Drilling begins

[jay]

"Yep, looks like a drilling site, "said John Schutt "... untidy and muddy." I'm just back a half hour ago (1am) from the field test site where we began drilling this afternoon. We worked steadily beginning at 8am this morning. We overcame moto synchronization and controls issues and a bad sensor to begin drilling at 4:30pm... we got down 1.5m deep today, into the muck and the permafrost underneath. I fought to stay alert, after only getting 4 hours of sleep the night before. Now I'm finishing this while sipping 14-year-old Oban, a birthday gift here. My sister Vicky organized another birthday surprise at dinner... a banner hung across the tent and a cake and 30 people singing... (blush). My parents and siblings sent gifts... like the Scotch, or other imbibables. Very sweet... I'd thought that was all past, last Thursday ;-).


Here are a few pictures... as I promised yesterday.

This photo is of us putting up the temporary makeshift framework to cover the drill.



With me are the two Honeybee guys (Erik in the middle, Tom on the left)



A view inside the blue tarp. The drill is in the right foreground.



Here's the drill in operation, today (yay!)...



And myself and Vicky together after today's birthday celebration ;-).