Cookie Decorating Time!!!

The BAM Crew had reinforcements this year----Grandma came up to help!!!

The team working the designs under scrutiny of the cameras.

Alex has really upped his game this year....must be all that bachelor living at college.

The littlest princess taking care of a casualty.....obviously a strong Walking Dead influence here.

Brianna was at her Christmas creative best as always.....

And the results are in...some of the most colorful and creative cookies to date!!!

St. Jame Park Christmas Decorations

Yours truly tried to act casual sipping coffee along a busy street whilst my camera was time lapsing the park this past week.

Nighttime in St. James Park

St. James park in Toronto is all decorated for Chritmas with lighting along the walkways and on some of the trees.

Church on the Town Square in Copiapo

Large church takes up one side of the town square.

http://www.gcatholic.com/churches/southamerica/2875.htm

It's fairly old, but not too old.  Copiapo is in the Atacama desert and until a railroad was built it was fairly isolated.  Mining of course is the big business here though grape vineyards are fairly common as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atacama_Desert

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copiapo

And a 3-D shot just inside the doors of the church.

Birthday Girls and Boys around the World

Popped into the local grocer in Copiapo to do some comparison shopping.  Looks like the kids in Copiapo celebrate like kids in the USA do when it comes to birthday parties---Barbie, Hot Wheels, Superman, etc :)

Chilean Home Away From Home

Looks like the gringo scored some impressive digs this week visiting Chile.  Actually most any manager-type gets this type of room---even down to the mongrammed towels and fresh cut fruit on the tray.

Downtown Copiapo

A small shopping area sits to the east of the center of Copiapo.  Many of the trees appear to have been planted about the same time as the church on the west side of the town center (1851).

Silver Beauty

I noticed a fairly unique statue erected near the hotel and walked by this morning to take a look.

Apparently the folks in China were just as thrilled as the rest of the world with the rescue of the Chilean miners a few years ago and dedicated the statue to the effort.

Guarding the Hotel Chagall

Upon arriving at the hotel, I noticed the first shift guard dog on duty.

When leaving a short while later the second shift guard had started.

http://www.chagall.cl/

Lights around the neighborhood

Grab a photo of a cloudy moon over the Christmas lights on Pier 4.

First Present of the Season

Looks like the First mate of the Time and Tide has been a very good girl this year as she has the first present under the tree :)

Magadan Souvenirs

Waiting on my flight from Magadan to Moscow I came across and interesting package.  Hunting and fishing is a large tourist business for the remote area similar to Alaska...which you can't really see from here but is very near, geographically speaking :)

First Sunrise seen at Kupol

We've had a lot of clouds while I've been on site.  A couple of somewhat clear nights but otherwise a fair amount of cover.  This has kept the temperatures reasonable for this time of year (no more than -22C) but also allowed a good accumulation of snow.  Heading back down to Magadan this afternoon and then on to Moscow the next day.

Bright Lights

Always have been intrigued by the apparent lack of overhead sun here in the north (and finding the North Star is a bit crazy).  Found the graphic below which shows (orange line) that the current sun never gets more than 10 degrees above the horizon.

   

Sun path
	Today
	June 21
	December 21
	Annual variation
	Equinox (March and September)
Sunrise/sunset
	Sunrise
	Sunset
Time
	00-02
	03-05
	06-08
	09-11
	12-14
	15-17
	18-20
	21-23

An Ecuadorian, a South African and an American walk outside......

I've had a penchant for wearing colorful tropical shirts on Fridays with my last few employers.  Coming to the mine site my Ecuadorian friend does the same, though on Sundays.  When in Rome.....

Test Bed

Here is a cylinder head for one of the Warsilla generators which generate all the power used here at site.  It is one of twelve heads on each generator with this particular generator going through its planned rebuild cycle.  The cylinder head is on its test stand with a jig in place covering all of the water jacket ports and then the water jacket is pressurized to ensure there are no leaks (see gauge).  the head has 4 valves---the intakes have stainless seats and the exhaust have carbide seats.

An in case you were wondering how big the valves were.....

Multi-segment Drill Machine

A highly automated drill machine just finished a 6 meter hole.  It uses segmented and threaded shafts from the rotary magazine to drill in 2 meter sections---drill, load, thread---repeat as necessary....

Stereo Saturday

A Russian mining magazine with a 3D theme cover and photos inside around on site today.  Pretty tame stuff but cool regardless.

Just after dawn this morning

Another sun-shiny day here in Siberia!!!  Looks like it's going to be a hot one...

Local Wildlife

A recent comment asked "What do you guys do all day?"........obviously hone our Photoshop skills :)

Kupol Marathon

Recent conversation concerning the half-marathon in my home town reminded me of the marathon planned for some of the more thrill-seeking (masochistic) Kupol employees over this past summer.  I went out to see if the starting point signage was still in place and it was, though a bit covered.  Unfortunately they had a snow storm on the day the marathon was scheduled (August 5th) and had to cancel the event.

And of course being the kinds of guys they are they had the route measured on to exactly 42.195 kilometers on a geographical contour map for all the aspiring Olympians.