Back to Business

Montana! Big Sky Country! The state that contains the Superfund sites that I work almost exclusively on at my new job! The place I will be for my birthday this year!

Yes... I just got back from my first of three (this year) business trips to Montana. I have two days in Seattle and then will be basically repeating the exact same trip. As I have been unpacking and doing laundry this morning in preparation to repack for the next trip, I appreciated the fact that this time I'll know exactly what to bring and what not to bring. I guess being excited about that makes me a huge nerd. But the first trip was pretty grueling, so I need something to look forward to for the next one. And since the handle to roll my suitcase with is broken, having a lighter bag will make it easier to carry through the airport. 

Basically we walked up and down streets like this knocking on doors looking for families with kids, while sweating our butts off in over 90 degree heat.

We stopped by this open pit copper mine (which you can't really see well, but I tried)

Here is an old head-frame in the mine.

Also, got to see the Berkeley Pit, which a flock of geese once landed in and all died because the pH of the water is so low.

The Berkeley Pit was pretty cool. It doesn't look that big here but it is 1 mile to the other side the way I am looking from that picture and 3 miles wide. There are extremely deep mines below it. When they stopped mining there in the 80s they also stopped pumping the groundwater away, so the pit filled up. They just recently started treating the water and returning it to streams. 

I wish I could write a longer post, but since this is my only day off, I have tons to get caught up on. And tons of relaxing to do (hopefully) before the next trip. I'm not sure 12-13 hour days in the heat agree with me...