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Here's what I've been up to.
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Earliest pic is here at top. Start here and scroll down. ![]() We were DOWN in that pit just moments before looking around and seeing the action. Now we are above. What a landscape! We are in position, safely, to watch a 'blast'. I know I should be astonished, hurt, angry, enraged about this environmental disaster, but the reclaimed areas are lush and green. Also, I feel better that this grade of coal is used to make steel and not just burned for electricity. Also, the massiveness of the operation ... and the professionality of the company and employees amazes and impresses me. ![]() This is the start of the blast. There is a grid of about 100 holes each 15 m deep. Each hole has a 'charge' in it and a bunch of fertilizer. All attached by the blasting wire. In this photo, the white line is the explosion started up the wire from the detonation point and then all the wires in the grid are also going. We could see the blast progress along the wires. It sounded like fireworks going off. Actually, before we heard the sound, we saw the lights ... then our butts were shaken and rumbled ... then the sound arrived. We all "oohed" and "awed" 100X more than for any firework I've ever seen. It was AMAZING! ![]() After the white smoke from the blast materials [not TNT, but fertilizer] - then the black smoke puffs up. I am not sure if that's from the explosion or the coal dust. The coal here is very light and powdery. After the black smoke ... comes a final puff of sick-looking yellow-brown smoke. That's poison gas and the mining operation can't restart until all that smoke has cleared and it's been inspected and safe for the miners. [p.s. Photo credits for this blast series goes to Bev. She managed to snap these shots while watching the explosion at the same time. They are amazing! Thanks Bev!] I took video, but Weebly won't let me do videos for free. What a cheapskate I am. Ha ha ha.] ![]() This is a water tanker truck. The water used is just the groundwater from the mine site. It is crystal clear - not black or grey. It needs to be removed from the mined area or it would turn into a lake. The water is used to keep the dust down and also on the blades of the drill machine [which drills the blast holes]. LOOK HOW BIG THE WATER TRUCK IS! ![]() My cousin Kevin (Dad's sister Viola's youngest son) drives milk truck. Delivers from Creston to Midway where he trades his full trailer for an empty one. The full one is taken to Abbotsford milk and cheese plant. We r meeting up with him. I rode with him for an hour. It was really cool! Not only the truck ride, which I've never had before, but the great visit Kev and I got to have! ![]() I am still inside Kevin's truck cab. The silver trailer outside is the milk trailer [full of milk] that Kevin has just released. He pulls the full trailer to Midway then trades it for an empty trailer. He then returns the empty to Creston ... and his trading partner takes the full milk trailer on to its final destination at the Abbotsford milk processing plant [where Clint's friend Andy works. Small world!]
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December 2021
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