Greenhouse

My friend and coworker H is one of the volunteers keeping the station's hydroponic greenhouse running this winter. I didn't pick a very good time to take pictures, as the greenhouse was in a transitional state and isn't looking particularly fecund here. We had a few weeks without lettuce while things were cleaned and sanitized and new seeds started. But this room is very important to us now that we're well into winter and the last of the freshies sent in from New Zealand in February are pretty much gone. From now on, if we want anything that hasn't been frozen and in storage down here for years, potentially, we have to grow it. So I'm grateful for H and the greenhouse!

Weekly snapshot #26

For starters, I have to point out that since I'm at Pole for a year this time, and there are 52 weeks in a year, and half of 52 is 26...that fact that we're on WS#26 means this adventure is about half-way over. I'm kind of stunned; where has the time gone? But in other respects it does feel like six months have passed since I landed here Oct 31.

On with the snapshot. Today is pretty typical for weather as of late.

And my photo out toward the telescopes isn't any better with the camera in night-time mode, unfortunately.

So I'll give you a second shot, looking up and off to the side, in which you can actually see a couple stars.

But my favorite shot of the week is one from a few days ago when I was headed back into the main station for lunch, with the moon rising over the station and a few stars visible (and that's the exhaust from the power plant coasting across the top of the frame). It's feeling pretty otherworldly around here.

Dragon, South Pole-style

When it was still light out, we did as much of what needed to be done outside as we possibly could, and we're not working outside much anymore. But that does not exactly mean that we're inside and warm all the time! One of H's and K's and my primary work spaces is the Logistics Arch, where a LOT of frozen food is kept. It's here we go shopping every Friday morning to pull whatever the galley has ordered for the following week, to be delivered on Monday. And we spend a lot of time moving stuff around in here, etc. Oh, and it's at least -60F all the time these days--if not colder. So recently I discovered that when you have very still, very cold air, you can do this:

Weekly snapshot #25

Dark and cold, people!

That's my expert summary of today. I kept my outdoor walk to work brisk this morning, and though I swear there's a faint horizon glow in the picture out toward the telescopes, I will understand if you can't see it. (Next week, I'll turn my camera to nighttime mode and see if that helps give at least something for you to look at rather than a black square.) On the ground here, it's still possible to tell where the sun is, as there is a definite medium-blue glow just above the horizon in that direction. But the rest of the sky is getting black! 

Stars! Auroras! (Yes, I have already seen some, though none bright enough that my point-and-shoot camera could capture anything decent.) Winter is most definitely here. And here to stay for the next 5 months.

South Pole stats

A very dedicated South Pole historian (who first wintered here the same year I was born!) has put together this amazing website detailing many, many things about South Pole station. The link I embedded in the previous sentence takes you straight to the winter-over trivia page, but check out the website as a whole--so much information! Which takes a lot of pressure off me. :)
Enjoy!

P.S. According to the chronological and then alphabetical lists they keep, I am the 222nd woman ever to spend a winter at the South Pole. My new favorite number?