I have decided to spend the next academic year doing fieldwork. And since I will be working in ice physics, we will spend that year in Barrow. We will be living in this UAF cabin:
They are moving it there just for us!
And Dan has a job lined up doing oil operations on the North Slope.
I will be taking cores of sea ice and measuring their structural strength. This will be the raw data that will form the basis of my later research.
But here's the best part.
Roads are quite terrible in Barrow, so my adviser suggested that we bring four dogs, for transport. Well, we've already got Autumn, who was trained a lead dog. So now we just need three big dumb ones to be pulling dogs. And of course, the most natural fit would be Autumn's siblings, who are being retired from serious pulling and have known and run with her their whole lives! We are getting them at one month intervals, so we have a chance to get to know them on a personal basis.
So here is the first of them. This is Linden!. She and Autumn were best buds before we adopted Autumn, so they were happy to see each other again!
Relaxing together...
Sitting up for treats!
Walking side by side. Gee, can you tell they used to pull together?
Pretty awesome, huh? I can't wait to move to Barrow!
10 comments:
That's so awesome! When do you leave? Do you have to take some kind of dog mushing class or is it pretty easy to learn how to control them?
What company hires ice-physics major PhD? What will happen to you five years (or longer) after when you are over 35 and Dan close to 50? None of your friends would really go to AK for years other than saying "I wish I could do it, it is so cool", because they think their future -- finance, house, retirement.. Good medicine tastes bitter, good advice too. Now in a even more remote area, what if there is a medical emergency?
is this for real? or your april fool's day joke? how do i find you?!?
HEY! You changed the picture! You must be pulling a funny.
On Donner! On Autumn! On Linden! On Blitzen!
On "Donner"? Eep! Please don't get eaten. :)
Wow... Congratulations! That's such a unique opportunity! Will you continue to blog??
Don't listen to anonymous. Finance, house, retirement? BORING
I would like to know WHERE this "drew" person works/lives now... Why not don't you move to the North Pole or Amazon for a "unique opportunity".
YAY for in-fighting in the comments! Daisy, you've officially arrived in the blogging world! Congrats!
As for me, if I had the financial means to do so, I'd take up a "unique opportunity" like this one in a heartbeat. You have plenty of time left to join the rat race, sit in a cube all day and worry about mortgage payments if you so desire. Just because the most people follow the same path and never take any chances in life doesn't mean that you have to do it, too.
I say, follow whatever path is right for you. Do your thing (and keep blogging about it!)! HUGS!
More than that, Enforcer. People care enough about my to argue about me. It's quite touching. :)
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