Well, what a difference a couple of weeks makes! Casey research station is turning into quite a nice home. There’s room to swing a husky, there are quiet corners where you can have a chat, and you can now get a game of darts before 11pm.
The winter crew is coming along nicely. The kitchen is starting to feel more organised as the summer demand has gone, and the community side of things on station is really starting to happen. There’s even talk of a work crew to start pitting the 247kg of whole kalamata olives we have in the greenstore. Post olives, we just need to use up 20kg of star-anise, which are known as death stars to Jake, who once had a near-fatal experience with black Sambuca.
The Wilkins Aerodrome crew are still hard at it winterising and grooming the aerodrome in between weather windows. They've already experienced a few show-stopping blizzards as they push towards the end of the pack-down. Hopefully they’ll arrive on station next week. I've already put aside a couple of spare olive pitters for them. Their arrival will be another good excuse for a station event with the obligatory strange fashion choices.
After a field operations recess last week (that's where we stop operations and field travel to allow the incoming Station Leader to assess the various emergency response capabilities) there’s now a bunch of field trips happening over the next few weekends, so you can expect a more coherent and focussed weekly update from now on!
In the meantime, here’s some photos of the weird and wonderful sights and inhabitants of the local area here at Casey research station.
Nick the chef
