Happy Hallowe'en

This years Hallowe'en was much better than last years! I think the fact that it wasn't -31 with blizzard conditions was the main reason.

By the way, Hallowe'en in Baker Lake was decreed to be on Saturday instead of Sunday... and from 6-8 only. It was announced on the local radio. Anyway....

I stuck our Jack-o-Boxes out in the snow drift in front of our house, and had many more comments on them. The moms and dads thought they were awesome! Oh, and the scented candles made our front yard smell like apple pie!

I doubled our candy amount from last year and still ran out. $90 of candy was gone by 7:40, when we turned off the lights, blew out the candles, and shut the door. I spent the next few hours trying to thaw out.

I stuck on my Leaf's jersey, gave myself a black eye (with make-up, of course) and made it look like I was missing a tooth in order to hand out candy to the kiddies.

We're looking forward to heading out this morning to go to our first Baker Lake brunch at the Nunamuit Lodge. Our friend is taking us out with her 2nd place winnings in the office Hallowe'en costume contest at the office. She and I teamed up this year and dressed up as our respective bosses, the CFO and the Controller at the company. It was good for more than a few giggles around the office!

Happy Birthday Kiddo!

This year marks the first year where Squire is older than her mom (in puppy years, anyway.) To mark the occasion, she got her own cake (mmmmm, pumpkin with milk bone....)

She was less excited about the birthday hat though.

Thanksgiving Replay

Our Thanksgiving weekend was probably busier that we would've had back home.

We managed to get all our sealift goods into the house and organized on Saturday. Although our orginal plan was to have dinner at our house on Sunday, we had to delay til Monday because our foodmail (with the all important turkey!) was delayed in Winnipeg for a few days. At least it allowed us to get the house back in order before playing hosts.

It also freed up our Sunday night, so we were able to go to another dinner... and 'he' even got a couple of games of euchre in!

I got my *brand new* stand mixer earlier in the week, and was looking forward to putting it through its paces! For dessert: two pies baked completely from scratch!

Sealift Before and After

Thought you'd want to see Baker Lake's high-tech dock at work! The tugs actually pull the barge into to dock, which is essentially a gravel laneway that juts out into the lake. This year that had a flat barge that they had at the end of the dock, then docked the house barge (and enclosed barge to keep personal effects dry) to the end of the barge. When they first started off-loading, it was a giant parking lot of skids where you wondered up and down looking for yours.

Our pantry underwent a dramatic change once we got everything delivered and carried up the steps into the house.

Before:

After:

We made sure to stock up on things that are super expensive at the Northern: pop of all sorts, dog food, cat food, cat litter, flour. The cat litter wound up in the porch, since we were out of room in the pantry. Our sealift this year was around $4K, but paying $5 per case of pop instead of $26 makes it all worth it!

Perfect Timing

So our sealift is apparently on the barge that finally docked in town today. A couple of barges limped into view over the weekend, were delayed out in deeper water until the wind calmed down, and then the brilliant folks at NTCL decided it was a good PR move to unload the barge with the vehicles before the barge with the personal effects. These are the same people who have been promising the barge will be in 'next week' since the beginning of August.

I'll sneak down tomorrow and snap a couple of pictures, as they ended up double docking... they kept the (now empty) barge docked, and somehow connected house barge with all our groceries and whatnot to it.

Admist all that excitement, I check my WeatherEye, and this is what it says:

Snowfall Warning

Issued at 2:21 PM CDT Tuesday 5 October 2010
Summary

Up to 15 cm of snow expected.

Details

An intense low pressure system is expected to move through the Kivalliq tonight and tomorrow. This system will bring a swath of 10 to 15 cm of snow to an area including Baker Lake and Coral Harbour. The heaviest snow will occur in Baker Lake tonight while Coral Harbour can expect a few centimetres of snow tonight and up to 15 on Wednesday. This system will move out of the area on Wednesday with the snow tapering off during the morning in Baker Lake and Wednesday evening for Coral Harbour.

Aaargh! I think I was planning to fight the bugs and not the snow while hauling three skids worth of groceries into the house.

Some new colleagues?

He has some new colleagues down at his office. I think their names are Larry, Curly, and Mo, but they aren't very sociable. In fact, one of them (Curly maybe?) even tried to attack me shortly after catching them on film, loitering outside the office, and generally being unproductive.

I've heard rumours that they're already on their way outta town. I can't imagine they'll be in town much after the serious snow starts to fly.

A frosty morning

After what seems like an eternity of rain, we caught a break and the weather cleared overnight. We woke up to a pretty chilly morning; Squire left paw prints in the frost on the deck.

I think we've had the 'November Blah's'. The weather here lately reminds me of November in the south. We're literally waiting for snow - almost to the point of *hoping* for snow after all the rain and muck.

Apparently, according the news, we've been nice enough to send Ontario some cooler weather, so you can experience what the weather's been like here lately. No need to thank us personally.

We're still waiting for the barge to come in - anxiously now, as some time this month the lake will freeze. It's scheduled to be in this weekend, but we've been hearing that story since the beginning of August. I'll believe it when I see our skids in our driveway. We'll post some before and after pictures once we get all the stuff in!