Featuring John Minor
Last week was kind of special to me, John and his wife Becky who made a trip through Europe, would stop in Belgium to meet. Well we did meet at Monday evening for a small talk about what we would do the next 2 days, a regular survey day on Tuesday and some sightseeing on Wednesday.
A last minute call from Gwen, one of our engineers at the office in Ghent, made us start in Gentbrugge to survey a terrain near the freeway for the design of storm water holding basins. It's an enlargement of a survey we did in June. So we leave Kortrijk at 7.30 am. as usual to arrive in Ghent half an hour later. First we search for an existing station setup point, a large spike in the pavement, and we'll RTK some new points that will serve as station points for the S6. The terrain is
a grassy plain, with a ditch around it surrounded by trees and canopy.
Perfect for a 2 man crew, John will do the elevation grid with the RTK-GPS on the open space, I'll take the S6 for the ditch. We talk a little about the Flemish FlePos VRS-system and our coding system.
It takes us a little more than 2 hours to complete it. We head SW to Ieper (Ypres) for a new project, a new sewage and storm water will be designed. I start hammering the spikes for the station setups, John has to get used to our tripod, he's used to the bi pod, one of the little things we do different.
but there's a lot in common no matter where you're surveying it seems ... people come and like to hear what en when it's going to happen.
Here's John in front of one of the WWI military cemeteries, you'll find a lot of them here, Ypres was on the front line for years. All cemeteries are surrounded by the same brick wall, we have a lot of tourists visiting these places, people from everywhere come looking for their forefathers who gave their lives for our freedom...
There's some time left to start the actual line coding ... John tells me we're doing an Alta survey, we call it a topo over here. Each one has it's own typical coding, we love ours, we add a lot of notes (house numbers, street names, names of shops and pubs, types of prefab curbs and gutters) All the extra info is available to the designers in the drawing.
We end the day with beer and a coffee in the tearoom near a musee in Kortrijk. On Wednesday we visit the medieval city of Bruges with the wives and our daughter.
A lot of time to talk about surveying and other things. Meeting and teaming up with a colleague surveyor from another part of the world was a fine and very intense experience, not only speaking about surveying but also about friendship and family life.
Christof.
Gorgeous pics, Chris!! Especially the ones of the little downtown, the cemetery and the old old buildings on the river there. Just stunning!!
What is that Juliper place, anyhow??? It looks so cute!! Hopefully one day Wendell and I will get over to that side of the world and meet ya. 🙂
Angel,
it's a pub, Jupiler is a brand of Belgian beer.
chr.
Fantastic! I'm so glad you have joined us here, Christ.
The British called Ypres, "Wipers".
I use the push-button tripods too. You leave the third leg loose while plumbing with the two push-button legs. When it's level you tighten the nut on the third leg, a piece of cake.
My daughter and I are planning a trip to Europe next spring but the Governor may have just whacked my pay another 8% so that's in question now. I already make less than the top of rank & file so this is getting ridiculous.
Job is great though.
I'm jealous!
That looks like another time! The GPS doesn't seem to fit in.
Very cool.
:coffee:
C.
Thanks for posting the pictures and the information.
A little work with a little fun and it is nice to see that you and John M. connected.
Keep psting, always interesting.
Dave,
I have been looking in your profile but can't figure out what state your from our what kind of surveys you do ...
Let me know if you're in the planning phase for an europe trip,
chr.
Christ-
I work for the State of California, Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). The major highlights of my job are:
1) Survey and post the boundaries of State Forests. Usually this task is driven by timber harvest by contractors who bid for timber stands to harvest. The State is responsible to mark the boundary so the neighbor's trees aren't harvested.
2) Topographic and Boundary Survey of State owned fire stations which are to be upgraded in some way.
3) We aid cost recovery in Fire incidents where we do evidence mapping to assist our fire investigators with recovering costs of suppression from responsible parties. We also do evidence mapping for accident investigations.
My job is very interesting and fun at times. I just wish I made at least as much as my subordinates but when you work for the government you have to separate the petty politics that affects your pay and benefits from the actual service at hand that needs to be done.
-Dave
thanks Dave,
No Forestry landsurveying here in Belgium, we have some timbercompanies in the ardennes, but there's not so much forest left.
Most of us are fond of the work we do and wouldn't change with anybody else,
chr.
