Alexa Fowler: Blog 5: 2023 FPAC Green Dream Internship Program

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September 11, 2023

Hello Readers!

Today I woke up around 2pm because I am on night shift for the weekend (day shift at the mill is 6am to 6pm and night shift is the opposite). I began my day by going to my gym at the Allan and Jean Millar Centre. A drop in pass is about $8 and gives you access to the whole facility including the pool! After the gym I got a coffee from the Western Canada Coffee Company for my walk. The trails I walked are in the forest behind the golf course and they lead right to the Athabasca river. The trail loop is about 5 km so this took me about an hour.

After the walk I made myself breakfast and ate outside on my deck in the sun. One reason I like night shift is because I can enjoy a bit of the afternoon sun before I head to work. I then left my house around 5:30 to go to work.  

I work upstairs today which means I will be testing and hosing for a majority of the day. If I work downstairs that means I would be in the warehouse driving a forklift and loading cars/trucks for a majority of the day. I started my first set of bleaching tests at 7pm. I collected pulp samples on the 3rd and 4th floor and brought them to the production lab for testing.

In the lab I tested for brightness, pH, consistency, and other properties to make sure our product is on grade for our customers.

After my bleaching tests I walked around my area and looked for anything that needed to be cleaned. I hosed the 4th floor and the basement. After about an hour of hosing I ran up to the roof to take a picture of the sunset.

After a coffee break I headed down to help out in the warehouse. The warehouse can get very busy at times so I usually head down there to help out for a few hours. We loaded and strapped some train cars with pulp and cleaned out the rail bay. By then it was time for lunch.

Today was pretty consistent so the second half of my day looked very similar to my first half - I did some testing in the lab, did some clean up, and then went to help out again in the warehouse. I also ran up to the roof to catch the sunrise.

After work I drove straight home and went to bed since I have one more night shift tomorrow.

That’s it for my day in my life at work, thanks for following along!

For more information contact:
Rebecca Rogers
Director, Communications
rrogers@fpac.ca
(613) 563-4518
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