Clothes Drier

Dazzle has shamed me into posting on my blog… such a long time since my last proper posting.
Hmmm, so much has happened. I guess, first off there was the un-planned excursion with the Land Rover. The less said about that the better. There have  been a couple of trips off-shore since then, the first entirely in Norway. The second, well, I went to Norway supposedly for four weeks. When I arrived however, I was told that it would be six weeks. Two weeks into the trip I was asked if I could go to Australia to attend some meetings for a project we have coming up there at the end of the year. So, off I went, via a short visit to Buckie, Aberdeen, London, Dubai to Perth Australia. A day in the office, three days of meetings. Now I filling in the day before departing from Perth at the crack of dawn tomorrow to head back to the ship, via Dubai, Frankfurt and Stavanger. The Australia jaunt has now broken up what was starting to look like a long trip.

Sprinklers on the New Garden Area

Last leave we got a lot done around the ranch. We got our little clothes drier up, we got a lot of the new ‘adult area’ sorted out – a little vegetable garden area with some nice seating where only certain dogs are allowed and only under express invitation! We even finally put up our humming bird feeders, something that has been on the ‘to-do’ list forever!

Humming Birds at the new Feeder

So, next stop Norway, then around two weeks later, back in Colorado. This next leave could be my last one before winter sets in – I know, it’s 90 degF and we’re talking about winter – so there will be a lot of things to get done, most of which were on this years ‘Springs’ list, but have been over-taken by events.

It’s been a long time since I posted a blog entry, so there’s a lot to catch up on.

Well, during my last leave we got a huge amount of work done on the ranch. Even so, there were still some things that we had wanted to get done that had to be postponed. Anyway, the major things were getting my work benches and tools sorted out in the barn, then getting some lambing pens built inside the main area of the barn. That necessitated a big clear-out, moving a lot of stuff into the hay barn while construction was on-going, then moving it all back in again after-wards.

We also got the washer plumbed up in the well-pump house, with only one gusher, but the least said about that the better! “There’s a limit to what can go wrong with a bit of home plumbing”, as we keep saying. In line with fitting the washer we also plumbed in a small electric water heater, and while we were at it we got the old UK tumble drier going too.

We did some work dividing off a bit of the animal pen to give the dogs a bit more room to roam, as we also managed to cut down a bit on the number of livestock we had. No more angora goats, now we just have sheep and dairy goats. We have added some angora rabbits though.

On the last two days of my leave we put up two trailer loads of hay. On the second run, while I was loading the hay, I turned wrong and pulled something in my leg. Absolute agony. Luckily the farmer arrived just at that time and he and one of his farm hands finished loading the trailer for me. When I got back to the ranch I’m afraid I had to sit on a bale and watch Dazzle unload. Chauvinism at its best! The leg is better now, but still quite colourful with the bruising.

Then I was on my travels again, back to Europe. First to the UK where I had a day in the office to discuss some control system issues for the Perseus’ replacement. Then straight from the office in the evening for a flight over to Norway before joining the Perseus for my third ‘last trip’. This one does seem likely to be the last. We still have the on-going project to complete, but there is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel. Lots of planning for the demobilisation, but until the project is officially complete we’re straining at the leash before starting all out disconnections.

I do keep joking that we can’t start the demob until the 13th of November, as the 12th is the last of my ‘contract days’ so I’ll be on to day-rate after then!

Yup, it’s almost the end of another leave and I have to ask myself, where the heck did it go??? Almost five weeks since I left the boat last and do I have anything to show for it?

well, this time the answer is YES actually, quite a lot in fact!

Most importantly I am now officially  a legal permanent resident of the United States. That in itself is a big deal (well, it is to my wife and I!)
The Green card interview, last friday, went well, and my passport was stamped with the temporary I-551 visa (the stamp equivalent- good for 1 year) and I should get the proper card in the mail within the next 3 weeks or so. The stamp in the passport means the same as the card though, so I can travel without any issues before I actually get the card. Apparently, when I’m in the US, I’m supposed the carry the card with me at all times!
Its funny, as the I-551 stamp is so much less impressive than any of the visa’s I’ve had, its hard to believe that it is so much more important!
The interview itself was almost an anti climax. Myself, Melisa and our attorney, were together in the room with the interviewer, who went over the YES/NO questions on my application… and that was more or less it. I did pick up on something that the interviewer said early on (which Melisa and the attorney both missed) which lead me to believe that she had already reviewed our case and decided that everything was okay unless we said anything really stupid during the interview. She photocopied a lot for my passport US entry stamps and she was going to check that I hadn’t out stayed my welcome on any of them, but the computer system was hung up, so after waiting a few minutes with nothing working, she announced that she’d just take my word for it. We then even digressed into the entomology of her surname, which I told her I knew was Norwegian for sunday as I’d worked a lot in Norway. She said that she knew that although there were no Norwegians, that she knew of, in her family tree.
She asked when I was likely to be leaving the US next, and when I said within the next 2 weeks, she gave me the covering letter to get the I-551 stamp before I left the building. She was quite amused with my “african” passport and all its nigerian visas as she said that they have to be particularly vigilant with applications from Nigerian nationals as there is such a high proportion of fraud from them.
All in all the process was a lot less intimidating than I expected (and nothing like the film ‘green card’) but then, as our attorney said, rarely has she had such a genuine and well prepared case.

So green card adventures aside, we had a lot of other goings on this leave. Melisa made a lot of preserves and jams, which meant that i had to build new shelves in the well pump house to store them all, I also got our old British washing machine plumbed up in there so that she can wash the ranch stuff when she is on the ranch.

We built new planter beds to start growing some veggies and other produce, and we also built new composting bins to start composting some of the waste produced on the ranch into useful… well, compost, I guess!

We’ve had a bit of coming and goings on the livestock front, to the extent that we are currently down to 25 head of goats/sheep which I think is the lowest we’ve been for quite a while.

The final thing for the leave was the annual Property Owners Association Meeting which was held today. We went, we had our say, we contributed, we feel fulfilled (not!) Okay, so it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be. Let’s just leave it at that! hahaha

Did I get any painting done??? Did I bu&&£r!

It’s been 10 days since my last up date and this isn’t really a proper one, that’ll have to wait til later. The big thing today (which was the big thing this leave) was the trip to Denver to the USCIS offices for the final interview for my Green Card. Everything went very well, almost anticlimactic to be honest, and although it will be at least two weeks, probably four before I get the actual card through the mail, they did stamp my passport with a 1 year visa that serves the same purpose as the green card. So I am now an official legal permanent resident of USA. Minimum of three years before I can apply for citizenship though!

Today has been a bit of a bust. Started off well but then rapidly deteriorated. First we found out that due to a change of interpretation, the big refund we were expecting from HMRC is now only going to be a little refund. And I’m the lucky one there, the rest of my colleagues won’t be getting anything at all.

I then went to work on putting up some shelves in the well pump house. Part of my goal for the day was to get them done, then finish off the planter boxes for the garden so I could have a ‘day off’ tomorrow. Anyway, that plan came a cropper after Dazzle started her conversations with American Express about getting my account transferred from American Express (UK) to American Express (US). Anyhoo, all came tumbling down when American Express (US) said that there was something wrong with my credit history in that it didn’t  meet their ‘Criteria’ despite my having had an American Express account since 1985, a Platinum card for at least 15 of those years, and a ‘flawless’ (to use their own expression) history with them. So after being denied a transfer, we checked my credit score on-line and could find bugger all wrong with it, so god only knows what their criteria actually is. So, for the time being we’re ‘stuck’ with my UK Platinum card.

What with all the phone calls and checking on things it sort of cut into both, my time, and Dazzle’s, so I ended up having to do the chores and not getting the shelves finished and not even getting the planter boxes started. So, instead of my plan of trying a bit of watercolor painting tomorrow, I’ll be finishing off today’s jobs.

I’m writing this courtesy of the free WiFi in KLM’s Crown Lounge in Amsterdam airport. It’s the first time that I’ve managed to get in here in all the times that I have been through Amsterdam. The key this time, was my ‘Flying Blue – Petroleum Club’ frequent flyer card. We had all been asked by the company to get one, obviously not for the benefit of access to the lounge but, because having the petroleum card is proof that an individual is eligible for ‘seaman’ discounted air fares – thus giving the company cheap options for crew-change flights!

As I said, I’m in Amsterdam, en-route back to Colorado. I actually got of the ship yesterday, but had to stay in a hotel overnight, as my arrival on-shore was too late to get a flight home that day (i.e. after 12 noon!) It was an early start, and I’ll have almost exactly 25 hours traveling (airport to airport) and almost exactly half of that time will be spent hanging around either Amsterdam or Minneapolis airports. Hence why I’m quite excited about actually being able to get into a lounge, where I can a least sit down in relative comfort for a while. Of course, free internet access and cappuccino on tap are additional pluses!

Minneapolis has always been less of a problem as, like almost all American airport hubs, my American Express card seems to get me into most airline lounges. (You just slip the card between the door and the door jamb, and slide it up until the card pushes the latch in… hey presto! – only joking)

So, what all has been going on between now and my last posting? Well, to be honest, not much of interest from my perspective.

The project that we were on with the Perseus didn’t have much involvement for us for the last few weeks, so we’ve mainly been catching up on maintenance and the like. Even that is a bit thin on the ground given that there has been a tailing off of interest in the Perseus’ systems in the last few month… everyone seems to be on a count-down to the de-mobilisation. There has still been the occasional questions from the office relating to the new-build vessel, Seven Pacific, but even those seem to  be tailing off as I think we’re at the stage where what they’ve decided already is what we’re going to get.

There has been an announcement about redundancies within the company owing to the global down-turn. Nothing specific as yet, other than the figure of 85 staff positions has been mentioned (along side an unspecified number of ‘contract’ positions). Of course, nothing on whether those are ON-shore or OFF-shore positions! The cynic in me is sort of assuming that they are on-shore positions, as there would have been little announcement or publicity if it were only the off-shore animals that were being laid off.

Anyhoo, more to the point, I’m on my way home. For that I’m happy, though perhaps with a little trepidation, as Dazzle says that this leaves job list has 45 items on it…..

So what all have I been up to, and where all have I been since my last blog entry?
Well, last time I wrote, I was on the ship en-route to Norway. We arrived in Norway, and I got off the ship, had an overnight stay before journeying onward.
First leg was to Aberdeen where, after picking up a hire car, I headed out to Buckie for a very flying visit to my parents. The hire car itself was a bit of an experience. Luckily one of my colleagues was going part way along the same route, so he drove as far as Keith, which got me well clear of city traffic before I took the wheel, bearing in mind that this was the first time I had driven on the “right” (well, left actually!) side of the road for over three years!
I did make it to my parents without incident, and only then realised that, although the route I had taken was a very familiar one, it was in fact the first time that I had ever driven it myself.
It was a great visit with my folks, even though very short, and in the course of the few hours I was there, my sister, niece and nephew all popped in at one time or another. The visit also gave me an opportunity to be reunited with my wayward luggage that I mentioned in my last posting!
The following morning it was back on the road again (clutching my bag!), into Aberdeen, dropping off the hire car and then flying back to Colorado via Amsterdam and Minneapolis. I arrived in Colorado late on Friday night and was back at the ranch in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
Saturday was a bit of a rest day, and then it was down to the serious business at hand. A lot of work to do, and not a lot of time to get it done. From the Sunday to the following Sunday we achieved a great deal, mostly cleaning out some of the animal pens, the chicken coops and re-doing the smaller of the two coops for more head-room. We got a new batch of day-old chicks to replace our current layers as they grow older (once the new ones are old enough to start laying, the older ones may end up in the freezer, but don’t tell them that!)
The other big job was getting the freezer room in the barn walled in, insulated, and making a door for it. Lots of other little jobs too, but still some time to get caught up on the TV shows that Dazzle had recorded for me. Some friends took out a couple of different calibre rifles, a .30-06 and a 6mm, to the ranch and we had some target practice to let me try them out.
On the last Monday we had a road trip over to the other side of the state. The weather for the most part of the leave had been very good, but (of course) on the Monday morning it was freezing cold and started to snow just as soon as we went outside at 4:30am to start the chores! Road conditions on the outward part of the road trip were pretty treacherous, particularly around Alma and the Hosier/Frisco Pass, just south of Breckenridge. Once we were on I-70 things were a bit better. We made it to our destination a little behind schedule, but we did pick up the animals that we had gone for and headed back home. The day had improved remarkably and the roads were not only clear, but mostly dry for the homeward leg so we made better time.
While on our road trip, I received my travel details for the following day, so we knew that when we got home it would have to be a relatively early night. Tuesday had to be an early start to get the chores done before heading off to the Airport. Back to Norway again, via Minneapolis and Amsterdam. Then, once in Norway after 24 hours traveling, about 4 hours kicking my heels at the Airport before my helicopter flight out to the ship. So, back on the ship again after less than two weeks off, and only ten days at home.
This trip is only scheduled to be three weeks though, which isn’t too bad. But, (isn’t there always a ‘but’) although I’ll have three off in theory, I will have to leave Colorado early again, as I have an appointment at he US Consulate in London to renew my visa on the way back to the ship next time.

We have aquried two new Angoras kids from an acquaintance…. and they are blue!

Blue Angora Boy

Blue Angora Girl

We had just reduced some of our numbers and were down to a total head-count of 30 when we had our first new goat kids of this year.

Dolly's new kids

We went to a “swap meet”, and managed to sell a Llama and two sheep and gave away two of our surpus kitties. We only came home with one new critter, a Polish rooster.

New Rooster