Uranium & Quads

Hello Everyone,Today has been another day in paradise....

We started by driving about one hour east to the Rossing Uranium mine. The pit is very deep (about 2,100 feet) and a bit longer than a mile. The equipment they use is massive and the terrain was rocky and barren. We have five rigs on the site and the visits took most of the day.

Late in the afternoon we decided that we were going to take a few hours for a "team building" exercise riding four-wheelers through the sand dunes near the coast. We rode for two hours and ended up finishing the ride along the ocean. Unfortunately the fog came in and the last half of the ride was cold and visibility was low. We ended the ride with no injuries and enjoyed a good dinner afterwards. The break from the rig visits was fun and it gave me a chance to get to know our safety team a bit better. We are starting early tomorrow so my post is not too long tonight.

I love you all and hope you are having a great time. Boys, keep playing hard in your baseball games and take care of Mom. Abby and Aubrey, keep giving Mom lots of kisses and hugs for me. Nat, I hope all is going well. I hope the love and support of family and friends is helping you out and you are in my thoughts and prayers. Have a great night and I will write more tomorrow. For some reason I cannot get the photos to upload so I will send them in tomorrow nights message.

Love,
Ben

Namibia Day 3

Greetings from the Skeleton Coast,

I hope you are all doing well. It looks like Baseball is still in full swing and Mom is running everyone around quite a bit. I miss you all and wish you were here with me to see some of the interesting sights and meet the people of Namibia.

Today I left the rainy city of Cape Town and took a two hour flight to the North. We landed in Walvis Bay, Namibia. It was a great big desert that had very few trees or life of any kind. I took a picture of the view as we left the airport for you to see the few trees in the area. This area of Namibia has a heavy German background and the city names still carry much of that history. For example, my hotel is on Vineta street in the city of Swakopmund. It is right on the Atlantic coast and seems like a nice place. Everyone speaks English and most also speak Afrikaans. Upon arrival I was greeted by Wayne Lindsay (our Southern Africa Safety Manager) and Charles Freeland (our South Africa HR Manager) and we stopped for lunch on the way to the rig visit. We had fresh prawns with the heads still on and fries. Luckily they have Coca-Cola light to help bring a taste of home to the mix. We then drove the two hours out to our first drilling rig of the day.

We traveled through an area known as the Namibia's Skeleton Coast. The area got its name from the large number of shipwrecks that have occurred on it's rocky coast (f0r more information click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeleton_Coast). We came across one ship that had hit the rocks. Wayne was nice enough to stop so I could get a picture and share the sight with you. Besides the shipwreck the coast was beautiful with a nice sandy beach and no development for miles and miles. It would make a perfect beach resort if it just wasn't 1,000 miles from nowhere.

We left the coast and inspected one small drill rig. The rigs are similar to the USA but where we have two or three employees per rig they have seven or eight. The only real interesting thing on the rig was watching the geologist check for the uranium they are after. Once our crews had placed the core sample in the boxes the geologist would run a radiation sensor over it and measure the amount of energy coming from the sample. Kind of makes you wonder about the whole process.......

After the rig visit we drove back to Swakopmund and met up with one of our safety representatives named Michael. He and I first met at the Development Centre course I attended last year in Johannesburg so it was good to see him again and see how he is progressing. We enjoyed a nice dinner and now I am getting ready for bed.

I miss you all and hope that things are going well. With some of the large decisions facing the family I wish you were all here to sit down and have a face to face conversation. But the time will go by and it will seem quick in a few years from now, right? I love you and hope all is well with everyone.

Love,

Ben

Day 2

Lets see - what have we done today.....not much out of the ordinary.  We had lots of errands to do, appointments, and baseball.  I survived day 2, and even got some shots at Hayden's game and had a great time in the rain taking my niece Jessica's engagement and bridals...  We miss you Ben - here is a pic from Hayden's game - Nat

Ben's First Two Days

Hello Everyone,

I am missing you all ready and we still have a few days to go yet. My flight went well but it is a loooong trip. Our flight was delayed out of Atlanta by about 2 hours so it extended the total time from our house to the hotel in Cape Town to a total of 29 hours. I did not ge the upgrade on the flight and ended up sitting next to a guy who was kind of crazy. He told me about his plan for a space portal system to replace airplanes and how the government should own all building so that they can expand the roads anytime they want without having to pay anything. All I can say is that thanks to Matt's noise canceling headphones and an ambien I was able to get some sleep and survived the trip. It is rainy and cold here in Cape Town (50 degrees and wet) and I have not seen much of the city since it was dark when I arrived. The hotel (the Protea Fire & Ice) is a bit strange (think surfers meet hip hop) but the food was hot and the bed is comfortable. Since Cape Town is known for its Great White encounters, the hotel elevator is made up to look like a divers cage. Tomorrow I am flying to Walvis Bay, Namibia so I will get you some more information when I arrive. I love you and hope you are all doing well.

Love,

Dad

Day 1 - First Blessing

Ben left today for his 20 day adventure to Africa.  For those of you who don't know, he recently took over the region of Africa with work.  This requiring him to go and see all the mining sights and rigs over there.  His adventure are going to take him all over South Africa and into Tanzania and Namibia...  So while he was gone, we are going to take on the challenge of telling all about our daily activities so he can not feel left out of being gone for so long.  So here is our first day....

It started off quite early, 3:15 am to be exact....what crazy things we do for our kids.... I along with 4 of my friends stood in line to get our daughters into preschool for this upcoming year.... we watched the Devil wears Prada and visited to get a precious number for registration starting at 8:30... Sure hope it will be worth it.  I then drove Ben to the airport and cried all the way home thinking this is the longest time he will be gone... I know I tease him about how great it is to sleep in the middle of the bed and not have to share blankets, but I would would rather steal sheets than sleep alone with out him....

We spent the afternoon with Dave and Dee Dee, and Laura and Emily, visiting about new adventures and making beaded watch bands.... and then enjoyed Jessica's engagement party!  What fun it was to spend time with family....

One tender moment - When  we got home, all the kids got into their PJ's and got ready for bed in record time, and during prayers, both Ethan and Hayden prayed for our family to make right choices.... we need all the help we can get, so I will take two tender boys pleas and cherish their gestures.  

My first blessing of being alone, was when it was time for bed, no arguing, no fighting, nothing, it went from Goodnight Mom to silent in about 5 minutes, which is record for us!  It is 9:30, and I can finally go to bed and everyone is safe and asleep! 

Aubrey loves DaDa

Quest for the perfect cookie

Ok, so my goal in life is to be great at something, I know what a big concept. One thing I want to be great at is to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie.....so far I think I make ok cookies, and am out to find the perfect recipie....and try it... butter or shortening, convection or conventional baking....semi sweet or milk... oh the challenge. Well here is my attempt from yesterday. They look pretty, but we will have to see if they pass second day cookie challenge! Wish me luck!