Christmas in Washington

Here are some photos especially for Holly in Perth. We spent Christmas with the Quicks at Sun Mountain Lodge in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. Also some pictures in Seattle.

St. Augustine Volcanoe

St. Augustine is showing a little more activity recently. You can see the steam and smoke plume in this satellite photo. In 1976 it left a coating of tan ash over all the snow. The colors seemed like sunrise or sunset outside. Maybe someday i will find an old photo to add to this.
Here is a link to a live webcam that is set up near Homer. You can see the Homer spit if you are familiar with the Kenai Peninsula. Nikiski where we live is near the top middle of the photo.

Dinner with a Perfect Stranger

This is a clever little book about what it would be like to have dinner with Jesus. It only took a few nights the read thru 100 pages. Here is the website with discussion questions.
Below is a little synopsis of the story.

What Would You Discuss. . .
Over Dinner with Jesus?

That’s the dilemma facing cynical but successful businessman Nick Cominsky when he accepts an invitation to join Jesus of Nazareth for dinner at a local restaurant. Nick is convinced that his friends at work are pulling a prank. But the man sitting across from him appears to be quite serious, introducing Himself as “Jesus. My family called me Yeshua.”

Nick accepts his dinner companion’s suggestion to suspend his disbelief and “proceed as if I am Jesus.” What follows is a fascinating conversation that covers family relationships, world religions, and the afterlife, among other topics. Along the way, Nick confronts his own unfulfilled longings, spiritual uncertainties, and anger with God and he begins to wonder if the man across from him holds the answers to his deepest questions.

Merry Christmas 2005

Dear Family and Friends, MERRY CHRISTMAS 2005

Lois Ann has finished all of the cards and paper and she has been telling me to get busy and finish this annual letter. Tonight kids hockey practice was cancelled due to unseasonably warm weather and also Wednesday bible study was cancelled because the rain has turned the backroads into ice rinks. So we have some free time tonight.

We are thankful once again for another very good year. It started out looking like my job would be ending about now because of a lack of gas to run the ammonia and urea plants. Now they are getting gas supplied for a year at a time from many companies, and recently they announced they are looking for partners to possibly build a coal gasification plant to supply feedstock to us and generate electricity for the peninsula and Anchorage. I worked tons of overtime this year just in case the job was ending.

Lois Ann even worked this summer with some friends in the office of Ocean Beauty, a local wild salmon processing plant. (Wild Salmon are better than farmed salmon.) She had a lot of fun. Now she is back at the elementary school as a secretary again.

Heidi and John Quick came up to Alaska for the summer. John finished college with some online courses as well as both of them working. It was nice to have them around. Johns dad Chuck was able to come up for about a week near the end of summer and we showed him part of Alaska. In August we went to Minnesota and Iowa for a little over a week. It was a quick but fun trip. John is on staff with Young Life and Heidi is working at a Montessori school and helps with Young Life.

Christoffer was up in Anchorage helping to electrify Elmendorf Air Base for the first half of the year. He joined us on some hikes and golfing several times. Recently he worked for a month in Kotzebue up in NW Alaska, had a couple of days off, and worked for 6 straight weeks at Pogo Mine east of Fairbanks and Delta Junction. He was here for a week at Thanksgiving time. Now he is back at Pogo until we go together to visit Heidi and John for Christmas.

Holly was here for a little over half the year. Lois and Holly went to see Heidi and John in Seattle in the spring. In August she went to live in Perth, Australia. She is working in a coffee shop that is run by YWAM (Youth With A Mission). She is happy and enjoying summer very much. Also Amy her cousin just arrived there about a week ago.

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. God Bless You

The Stynsbergs

PS. Please see photos and leave some comments on the blogs:

www.marksalaska.blogspot.com and www.theeroundrobin.blogspot.com

Jack Frost

Hockey tournament in Anchorage

This Thanksgiving weekend the Nikiski Bantam team came in 2nd place in a tournament. Here they are at the UAA practice rink waiting for a game. Congratulations!!!

You have to be a fan of the new NHL to appreciate the picture below. One of the great rookies this year is named Sidney Crosby. One of the teams in the Thanksgiving tournament not only had a Crosby they also had Christ to help them. We all need guys like this on our team.

Thanksgiving dinner with entertainment

We had a wonderful Thanks- giving dinner at the Seguras beautiful home.


After dinner we all made some music together.
Sorry that we did not get everyone in the picture, just the jug players.

Sonny and Ivy

Here is a picture of Sonny and Ivy for Holly and Heidi. He is eight years old now and quite a talker.



Here is Kim and Sonny. He is playing a little trick on his mom.

Blue Sky Coal Gasification

Agrium to explore alternative feedstock for Kenai Nitrogen Operations

KENAI, Alaska - Agrium U.S. Inc. (TSX and NYSE: AGU) announced today that in conjunction with industry partners it would conduct a feasibility study to evaluate the potential use of coal gasification as a feedstock for the Kenai Nitrogen facility.

The proposed gasification plant would use local low-sulphur coal to produce the feedstock needed for ammonia and urea production. It would also produce a significant amount of energy that could be sold into the Alaska power grid.

“We believe this proposal contains a lot of merit,” said Bill Boycott, General Manager, Agrium Kenai Nitrogen Operations. “We plan on working with a number of partners to evaluate the potential to commercialize one of Alaska’s largest natural resources in an environmentally responsible manner. This project would create an off-take gas agreement opportunity for Agrium and generate another source of competitively priced electricity into the power grid, if it were to proceed to completion. It would also provide excess CO2 for use in the exploration of oil and gas and keep Alaska’s largest value-added industry in business for decades to come.”

Boycott said the company has been working with the U.S. Department of Energy and Alaska’s Congressional Delegation. Senators Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski have been very supportive of the project. Other partners in the study include Usibelli Coal Mine and the
engineering firms Black & Veatch and Uhde. Agrium is in discussion with Shell for its proprietary coal gasification technology. The coal would be sourced from the Beluga Coal Field, located about 40 miles across Cook Inlet from the Agrium plant. The field contains more than two billion tons of proven reserves, making it one of the world’s largest low-sulfur coalfields. The project name, Blue Sky, is in reference to the new environmentally friendly coal gasification process.

Agrium’s Kenai operations consist of two ammonia plants and two urea plants. The facility could produce over 1.5 million product tonnes if it were to operate at full capacity. The project could retain 230 direct jobs at Agrium and create additional jobs at the coal gasification facility and related coal mine. The gasification facility could be in operation as early as 2011 if results from the analysis were positive.

Agrium is a leading global producer and marketer of agricultural nutrients and industrial products and a major retail supplier of agricultural products and services in both North and South America. Agrium produces and markets three primary groups of nutrients: nitrogen, phosphate and potash as well as controlled release fertilizers and micronutrients. Agrium’s strategy is to grow through acquisitions as well as the development, commercialization and marketing of new products and international opportunities.

The photos are from the Nuon Buggenum power plant in the Netherlands. Bill Boycott and Tim Johnson along with some men from Usibelli Coal Mine visited the facility. If they built one here next to our plant it would be larger than this. Here is a link to
NUON It is a very enviromentally friendly process. Here is another article from Petroleum News
about the project.

Hockey season

Here's what can happen even if you do keep your eye on the puck. A teamate was trying to get the puck out of our zone, it went off another stick and my chin, and i had to send it out. For a few moments it felt like my jaw had become unhinged. Hopefully there will not be any more injuries.

Night Shift

6 weeks of 12 hour nights was finally over yesterday morning. Hopefully i get a week off. Here are some night time photos of home away from home. The urea tower is 11 stories tall. It is a good place to go and look at the mountains and Cook inlet.






This is the fireplace at the second home. You can really warm up here, especially on those cold winter nights.














It was a little windy this evening, but the weather was warmer than it had been.

Holly's Ivy

Here is a picture of Ivy - Holly's chocolate Lab. Holly, Ivy misses you and wishes she could go to Perth to see you. I took her for a walk today. When she carries a big stick she stops barking.

Snowballs

Look at how the snow formed little balls in the bushes. It looks like a
pointillism painting made by God out in the woods behind the house.

Mt. McKinley or Denali

Yesterday i downloaded the free version of Google Earth and since then Lois and i have been "virtually flying" around the world looking for friends, family and places.

This is Mt McKinley or Denali which means the 'great one'. It is amazing to be able to fly around it with your aeromouseplane. If your altitude is not high enough you will bump into it.

Not global but Hemisphere warming

Just by chance today i ran across an article that tells more sides to this global? warming story. It is worth checking into more deeply. I have heard from others that the ice in Antartica has been getting thicker. Check out this
article.

Sea Ice

1979 to 1981

2003 to 2005

Here is an interesting article from NASA along with pictures and animations about the amount that the sea ice has been receding in the past 20 years.
Here is the article along with very large images from NASA.

Water on the Windshield

Lois does not like me taking photos from the car but this one turned out pretty nice. You can clearly see the drops of water on the windshield. (Click on the picture to see the water drops.)














OK geese, keep your heads up!














OK, now you can go back to eating...

Biking Buddies

Yesterday at work Bruce, Bill, and i were talking about old biking trips we have gone on in the past. This is a picture of the bridge at the half-way mark going up to Crescent Lake. Bruce is on the right. This summer we have been working so much because of the impending closure of the plant next year that we haven't even gone biking. There are some great trails on the Kenai Peninsula --- (there are also some that are not so great). We seemed to recall the trips that were not so great at the time.

Happy Birthday Heidi

Hope you had a fun birthday. Did you do anything special on your day?

One good thing about blogging is that we do not have to be late in wishing you happy birthday anymore because we can change the date on the blog to make it the 25th!

Like father - Like son

This is Bill, one of the smarter operators at our plant. There is another smart operator named Phil who is on another shift. Both of them drink a tankard or more of Diet Pepsi every 12 hour shift. Maybe Pepsi has some special ingredients that stimulates their brains and helps them to think better than most of us average operators???



Last week my wife and I went over to see Bill and his wife Liz. I glanced over toward the desk and was surprised at how much William Jr. looks like his dad! All that he needs now is some Diet Pepsi nest to that computer.


Bill is also kind of a financial genius. One way he saves extra money is by wearing uniforms at home!! (Liz said not to put this photo on the blog.)

Working for another year...

Pipealley(above)

Just before our vacation to Minnesota last month Agrium decided to keep our plant running at least another year. Ammonia and Urea prices are very high now. Natural gas is also expensive, but we will have enough gas for the plant, at a resonable cost, for the next year.

The Syngas compressor below is one of the most powerful in Alaska @ 38,000 horsepower. It uses a 1500# steam turbine and a 550# turbine (to the right and out of the photo) to make it spin 10,400 rpm's. That compresses the synthesis gas from 350 lbs. to over 3000 lbs.

This is the 1500# turbine taken apart a few years ago.

One final picture of hard, dirty work.... Must've been night shift after a big meal.

What kind of coffee????

I think these folks need to rethink their name.... There was not a long line outside waiting for this coffee.

Wild Fish

"Spamon Y"

"Summer School"

"Spenard Spawn Shop"

The last few years artists have been decorating salmon for the state fair.

New Pavement

They have been paving the highway in Nikiski .....all..... ...summer.. ...long... We have been driving on the back roads to avoid being stopped by flag ladies and having to wait for pilot cars. We also have a paved bike path. I don't know if snow machines and 4-wheelers will use it or make their own path. This was taken on August 4th. Today they finished the 7 miles of dotted white lines marking where the centerlines need to be painted. In the next month or two all the lines will be covered with snow!

Gooseberries coated with hornets

On Saturday the 20th we went to the Ninilchik for our Kenai Peninsula fair. It was kind of fun except there was so much smoke in the air from a fire near Fairbanks that it looked like fog. The following day after church we went to a 60th wedding anniversary near our home and there were hornets all over the place. Several small kids were stung. :( Some people think the smoke caused the hornets come out.
When we came home Lois Ann asked me to pick a few cups of gooseberries from a bush in our garden. There were a lot of hornets flying around it, but i was able to get over 2 cups of berriesfor some small pies. While we were picking we noticed all these hornets on one gooseberry. A few hours later they were all swarming on a different berry.

This isn't Alaska

This isn't Alaska but it looks like a pretty nice town. Water, hills, bridges, and nice people. Heidi and John, Mark and Lois Ann