Let 'em Eat Cake

A winter tradition the last few years is to receive a
birthday cake from Mark...also known as Poo-baca,
Poo-Man-Chu, Poo-Man or any number of other Poo-related
names. Mark is the Waste Water Treatment Plant Tech
and some feel he sometimes has a little too much
time on his hands. We went to a birthday party this
weekend where Jay-Bird was presented with this pretty
cake from Poo-baca. Sometimes they look good enough to
eat. However, if you look at the ingredients, however
good it may look, it might cause a few Pepto-Bismo
momments when digested. When I asked him for a recipe
I could put on my blog, he was more than happy to oblige:

Grammy Bacca’s Poo-licious Cake

6 cups Class A or B processed sludge*

*this can be biosolids processed from belt press, centrifuge,
or compost pile; pre-tested for microbial and organic nutrient
& at least 14-17% solids content after de-watering for
consistency and body

3-4 cups Hand-whipped cream topping--cooled
6 oz. Syrup of choice--warmed
4 oz. Sprinkles of choice
2-3 oz. Candy of choice

---------------------------- --------------------------

Take the sludge and pack into a non-stick or pre-coated
decorative mold. Let stand at room temperature (preferably
20 C [ 70 F ]) for 2-4 hrs. When ready to decorate, carefully
turn molded sludge onto a serving plate/platter (preferably
fine china, silver, or acceptable equivalent) and release
sludge from mold by tapping and slight force. If mold crumbles
at all you will have to start all over or apply delicate hand
“spackling” techniques to the molded sludge to put it to rights.

After cake is satisfactorily positioned onto the plate or
platter, take the pre-refrigerated hand-whipped cream and
spread evenly onto the surface—taking extra care in easing it
over the edges of the mold. Then—as liberally and decoratively
as you wish—apply dobs of your favorite syrups, sprinkles,
candies, and accents (edible or non-edible)

***be careful when pressing or inserting decorations, for the
molded cake may crumble

Keep at cooled temperature (0-4 C [ 32-40 F ]) until ready
to serve

Serves 4-8 per cake

Enjoy!!!
Love Ya…Grammy Poo-bacca!!!

Dark Days Ahead

The photos above were taken by Bill, the NSF Station Manager
this May (top two photos) and last May (bottom two photos).
Even though we turned off quite a few lights last year to
conserve energy, this year we've probably turned off twice
as many and it's very obvious when comparing the photos. I
for one am very happy since I am a Dark Sky proponent and we
will see many more stars and auroras here in town. There
are some who would rather turn on all of the lights but I
think it's more how Antarctica should be and not just some
big town on the edge of the wilderness. Safety does however
play a big part of our lives down here and I concede that we
need to have a fair share of lights on so people will not
hurt themselves. For the next few months, this will be our
view when looking over McMurdo as the Sun is long gone and
even the very dim twilight at midday will be gone in less than
a week. However, with the lights vastly dimmed, I'm
looking forward to some fantastic sky shows this winter!

Tucker to Castle Rock

The MEC (Mechanical Equipment Center) is tasked this
winter to put 250 hours on the new Tucker tracked vehicles.
Once a week, Sean and Josh take two people from town out on
the Castle Rock Loop on a two hour trip. This week, Lynn
and I got to go. We hadn't been to Castle Rock before
and we hadn't ridden in the new Tuckers before so it was
a doubly nice trip. The Tuckers are tracked vehicles so
they roll over the snow easily and had no problem at all
climbing from the Sea Ice up the glacier headed to Castle
Rock.


I was pretty surprised how steep the terrain was around
Castle Rock and it's definitely a long slide down to the
bottom of the glacier. Lots of people make this 9.3 mile
loop trip on foot or skis, but they definitely have more
energy than I do. I was very happy making it in a warm
vehicle.


On the way back, we were riding along the top of the glacier,
so we were fairly high up compared to McMurdo Sound to the
right and the Ross Ice Shelf to the left. At this high
up, you could see that it's a lot brighter to the north,
but you'd have to go hundreds of miles to actually see
the sun. And this was at 3:30 in the afternoon. We had
a great trip and hopefully we'll be able to go out again
after it's completely dark to see lots of stars.