[ziggy]

Park the hoe tomm. night,next day go and walk the brand new d9 20 miles over the tundra to camp,another tool in my arsenal for the next month!

[ziggy]

I had a big lunch packed and everything and the big boss radio's back and called off the cat move. Instead I had to take the go-trac(snowcat) out on the lake and rescue a couple of our pick ups that were stuck in drifts as they tried to traverse the ice road out of camp.that was a blast hitting the drifts in the bombi,did some nice slides and drifted around a few barrells.Got some of it on video but youtube is slow tonight.

They said it was safe to take the grader on the ice if I need to,I checked the regs and the last profile's(taken a week ago) and some of the cracks are 50 cm deep,that means the 40 tons the safety guy says is safe is cut by 1/3,then I checked the length of the cracks,50 meters long,thats good for another 1/3 cut off the allready slashed tonnage allowed or in my terms....no grader on the ice untill you get an expert in here to do profiles and my boss in Kamloops tells me I have the ok.

I guess the safety guy who is really just a glorified band aid thought he could come from montreal and become an instant expert on ice roads after reading about it on the net. This the guy that wanted everyone to wear hardhats and safety glasses instead of goggles and warm fur on your head.That lasted about 2 days but he's up tonight,not sure if he's going to try and convince me it's safe or what but without that road were essentially cut off by everything but snow machines or aircraft so I imagine now his rules and regs are coming back to bite him in the ass! lol!I can play by the book to.

Starting to allmost blizzard pretty bad,these guys that are all leaving tommorow will have fun getting to town,My bud and I will have to drive them as you have to take 2 pickups at all times in case one breaks down.Theres one forward camp on the road and it's a 2 hour drive over nothing after leaving camp here and getting off the lake.Were going to try and get as many planes in as we can,if we can.

[ziggy]

Been quite an exciting last few days,I'm sure when Murphy wrote his law he was here. Two of us have been trying to open an ice road to Nuna's unfinished all season road which should have been done a month ago.
Now I know Nuna doesnt like us tercon guys,I see it when we have to share a plane or anything else with them,the cold shoulder is given.Pretty infantile but if their that unprofesional then thats maybe why we got the contract for airport and infrastructure years ago and they didnt.Absulutely anything I do is to help get this mine built faster yet nuna's fucking with us every chance they get.
We have a whole barge full of millions of dollars of brand new equipment we need,some is at nuna's first camp. So a few days ago we asked if they could get one of our loaders to the lake and well take it from there,sure,no problem they say.We have no way to clean the drifts on the ice road and everything like the new camp is waiting for this road to be opened.
So yesterday after waiting 2 days and nothing showed up we got on the radio and asked them where this loader is?
They keep saying its at camp buried in snow.
Ya,its winter,which camp?
its at camp buried in snow.

Finally I lost it and said I dont care if their fucking buried in Nunavuts worst blizzard,which camp are they at and are they ours? After a few more choice expletives he answered there both at first camp near town(buried in snow) and there both Agnico's.

(me)FINE! I'll be over tommorow to get it and now I'll just take both of them.
(Nuna)But they have been sitting for weeks.
(me)and there close to your camp so I better see them both plugged in.
(nuna)Well,the roads pretty drifted
(me)I know,we found out 2 nights ago when you guys said we had 2 peices of equipment across the lake and it was up to us to fuel or shut it off and it wasnt our equipment. I make sure I tell Arctic fuels why their loader was shut off in -33 and we had to get out in a blizzard and if it wasnt for my gps we would still be out there.
(nuna)uhhhhm
(me)and im bringing my cam so this equipment better not have the air cleaners full of snow like the last 2 you brought us,our new graders got the engine out of it because of this and the brand new d9 was lucky the computer downrated the engine or it would also be toast.We had to chisel out that air filter.

So im bringing everything I need to flash these machines up,a small hermy,stovepipe,tarps,booster cables,cat key(because I just know they will be missing) and my cam so I can document the bullshit as it happens.
Then we keep the road open,the camp trailers can come in steady and my boss's are happy.
Fuck Nuna trying to fuck us at every turn,wonder if they know how bad this makes them look?
Wonder if they remember who's signing their cheques?

No more mr. nice guy,im not asking anymore,just takeing. Tired of being nice to those assholes.

[Alta_redneck]

I get the feeling that loader's fucked and they just shut it off and now they want someone else to fire it up and finish it off. I was wondering how much ether those guys are using trying to get all the stuff started, that'll get them to knocking to. If there isn't a V- plow on the grader, I hope you got tire chains for it. Your front tires will make it through a drift but you'll plug up and get stuck. By then you'll have a hard wall of snow in front of the blade and you won't be able to back up either.

This sounds like a Stephen King novel, I'm just waiting for someone to go off the deep end and break out the chain saw, opps no trees up there so there's no need for a chain saw, how about an axe then.

[sasquatch2]

I see you have driver/mechanics up there (like everywhere) who don't check oil or air cleaners. They add fuel and drive them. That air cleaner is pathetic---good idea to keep a camera handy.

Even here in balmy southern Ontario, snow plugs air cleaners. Here we found turbo-aircleaner heads eliminated that---spun the snow out at the start. Summer fuel at a balmly -18 C turns to grease.......

[ziggy]

Alta_redneck wrote:

I get the feeling that loader's fucked and they just shut it off and now they want someone else to fire it up and finish it off. I was wondering how much ether those guys are using trying to get all the stuff started, that'll get them to knocking to. If there isn't a V- plow on the grader, I hope you got tire chains for it. Your front tires will make it through a drift but you'll plug up and get stuck. By then you'll have a hard wall of snow in front of the blade and you won't be able to back up either.

This sounds like a Stephen King novel, I'm just waiting for someone to go off the deep end and break out the chain saw, opps no trees up there so there's no need for a chain saw, how about an axe then.

Well the graders toast untill cat looks at it so were left with a single loader for keeping the road open,thats why we went to town to get another,we had 2 small IT's fired up when NUNA guy came and said they had our other brand new 966 sitting at there camp and they were going to bring it up today,we grabbed it and it has a flat tire So they say give us untill noon tommorrow and we will have it fixed and floated up to marker 90.
Talked to the boss on the phone just now and think well go get the other two tommorow,everyone can just get stuck on the lake untill we get them.Some nice iron waiting to come up here,6 triple 7 cat truck,sone 345 hoe,s,a big terex hoe,and about 90 camp trailers and 500 c-cans.

[ziggy]

sasquatch2 wrote:

I see you have driver/mechanics up there (like everywhere) who don't check oil or air cleaners. They add fuel and drive them. That air cleaner is pathetic---good idea to keep a camera handy.

Even here in balmy southern Ontario, snow plugs air cleaners. Here we found turbo-aircleaner heads eliminated that---spun the snow out at the start. Summer fuel at a balmly -18 C turns to grease.......

The cat is new,its just what happens in this type of snow when your at full throttle,the turbo precleaners are standard equipment on all cat engines now but they cant compete with the wind which just drives it right in past the turbo blades.This snow is absolutely nothing like whats down south,the constant cold temps make it very hard and crystalline,running cat equipment in this for 25 years would see you brushing off the precleaner maybe but the snow didnt go in like it do'es here.Traction is also incredible,the two flatbeds hauling in camp modules dont use chains and you wouldnt believe the snow they can go through.

I allways keep a cam handy.

[Alta_redneck]

ziggy wrote:

Well the graders toast untill cat looks at it

Your company should of bought that +5/24 Cat warranty. Maybe up there it would be +1/90 days

[ziggy]

Alta_redneck wrote:

ziggy wrote:

Well the graders toast untill cat looks at it

Your company should of bought that +5/24 Cat warranty. Maybe up there it would be +1/90 days

Think they did,thats why we park em where they die and I take pics!

[sasquatch2]

Damn! I didn't think much gets past a turbo precleaner, must be the nature and shear volume that defeats it. Neighbour here is too cheap to buy one and has a feed bag on his intake for snow blowing. I have a window out so back blast is not a problem for the air cleaner. I always back away from the wind and blow downwind.

Cat must love warrantying stuff up there. But then they want to sell hardware.

[ziggy]

sasquatch2 wrote:

Damn! I didn't think much gets past a turbo precleaner, must be the nature and shear volume that defeats it. Neighbour here is too cheap to buy one and has a feed bag on his intake for snow blowing. I have a window out so back blast is not a problem for the air cleaner. I always back away from the wind and blow downwind.

Cat must love warrantying stuff up there. But then they want to sell hardware.

Dont think cat wants to piss these guys off too much more,lots of other people out there makeing good machinery that would love to get their foot in the door here.Where I used to work cat would have had a mechanic onsite within 24 hours even on xmas,here they wont even return calls,dont think thats not noticed. Mines run 24/7 no such thing as xmas when you have tens of millions of dollars worth of equipment sitting there for lack of a cat mech.If they cant service it they shouldnt have sold it.

Hello Komatsu.
Hello Hitachi and john deere

[ziggy]

We had real nice weather the last few days,thats why i was pushing to get another loader here for snowcleaning the ice road,they dillied and dallied and are bringing it up as I type(just got off the phone with them)and now it's blizzard time.oh well,hope the guy driving it has his snow goggles on.lol!

Quote:

Blizzard warning in effect.
Today A mix of sun and cloud. Blizzard developing early this morning. Wind northwest 30 km/h becoming north 50 gusting to 70 early this morning. Temperature falling to minus 28 this afternoon. Wind chill minus 45. Tonight Blizzard. Wind north 50 km/h gusting to 70. Low minus 33. Wind chill minus 52. Tuesday Blizzard ending in the afternoon then a few clouds. Wind northwest 40 km/h gusting to 60 diminishing to 20 in the evening. High minus 30. Wind chill minus 50. Wednesday Sunny. Low minus 31. High minus 30. Thursday Sunny. Low minus 33. High minus 32. Friday Sunny. Low minus 34. High minus 30.

[ziggy]

aarrrrrrrghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

The Nuna guys tried today to bring us our brand new 3/4 million dollar loader and they turned back for a blizzard and went to camp.An hour later it lit on fire and
burnt to the freaking ground.

[Alta_redneck]

About 10 posts back I said this.

Alta_redneck wrote:

I get the feeling that loader's fucked and they just shut it off and now they want someone else to fire it up and finish it off.

ziggy wrote:

aarrrrrrrghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

The Nuna guys tried today to bring us our brand new 3/4 million dollar loader and they turned back for a blizzard and went to camp.An hour later it lit on fire and
burnt to the freaking ground.

Does that make me one of those Paranormal type guys.

Oh and don't forget I said this also.

Quote:

This sounds like a Stephen King novel, I'm just waiting for someone to go off the deep end and break out the chain saw, opps no trees up there so there's no need for a chain saw, how about an axe then.

All kidding aside, I hope that doesn't put you guys at any risk as far as having to dig yourselves out.

Merry Christmas Zig. And hopefully the New Year will start off better, than this one's ending.


Ummm, I wonder is he meant the camp burnt to the freaking ground?

[ziggy]

Alta_redneck wrote:

About 10 posts back I said this.

Alta_redneck wrote:

I get the feeling that loader's fucked and they just shut it off and now they want someone else to fire it up and finish it off.

ziggy wrote:

aarrrrrrrghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

The Nuna guys tried today to bring us our brand new 3/4 million dollar loader and they turned back for a blizzard and went to camp.An hour later it lit on fire and
burnt to the freaking ground.

Does that make me one of those Paranormal type guys.

Oh and don't forget I said this also.

Quote:

This sounds like a Stephen King novel, I'm just waiting for someone to go off the deep end and break out the chain saw, opps no trees up there so there's no need for a chain saw, how about an axe then.

All kidding aside, I hope that doesn't put you guys at any risk as far as having to dig yourselves out.

Merry Christmas Zig. And hopefully the New Year will start off better, than this one's ending.


Ummm, I wonder is he meant the camp burnt to the freaking ground?

when I got the call that it burnt to the ground I thought of thst post you made.
Gonna put a tent on the lake tomm. and let the fishing derby begin!