In Nunavut, the Pumpkins Grow Square

Er, well, at our house at least....

There weren't many pumpkins available at the Northern, and none left by the time I'd decided to splurge on one. But I love carving my Jack O'lanterns, and I wasn't going to be denied by a little thing like not having a pumpkin!

So meet my newest creations:

We'll call them Box O'lanterns..... OR Jack O'Boxes!!

I got several compliments from the kids on my 'boxes'. he he. And it kept me amused for an entire afternoon.

It was fairly cold up here on this Hallowe'en night, but the kids were out in droves. We were out of treats fairly early! The most popular costume was simly face paint ~ can't blame the kids, not all kids costumes fit overtop of your parka and snow pants. And a mask is difficult to wear with a scarf and touque! We did have a couple of Batmans, a butterfly, and a scary serial killer. Kids rode around town on snowmobiles, ATVs and in trucks.

I was dressed as a scary arctic witch. ("Arctic witch" because what other kinda witch wears mits and a parka to hand out candies??!)

So Happy Hallowe'en from the great white north! We hope yours was as much fun as ours!

A Blast of Arcticiness!

In case it isn't part of your daily routine to check the weather up here, I'll give you a brief synopsis!


It's darn cold.


We're talking minus 16 celcius, with a windchill at minus 28, and it's only October!

I hope the kiddies made their Halloween costumes large enough to fit over their parkies!

Edited to add: Just how cold is it?? Our lock froze tonite! 'He' was home from work first and had to wait in the cold for 20 minutes before I got home. We tried lock deicer and ended up having to get one of my contractors to come and use a blow torch to unfreeze the lock! Yikes.

Clean Up in Aisle Four!

Finally, finally, and just in time!

Our sealift has made it in! We got it on Wednesday night at 9:30. It's nice to have friends that will call you the minute your skid comes off the barge.

The lake was starting to freeze over, and as we were waiting for word that the barge had left Churchill, we were especially worried that our pop would be frozen and exploded! Pop is one of the items that isn't foodmailable.

So we bundled up and headed out into the cold to cart the order up into the house.

And slowly but surely, a skid wrapped in film became a pile of boxes scattered throughout the entry.

TAAADAAAA! Our very own grocery store. We got quite a few groceries. I'm thinking that no one needs to be concerned about us starving this winter. Oh, and I shouldn't have to send "he" out with a slingshot to take down a caribou (which he'd then bring home for me to clean, which isn't something I'd really want to do!)

And yes, in case you were wondering, that is exactly 48 boxes of mac and cheese! :)

Our first trip home

We just booked our first flight home since being up here. (Of course we aren't counted his medivac since that wasn't planned OR booked!)

After getting over the sticker shock (it's almost $5K to fly home) we managed to book our flights.

We're coming home on the 17th, we'll get into Toronto later at night. And we're leaving right after Christmas. Remember that we'll be home again in February for the nuptuals.

We're making a schedule and checking it twice, so make sure you speak up if you want to see us!

extremes in weather

Over the last week or so, we've had some extreme weather. We had some wild winds again, the white caps on the lake make it look pretty cold.

A late fall rainbow appeared down by the lake.

And this is the view out the window currently:

so why'd we do it?

We get this question a lot. Especially from people down south.

Initally, we'd honestly say it all had to do with his career. It was also our chance to do something wild and adventurous.

What we didn't expect was how much we'd enjoy the experience.

It's quiet moments on our 'mountain' or at the lake, or even just standing under the zillion stars.

It's the local kids who always want to stop and chat. They're so curious about our lives, and Squire. The other night, after I stopped to let them hold onto Squire's leash and take her for a walk, three young girls out of a large group even gave me a hug!

And with the current snowy weather, it's been a riot watching Squire nosedive into snowbanks and attempt to catch bunnies.

So while we came up here for his career, it's certainly been more rewarding that we ever thought.

I'm dreaming of a white Thanksgiving

So I woke up this morning, and there you go, lots of white fluffy stuff falling from the sky. I'd be more explicit but most of our readers are from southern Ontario and we need to be cognizant of their sensitivities. This is a family blog after all, and some words you don't mention before November.

Honestly, none of it actually stayed on the ground, so I don't know for sure that we'll have a white Thanksgiving, but I'd bet quite a bit on a white Hallowe'en.

Lately I've been trying to pick up the local lingo. I can now have the following theoretical and pointless conversation:

Me: Good morning!
Someone: Good morning. How are you?
Me: I'm good, thanks, how are you?
Someone: Cold.
Me: Sorry!

Of course any time I have this conversation its because someone is indulging me with the seven or so words I've learned so far. The nice thing is that the folks at work are having fun teaching me new words when I ask.

I've found a lot of people have a great sense of humour in Baker Lake. People seem to love laughing here. For instance, the first word I learned was "good morning", or "u'bla'kut" (spelled more or less phonetically). The thing is, if I mis-pronounce it, I'm actually saying "spread your legs". The women at work got a kick out of explaining that to me. So, suffice to say I'm pretty careful about my enunciation there.

Speaking of amusing translations, apparently "its cold" (again phonetically) is "icky". I said its the same thing in English.

Quick list of interesting and amusing things going on these days:

• We've gone nearly a month without grocery shopping. Its amazing what you can do with a freezer and high food prices.
• The house across the street perpetually has a bicycle on the roof. I have no idea why.
• I think there may be more dogs in Baker Lake than people.
• The children here are never afraid of strangers, only strange dogs.
• Since we've been here (eight weeks) we've had 3 water outtages, 2 water-heater failures, 1 satellite dish failure (on Leafs opening night!) , the local water-pumping house has broken down (forcing us to conserve, which we did comfortably) , 1 furnace failure, and if you don't flush the toilets just right, those sometimes fail too. Just part of the fun though :)

Things we're looking forward to soon:

• Figuring out how to get Internet access on MY computer (instead of just her laptop...the trials I've been going through with wireless ethernet cards and my operating system are epic-worthy)
• Getting our Sobey's sealift bulk shipment...presumably in the next week or two.
• Finalizing our plans for our Christmas trip back south.
• Foodmail grocery order tomorrow! (I'm out of tea...help!)
• Learning how to make mash-potato-stuffing (if you don't know what I mean, don't ask. If you do, send us the recipe so we can survive Thanksgiving!)

~ he