MELTING

We hit another all-time low in the last two weeks, minus 40 degrees Celsius. Then it got hot! It was 1 degree for about 12 hours and then only minus 2 for a few days. Everything inside the hut has melted and it's getting difficult to keep anything dry. The seats of our dinette, the bed, our clothes, everything is wet. It's almost depressing. There's so much water on the floor that it is leaking out below the hut. The food has defrosted. Our precious meat and frozen vegies are starting to defrost but they aren't thawed out yet. We are getting worried. The temperature inside has been as high as 7 degrees in the morning and we think it feels really hot. The snow in our buckets is even melting all by itself! There is no wind and the barometer is very high at 1030 millibars. Outside everything is covered in a metre of snow and it looks very pretty. We've only seen this once before in March. It's quite hard to walk around at times. It feels a bit like a ski resort without the crowds and the hot chips.

MARGIE'S BIRTHDAY
It's Margie's birthday on Saturday, 5th of August. We are planning to make sausage rolls and another White Wings chocolate cake. I have two cans of Solo stashed away and I'm going to open them on Saturday. We rang into radio 2UE in Sydney the other night to answer a quiz. We won ten dinners for two at various Sydney restaurants. We are looking forward to using these next year.

THE HEATER AND THE SUN
I cleaned the heater this week. We are still on our original wick which is amazing. We have five spares! So far we have used eighteen 20 litre drums of ATK (aviation turbine kerosene) since we arrived here in January, but we are using about 20 litres a week right now. We'll use less when the sun is around and it is coming back. We are getting eight hours of light every day now. That eight hours includes the twilights and the weather is often overcast. We are now getting up earlier, at about 9:30 every day. We are quite excited about the arrival of September. It seemed so far into the future when we used to dream about it in February. Now it is just around the corner and we may get 250 of sunlight in September. We had 58 hours and 20 minutes of sunlight in July.

REPAIR JOBS
Last week during some high winds our VHF radio aerial snapped off the roof. We use it to speak to ships in Commonwealth Bay. Last summer we spoke to the ice-breaker when they tried to come ashore. We have to fix it before "Spirit of Sydney" arrives. One of our kerosene lamps started leaking. We didn't realise it and now we have kerosene smell in the cabin. It will last a few days.

THE EARTH NEEDS A REPAIR JOB
We heard on the BBC radio that the ozone hole over Antarctica is getting bigger. They said that if the whole world were to stop using CFC's the hole in the ozone would close in about 80 years. It makes you think about the sunshine. We have to be careful with our UV exposure. I've had two skin cancers removed from my back and shoulder. I guess those sections of my body won't get much exposure down here but our face and hands have to be protected.

THE BEST MEAL THIS WEEK
Buttercup Par-Bake long-life bread rolls turned into small pizzas and baked in the oven.

THE BEST PART OF THE WEEK
Looking forward to our Australian schools' conference on 8 August.

THE WORST THING THAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK
We are running out of maple syrup! We found our last bottle. It will last for about three weeks. We will miss it.

THE BEST THING THAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK
We were walking around Boat Harbour and we discovered two Weddell seals. We sat with them for a few hours. We were so glad to see them back, we didn't expect them for another month or so.

Keep warm,
Don
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