the short evening is often crammed with brief winding down, dinner, getting ready for the next day, enjoying a netflix-streamed old TV series episode or two with MOH when he's here, OR just crashing, OR reading the internet but not blogging. Haven't figured all that out quite yet — and I haven't quite scheduled time in for any excercise besides what I get at work, walking up and down metal-grated stairs and walking back and forth down my rubber-padded cement-based core-logging lane.

P.P.P.S. Wrist and elbow overuse pain (started in one arm, is now also in the other becuase of using the other almost exclusively at times) has also limited what I have been able to do on the computer. The pain, soreness, inflammation, whatever it is, is better. It all probably began from packing and lifting/carrying boxes; consequently, any unpacking I do puts me at least slightly at risk of a longer healing time. (RICE: REST, ice, compression, elevation — need the former, acheiving very little of the latter - how does one raise the elbow without using it or other possibly compromised muscles? Meh.)

A Few Views

I thought I'd actually have time over my 5-day break to get caught up on some blogging, but that hasn't been the case, and things aren't looking all that great for the coming 8- or 9-day work week and the break following that, so I'm posting a few views from the new area.

First, an early morning view: inside the bus before it's left the parking lot for the mine.

Next, a view on the way back from work on a relatively clear day, looking off to the southeast toward the North Valmy Power Plant, Battle Mountain, and the Betty O'Neal mine near the range front below the snow-covered peaks of the Shoshone Range.

And last, a fairly typical view inside The Griddle, one place to be if you happen to be hanging around The City of Paved Streets, the starting point of the Winnemucca-to-the-Sea-Highway.

Winnemucca-to-the-Sea Highway posts at LFD.

Goodbye...

...to the old mine.
Hello, way off in the distance, to the new.

I've started a new contracting/consulting job in a new place, a gold mine up on one of the Nevada gold trends, a move from copper to back to gold. I'm still in exploration rather than production, that aspect hasn't really changed. Some of the particulars have changed, some particulars remain the same or nearly the same. (The same and not the same: geology, geochemistry, drill rigs, core, RC chips, logging, samples and sampling, microscopes, cross-sections, various investigative instruments, PPE, geologists, techs, support contractors and companies, etc.)

The gold trend mines (Carlin trend, Eureka–Battle Mountain trend, Getchell trend, and Midas trend) are often, though not always, a long way from towns and cities (primarily Elko, Carlin, Eureka, Battle Mountain, and Winnemucca). The two major companies and some smaller companies facilitate transportation to the mines with busses and vans. My regular 10 hour work days are now lengthened by 45 to 60 minute drives or rides in both directions. My time from doorstep back to doorstep in the morning to late afternoon or early evening runs from about 4:30 am to about 5:00 pm, sometimes a bit earlier or later depending on variable logistics. Consequently, the time I currently have available for blogging is a little limited.

I'm also getting resettled in the new town, not really quite yet moving out of the old town in the hinterland of eastern Nevada. This process may take as much as a couple-three months. In other words, I'm fairly busy on my days off. There is also a whole new area to explore and investigate.

I'll post when I can!

Update from the Lake: Early Fall

Photo:
Early fall construction in Austin, Nevada

In a departure from the semi-standard format of my on-again, off-again updates from the lake, this post will have zero pictures from the lake itself, just from the road to/from the lake. Why? Because I didn't take any! Really!

Our fairly recent visit to the lake was one of getting a little less accomplished than planned, with accomplishment of one or two things not planned, including the fixing, eventually, of a semi-broken water heater. Semi-broken means that if one went out and occasionally tripped the reset, the heater would come back on, heating fully until the next time the thermostat, upper or lower or both, went haywire and caused the thing to shut off. That was the main thing not planned for, which, as far as we know, was fixed successfully just as we were leaving. (No way to really tell until we go back and run the hot water.) A second unexpected accomplishment (or event) was a special trip to town for a family birthday dinner.

Photo:
Looking downhill while waiting for the pilot truck in Austin, Nevada.

Overall, it was a mostly lazy, restful interlude. I had no problem sleeping in or napping, and my state of restfulness carried over nicely to the beginning of this most recent work stint, which started sometime last week (I already don't know what day that was, or what day this is: the perils of long work stints.)

We didn't get new flooring down in the dining room, but we did find a likely store and probable choice: a rock-patterned vinyl.

Oh, and we discovered that one thing we thought we had accomplished back in early summer had been left undone, with our local handyman having disappeared with his payment plus tip. He took the money and ran! We are hoping a neighbor will be more thorough and conscientious.

Our drip line was still running, flowers were still blooming, birds were chirping, and leaves on trees hadn't started to change. It was summer when we arrived, fall when we returned.

In other news, we are back at our little house and well into the middle of our work "month." It's turned suddenly fallish and is expected to snow tomorrow; the tomatoes in the garden are safely enclosed in an impromptu greenhouse made of stakes and thick plastic. Flowers here are still blooming; it is hoped that green tomatoes will ripen despite the impending snow.

Marathon Summer Summary

It was a busy summer, and now with fall here, I'm once again about to go back for another work stint, which for me will involve working about 18 days in a row, depending on a few unknowns. Last month, for various reasons, I wasn't looking forward to going back to work after my days off; this month I'm merely a bit tired.

In the middle of my typically long work stints, if I feel I've gotten into a bit of a rut, I will often have to renew myself, usually by refocusing my mind, sometimes by something as simple as a hot bath (no hot springs are currently handy). A little burnout or rut development here and there is normal. What has been somewhat atypical this summer is the intensity of our days off, my 10 or so, MOH's 7. I usually spend about one day (sometimes two if I'm lucky) getting ready for days off by catching up on home paperwork and chores, by getting laundry done, and by running a few errands. Then, off we go. The where is usually a great place, and although the where sometimes involves chores of other kinds, the where always involves some needed relaxation. This summer has included two major trips, Alaska and a camping expedition to Wheeler Peak; these trips have been rewarding, enjoyable, relaxing, and offtimes intense. The comings and goings related to these trips — and to smaller trips like one earlier this summer and one earlier this month — always involve getting ready, and the return always involves unwinding from the trip and getting ready to go back to work, often with more paperwork and chores, more laundry, and more errands, giving the whole several days a symmetry of sorts.

These last four months have felt time or event crowded to me, with every day off for both of us seemingly scheduled in advance. Oh yes, we have had time to stop in Middlegate, time to ride our mountain bikes, time to hike to the Pony Express Station (maybe twice!), time to stand in the river and fish, and time to stare deeply into several campfires. We've been fortunate in these things, and in having opportunities for travel, even when some of our travel has been done to accomplish chores and repairs of various kinds. We have also been fortunate in having two jobs, and two cars in which to get to those jobs. Our jobs start at different times of the day; we sometimes pass each other on the road, one coming home from work while the other is going. We wave at each other or flash our lights.

—————

The other week, my truck broke down in front of our little house, fully blocking one of the roads. After trying a few things and getting out the shop manual — hurriedly, because we didn't know what we were going to do if we couldn't get the thing started and dusk was threatening — we determined that the fuel pump, located inside the gas tank, was kaput. I called the emergency number of the place that usually works on my truck; the owner recommended a towing service. I called them, they recommended another outfit. That guy came over immediately, pulled my truck onto his tow truck while neighbors watched, and hauled my malfunctioning truck off to the auto shop. He dropped the truck and keys there (after hours), and delivered the towing bill to my insurance agent the next day. Two days later (a colleague drove me to work and back while I was sans truck) I had my truck back. Yes, it was the fuel pump.

———

A few days or a couple weeks later, while out camping miles from anywhere but Baker, a town of minimal services — card-reader gas station, a couple motels, a place to get showers, a place that sells firewood for camping, and an operating cafe-bar with small general store of the mini-mart variety — the other car, our Prius, broke down in a way that left it somewhat driveable, driveable only because of its strange hybrid system. We finally determined, after replacing most of the coolant, that the "fan" belt to the water pump had broken or come off. The Prius is not an easy car to work on without a full lift, and it has very tight spaces around most of the parts that one might want to work on, including the belt. We were able to coast it down to Baker without it overheating, and with me driving another vehicle loaned to us by our campmate-SIL. We pulled the Prius into the card-reader gas station, drove the other vehicle over to the cafe-bar. Baker has no cell service. No place near Baker has any usable cell service whatsoever, although I got sniffs on the mountain above 8500 feet. We were able to use the landline at the bar to call the number of my auto shop (which I had on my not completely useless cell phone), and were able to find that they were probably the only place for hours that could work on a Prius. So we called the same towing company, met the tow truck by the Prius a couple hours later, and had the car dropped at the auto shop. We drove SIL's vehicle back to camp.

Now we have a whole campfull of gear, ours and SIL's, and one vehicle, when it took two fully loaded vehicles to get the gear and the three of us to camp. We left with SIL the next day, the day she was planning on leaving anyway, picked up my truck at our little house, drove back to camp, and stayed an extra day! The luxury of having an extra day! And the luxury and good fortune of having the vehicles to pull this thing off! (We weren't as overscheduled as I thought, it turned out.)

We stayed overnight, packed up camp the next morning, drove in and unpacked, then picked the Prius up at the shop. Yes, it was only the one belt, the one running the water pump.

—————

It has seemed like a bit of a marathon summer, perhaps fall will be more steady-as-she-goes.

The Weekend Effect

It's the weekend, and not much has been going on at work, which is why weekends are nice. The weekly crowd leaves, has days off, and it's oh, so quiet. Very few emails are sent down the pike on a weekend, very few phone calls come in.

It doesn't matter whether I'm even there or not: no emails, no phone calls, no voice messages. :)

If one is in the field, actually out hiking around, mapping, taking samples, checking out localities, even driving to drill rigs, the weekend effect is still noticeable. These days, people generally assume that you can be reached by cell phone and email, even when you are in the field concentrating on rocks. Consequently, they call you, email you, leave messages, possibly bugging the hell out of you while you are trying to get things done, trying to have some peace, trying to commune with the rocks (perhaps non-geologists won't understand the "commune with rocks" aspect of the job). I don't usually see these messages (and I don't always hear my phone, especially if I'm at a rig or am banging away emphatically on some recalcitrant outcrop) — until lunch, when I sit down on a rock, or on the ground leaning against an outcrop or my backpack if a suitable sitting rock is not handy. I can then check my phone for emails, missed calls, phone messages — providing that I'm within range, which is not always the case in Nevada. (Thankfully.) In other words, the weekend effect is still in place when I'm out in the field: I'm unlikely to get any field-disturbing interruptions because the weekday crowd is off work, not around.

I'm not sure if the younger generations** realize, what with all the connectivity of today, that many of us got into geology for the solitude and great outdoor getaways — not just for the opportunity to work at scenic, possibly remote field sites, but also for the resulting benefit of getting away from people, from offices, from everything. We didn't get into it to sit behind computers* looking at simulations of rocks and their rocky relationships; we got into it to get out there and actually see, bang on, and map the rocks. (Many of us did, anyway.) I know geologists who are still moderately uncomfortable with computers, and some who've grown into them over the years, gradually and painstakingly. I know geologists who, if they are ever in the office or at home for more than a week or two, just go stark raving nuts and have to leave: they need to get out and get away from offices, bosses, memos, house and home and all that entails — and now, with constant connectivity, they need to get away from emails, cell phones, voice messages, text messages, and the constant on-call nature that these things are bringing to the field geologist who happens to own a cell phone. (I do know at least one geologist who doesn't own a cell phone; I know others who only use them while on the job; I know one or two who never answer, letting all calls ring through to voice mail.) I (fortunately?) can't always hear my cell phone, even if I have it turned to the max. My loss of hearing is the result of being around drill rigs before ear plugs were de rigueur, and from driving down dirt roads with the side window open. My job has given me relief from the current on-call nature of the job.

Anyway, I hope it's a good weekend for you, wherever you happen to be. Me? I've been weeding the garden and will later have a beer — indoors, away from the skeeters.

---

P.S. This same weekend effect can be created — to some degree, and in some places — by working on holidays, although 3-day weekends in the Mojave and some other field locales can be an absolute drag (to say the least).

---

* I have nothing against computers (as you might have guessed), and I did own the first IBM-compatible portable computer — the giant, 28-lb Compaq, which could barely be crammed into the overhead compartment for airline travel — but when I got into geology, the closest one could get to a computer was the batch room, where one could turn in stacks of punch cards. The associated keypunch and printout rooms were located part way across campus, miles, it seemed from the batch room. Consequently, most students never saw the mainframe, which was hidden away somewhere, maybe in the closed area behind the batch room attendant, who was possibly a computer science major making a few bucks.

** Updated: I hope it's understood that I have nothing against any of the younger generations, but want to merely note some differences between now and back then. When I first went out into the field, if anyone wanted to get in touch with me, they had to get in a 4WD and drive many miles from any town, or they had to rent a light plane or helicopter and fly out, or - never done - they had to get on a horse and ride out to see me. A more normal practice was for me to drive 10 to 30 miles after a day of field work to call the office from a pay phone, or, if I was too far out, to see my boss back in the office 10 days down the line.

For many years, we saw very few young geologists coming into mininig and minerals exploration, so few that I can probably count the ones I know of now middle years on two hands. The severe lack of younger geologists, who would now be in their twenties or early thirties, was lamented quite frequently by my collegues and I. More recently, in the last 5 years in particular, I have met several fine and enthusiastic younger geologists in meetings, working at remote mines, and on geology field trips. I've also met a lot of geologists of varying ages and broadly divergent fields online through blogging and other related activities.

And maybe I have an unusual point of view, having done most of my work in Nevada and other relatively remote parts of the west, where some cell companies can't, today, provide reliable service even 10 miles from our smaller towns or 10 to 30 miles off our major highways.

May Utah Trip to be Continued

I'm going to be continuing — in either a haphazard or organized fashion depending on whim and time allowances — our early May trip to Utah, possibly with some other interspersed or random blogging. Time allowances will depend on my posting abilities over the next couple weeks or so, when I will conintue working the 10-hour days of my current stint.

You may think that MOH and I take a lot of trips. Maybe we do. Many are relatively short, some are longer, and the number has something to do with our current schedule, wherein MOH gets 7 days off in a row at the end of 21 days of shifting back and forth between day and night shift (he has 14 days off per month, works 12-hour-plus days), and wherein I usually get about 10 days off for every 17 to 20 days on.

Our early May trip took us south through eastern Nevada along Highway 93, then east into Utah on Nevada route 319 (formerly S.R. 25) and Utah route 56 east and then route 19 south into the big city of St. George. From there, we drove east through Zion, then north and west into Cedar City, UT.

But first, we'll start in Nevada...

A Million Things and DonorsChoose

There is a lot going on around the geoblogosphere (and more than that) and it has been harder for me to post during this most recent round of 10 hour days than I remember it being back when I started blogging. Maybe my posts were much simpler then, just a photo or two, some update about the weather, a link or two, and move on.
First, before I get distracted, let me point you to what I think is one of the most important things going on this week and into next month: Anne Jefferson and Chris Rowan of Highly Allochthonous are sponsoring their annual Earth Science DonorsChoose Challenge, which brings earth science tools, projects, and supplies to students and classrooms in need of your support. Go to their giving page, where you will find several projects worth funding, as well as links to other Earth Science giving pages including one by Maitri of Maitri's VatulBlog. As a bonus, HP is matching the first $50,000 raised during the Science Bloggers for the Schools challenge, this week through November 9th. So, get to it!

Also, it's National Fossil Day, and Anne has a great post up about the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Oregon, which I visited very briefly this summer, and reported on equally as briefly. :)

Back to my rant: I get home after 10 hours at work, sometime between 5:10 and 5:30, and I've been doing that now for almost an entire month. After getting home, I might read a little online, have dinner, then maybe I'll have time to watch a Stargate Universe episode with MOH if he's not working nights. Then, after dinner, maybe I'll hang out online just a little more via mobile after getting ready for bed, or maybe I'll read. (Currently I'm reading - very slowly I might add - Roads: Driving America's Great Highways by Larry McMurtry).

In the morning, my alarm goes off at 4:30, I snooze it until as late as 5:00, make coffee, have coffee while reading blogs and news until maybe 6:00, at which time if I'm actually editing an already written post I might push it until 6:10 or so, then I get ready very quickly so I can be out the door at 6:40.

I think about blogging, not constantly, but often. I think about my many blog ideas, am in the midst of a few things already started, have Wedges to think about, and other stories in progress from earlier this year or last - and I bog down, or give up, or something - because the truth is, it just doesn't seem like there is that much time in the day.

I have access to a computer at work (not my computer, which would be much, much faster), but have not felt at all comfortable writing anything, even during coffee breaks or lunch. Instead, a couple-three of us get together and yak about things: work things, geological things, world of finance things, other things. One thing different than a couple years ago: I share a large room (a coreshed) with one or two other geo-types and don't have an office space to myself.

Then, on breaks between work periods, at least during these last 30 days, I've had a drive-to-meeting and drive-back-from-meeting break (two days); one whole day off, half of which was spent doing laundry; and a field-trip break (three days, all on the road). What I mean is, on breaks, I tend to be going somewhere, maybe because I'm not really traveling for work at the moment. During these various trips, I sometimes end up in a place without a good or easy-to-use internet connection, at least for a short time, or - as during the breaks over this last month - I end up in places where socializing and hanging out with other geos talking about old times, geology, the mining business, good stories, and other things takes precedence over all but the most cursory checking of things online via mobile in the late evening.

So, what this all boils down to, is that you - all my readers - are not getting many posts from me. And I don't see much to do about that right now!

A Friday Field Update

...on a Saturday evening.

As many of you may have guessed, and as some of you may know, I've recently started working a fairly intense schedule and have been unable to do much of anything online without detracting from my sleep time. The schedule includes the 10-hour days that are usually expected of field geologists (in mineral exploration, at least), and it currently includes an unspecified length of time. One likely scenario would be to work about 20 days and then to take about 10 days off. I described a few typical schedules a couple years ago, though I didn't describe several currently popular options, including the 4 and 3 or the 8 and 6. From the 8 and 6, one might extrapolate a schedule of 16 days on and 12 days off, but I haven't seen that in place anywhere. Anyway, the upshot is that I'm "in the field" — that is, I'm not working at home, and I'm not working in an office. One definition: the field is the everywhere that you do geology — whatever kind of geology you happen to do — and that geology is usually, although not always, done out there away from town and away from home.

This particular job is a little unusual in that I really don't know how long it will last: there is plenty of work to be done, but is there enough money to do it? In my experience, this has been a bit of a problem during the last couple years, at least for some exploration companies. I personally have been fortunate during my long career to work through some fairly flush times, and also to work through leaner times with companies that maintained a healthy exploration budget. No exploration = no mining down the line, so it's a good thing (IMO) for companies to maintain a healthy exploration budget.

Recently, many of the larger companies — the few existing majors in particular — have devoted a fair portion of their time and money toward buying already proven or nearly proven reserves, and they've dedicated the rest of their time and money toward exploring on site, an M.O. sometimes called "brownfields exploration." In the last several years, brownfields exploration has largely been conducted at the expense of stepping outside the mine area, outside the property, and — heaven forbid! — at the expense of actually doing some well conceived "greenfields" or even "grassroots" exploration. (That is not true, by any means, in all cases, and the trend may be changing.) So if you, as an exploration geologist, don't know exactly where you want to drill because you are thinking of stepping outside the box, you might not find anyone willing to fund the mapping and sampling necessary to go find or prove up the next big one. The next big one might well be what will keep the current operation going.

Disclaimer: I haven't yet devoted any of my own time or money to this type of exploration, either, though many of my career-long colleagues have.

Questions about Drilling

I've been asked a few questions about drilling recently, so I'll attempt to briefly clarify a few things. First of all, not all my work entails drilling, though certainly many non-drilling phases of the exploration work I do is designed to create drilling targets so that we can find some ore. For a couple looks at what I do in general, refer to these two posts, and also browse the blog using some of the tags I use, or by using the search bar in the upper left corner (those are semi-efficient ways of navigating the blog).

The two linked-to posts are attempts to cover what I do, but they are by no means thorough, and they haven't been updated with more recent posts. Short version is this: I'm a minerals exploration geologist — my work ranges from generating reconnaissance targets, staking claims (that part is usually handled by staking or surveying companies) or aquiring properties through negotiations, property evaluation in general (which can include evaluating a lot of existing data or creating new data by sampling and assaying or by running various types of geophysical surveys), mapping the geology and generating drilling targets (or not, as the case may be), drilliing said targets and hoping to get the property past a first stage, on to a second or third stage, thence onward to the time when a property can become a mine and go into production. I've also helped evaluate companies (or their properties) as part of company acquisition negotiations.

As a minerals exploration geologist I've never been near an oil rig, nor have I worked offshore (although I'd like to visit an offshore rig). I've worked almost exclusively in metals, mostly in copper, uranium, and gold, not necessarily in that order. When I log chips, rather than core, it's called chip logging. I've never seen mud logging and don't know how it differs from chip logging, but the chips I log are washed clean of mud other than fault-gouge clay or alteration clay, and they have been sieved (through a large kitchen strainer) prior to being put into plastic chip trays that hold 20 intervals (usually 100 feet).

I almost never take drilling samples while running a drilling program, whether I'm the only geologist on the program or whether I have an assistant geologist (or partner) working with me. The drillers are supposed to do that — although when I first started in the business, one set of drillers was particularly poor at collecting the samples, so I gave them some training, while getting some training myself: it was my first project. I have more than one post in draft stage about this first drilling project.

I almost always work either with rotary rigs or core rigs. These typically are capable of drilling to a couple thousand feet or more, depending on the power of the rig and the depth of the target. When I started, reverse-circulation (RC) drill rigs were rare or non-existant, and so we used conventional rotary rigs. RC rigs are standard, now, for most non-core drilling.

When I first started working around drill rigs, it was customary to have two men on the rig: the driller and the helper. Now, RC rigs usually have three men, and core rigs often have two, sometimes three. I've seen one woman on a drill rig over the years: a helper (rod man) on a core rig. The third guy on the RC rig is specifically there to take the samples, and nowadays, to make the chip trays. It became standard to have this third person sometime during the 1980's. Prior to that, geologists may have taken samples in order to get good samples, and the geologist made the chip boards and later the chip trays (these were invented sometime in the 1980's).

I have rarely had to be at or "on" a rig the entire time it was drilling. Drillers usually work 12-hour shifts; I usually don't. Sometimes, when a rig is about to get done with a hole, but the target depth is flexible (not set beforehand), I will need to be there to "call" the hole, that is, end it. That can mean being at the rig until they quit in the evening (usually at 6:00 pm) and then, if the hole needs to keep going, also being there when they start up in the morning (usually at 6:00 am). With a single 12-hour shift — which is more common on exploration rigs in the middle of nowhere than on rigs near mines, but is by no means standardized in either locale — I've usually not had to be there every morning at start up and every evening at shut down. I've often been able to run myself on a ten-hour day.

The only drillers I've seen that worked less than 12-hour shifts (more like 8 to 10), have been drillers on rigs that are more typically used for environmental-type drilling, such as what Short Geologist might be describing here.

Many RC and most core rigs will run two 12-hour shifts, in which case a geologist might be required to answer a cell phone in the middle of the night, although I've done that only rarely. A 24-hour rig will often need to have more than one geologist around, trading off night calls and other tasks. It's often possible to let the rig drill through the night, barring unforeseen and usually undesirable circumstances. Back in pre-cell days, if a rotary rig was running two shifts, a geologist might have had to go out and visit the rig if it looked like it might need down-hole logging or "calling" in the middle of the night. I did that a couple times a long time ago. Core rigs, which have usually run two shifts, don't generally need to be visited in the middle of the night because their drilling rate is so much lower than rotary rigs, usually a third to a tenth.

I hope that covers some of the questions I've been getting, both here on the blog and via email. My recent post about drilling was probably somewhat vague.

UPDATE (4/21/2010): Be sure to see Short Geologist's most recent post about drilling, for a look at what she does.

UPDATE (4/23/2010): Chuck posted a link to a neat, back-of-truck, core-logging setup he used last year. My trucks aren't usually that large!

Related Posts:
Drilling Stories: Getting Started at Northumberland
The Unlikely Gradational Stratigraphy

In the Field Again (Take Two)

Yes, I'm in the field again, as many of you have gleaned from here and there (and elsewhere) updates and postings.

The field in this instance is a fairly short drive from our little house in the hinterland of eastern Nevada, and the field is an all-day outdoor affair. Although I nominally work a 10 hour day, with drive time and meetup-with-the-drillers time, it's more like an 11.5 hour day on many days, less on some, more on others. I'm left with scant time for blogging and other communication, but we'll see how it goes. I have some drafts that I might be able to post, and possibly I can post some other things depending on evening, morning, and weekend time.

I've been working an unusual 6 on and 1 off schedule, modified this week to 5 and 2 in honor of the Easter weekend. With the extra spare time, I'll be able to drive MOH to his winter mountaineering area without having to leave at 5:00 in the morning. I'll also have enough time - I hope - to get my taxes done.

Reminds me of a song:
In the field again, I got to get back in the field again, the life I love is in the field with my friends...

New Year's Eve 2009

The last photos of 2009, taken on New Year's Eve, 31 Dec 2009.
The last sunset, looking east, with magnificent wave clouds above and behind the Schell Creek and Duck Creek Ranges.
The last sunset, looking west, with our hiking hill barely in view at the bottom of the photo.
The last birds: a couple of juncos braving the cold evening, despite a relatively empty bird feeder.
Certainly not the last icicles of the winter!
The last full moon - a blue moon - not an eclipsed moon in this locale.

Hope you're having a great New Year's Eve. I'm spending mine having a toast or two by myself. It's Friday night on MOH's schedule - that is, it's his last night shift of three, before a couple days off in the middle of his month.

Interview Me Meme

An interview-me meme has been going around - here and there in the science blogosphere - and I contracted the meme from Phizzle Dizzle. She has asked me five questions, as per meme rules listed way below, and I've attempted to answer them. Since the questions are about me, hopefully my answer attempts will make some sense! PD has apparently listed the questions in order of importance. ;)

1. Which is your favorite Ender book? Who is your favorite protagonist, Ender or Bean? Is that two questions?

My all time favorite Ender book is the original trilogy - which actually turned out to be four books, unless you buy a combined edition the way I did so I could get around this favorite book question. For those not in the know, the Ender series of books, and related Shadow series, were written by science-fiction author Orson Scott Card, who has an official website. Having now visited his website, I see he has a new book out, which I will forthwith have to order. So excuse me while I do some online business...

Seriously, my favorite book is probably Speaker for the Dead, with Ender's Game being a close second. My favorite character, as you might be able to tell by my choice of books, would be hands-down Ender (Andrew Wiggin), who is the Speaker for the Dead. Bean's okay, too!

If you like these books, you should read all of his others! Also read The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin, which is in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. I also recommend many C.J. Cherryh books, including the Chanur series and the Cyteen series, the latter of which was originally issued as three books - and now there's a new book in that series, also. I have some reading to do!

2) How did you get into geology?

There are a couple different answers to this question, the first and easiest of which is that my dad is a geologist. Because of his choice of fields, I spent a lot of time stopping at road cuts while young, I knew which way north was at a very early age, and I had started a rock and mineral collection before I was five, which I maintained for a very long time (I may still have some of those original rocks and minerals somewhere, or maybe my parents still have some of them.)

I didn't, however, plan on being a geologist, although I did take Earth Science in high school, and already knew a number of things including the geologic time chart. I went to college, having known for a long time that I would go to college, and started out with a major in history, of all things. During my first quarter, I took one history class - a very boring one, it turned out - and Intro to Geology, which was for majors and non-majors. By the end of the quarter, by December, I had switched my major to Geology. I didn't start in geology partly out of fear of Chemistry. I was good in math, had no qualms about Physics, but had an inordinate fear of Chemistry! I did fail one quarter, but that was a bad quarter all around. Those things pass.

I didn't know where I was going with my Geology degree while I was getting it; I just knew that I loved geology. It took a kind of bad personal moment (or series of moments, months) to crystallize my future as being one of going on to get an M.S., with a focus on Economic Geology. I have occasionally thought about getting a Ph.D. in geology, and have had a couple opportunities, but ultimately I haven't wanted to spend that much time back in classes or on a university campus. A Ph.D wouldn't in and of itself benefit my career, though what I could learn - probably structural geology in more detail - could benefit me greatly. I once knew who I would do a dissertation with if I took the time, but no longer know of any particular professors with whom I'd want to work. I guess if I was going to do that, I'd have to do a bit of research!

3) Do you think it would be feasible to colonize Mars in the next 2 centuries or so?

I think that we could probably colonize either the moon or Mars anytime we decide we want to, and I firmly believe that if we haven't colonized Mars in two whole centuries, that it would mean we just didn't want to or didn't try. I also think it would be a mistake not to explore and colonize planets in our near future. I think we are behind schedule on these things. I had planned on being a space explorer when I was growing up, and instead, I explore the earth.

4) What's your perfect Sunday like?

What is a Sunday? Oh, sorry, it's like I said in the comments earlier. When I'm working a ten-and-four schedule, a Sunday off is a just a day during which I can't go to town and get any business done (banks, doctors... ). It's also not necessarily a day that MOH and I have off together, especially with his current schedule. When I'm working a longer schedule, like twenty-and-ten or 28-and-14, Sunday is often a day that will either be a partial day, so people can do laundry, or it will be a shorter day so people can sleep in a little. At one place I worked in the field, everyone would meet at a cafe for breakfast, sometimes at the same time that work usually started, and sometimes at a later time so people could sleep in. Those sorts of thing - like breakfast get-togethers - foster camaraderie.

Sunday is nice, nonetheless, because I don't feel pressured by things-to-do when on days off, at least not as much as on weekdays. When we had a TV connected, I enjoyed getting up and watching CBS Sunday Morning. When I'm working, Sunday's are often a bit slower or calmer - I think because people are just generally in a more relaxed mood, and also because sometimes contract or technical work will slow down or stop on weekends.

5) What is your best comfort food?

My favorite comfort food has long been ice cream. The flavor will vary some from time to time, but has mostly centered around coffee, mint or peppermint (like B&J's mint chocolate cookie), lime sherbet, and chocolate-chip-cookie-dough when it came out a while back. Any flavor with caramel or chocolate will also do! Almost any other ice cream flavor will do in a pinch. My all-time favorite flavor was a Baskin-Robbins flavor called Mandarin Chocolate, which hasn't been around for a decade or two. It can be approximated by putting rich chocolate syrup on orange sherbet.

Now for the meme part! Do you want to be interviewed?

Here are the rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me" AND leave your email address (or blog link) in the comment!
2. I will respond by emailing you (or commenting on your blog) with five questions. I get to pick the questions. [It has recently become standard in this meme to limit the number of interviews I will have to do to the first three respondents.]
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions. (If you don't have a blog, I can post your answers here.)
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. [Again, the limit will be three interviewees according to new memish practice.]

Happy New Year!

Here's a Happy 2009 to everyone, with a photo of the last sunset of last year, 2008. I thought about getting up and taking a photo of the first sunrise of this new year, but needed to sleep in. I'm still recovering: mostly from the flu-bug, but also from traveling.

Yesterday, travels started in the cold ice fog of Grand Junction and continued into the not-quite-so-cold ice fog of Utah's Sevier desert. That was quite an unexpected adventure, which could have been avoided by spending the night in Delta, Utah. Another almost adventure could have been avoided by filling the gas tank in Delta, Utah. Fortunately, although the gas pumps at the Nevada-Utah border truck-stop were either broken or empty, there was gas available at a card-reader station in the small town of Baker, Nevada. Otherwise I might still be at either the truck stop or in Baker, waiting for a gas delivery or pump fixing.

The year has started out with various geolutions, resolutions, and predictions going around the geoblogosphere.

Resolutions:
The poll (Clastic Detritus).
The results (my choices came in first and third, but many items on the list were not geared toward my line of work - surprisingly!)
Resolutions for Safer Slopes (Dave's Landslide Blog)

Geolutions:
Christie at the Cape
NOVA Geoblog
Magma Cum Laude
10 ABSOLUTELY BEST Resolutions for Geologists (Andrew's About.com) - This list is great! The first thing on it is "See More Rocks." Not only do I wholeheartedly ascribe to much if not all that is on this list, I'm pretty sure I can at least succeed on the first one! And I like that.

Predictions:
Clastic Detritus
Geotripper
Green Gabbro
Hypo-Theses
[And stay tuned, in case more geo-predictions come through geoblogospheric crystal balls or pizzas.]

With all that, one might suspect that I would now chime in with some resolutions, geolutions, or predictions - but I typically don't get around to that sort of thing until late in the month, and besides, I have my New Year's Year-End Letter to write (some people call those Christmas Letters), and first thing, I've absolutely got to knock out this dang bug! [I don't know if I've ever said "dang" in real life, but I have met a few people who do, and some of my favorite people say "darn" on occasion.]

I'd also like to point out that I missed out on December's Accretionary Wedge and January's Scientiae due to general and overall holiday-type busy-ness. The former blog carnival may not be published yet, but the latter is, and has many good posts relating to the closings and openings of various doors, and much relating to the ending of one year and the beginning of another. Currently, I'm not sure of my status with respect to certain doors, but the doors I'm aware of don't seem to be opening or closing with precise calendrical timing.

Last but not least, this morning I met up with MOH for the first time in almost two weeks. He has been working - and taking only the usual time off - while I was out visiting relatives. He did have time while I was gone to get in a few overnight snow hikes and camps, but that's another story...

One Year Ago Today: Fall at the Lake

By this time last year, fall at the lake had progressed to no leaves being left on our deciduous trees - well, maybe there's one.
Instead, they were all on the ground, mostly still yellow to golden brown, but some turned an interesting sooty brown to sooty gray color.
Unlike this year, we had a few small flowers left in the garden. These flowers aren't exactly wildflowers - we planted them - I think they are supposed to attract butterflies. They are so tiny!

The dried flowers below came with the house: gaillardia. They are at least semi-wild and spread easily. This time last year, there were still a couple small blooms! Not this year, though.
This year, I won't see these kinds of images, because I won't be making it to the lake probably until December, or even January. My end-of-year schedule seems a little strange - MOH was at the lake when I was working, and I will be in Reno when he is working. We managed to overlap our days off a little bit, by three or four days, and we will manage to have two to three days off together over Thanksgiving.

A Bit on Field Schedules

Following on from recent posts and comments concerning various field schedules, I thought I'd elaborate on a couple field schedules with which I am familiar. [I thought there was another post by someone else recently, but I can't find it.]

Twelve and Two:
When I took my first job as a field geologist (although not my first job as a geologist), I worked a 12 and 2 schedule, drive on company time. The first thing to note about this schedule (or any other), is that 12 and 2 reads as 12 days on and 2 days off, adding to a total of exactly two weeks (not all schedules add to some variation of 7). Another thing always worth noting is the "drive on company time." That means, in this particular case, that the company paid for driving time, which amounted to about 4 to 6 hours each way, and allowed some time in the office getting ready every other Monday morning, and some time in the office to do expense reports or other things on Friday afternoons every other week.

This first job was hourly at $5.00/hour or less, and with the considerable daily and weekly overtime we made, working 12 days in a row and often 12 hours or more a day, our overtime brought our monthly rate up to about $1000/month, which was close to the going rate for summer geologists that year. It was one hell of a summer, in many ways, unforgettable and memorable, and the pay got me through my last year as a graduate student, the year during which I completed my thesis and wasn't funded by the university.

Eleven and Three:
The second field job I got started as a 4 to 5 month job and lasted 4 years. This was the infamous Northern Exploration Company that I've referred to in some other posts. The field schedule was 11 and 3, drive on your own time. Ten-hour days minimum were expected. The driving bit meant that on our last day in the field, after having camped out, and after having gotten up early in order to finish work early, we might leave the field by 4:00 pm, and then would have to drive home. Home, for most of us, was in Reno. I remember being all the way across the state east of Pioche, right along the Utah border in a district appropriately called Stateline, and driving nearly all night long to get back, it being at least an 8-hour drive from the actual field location, and possibly more like 9 or 10. We'd typically get in around midnight, or even as late as 2:00 am.

That would be midnight of Thursday night. The first day off, Friday, was spent sleeping in late, and then wandering around groggily for the rest of the day. Friday usually wasn't much of a day, but it was something. Saturday was a complete day off. Sunday was a part day off, because we would have to leave sometime Sunday afternoon in order to start work Monday morning bright and early (or maybe not quite so early on Monday). Although we supposedly had 3 days off, it didn't seem like it because of the drive-on-your-own-time requirement; our days off were really more like 2 to 2.5. I never liked that schedule at all and wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Ten and Four:
A more typical schedule is 10 and 4, drive on company time, which leads to a full 4 days off, and maybe a half day in the office on the 10th day to do expense reports, and a half day in the office on the first day to get everything organized, depending on how long the drive to the field destination might be. This was the schedule preferred by Former Mining Company, where I worked for more than eight years. It's a schedule I can live with, but one which doesn't give many days in a row at home. If you don't have an office close to home in which to spend a quarter to one third or more of your time, endless 10 and 4's can get old fast.

Today and Tomorrow: On the Road Soon

The day dawned clear, with a nice pinkish glow in the east before sunrise. The weather is now warm - it was 36 F this morning warming to almost 70 - although snow is still hanging in there on the high slopes of the mountains around us.
Soon, like tomorrow, MOH and I will be at home, where everything is nicely arranged, and not very messy - because we aren't there all that often!
Hopefully, it will still be green, and hopefully our sprinkler system won't have given out for the third time in a row, and hopefully we'll see one or more of these in our backyard.

One nice thing about the schedule I'm working, is that I often get to leave work early the last day, sometimes by noon, today by 3:00. Also, Sundays are easier days, in which everyone can either come in late or leave early, and sometimes both. Often, the whole group of geo-types will go to breakfast, which then involves some slight sleep-in time, and a late starting time at work. Many places I've worked have offered time on Sunday during long work stints, sometimes as much as a half day - either to go to church if one wants to, to do laundry and such, or just to take a nice and well-deserved break.

As a kind of an aside, church is not thought of as something negative by many people I have worked with, and partly that's because many men's wives and their children often do the church thing on Sundays. I've only once seen this offer taken up by any geologist I've worked with, a young woman who is exceptionally good at running things and will be a major manager-type within a few years, by my estimate.

I'm really looking forward to these coming days off, and will probably stop here and there on the way to look at faults and other rocks, and then may take a short trip of my own after MOH goes back to work next week.

So, I'll be outside for part of Earth Science Week - you go outside, too!

Where to Go Next?

Days off are coming up!

Note the map scales: these are 30 x 60 minute quadrangles at a 1:100,000 metric scale.

Balance: What is It?

I've recently read some posts about balance, particularly these two: this post by Alice at Sciencewomen and this post by mrswhatstit at I Love Science, Really. These posts mostly go into the balance one hopes to find between work and life, family, play, all those things you do when not working. What I've been concerned with recently is how to find some kind of balance when working 15 to 20-day work stints, out in the field, away from our home at the lake, and while working 10-hour days. I do, after these stints, get about 10 to 12 days off, depending, which goes a long way to creating some overall balance - but what about those 15 to 20 days?

A little background is perhaps required. More than a year ago, I took a fairly long-term (so far) consulting job, and in order to keep our small family together (it's just MOH and I, no children or plans/hopes for any at this late date), MOH took a job with the company that hired the company that pays me. He gets 7 days in a row off every 28 days, plus some other days off during his rotating dayshift-nightshift schedule - days off while I'm working. While out here, in the hinterland or outback of eastern Nevada, we live in a tiny house, which the company rents for me in lieu of paying the expense of renting me a motel room. The house is about 450 square-feet in size, and contains absolutely no insulation as far I we can figure out - based on rapid heating rates in the summer and even more rapid cooling rates in the winter. Fortunately, as part of my expenses, utilities are also covered - although it would be entirely more "green" if our landlady would insulate the place! For our part, we do our absolute best to keep the pipes from freezing in the winter.

When staying in a motel while doing field work, which is how I've mostly done these 10-4, 20-10, or 30-15 type work stints (hardly ever renting, but sometimes getting a motel on a monthly basis so I don't have to haul my stuff back and forth on days off) - in the evenings, I usually spend time talking to MOH on the phone or Skype, I email or call parentals or others, I write, I read, I download photos, I watch motel TV, or I just crash for the night. Because I don't tend to go out to dinner that often but instead have long preferred to eat in the motel room, I have a little more time for these activities - maybe from about 5:30 to whenever I get to bed (generally 8:00 to 10:00, with 10:00 being rather late). For motel mornings, I have a little time beyond eating breakfast in the room and getting ready for work to have coffee or go get it at a nearby espresso shop, time to walk if I get up early enough and don't mind the dark, a bit of time to write, time to talk to MOH on the phone or Skype, and time to sleep in late some mornings - with me having to be out the door by 5:30 to 6:30, depending on how far I have to go for work and how early I have to be there.

Now, because I'm not in a motel but am in a small house with MOH actually working in the same town in which I'm based, the schedule or routine that I go through varies, depending on whether he is on dayshift, on nightshift, or on days off between shifts.

In this new, little-house rental setting, I normally get up by 5:00 am, and have about 1 hour prior to when I get ready for work. During that one hour, I can do things like make coffee, shower, read or write blogs, download or upload photos, crop or otherwise enhance photos, pay bills, find things I need to take to work so I can make daytime personal phone calls like for paying or checking on bills, maybe send an email - not much different than the motel routine other than not calling/skyping MOH. I then normally arrive back at our little house by about 5:30 - and then I have a mixed schedule in the evenings. If MOH is on dayshift, I have about 1 hour to do things like exercise, check or read mail, pay bills, read or write blogs, mess with photos as above, do very minor errands if some place is open after 5:00 pm, organize or find things needed for the next day. If MOH is on nightshift, I have at least 3 hours in which I can do any or all of those things, assuming I'm in bed by 8:30. If MOH is on days off, I may have a half hour before dinner in which to mostly wind down or maybe to check mail or maybe to read a blog or two; I then may have 1 hour after dinner in which to do whatever, or a bit longer if I stay up later, like to 9:00 or 10:00. On his days off and when he is on dayshift, we usually watch a DVD of some old TV program like Stargate. We don't have TV, though.

The balance problem is, I think, that I really do like to spend a fair amount of time with photos I've taken and creating and reading blogs. It's easy to stay up too late, and it's also easy to forgo other things like sorting mail or paying bills (not that these don't get done). It's also been way easy this year to not get very involved in keeping in touch with people via email. I probably should be better at that, but have regressed to being about as good at that as I used to be at writing letters. (I by no means grew up with email; in fact personal computers weren't around at all until I was about 28 to 30 years old! Can you believe it? And I had the first personal computer of all other geologists at Former Mining Company: a Compaq -they called it portable; it was huge.)

Recently, because I was feeling burned out [and wrote about it here] [MojaveEx blog currently not available], I slept extra hours to get caught up, ignored blogs almost entirely for at least 24 maybe 36 hours, and called the Alaskan parental types. I got a little bit caught up on mail sorting and bill paying. And I've been using lavender at night in order to feel somewhat de-stressed. I also started doing my evening exercise, but lapsed when MOH went off nightshift. Should start that back up again.

Anyway, I guess this is a rather long post about finding a kind of balance that I'm not sure I've really found. It's like trying to have balance while almost always away from home, or while traveling. We have a kind of home, more than a motel room, but with that comes more things to do (like trash to take out, beds to make, sheets to wash - things done by someone else if you are in a motel!). I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas or comments?

It's Friday, Dontcha Know?

I know it's a strange picture, but here's what it looks like outside the back of our little house this time of year when I get up. It's early, the sun isn't up - and apparently hasn't even thought about getting up - but I'm up, starting to get ready for work. I'm getting ready mostly by drinking first coffee. First coffee is a very important thing to me.

On a day like this morning, I'm reminded that it's Friday by a few things. If I wasn't reminded, it would be just another day in a long string of days, working in the field out in eastern Nevada. The things that remind me:

• a Friday Field Photo at Clastic Detritus, this week a very interesting picture from Argentina,



• an Image of the Week at Sedimentary Basins and Petroleum Geology, this week two photos, one annotated, from the Suez rift in Egypt,



• and, oh, MOH goes off to work, his first day back on day shifts, after three days off that followed four night shifts - that always happens on a Friday.
  

Otherwise, I might not know what day it is.