The Northeast typically has smaller locations around its wells, and so smaller equipment is required. The teardrop bulk trucks carry less cement in each pod, and the pump trucks tend to have just one pump per truck. These were taken at the field camp in Homer City, PA.

Clicking on the picture will get you two more zoom levels out of the gallery.

Tying a Ribbon

A children’s choir, arrayed in white, sang several songs, including “God Bless America.” They sounded better than the two college-aged boys in the “Free Speech Zone” up the hill that were yelling that the terrorists had won and we had trashed the Constitution. While I agree with certain eddies of that idea, the sheer rudeness isn’t likely to win anyone to their cause.

This is my favorite photo, of a parent and son tying a ribbon onto one of the angels that represented the heroes of Flight 93.

As I perused their wall of memorabilia, I was reminded of a similar but much larger wall at the Murrah building in Oklahoma City. There wasn’t the massive sense of sorrowful loss this time around. Their heroics trump their victimhood.

There are plans to build a memorial, in the shape of a circle rather than the crescent that was originally proposed. The original design, whatever its intent, was in extremely poor taste.

The NR Gallery has three shots, but this one is my favorite. In the shot is a Staff Sergeant who happened to be there when I was. I thanked him for his service.

Soldier at Conemaugh Gap

I got there a little early, and that allowed me to take some pictures of the exterior and sanctuary.

To start things off, Stan led the group in the sanctuary with the LSB Service of Daily Prayer for Individuals and Families. We sang the last three verses of LSB 766, “Our Father Who from Heaven Above.”

Redeemer Sign and Cross

For it is of the greatest importance that we esteem Baptism excellent, glorious, and exalted, for which we contend and fight chiefly, because the world is now so full of sects clamoring that Baptism is an external thing, and that external things are of no benefit. But let it be ever so much an external thing, here stand God’s Word and command which institute, establish, and confirm Baptism.

This is an interesting turn of phrase. Some Christians want to call Baptism “external” and thus discard it, but Luther uses “external” to mean objective, and thus integral to Christianity. Also quoting from the Large Catechism:

But insane reason will not regard this, and because Baptism does not shine like the works which we do, it is to be esteemed as nothing.

We cannot see with our eyes what Baptism works, and so it is easy to discount.

Next Pr. Naumann did something that I thought was quite cool. He took the pericopes (bible readings) for today and read through them, pointing out additional things to the class. Today’s readings were Isaiah 56:1, 6-8 and Romans 11:1-2a, 13-15, 28-32.

Redeemer Chancel

Isaiah 56:1 - About the forgiveness of sins.
56:7 - “I will bring to my holy mountain” God is bringing people to where he is. This has New Testament overtones in Hebrews 12. Today God brings to his people in the Divine Service the application of Christ’s sacrifice for us.
56:8 - “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.” Cross-reference with Jesus’s statement in John 10:16: “I have other sheep not of this fold.”

The Romans pericope is also about grafting Gentiles into the kingdom of God. Verse 32 is quite interesting: “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.” For me this is an interesting explanation of why the justified still sin.

Divine Service I out of the LSB was used for worship. The audio of Pastor Naumann’s sermon can be found on Redeemer’s sermon audio site. Give it a listen, enjoy his British accent, and hear the Gospel.

The Pennsylvania Military Museum is pretty small, about three rooms that contain equipment and details about the four ships named Pennsylvania: a ship of the line, an armored cruiser, a battleship, and an Ohio-class submarine. Accordingly, the price was quite reasonable: $4 per adult.

Outside the museum, a shrine larger than the museum itself is dedicated to those who served in both World Wars. The shrine, the open mall, and the church with its graveyard across the street made for some wonderful pictures.

The cool weather allowed us to have dinner outside at Duffy’s Boalsburg Tavern. The food was quite good, and I imagine Duffy’s will be frequently patronized by “Random Dan” and “Elle,” who recently moved to PA after Dan accepted a new job with a petroleum company.

Military pictures can be had at the NR Gallery; enjoy the others here:

Cook Inlet came first, right after take-off. The mountains were next. While I couldn’t get a sunset picture, my side of the plane yielded a full moon on the wing against a darkening blue backdrop.

Compare old and new:

Oooguluk Island is a project owned by Pioneer Natural Resources. It is about five miles off the shore near Kuparuk, AK. Access is helicopter-only in the summer, but it can be driven to over ice roads in the winter.

Once I got off the helicopter and removed the survival suit, I was escorted by security to the office of the Service Supervisor I was to teach. Class went well; he was experienced enough to ask good questions and saw the value of what we are trying to do.

Late in the afternoon he gave me a tour of Halliburton’s portion of the Island. You may recall the pictures of the cement pump trucks I have posted here. When the truck chassis that the pumping equipment sits on is impractical for a task, the pumps are mounted onto steel rectangular frames called skids.

The equipment doesn’t look very clean for an environmentally friendly location, but the dusting of gray comes from the salt in the sea water that they wash and mix cement with. Sea water’s easy availability makes it the mixing fluid of choice in the Arctic and in the Gulf of Mexico. The salt present in the water makes the cement set up faster, so we compensate with other chemicals.

The airboat was a funny find on the island. The evacuation vehicle of choice is the Arktos, attached together in sets of two. The treads have cleats that dig into the ice when it needs to run on ice, and it uses buoyancy and water jets to navigate in warmer climes.

I was able to take pictures of some helicopter runs before my flight, and I kept the camera out for what I’d hoped would be good pictures. I tried to sit near a window, but somehow I ended up in the middle again.

On the drive back from the airport, we spotted caribou (in the gallery) and about 15 musk ox, which didn’t make for a good picture from a moving pickup.

The 5-minute flight was pretty smooth, and most of the water was still frozen over. The suit prevented me from getting my camera out, but it wouldn’t have mattered much since I was in the middle of a group of five others.