Josiah on the deck. When it's nice out he's out there all the time opening and closing the screen.

Hannah peeling carrots for supper.

I can't quite get a handle on the exact population here perhaps because it is always changing. I'll take an average and say around 70,000 in the city and then that can increase some say by 10,000 others say 20,000 due to people living in camps out in the oilsands.

The weather changed drastically after we had a few days of rain, the temperature went from the high 30's to the low 20's. On one rainy afternoon we took a trip to the Oilsands Discovery Centre. It's a museum set up by the Alberta government and some private investors who I assume would be oil companies in particular Suncor and Syncrude. There's a website which I'll put a link to in the sidebar. It has links page to interesting and educational sites across Alberta.

We were only on our third exhibit when Hannah was all of sudden mysteriously covered in a black tar like substance. She had it all over her hands and on her brand new, pink rain jacket. Great! Off we went to the Information Desk for help. The woman behind the desk got a bottle of baby oil and worked on her for a few minutes until her hands were clean. "Will it come off her jacket?" I asked annoyed. She gave me the oil and water science lesson, and then a list of cleaning products that 'should' work. It turns out the substance on her hands was bitumen. Have you ever tried to get bitumen off a pink, nylon jacket? No, of course you haven't. It doesn't come off, so don't even bother trying. And, no, it's not supposed to be accessible in the museum either, so the staff had to go on a hunt armed with baby oil soaked cloths to find it.

What is bitumen, you ask? Good question. According to the definition on their website it's a heavy, carbon rich and extremely viscous oil. Geologists believe naturally occurring deposits of bitumen are formed from the remains of ancient, microscopic algae and other once-living things. These organisms died and their remains were deposited in the mud on the bottom of the ocean or lakes. Under a lot of heat and pressure of burial it is transformed into bitumen. Some guy in the 1880's claimed that Alberta had an unlimited supply of it. Well, we weren't using quite as much of it in the 1800's as we are now but there's a statistic that says we've only used 1% of what is actually available in the past 40 years. Nothing lasts forever though.

Once we were as cleaned up as we could get we resumed our self-directed tour of the museum. I tried to read and learn but the whole thing isn't geared toward keeping small children interested while adults read. There is a children's lab where they can play/learn and they run learning programs for kids all year. There's a huge focus on social and environmental responsibility but even with a committment to sustainable development, they admit that a lot of damage is done and that the environment can't be restored to its former state. No lies there. There is actually a complicated process of draining and moving the muskeg before they begin digging in order to help with land reclamation after they are done extracting the bitumen. It takes up to two years just to drain and it sounded like this is a fairly new process that they haven't been doing for long.

Art's plant is interesting in that the process which occurs to extract the bitumen from the gound is actually creating the energy to power the plant through a steam distillation process that is piped deep into the earth. There's a good diagram on the Long Lake website (in the links) which shows how it's done. This refers to their plant being energy efficient which they do tout.

So we got through the exhibits pretty quickly. The most exciting thing for Hannah was the dinosaur fossil found at one of the sites and the giant tires on the heavy hauler. We hung out at the play area just long enough for Josiah to manage to find some bitumen of his own. I noticed it on his hands but wasn't quick enough to grab him before they were stuffed into his mouth. Ugh! To avoid having it all over him I immediately grabbed him and immobilized his arms and headed for the Information Desk again with him struggling to get loose. His inability to move his arms and wipe the crud all over me triggered the scream reflex. The helpful and confused staff went to retrieve the baby oil yet again. We managed to get him cleaned up and his fascination with having his hands cleaned deactivated the scream reflex and managed to interfere with the tantrum reflex much to my relief. They asked me a lot of questions about the bitumen and how my children kept finding it and I was beginning to think they thought we had brought it in with us. We couldn't isolate the contaminated area as Josiah had been toddling around the play lab like baby Frankenstein with his arms outstretched and touching everything in sight. Consequently, they had to baby oil everything. We bought some postcards and some souvineirs and then we went downtown for our first meal out since we got here. The guys work long stressful days and by the time they get home they just have time and energy to eat and watch an hour of TV and go to bed. Lee has left to go home to BC for vacation so we thought we'd treat ourselves and then take a pizza home to daddy.

I had to pick up the part for the air conditioner yesterday. I took a little drive out of town. Art claims he told me I was going to a junkyard and that he gave me clear directions but I might argue that. Well, it is possible all of those things were clear but when you have small children you are often preoccupied with other things and details get forgotten. Or scenario number 2, if you know Art and I, sometimes we get our lines crossed. Not that I could have done much different anyway and I think it's great that my children are exposed to many different life experiences. Any maybe it's all just payback for not agreeing to fix the AC months ago.

I'm sure I only saw one dog when I pulled into the yard as there was a pickup parked in front of the trailer/office obstructing my view of the only thing that wasn't a scrapped car or truck. I was focused on where to park because I wanted the van to be close to the office as I had no intention of dragging the children inside with me. Another hot day, albeit about 5 degrees cooler, and the place looked dirty and dangerous for small children. It was a big place with hundreds of old vehicles lined up for miles the way most junkyards are. I have nothing against junkyards, they actually appeal to the 'greener' side of me because I like that it's an act of recycling and was started long before recycling was an issue we needed to be concerned with. The pickup backed out and I got out of the van and began walking toward a guy with a nicotine stained mustache and beard who we'll call Junkyard Dog #1. On the way, I was accosted by a small dog who climbed my leg leaving dirty pawprints all over my white pantlegs. Nice. I tried to be fairly cool about it and pretended not to notice. I didn't want to seem like a city girl nor did it seem like the kind of place you could yell at the guy for his dog's behaviour. I leaned over and scratched the little guy behind the ears and noticed she (?) was wearing a collar lined with artificial bling. It was one of those small bred not to shed breeds. Cute. I explained to JYD#1 why I was there. He seemed not to know what I was talking about for about 10 seconds and then led me into the trailer. I gave a qick glance back at the van, windows open lots of air, kids safe and staring curiously at the little dog yapping happily at them. The guy who I assumed must be the owner, we'll call Junkyard Dog #2 although I think Art told me his name was Manfred, was sitting behind a desk talking on the phone and poring over an invoice. He seemed annoyed by the call but maybe he just has a very gruff way about him. He was wearing what appeared to be two pairs of reading glasses, one atop the other. Uhhh, OK, maybe a stronger prescription is in order. He never really acknowledged my presence except for the glances he made between my breasts and the very slight sliver of skin between my tshirt and the top of my jeans, if it was even there to begin with. OMG! I quickly adjusted my tshirt and straightened up to my full height so that I felt larger and more intimidating!!! When I looked at him again there was only one pair of glasses perched on his nose and no sign of the other pair. No, I definitely did not imagine that. We waited a bit for him to finish and then I heard Hannah and Josiah laughing. I backed up to the door, not wanting to turn my back on JYD#2 and that was when I noticed all the dogs, big ones, small ones, old ones, mangy ones, no offense to them but they were living their lives at a dirty, dusty old junkyard. Holy crap...I don't have a dog phobia but they can be unpredictable with children so I was glad they were secured safely in the van. The little blinged out one kept taking leaps at the van, which was what Hannah and Josiah were laughing at. She was sitting in the driver's seat hanging out the window no doubt enticing the little guy. I heard JYD#2 hang up and walked back to the desk. JYD#1 told him who I was and what I wanted. The phone rang again and he picked it up. OK then...we'll wait. So JYD#1 looked around and somehow in all that mess found the box. Great but no, he didn't know the price, we'd have to wait for JYD#2 who was still talking on the phone. Then I heard Josiah screaming and Hannah calling, "Mama!" I quickly went out the door as JYD#2 was hanging up. The little dog had jumped through the open van window and was sitting on Josiah's head. Upon closer inspection we would find that the dog was actually perched on the back of the carseat and only appeared to sitting on Josiah's head. I yelled something and as JYD#2 was demanding to know what was happening without ever leaving his chair, JYD#1 was running out the door screaming profanities at the dog. Not used to small children out here. As Hannah would later say, "What did the man say to the dog? It was bad." I couldn't help myself, I started laughing. JYD#1 got the dog out of the van while many other mutts circled like vultures and when I turned around again JYD#2 was answering the phone again. Busy place. I could hear Hannah saying, "Look at all the dogs, mama. Look, there's another one under that truck!" What rhymes with truck?! Get me out of here! I don't remember how it happened but JYD#2 finally got off the phone and barked (no pun intended) a price at me $20 cheaper than Art said he quoted him. I happily paid him and got out of there. I refused to put the box, which was heavy, on the ground for fear of being licked or something else by a strange dog so I thrust it into the arms of JYD#1 and unlocked the back of the van for him. I got in and drove away. We tried to remember how many dogs were actually hanging around on the drive back to town and we agreed that between us we had probably seen about seven. Hannah had a blast and talked about it all day.

Joyce and Hannah contemplating the water. They actually both got in and had a swim.

Art with Hannah and Josiah playing on the beach at Gregoire Provincial Park.

While Art and Gordie were on their weekend off, we went out to Gregoire Lake Provincial Park for a few hours to hang out at the beach. There's a sign on the way in that reads "Don't Feed the Bears". I'm fairly certain it's for the daft and the city dwellers. I looked at Art, he and anyone who knows me well, is aware of my bear phobia. He'd never try to make me feel better about it though, he proceeds to tell me they see the odd bear out here on their way to work in the mornings. Great, I left my bear bell at home. Unfortunately the bear bell was not on my list of things to pack for our summer away from home. The warning would stay in the back of my mind everytime I visited the park.

This first visit proved to be the worst. The kids wouldn't get in the water, neither did any of us as the water was too cold. Then there was a group of drunken and getting drunk idiots who were loud and obnoxious. The bugs were out too. They call them deer flies, like a horse fly only bigger. I don't know why they call them deer flies, horses are bigger than deer but maybe it makes them seem more vicious as horses are domestic and not wild like deer. Regardless, they are big, vicious and relentless. On another trip out to the lake Hannah got bit. She was screaming for me to get it as she doesn't like to kill bugs, I think she may have gotten that from me. But that was before mosquitos could kill you and before flies the size of bumble bees were taking chunks out of my children. And then there was the unfortunate smell coming from the toilet. The air was quite still and we were apparently too close to the latrine. After a quick trip in and out of there, I got Gordie to stand outside of the men's while I used it. I was hoping I wouldn't have to take Hannah in there because I knew she would pee her pants before she'd use either one.

The kids and I were going to hang out there for about 1/2 hour while Art drove Gordie back to camp but the sky darkened quickly and between the bears and the warnings of not being caught outside in a lightning storm in Alberta, not to mention the hailstones during the last storm we had, I decided Gordie should spend another night with us. The only place for shelter was the toilet and that was not an option.

I've been back twice since then and we had a fantastic time. We met our good friend, Joyce, there two days in a row and had fun playing in the water and sand with the kids. It was very hot but there are some beautiful shade trees so you don't have to sit in the sweltering sun. Both times there has been a nice breeze too which seemed to keep the bugs at bay. I'm quite sure we will be spending a fair amount of time there this summer.

I have set up a few links located in the sidebar. Fort McMurray today is the local newspaper and then there's a link to the job site. There's a video on their homepage which gives a description of what's up in their little area of the oilsands.

Josiah on the sunny side of things.

I have pictures of Chloe in these exact poses. You'd never know it wasn't her. The puppy, Isabelle, had given Josiah a good going over and he wasn't impressed. Hannah and I hope to run into them again because we enjoyed our visit.

This is Josh and Isabelle. We met them while on a walk at the waterpark. The resemblence to Chloe is uncanny except that he is so much bigger than she was. Josiah didn't think too much of them.

The Fort is a working town, as I've heard it described. I spent Saturday morning going to yard sales and it was like a ghost town. We pitstopped at Starbucks, well...we were in the neighbourhood. That's only my 3rd latte since I've been here. OK so maybe I'm addicted to lattes. Anyway, I went to a lot of different neighbourhoods and at first glance it appeared that people were home. There were multiple vehicles in the driveways and afterall it was Saturday morning. But no one was around. It was so quiet. No one out walking the dog or washing the car and very few children out playing. The only people who seemed to be around were those having the yard sales. It felt a bit odd. But people work shift work in this town. There are no weekends here. Art told me that people don't drive their personal vehicles to work, buses pick them up and take them out into the oilsands. Hence all the vehicles in the driveways. It was hot, the air was not moving and the AC is broken in the van so getting Josiah in and out was leaving me in a sweat. People were actually having garage sales not yard sales, as everyone here has a garage, so I couldn't just drive up and take a peak, I had to physically get out of the van and walk up to the house. I didn't bother collapsing the stroller after I'd been to a couple of houses. I would just stuff the stroller into the van and quickly slam the door hoping I wasn't going to bust a wheel off. This saved me a step though. Then we'd drive on to the next garage sale with me hanging my head out the window like a dog trying to catch a breeze. The neighbourhoods are so large that people put their signs out on the main road with an address but since I don't know any of the streets I just had to hope that it wasn't too far off the beaten path. If I got really lucky there were a few signs with arrows leading the way. I didn't want to get lost as I had a limited amount of time to do this. I had to pick Art up at work, they get off at 12:30 on the day before their weekend off. I had to allow about 45 minutes for the drive out to the job site. I managed to get a few toys for the kids and met a few Maritimers but all in all not a very successful venture.

On the way to Long Lake Josiah fell asleep thank goodness. There is pretty much nothing to see. For anyone who knows Alberta you just head south toward Lac La Biche. There is a small town, Anzac, then Fort McMurray First Nations, Gregoire Lake Provincial Park, which you can't see unless you drive in and then an upscale subdivision in the middle of freakin' nowhere. Weird. I don't know, maybe they are execs from the oil companies or something. It just looked real strange out there all by itself. In between all these places there was nothing but trees and the odd house. Not even beautiful really because you're in the middle of the woods so there's not much to see. Then you come to a turn off which takes you further into the woods to Long Lake which is the name of the plant that the guys work at. Not much to see there either. After a short drive you eventually come to a security gate and they don't let you through unless you work there so I didn't even see the plant. It is a ways up the road even deeper into the bush. Just outside the gate there is an area of clearcut where there are what looks like hundreds of vehicles and then a bunch of trailers. I thought it must be a storage area but it turns out it is a living camp, a transition one, for people waiting for better accommodations on the main site. I guess it's the bottom on the barrel. Mediocre living conditions and terrible food! By mediocre I mean they don't have all the perks the other camps have like a gym, a common area etc. It's just a bunch of trailers sitting in the mud. No protection at all from the elements. It was sweltering and I couldn't put the windows down because we were being swarmed by deer flies and giant mosquitos. If we had to wait too long we would have baked but Art came out a few minutes later in a taxi. We made the long drive back to the Fort stopping briefly to check out the provincial park. Looks like a fun spot, there's a beach, yahoo! Will spend some time there on the weekend while Art is off.

Drying her clothes!

Hannah at one of the many waterparks they have set up around town.

Hannah and Josiah at the Hub, a family resource centre downtown. A great place for the kids to play, lot of toys and lots of children's programs.

Josiah and I on the bandstand downtown Fort McMurray, taken by Hannah.

No Water

Day 3

We slept until 7:00 am I think. It's weird trying to adjust to the time change with children. I can roll over and go back to sleep if I want to and in fact I did want to but not them. Josiah is so cranky. He's having a tough time adjusting to a new place and a new routine, never mind the time change. I picked up some herbs to help him with his frustration and these tantrums before I left but I forgot them on the table at mom and dad's. I have a remedy I can use for him though which I'm using when I'm not locked out of the house!

I managed to get him down for a nap this morning which is great for me because I can finally take a shower. I had a quick bath with them yesterday but Josiah screamed the whole time so it was short. Tub anxiety I guess. He did the same thing at mom and dad's the other night. I guess he doesn't like strange tubs because at home he wants to be in the bath all the time. Anyway, my hair really needed to be washed and I was really looking forward to a shower alone. I sneak around and get everything ready and then standing naked and happy beside the tub I turn the tap on and...no water. What the heck?! I tried again thinking maybe I did something wrong the first time. No, I did it right. I check the sink. Nothing. I run naked through the house checking all the taps...no freakin' water! I grab the phone because this is definitely one of those things Art needs to be screamed at for, right! Busy signal. O.K., it's just not to be today.

There was no water all morning. When I finally talked to Art he sounded very amused by the whole thing. It's like a really bad comedy act. We did finally get out, with the key to get back in of course. We went to the Hub. It's a great family resource centre downtown. Lots of programs for the kids, they even get out into the community to some of the parks in the summer. They have tons of toys and puzzles for children of all ages. It's a great place to spend a rainy afternoon.

I'm trying to get Hannah registered for swimming lessons. They have her on a wait list but there's no voice mail or answering machine here, they won't call my cell phone because it's long distance and the one day they were supposed to call and leave a message at Art's work number the phone was down. So I think we may have missed out.

Locked Out

Day 2

The kids and I ventured out today on our own. We took a drive around town. The Fort is definitely bigger than I first thought. I think I must have fallen asleep last night when Art took us on a tour, I thought I just had my eyes closed for a moment. I told mom this place was comparable to Truro, well that's not accurate. It's like a small city. A multicultural mecca in the middle of nowhere.

The first role of business was to locate a latte. I had asked Art, jokingly, if there was a Starbucks in town and he said no of course. I checked the phonebook and there was an interesting sounding coffee shop listed called The Tattered Book and Coffee Shop. Sounded promising. I had the address in hand as well as a list of things to pick up for the house so our first stop was Zellers. The night before we had made a quick stop at WalMart and Zellers turned out to be just as bad. Everything in disarray. The town is so busy and everyone so understaffed that in the stores it looks like the shelves are always in need of restocking. I couldn't find everything on the list and the kids started getting restless so I headed for the cash. Lineups of course and only one cashier. Great! Hannah begged me for everything on the shelf and Josiah, who I had taken out of the cart because he kept standing up due to broken safety belts in all the carts, was having a tantrum. I got out of there and got directions to the coffee shop. We had to head north a bit where I found myself in suburbia. I can only compare it to the suburbs of Toronto. Million dollar homes, condos and upscale strip malls. There were no addresses on anything so I stopped and asked for directions but no one had heard of the coffee shop. I asked a taxi driver who told me to try the next intersection. No sign of it there either but OMG, a Starbucks!!! Hannah was as excited as I was. She enjoyed a cookie and a hot chocolate and I had my usual. And no inflated prices!

Josiah still had not slept and I had run out of diapers, 3 more poops today, so I thought we had better get home. The traffic was unbelievable but it didn't seem to matter what time of day it was--shift workers working lots of different shifts, coming and going all the time. Josiah was still awake when we got home and getting crankier. I got everyone out of the van and dragged our bags to the door, put the key in the lock and...nothing. It wouldn't turn. What the hell!!! Apparently, there was something about the key that Art forgot to mention. It was the key to our house...at home in Dartmouth! It was still almost 3 hours before he would be getting off work and it was a 40 minute drive to Long Lake. I was exhausted and so were the children, it was 8:00 pm our time. I tried Art at work but my cell phone indicated the call failed. I tried again...call failed! OK, so maybe it was a weak signal thing. I got the stroller out of the van and loaded Josiah into it and we began walking. No luck, call failed again. Je$#@! There was a signal although not as strong as it probably could be. I left him a message on his personal cell phone which he doesn't use at work and tried to calm down. No diapers, no food and too hot to sleep in the van. What now? We found a park and after a few minutes my phone rang. Art had checked his messages because the phone in his office was on the fritz. He was sure he had told me to take Lee's key. Oh well, the woman across the street had a spare. There is no woman across the street. Turns out she had left that morning on vacation. He phoned the wife of one of the guys he works with, a friend from our Northern Ontario and Cold Lake days. She called a few minutes later and gave me directions to her place, only 5 minutes away as luck would have it.

July 12, 2006

We have arrived in Fort McMurray. What a journey. I'm pretty sure I'll be here until Art goes back in September because there is no way I'm making that trip with two children by myself again! It began early Tuesday morning round about 5:10 am. In retrospect, I realize it should have begun around 4:00 am. We spent the night at mom and dad's because I thought it would be such a big help in getting the kids ready in the morning. And it was but you just can't rush a one and a 5 year old. We hadn't even left for the airport and I knew we had missed our flight. Needless to say, I began my journey on the high end of my stress scale. I called ahead during the drive to the airport and the bitchy Air Canada customer service rep confirmed that they would never let me on the flight but for the low low cost of $300 per person I could make the next flight. That wasn't the worst part, since I'd missed the direct flight I would have to change planes in Toronto, Calgary, and then touch down in Edmonton arriving in Fort McMurray 12 hours later. Or I could take my chances and rebook when I got to the airport for $150 each, a risk at best. I'll do what I have to do I said, BYE! Perhaps she's working on commission. We parked and loaded a cart or two, I can't even remember now, and after a short trip to the Chapel (don't ask) we made it to the Air Canada desk. I explained my plight to the nice AC agent. I was ready to spend copious amounts of money for a new ticket, as well as lose my sanity on a 12 hour trip west. Choking back tears of frustration and feeling very defensive I had to explain to the nice man that no, I had not mistaken the boarding time for the airport arrival time, I'm travelling with 2 small children. The agent, being a man, wearing no ring and most likely gay didn't seem to be very empathetic did remain nice as I'm certain he heard the edge in my voice. He pecked furiously away at his keyboard and managed to save me at least half of my sanity. "You're leaving on the next flight," he told me, "you'll make the connection in Toronto and you won't even know you missed your flight. That will get you into 'The Fort', (as he affectionately referred to it and as I can't help but refer to it from now on) right on time. "How much?", I choked. "No extra cost." I figure it's due to my good karma. Art never even had to know if I didn't want to tell him!

I had zero minutes to get to my gate so there was only time for a quick good-bye. I was pushing Josiah in the stroller, carrying my sling plus 2 carry on bags for me and 2 for Hannah (the toys and our food) as well as her cup of apple juice. They made me give up the juice (I don't know) and I handed dad the case for my stroller. I didn't have enough hands for all I was carrying and was getting worried about them making me leave something behind. We got to our gate with just enough time for a quick bathroom run. I scrambled to get ID and boarding passes out while shifting bags all over the place. I had to leave the stroller at the gate so then I had to shift bags to Hannah in order to handle Josiah. A few minutes later a strange man came up to me and handed me my wallet. OMG, just get me to Toronto I thought!

Josiah pooped 3 times, twice on the flight from Halifax to Toronto. Along with affecting the air quality he disturbed the peace for a very long 10 minutes until he finally fell off to sleep. My stop in Toronto was short, 36 minutes. Josiah made the short trip between gates in his stroller, rested and excited for the next airplane ride. Another poopy diaper and peek a boo with the guy across the aisle and we were settled in for the long flight, 3 1/2 hours, not so bad I thought. As he was well rested from the first flight he was up for a long time and pretty active. Hannah watched a movie while I kept him busy with everything I could think of. He dumped a bottle of water down his shirt so I stripped that off and hung it up to dry for the rest of the flight. After exhausting himself and me he finally fell off to sleep again.

It was overcast and raining when we arrived in Fort McMurray so we couldn't see much when we were landing. Lots of trees, that's about it. Hannah was so excited to see Daddy. It's a small airport so we saw him right away. Josiah was in the stroller, one sandal on and one off, shirtless (Hannah spilled a cup of water on his shirt again after it had dried) and with the biggest grin when he saw his father.