freeze with ease

Turning a Corner

2012-02-01T17:49:00.002-06:00

I don't know when it happened. Maybe it's been sneaking up on us for just over a month? I don't know.

Suddenly though, we aren't living in the dark. It's damn near daylight on the way to work! Soon I'll be able to cut through the tundra on the way home without risking life and limb.

To top it all off? There was liquid water outside today. Outside, water has two states right now... solid and vapour (as in ice/snow and breath). Even though the thermometer said that it was -29, the sun was warm enough to melt a bit of snow.

Without going out over the Christmas season, it has seemed like a long, cold, dark winter so far. But the forecast says a high of -5 on the weekend, so maybe there is hope that spring isn't too far away.

Christmas Decor 2011 in Pictures

2011-12-30T15:11:00.007-06:00

Epic Fail

2011-12-21T20:07:00.002-06:00

I decided to carry my camera around today, so I could get some shots of the daylight we experience during the shortest day of the year.

Trivia note: This will be our third Christmas since moving north, but our first winter solstice in Baker. (And our first Christmas up here too.)

Back to the pictures thing.... the photo on the way to work is a black background with white specks all over it. (It was dark and snowing and the flash just picked up the white flakes.)

The pic at morning break is a total white out. Ditto for the one at lunch. By afternoon break, it's a bit darker shade of white.

On the way home, if I had've tried another picture, it'd be a copy of the first one.

Hopefully, one day this week it won't be snowing and I'll be able to sneak out and snap some decent pictures.

Robbing a Bank?

2011-12-20T20:41:00.002-06:00

In Baker? Ha! Funny! Everyone knows that we don't actually *have* a bank here in Baker!

No, Squire and I are just bundled up to go for a quick walk around the block. I'd like to report that by the time we got home, she'd dislodged all 4 boots, making me pick them up and carry them home (it was too cold on the fingers to try to get them back on!).

I guess that's what I get for making her wear boots when none of the other dogs' moms make them wear boots!

Dig Out

2011-12-16T12:39:00.003-06:00

Last week we had our second three-day-er of the year. I'm talking blizzard, of course. This blizzard was a bit different, in that it definitely got worse before it got better.... The third day of the storm was worse than the other two combined. This is a terrible time of year for storms, as many of our friends and co-workers are beginning to travel home for Christmas. Maybe we picked just the right year to stay put?

One of our friends couldn't even get into their office on Friday... getting an 'extra' day off! You can just barely see the top of the door frame behind that monster snow drift.

Getting into our office by vehicle was impossible as well. This is the snow drift at the corner, and if you backtracked around the block, the road was blocked with a similar drift. It took til coffee break for the hamlet to have it dug out, and even then, it was only one lane wide. In fact, even today, two full days after the blizzard, many of the side streets around town are only one lane wide. In Baker, we don't bother with ploughs... real blizzards call for a squad of loaders to clear the snow (and sometimes dump trucks too!)

At lunch time, we snapped a quick pic to show the height of the drift. Kinda impressive if I do say so myself!

Blizzard-tastic

2011-12-07T21:56:00.003-06:00

Last week we were hit with a pretty decent blizzard. We were sent home from work in the morning on Monday, and didn't venture back to the office until Thursday.

We're glad it's not our job to shovel the snow out in front of the Library distribution centre....

Squire *is* glad that the snow drift allowed 'he' to rescue her frisbee from the garage roof! BTW, I'm not allowed to play with the frisbee in front of the house anymore.

We've been under a blizzard threat for most of this week too, but haven't seen anything yet. Maybe tomorrow?

Vitamin D

2011-10-25T18:43:00.014-05:00

While we weren't able to talk the nurses into issuing a prescription for us, we still thought it'd be a good idea to get some extra Vitamin D in preparation for the long winter ahead of us. Turns out, three of our friends thought so too.

One of our friends have been here, there, and just about everywhere. (She won't admit to having a physical map tucked away with thumbtacks in each country she's been too, but I'm fairly certain she does!) Whether physical or just mental, we committed to heading somewhere that'd give her another country on the 'been there, done that' side. The other two girls would be experiencing their first trip to anywhere in the Caribbean.

Oddly enough, four different schedules caused us all to converge on Toronto at the beginning of October. Travel out of the north is tres expensive, so it's awesome when you can combine business and medical and family visits with sun, sand, and surf!

We surfed the internet, trolled trip advisor, and decided Now Jade in the Mayan Riviera in Mexico was the place for us! We'd get some sun, some much needed and well deserved rest and relaxation, and make some great memories with our Northern buds.

Please note: That isn't even a promo shot from the resort's website, I actually took this picture! We were extremely impressed that the resort looked even better in person that it did on the internet.

We did a lot of this! TGIF for my Kobo, because I devoured books. It was good that everyone we were with also enjoyed a good book. And by having so many of us, we could always talk someone into a swim and a drink!

Poncho and Indigo were our noble steads for our ride through the jungle and along the beach. All five of us were able to go on a private ride. At one point, 'he' and Indigo took off gallopping down the beach, and we thought for sure we'd find 'he' hanging from a branch in the jungle.

These cuties had their own paparazzi. We were able to grab a quick shot with them by the pool.

Chillin in the pool. Gotta love the infinity pool effect, where it looks like you can swim into the ocean and off to the horizon!

Once upon a wild and crazy night, three beautiful ladies showcased their fantabulous dancing skills in the lobby, while the chivalrous knight took some pictures. All this dancing and random photography was not at all induced in any way by the consumption of several vodka and cranberry beverages. They then proceded to play Santa Claus in the lifeguard tower, before the knight fell off the ladder into the sand. The entire group took a quick dip in the ocean, and then in the pool, before heading off to bed. The next morning sucked. The end.

'He' and 'she' swimming in the rain.

Dos Blue Hawaii's, por pavor.

So to recap:

Vitamin D? Check.

R & R? Check.

A killer good time? Check.

Mission Accomplished.

Winter?

2011-10-24T19:50:00.002-05:00

Need proof that winter is officially here in Baker?

How about some kids playing ice hockey on a frozen pond in behind 'Mt. Baker Lake'.

If I get ambitious over the next few days, I just might traipse all the way out there and snap a couple of pictures.

And while I'm feeling ambitious... I think I promised my parental units that I'd post some of the Mexico pictures, so I'll do that soon too. I promise.

Chilly Day

2011-09-28T21:21:00.002-05:00

So judging by the bite in the wind today, winter is coming. Surprisingly enough, we haven't seen any kind of accumulation in the way of snow yet. There was one day with some scattered snow showers, but nothing that stuck around.

We leave Baker tomorrow to go on vacation with our Northern besties. (Look out Mexico! Here we come and nothing will ever be the same!) So this will be the first year we haven't seen snow in September.

I would imagine when we return after spending some time in Ontario over Thanksgiving with family, there will be some frosty white stuff on the ground.

Yahooo!

2011-09-26T18:51:00.002-05:00

As a professional online shopper, I was pretty geeked up today to find out that Reitmans now has online shopping!

$7.50 flat rate shipping is not as good as Lulu, The Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic who ship for free (and free returns!). But on par with Ricki's and Cleo, and slightly cheaper than Sears.

And! I heart Reitman's jeans!

So, sorry, gotta go do some shopping! Don't tell 'he'!

Yoga Class

2011-09-24T10:54:00.003-05:00

Not too sure if Squire is the instructor and the Giraffe-E and I are the students, but one thing is certain.... Her downward dog is textbook!

Resolute Plane Crash

2011-09-21T20:22:00.003-05:00

Anyone who lives the north for any length of time, quickly comes to understand that each community revolves around its airport.

Generally, the airport is the gateway into or out of town. It's our lifeline to supplies. Hell, it's where we pick up our booze!

It doesn't matter whether I'm at home or the office, when I look out the window, my eye is drawn out across the water to the airport.

The plane crash in Resolute last month that made headlines across major news stations down south was even more keenly felt here. You have to remember that the communities up here are incredibly close knit. Everyone knows everyone, and so many people are related to one another.

That there were any survivors at all is unbelievable. That the military was in Resolute planning on simulating the response to a plane crash was fortunate. That such a crash happened at all is kinda scary.

I had to tune in to watch the interview with one of the survivors. The recap can be seen/read here.

The poise and overall attitude Nicole Williamson has towards this tragedy is inspiring. I can't imagine I'd walk away from an event like that with my head on that straight.

While we await the results of the investigation into the crash, one thing is certain. If you live in the north, you'll be flying eventually. Considering the number of planes that I seeing flying past my window on a daily basis, and in spite of this tragedy, I'll still feel pretty safe the next time I hop on a plane.

Cute Kids

2011-09-16T22:25:00.003-05:00

So Squire and I were out for a quick walk tonight.

We're walking down the road towards two little boys. (Squire LOVES kids... but little boys are her favourite!) They're probably about 3.5 and 2 years old respectively.

Anyway, as we get closer, the younger one starts to cry...

... the older one solemnly explains to me that 'the baby is afraid of your dog.'

Sometimes, kids are too cute.

Wedding Cake and Longest Day

2011-06-27T20:30:00.002-05:00

Last weekend, I upgraded from Dora cakes to wedding cakes. The wedding party didn't deliver the silk flowers, so I wasn't able to see it complete, but it was looking pretty good for as far as I got. I even had some help from an apprentice baker - but 'he' wants to remain anonymous.

I figured, since the longest day of the year, really is a LONG day up here, that I should get out and snap a quick picture for everyone back home who experiences a short longest day of the year. Squire and I were out for a walk at about 11pm, when the sun was just starting to set over the snow fence. Even once the sun goes down, it doesn't get dark - which can make sleeping difficult for a few months!

PS. Yes, Trev, there is snow in Nunavut in June! That snow at the base of the snow fence is probably still about 10' deep and will last well into July.

June Snow and Caribou Hunting

2011-06-03T19:42:00.004-05:00

So, I guess mother nature forgot to check her calendar.... We got easily a few inches of snow over night (using that term loosely since we don't experience darkness in Baker right now...). And it snowed almost literally all day! Those big gorgeous fluffly flakes that belong on the front of Christmas cards. Then the wind decided it should pick up and blow all this fluffy snow around. It's gusting up to 70 km/h out there right now, and visibility sucks. Although it's not particularly cold, it isn't particularly nice out there right now, either.

But, jealous that the weather was the talk of the office, a herd of caribou decided it should stir things up. It wandered down the wide open tundra across the road from our office. I was sitting and enjoying a tea in the coffee room, when someone yelled down the hall that there was a herd out there.

Someone call 'he' quick!

By the time he made it to the office, the herd was migrating back out of town, but still visible, especially with binoculars. A few of us kabloonas decided we needed a closer encounter, so after stopping at home for the camera, we took off up the dump road.

We ran into these four stragglers before we hit the dump, but they weren't very friendly. Or photogenic for that matter! This shot was taken well back, and prompted an outcry for a telephoto lens!

At least 'he' was there for the action!

Following along the lines of Mantracker and Stormchasers, we decided to see if we can find the rest of the herd, and catch them... on film, of course!

We ended up heading out Meadowbank road, scanning the tundra for anything that moved. The only thing we found was a gigantic flock of Snow Geese... which apparently make for an awesome meal. Unfortunately, the only thing we brought back were these pictures.

Big 3oh!

2011-05-27T21:45:00.009-05:00

I recently celebrated my big 3-oh. The girls thought I needed some help to fall over the hill.(Anyone who knows me well, though, knows I don't need help falling over anything!!)

And boy, oh boy, did we celebrate it in style! My girls collaborated on the planning and decorating and cooking and baking, and were assisted and supported by what seemed like most of the office! There was enough food to feed most the town, with chicken wings, kabobs, dips, a cheese tray, fresh bannock, a pizza tray, and rocky road bars, just to name a few.

My friend outdid herself on the cake! It was amazing.... and very tasty too. And someone even brought ice cream! Sheer decadence at $20 for two litres!!

The highlight of the night was a surprise for everyone; a recital from Mr. He of a poem he wrote for the occasion! I'm not gonna lie: I was a teary mess! But not the only one. What a great memento of a great night!

The Perfect Girl I Wed

A List of my Wife's Faults, Except She Doesn't Really Give Me Much to Work with Here...

***

Why is Krista naughty?
Cuz she never learns at all.
She walks two feet and trips on air
and manages to fall.

She truly thinks it never rains;
the sun, it always shines,
And fixes any problem saying,
"It'll all be fine!"

And speaking of her temper, well,
I hardly think it's fair
To make me all forgetful with her
Smiles that make me stare.

And worst of all... her lies.
You think that "Thirty Years" is true?
I know damn well she hasn't grown
a day past twenty-two.

So even though this birthday's hers,
the best gift goes to Ted;
Another year to bitch about...
the Perfect Girl I wed.

IQ Day

2011-05-27T20:41:00.006-05:00

Last week our office declared an IQ Day - a day for Inuit to get back to and to teach us kabloonas (white people) about their cultural routes.

We gathered at the office and made our way down to the ice, where a convoy of hondas (quads) and machines (snowmobiles) along with several kamotiks awaited us. Our destination was the point on the east side of town.

We spent the entire day out on the ice, 'jigging' for fish with a traditional ice fishing rod. We were able to try some frozen caribou meat, and later, a pretty tasty caribou stew. Bannock was fresh made on a Coleman stove out on the ice too.

As a group, we caught three fish (trout). Including this guy, who *almost* got away... I think our boss was glad to get his hook back from the fish that snapped his line.

The highlight of my day? Getting to drive the machine back to the office...!

Kickball!

2011-04-20T18:33:00.003-05:00

This past weekend we challenged our friends and their families to a kickball game in the snow. (Kickball is like baseball, but you kick a soccer ball instead of swing a bat at a baseball.) We had about 10 players and 5 fans, so not a bad turn out. We were able to walk up the snow dunes over the fence behind home plate. The trip from home to first was downhill through soft snow and caused more than a couple falls. Going from third to home, you had to run through knee deep snow. We couldn't have asked for better weather, and we all lasted two innings. For those keeping score the Baker Lake Rockettes beat Baker Lake Kablamo 12 -4. Both 'he' and 'she' were on team Kablamo.

We all then headed back to our place for a bbq. 'He' bbqed hot dogs and hamburgers, and we had all sorts of salads, chilli, and carrot cake and macaroons for dessert. One young'un ate two hamburgers and three hotdogs!

We had to throw people out before 8 so that 'he' could watch Game of Thrones on HBO. We've read the books (a few times) and have been looking forward to this for awhile. There's even been a countdown on at our house for atleast the last two months: "Hey, did you know only 47 more days til Game of Thrones?" then "Guess what? Only 29 more days to my show!" and finally "Can you believe it's only 24 more hours til Game of Thrones?" The show was fantastic, we highly recommend it... and the best part? No more countdown!

Ice, Teeny Snowmobiles and Baby Girl Cake!

2011-04-05T19:45:00.008-05:00

So, for the first time in our Baker Lake residency... we ventured out onto the ice this weekend. The photo is my artistic attempt to show how clean the ice is in certain spots and the cracks going through it. According to the Environment Canada data for last year about this time, the ice is about 6 feet thick right now. Interestingly enough, based on the data on that site, the ice will continue to grow in thickness until the end of May. Our friend was nice enough to pick us up and drive us out onto the Baker Lake 401 (the stretch of ice everyone uses to fly from one end of town to the other. I gotta say, it was completely eerie taking a Jeep out onto the ice, and even eerier walking around, thinking you're gonna fall through any moment. It was a pretty neat experience, but now we wish we'd brought our skates! We limped through the weekend after hosting the farewell party for our friend who returned south, but I was quick enough to grab the camera when the teeniest snowmobile went past! I figure the kids on the back are about 4 or so! And yes, they were driving themselves!

I got to do the girliest birthday cake thus far, when a coworker asked me to make the cake for her daughter's 1st birthday. I was pretty concerned, because I couldn't do a teddy bear I'd promised (complete lack of anything to make a nice brown coloured icing - everything I tried looked like something I might've stolen from a diaper!) but I ran into the proud mom and dad at the Northern, and they were over the moon!

We're looking forward to a possible kick-ball game in the snow this weekend, followed by a potluck bbq. I'll be sure to snap some photos!

Sun and Snow and Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

2011-03-27T19:24:00.004-05:00

We've been having some gorgeous spring like weather here the last week or so. We remarked on the improvement from -60 to -40 and how gloriously warm -40 feels! Last week we were in the -20's and again couldn't believe the difference. Who needs a parka and mits at -20?? This week we're expecting temperatures in the -15 to -10 range... so break out the shorts and flip flops! Because of the awesome sun, we get some neat effects of the reflection off the ice. We delayed lunch one day to head out and see if we could get a decent picture. A friend of ours was in from Iqaluit this week on business. After hearing about the cakes I've been making lately, he demanded one of his own. Or something with chocolate chips.... Sounded like a challenge to me! So I created a Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake with Mocha Icing. Way too sweet for my liking, but our friends seemed to enjoy it, and it went pretty good with a couple of drinks and good conversation with our friends.

A Touch of Gourmet

2011-03-23T20:10:00.004-05:00

While doing fun birthday cakes for kids are always fun, somehow, I thought my friend deserved something more.... I had picked up some vanilla beans when down south, with this recipe specifically in mind. Vanilla Bean Cheesecake... can't imagine anything yummier sounding. The recipe takes 4 packages of cream cheese (about $25 in cream cheese alone!) but is worth every penny!!!

While preparing our friend's birthday feast, I had to whip together a Dora cake, requested by friends of friends. Word is getting around! This is my first multi-lingual cake; the syllabics mean 'little one'.

And the last one... sorry Dad, don't disown me... was a request for a neighbour's birthday. And I have to give all the credit to 'he' who came up with the design. I think this is my favourite cake design so far... although people are already trying to come up an idea to top it. This week? Grave digger, the monster truck. I'll let you know how it goes!

I could've been a wolf's breakfast!

2011-03-07T18:18:00.002-06:00

Lemme set the scene:

After dropping the husband off at his office, I'm marching up the hill to the office. It's almost balmy outside, very little wind and a warm -29 (Hey! It's March and we've had two months of -40 and lower... we'll take what we can get!).

A couple of co-workers fly past me on their machine.... Sucks that they get to zoom up the hill and I'm stuck trudging through the snowdrifts... but it's a balmy -29, so I can't complain. They shout out to me 'tuktu" (which means caribou) and point over on the tundra. I'm thinking to myself, looks more wolfish to me, but I'm not wearing my glasses, so I'm not going to argue.

The "caribou" starts to wander about a bit, and my coworker yells "Oh my god, it's got a tail.... it's a WOLF!!" The smokers start to edge their way towards the front door. The wolf is hanging out about 200 feet off the road.

Now I know I'm in trouble. Not from the wolf - he isn't being threatening at all, but from my husband. It's a sore point that he hasn't even seen a caribou yet, while I nearly hit one with a truck, and now a wolf...? This isn't going to go over well.

Even though we find it easy to manage without a cell on a daily basis, luckily my co-workers are more technologically civilized, and let me borrow their cell. Maybe I can get 'he' up here to see the wolf before it takes off? But no, the direct line to his office isn't working.

More co-workers are arriving, wondering what we're all looking at. The wolf's still sitting out on the tundra, wondering what we're all looking at.

Since the wolf is cooperating and hasn't run off, maybe I have time to run inside and call from my office? No, my brave Annie Oakley wannabe co-worker has hopped back on her machine. She's planning on herding the wolf away from town - and if she gets the chance, she'll run it down. We've managed to call the bylaw officer (who has carte blance to shoot any threatening wildlife or stray dogs on sight) and the wildlife officer. Quite the convoy of vehicles are heading down the road. It's time to run inside, break the news to 'he', and get a good vantage point to watch the action.

I was right. I'm in trouble. 'He' doesn't even want to hear the story; it isn't fair. I'm going to have to figure out how to make this up to him....

The offices over on the tundra side of the office belong to the HR department. Hopefully they'll be as excited to see a wolf as I am, because I'm barging right in! At first, I'm pretty sure they think I've lost it, but catch the excitement as we watch Annie Oakley run that wolf right out of town!

I heard later in the day that either a dog or an entire sled dog team, depending on who was telling the story, fell victim to the wolf. The dog teams are often kept out of town, apparently in an effort to keep them as working dogs instead of pets. Unfortunately, they'd have no way to get away from predators. The locals mentioned that the caribou are quite far from town (about a two hour snowmobile ride up the Thelon) whereas last year, a heard spent a good part of the winter between town and Meadowbank. The 'local' wolves are hungry; they're brave enough to come to town even on a nice day.

So I'm lucky enough to have seen a wolf in the wild, and lucky enough that he wasn't hungry enough to come after me. But I'm unlucky that I didn't have a camera, and that now my husband is mad. Oh well, it was definitely the most exciting commute I've had ever!

Big Shopping Day

2011-03-06T19:45:00.002-06:00

We were pretty sad to learn this week that one of our good friends, fellow poker junkie, and co-worker received a good job offer and has decided to return south to civilization.

Sad that is until we realized the uber shopping potential! In Baker, we have very few opportunities to shop (in person, that is. I think we're, by necessity, all professional online shoppers.) and anyone who knows our friend, knows he has fantabulous taste and some of the neatest stuff.

So I stocked up on baking supplies, chai tea (wooohoooo!), and some servingwares. My favouritest item though is my milk frother... combined with the chai tea, I see plenty of chai lattes in my future!

We also purchased his chest freezer in an effort to stock up on foodmail essentials before foodmail goes the way of the dodo bird and we're forced to pay $15 for a 4L jug of milk! April 1st is the expiry date on the foodmail program. I know several people who relied on the foodmail program to be able to afford wholesome food, so hopefully some of the grass roots movements are sucessful in resurrecting some sort of the program. If not, Baker Lake is expecting the long-awaited new Co-Op store to open sometime this spring, and with any luck, it'll provide some tough competition to the Northern Stores and drive the prices down to a more reasonable level.

A Typical Day in the Life

2011-02-26T16:17:00.001-06:00

7:00 AM : Beep Beep Beep Beep...Wife's cellphone doesn't actually function as a communication device anymore, but it does make a reliable alarm clock. Regular plugged-in clocks lose around a minute of time every couple days, in our house anyway.

Roll off bed, stumble around blindly searching for yesterday's dirty clothes. Cats heard alarm and are now yowling noisily on other side of door. Socks? Check. Pants? Check. Yowl, yowl yowl...Throw heavy things at door. Wear clothes. Leave room and check house temperature...says its 21C, feels like 18. Bleh. Change to 22. For wife.

Feed cats.

7:05 AM : Call dogs. We're borrowing an extra dog for a few weeks, if you don't know. Open front door. Eight inches of snow on porch this morning, and its still snowing and a bit blustery. Bleh. Snow is too frozen and heavy to sweep with a broom today. Instruct dogs that they need to do their business with calmness, dignity and restraint while I try to clean out some of the snow; quietly pray they don't cause havoc whilst unattended.

7:06 AM : Yell at dogs for causing havoc.

7:15 AM : Door frame is more or less cleared up. Stairway was a deathtrap and water services were blocked...cleaned that up a tiny bit, but I'm horribly lazy and still coughing from a cold. Also bored. Go inside. Give treats to dogs for being bad. Make sure wife awake. Start breakfast and tea.

7:20 AM : Eating oatmeal this morning, and watching news. I watch CBC in the mornings. Today its stuff about Libya mostly, and New Zealand. Still no frontpage news about Baker Lake; not entirely shocked. Relax watching TV for a while, drinking decaf tea.

7:45 AM : Now more or less awake. Shower. Take it easy on the water since water delivery can sometimes be sketchy during snowstorms/blizzards. Don't shave since its not a Monday and I'm usually too lazy to shave more than once a week.

7:55 AM : Dry up and wear clothes. Wife has kindly picked out stuff that doesn't horribly clash for me this morning (since when do brown and blue clash? They both even start with the same letter...) and left it on the bed. Awwww.

8:15 AM : Gear up to go outside. Its a mild snowstorm outside still (blizzard watches for the last couple of days but no real blizzard materialized).

8:20 AM : Work starts in 10 minutes. It takes me well under a minute to walk to work, and the wife needs around 5-8 minutes to walk up the hill, depending on weather and the route she takes. We have a vehicle today, parked at my office two doors down, and she'll be using that.

Outer door from house doesn't close properly due to snow and ice accumulation. Sigh. We'll probably chip out the ice at lunch.

8:22 AM : Vehicle miraculously unburied by snow. Door to IT office on the other hand half-blocked but I'm able to climb in fairly easily. Watch from safety of doorway while wife stands in snowstorm and clears ice from windshield wipers. Get bored; go inside.

8:25 AM : Call Arctic Fuel (local company) for snow removal at IT office and our house since our utilities are still mostly blocked.

8:26 AM : Working away. I'm all alone in my "office" which is actually a house we've converted to that use since there's not enough room up at the main office.

9:30 AM : Look out window; looks like they're already clearing out some snow nearby. Huzzah!

10:30 AM : I think I can hear them shovelling out the doorway. Good. The last two times I climbed out over the snow I managed to crack my head on the door frame. Not today! *Fingers crossed*

12:02 PM : Good work morning; its quiet and lonely here sometimes but fewer distractions can be nice. I wait a couple minutes to give wife a few minutes to walk home, hoping to intercept her on the way. Make sure my worklog is up to date and saved. Gear up to go outside.

Yay, doorway is definitely cleared out. No headaches for me.

12:03 PM : Forgot wife had a vehicle today; she has already gotten home and released the hounds. Dog A sees me, sits nicely so I'll approach. Dog B charges me.

12:04 PM : Wife is clearing out some remaining snow. Utilities were cleared out while we were at work, but the stairway is still near suicide. I get the ice chipper and help.

12:08 PM : Bored of clearing snow. Dogs are biting each other and finding and eating rabbit poo. Dog B ran to neighbour's house to bark at the poor guy trying to shovel out his own snow. Bleh.

Go inside.

12:09 PM : Wife remembered to chisel ice out of doorframe on the way in. Door manages to latch again. For now.

12:10 PM : Give dogs treats for being bad. Make lunch. Mmm. Breakfast for lunch usually. One fried egg and some toast. Mmmm. Watch more news, natter with wife about finances, work drama, dinner plans.

12:15 PM : Wife is doing bills and transfering money to the savings accounts. Yay! Saving money = good. I continue to watch TV. More news, although I can't get CBC at the moment. Probably need to tweak the alignment of the dish again.

Brief interruption to go clean cat litter box before Dog B tries to eat it again.

12:50 PM : Gear up and go outside again. Wife left car running most of lunch. This is actually pretty normal up here. I try not to think about the waste.

12:55 PM : Work work work. Trying to release an interesting project, but need a bit more testing and some sign-offs. Work on upcoming priority projects while I wait for sign-offs.

4:00 PM : 4 already? The days seem to be like normal length to me now, so its still bright and sunny outside. No more tip-offs about the end of day coming just because its dark outside.
Decide to write a blog today. Maybe an amusing timeline of a typical day's events? Jot down some notes. Google the term self-referential allusion. Chuckle at my own wit. Get back to work.

4:40 PM : Wife calls to confirm dinner plans: Guesthouse burgers! Guesthouse is a sort of restaurant. Sortof. Decent burgers. If you know Mr. Burger in the 'Shwa, kinda like those, but without the thick-cut fries. We're getting takeout so we don't leave the dogs home too long.
Hungry now.

5:00 PM : Gear up to go outside. Not waiting an extra 2 minutes this time since wife has vehicle and I actually remember it. Will try to release hounds before she has to.

5:02 PM : Home at last. Wife not here yet. What a commute! The traffic today was brutal, blah blah blah. Chuckle at my own wit.

Let dogs out. Briefly consider instructing them to conduct themselves with calmness, dignity, etc, but they've already left. Sigh and follow dogs.

5:05 PM : Dogs are chasing each other around in the back field. Occassionally they'll stop and eat rabbit poop (which to be fair looks almost identical to dog kibble. Can't comment on the taste).

5:10 PM : Bored of watching dogs run around and eat rabbit stuff. Go inside. Hungry.

5:11 PM : Give the dogs treats for being bad. Look for something to have for dinner. Yowl yowl yowl. Oh right, forgot to feed the cats at lunch. I need to feed them smaller meals now, three or four times a day instead of just two, while I keep an eye on them, because each have their own kind of food and they each prefer the other's. Yowl yowl yowl. What do you think I'm doing? I have both of your bowls on the table AND my hand in the food bag.

5:12 PM : Remember that wife is picking up dinner. Decide to find out if we get tonight's Leafs game. Usually don't. Usually just as well.

5:13 PM : Leafs game blacked out. Bleh. Why'd we move here again? Cats switched bowls when I wasn't looking. Mutter. Confiscate catfood.

5:15 PM : Wife is home with food. Huzzah! Smells like happiness.

5:25 PM : Ate too fast. Watch some TV. Mostly Poker on the sports channels. Dunno how we got into this, but now it seems terribly interesting. I can't believe he folded pocket kings!

5:50 PM : Back in Toronto, this is about the time I'd usually leave work.

6:00 PM : Wife remembers we need the extension cord to plug in the vehicle. Its back at my office, so we'll need to go all the way back there and get it. Oh no!

6:10 PM : We're back from my office. Man, what a commute, etc etc. Vehicle is plugged in and should now hopefully start gracefully in the morning.

Settle into a typical night of favourite TV shows, favourite computer games, playing with the animals.

7:00 PM : Wife calls neice on her birthday. Happy birthday, Leigha! After a moderately long interchange it becomes apparent that she has a Dora on her cake.

7:50 PM : Back in Toronto, this is about the time we'd usually get home from work. Instead, I'm slaughtering the French and Austrians in Napoleon: Total War. Take that, frenchies.

9:00 PM : We're in the middle of an epic 24 marathon, so we decide to watch another episode tonight. Its season four. I bet this is the episode where Jack Bauer flaunts the rules and is completely right about his gut instincts.

10:15 PM : Let dogs out into back field. Instruct them to cause havoc; nobody's out here anyway. Eventually take them back inside.

10:30 PM : Bedtime. Read for a while, then zzzzzzz.

Holy Zero Visibility Batman!

2011-02-07T14:21:00.002-06:00

You know its bad when you choose a route home so you can see the buildings as you are walking.

And you know it's *really* bad, when you have to follow the hydro poles.

But, the new measure for *really* *really* bad is when you are following the hydro lines to find your way home, and you loose them once or twice!!

Yikes! I had a few panic moments, hoping I wasn't wandering off into the wild white tundra!

Time to hibernate with the dogs until this blizzard passes, supposedly tomorrow. Until then, Season 3 of 24, here we come!!

No Vacancies...

2011-02-06T18:05:00.008-06:00

... at the hotel for dogs. For the last week we've had two extra varmints at our place. Knowing how difficult it can be to find someone who wants to watch your pooch when you fly out, we always try to accommodate our friends.

So Harley's taken up residence on Squire's bed (not that she uses it that often, since she prefers to sleep at the foot of our bed.) If he isn't to be found on the bed, you'll find him lounging in the 'house' (aka crate). Harley's stay is short-term, as he heads home tonite.

Chester, on the other hand, is a bit of a going concern. He's just over a year old, and is a furry bundle of energy. He would like it if the cats were more inclined to play with him and hasn't gotten the clue from all the hissing and swipes of claws across the nose that he just isn't welcome as far as they're concerned. While he's content being relegated to the house (especially while unsupervised) he prefers to cuddle with us, on the couch or our bed or even on our pillow. Chester is staying a bit longer, almost til the end of the month, as his dad heads to Mexico for some sun and sand.

With all the chaos inside, Page has focused her attentions outside. One lunch hour was spent eyeing up 'dinner' sitting on the hydro lines outside the window. Little does she know that the ravens up here probably weigh at least twice what she does; I've seen them routinely take caribou meat from the dogs that live outside up here.

Squire is handling all the upheaval really well. It helps that Harley is so laid-back and chill and she really only has to deal with Chester wanting to play and cuddle with her. It's been fun to watch all the animal antics, but it'll be nice when things quiet down and we get back to our normal routine.

Newest Masterpiece

2011-01-31T18:37:00.005-06:00

It's becoming a bit of a weekend tradition. In fact, I dunno what I'd do with a weekend without making a cake! This one is the first one I'm accepting a bit of moola for, as I've realized it takes me a bit of time to produce these edible pieces of art (and not *just* because I have perfectionist tendencies!). I may not have anything on the pros down south, but up here, I get to be the creative genious! I usually get just a brief outline of what they'd like to see, and then I run wild. Thank goodness for the stand mixer; I can just dump ingredients in!

On top of baby cakes, we created an amazing brunch with our friends this weekend. We all brought something, and ate like kings. The Arden Park had nothing on us. We had:

Breakfast skillet, featuring eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns baked to a yummy-goodness.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes, smothered in bananas and strawberries and walnuts, with a butter-maple syrup sauce.

Blueberry Crumble topped with cinammon granola with yogurt on the side.

Breakfast sausages.

French french baguettes.

Fresh oranges and nectarines.

Homemade strawberry and raspberry pop tarts.

Choice of orange or cranberry juice, and coffee or tea.

Yum!

Yeehaw!

2011-01-25T17:20:00.002-06:00

Maybe an odd thing to say while thawing out, but 'Yeehaw' nonetheless! Let me explain:

As I was leaving the office today, I noticed that it's not fully dark outside anymore at 5pm!

This is exciting because now the shortcut across the tundra is no longer a deathtrap!

And that means I have an even shorter walk home!

Which means I don't get as cold in this -60 degree weather that we're having.

And that means Yeehaw!

Never seen this one before...

2011-01-19T18:21:00.002-06:00

It's always exciting when the Weather Network icon flashes it's little white lightning strike on a red background on my desktop. What could it be? Winter storm warning? Blizzard watch?? Blizzard warning????

How 'bout this:

Warnings
Baker Lake
2:31 PM CST Wednesday 19 January 2011
Wind chill warning for Baker Lake continued
Extreme wind chill expected to develop overnight and continue into Thursday. This is a warning that extreme wind chill conditions are imminent or occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions. Listen for updated statements.
An extremely cold core of air situated over the north central Arctic will slide southeastward tonight into the Southern Kivalliq. This air will combine with brisk northwest winds, to produce extreme wind chill values in the -55 to -65 range. In addition winds gusting at times to 60 km/h along the Kivalliq coast line will produce some blowing snow overnight and Thursday morning. Wind chill values are expected to plummet into the extreme range overnight and persist over much of the region on Thursday before moderating slightly Thursday night as winds diminish. Despite this temperatures are expected to remain around the -40 Celsius mark until at least the early part of the weekend.

At these extreme wind chill values frostbite on exposed skin may occur in less than two minutes.

Really looking forward to the walk up the hill tomorrow morning....

Snow and Stuff

2011-01-19T18:10:00.002-06:00

"When I was younger, I had to walk to work through ten feet of snow. Through blizzards. Uphill. Both ways."

I look forward to saying that to my kids one day...because, in my case, its actually not a bald-faced lie.

Its been snowing almost non-stop since we got back. Sometimes heavy, sometimes blizzardy. Sometimes this light drizzly stuff that's misleading because it never actually stops, and you think it's nothing till you open the front door the next morning and your front entrance caves in.

Several times in the last couple weeks I've had to scratch my head cleverly for a few minutes trying to figure out how to get into my office. You see, my office-house is in a sort of "snow belt" on the street where the drifts pile up into small snow mountains, and one of these mountains invariably ends up directly in front of, and against, the front entrance.

(Quick aside: For the record, we're lucky in that our house doesn't get the most brutal snowdrifts. Our immediate neighbour to the east typically has this freakish mountain that they carve an entrance through. Very cool if you're not the neighbour to the east.)

So back to my office: I typically end up doing one of two things if I really want to get in: 1) Climbing over that hill and down into the doorway, with the understanding that the door is not going to be able to shut once after I open it. (There's two doors fortunately, this is just the exterior one.) Or (2) I can try to climb up the side entrance into the "back" door if it looks reasonably safe, which has the benefit of not caving in a doorway since its eight feet higher or so and above the snowdrift, minus the foot or so resting on the patio.

And on my way out, I get to climb back up that mountain again and down the other side (Uphill both ways...get it?)

About these snowfalls: we've had a couple of official "blizzard" days since we got back, which are sort of nice sometimes. These ones were particularly well-timed because we got knocked down with a nasty flu and needed recup time.

That flu was also brutal enough that we cancelled our New Years Eve party...although we sort of made it up the following weekend!

You'd think between all the flus and snowdrifts and blizzards we'd be ready to get back to civilization...but honestly these things are just fun. I missed it and I'm glad to be back.

Besides snowstorms just mean more time for important projects such as Settlers of Catan! (Thanks for the intro J!)

This one's for Tara!

2011-01-13T20:50:00.004-06:00

... she put in her request on Facebook earlier today.

What I'd really like to know is who turned off the heat up here. It's gotten really cold again; -50 with the wind chill. Whoever turned the heat off was at least nice enough to turn the sun back on. One can almost ignore the frostbite on their thighs while the sun is glistening off the snow, or setting over the ice on the lake, making all the snow pink. *Almost.*

We braved the cold temperatures to head out and see what may be our new place. We've been under threat of having our comfy nest sold to the highest bidder since May of last year. On Labour Day, Squire and I walked out to check it out. Turns out, not a whole lot has been done since then. There is now some stone on the front of the house (in lieu of the lovely Tyvek) and lots of snow in the front. The new place is much less centrally located though, it's in what's referred to as Little India, which is further from town than Chinatown. Because of the location of the snow-fence north of town, Baker Lake is starting to extend east along the lake. We've requested the unit on the left in the picture, since it's closer to the lake and has nicer views. We should know within the next month when D-day will be.

So tomorrow I have to remember to a) put some tights under my jeans for the walk up the hill, and b) not spend *all* day daydreaming about decorating the new place.

Blustery day

2010-11-28T14:48:00.006-06:00

Squire and I decided to ignore the temperature (-22, feeling like -37 with the windchill) and head out for a romp in the snow. For a puppy that sat on our feet and shivered when we took her outside after we first brought her home, she takes to winter in the north like she's purebred husky.

We set out to climb the 'mountain' and take some pictures of the gorgeous sun. After chasing a bunny across the tundra, a raven decided to return the favour, and hovered above Squire on the entire walk up the hill.

When we got to the top of the hill, Squire bounded around the rocks like a kid in a jumpy castle, and I settled in to wait for the sun to start setting, so I could take some good sunset shots across the lake.

That plan didn't quite work out - the cold weather ate the batteries in my camera. In fact, when we got home, the entire camera was coated in a layer of frost. I did get one last good shot before the camera died though.

Now Squire and I are cuddled up under blankets and drinking a cup of tea (well, she's not, but I sure am). It was good to get out though, to wander about and get some fun pictures.

'Tis the season for...

2010-11-27T14:47:00.006-06:00

Purple butterfly cookies?

Ok, admittedly, not really a seasonal cookie. Nor was it meant to be.

One of my good friends from work is expecting a baby - she's due on December 12th. When you are pregnant in the north, about a month prior to your due date, you are sent south (generally to Winnipeg) to await the birth of your newborn, and then you fly back home shortly after giving birth. I think it must be hard on the entire family to have the mommy gone for a month. During the time my friend is awaiting the birth of her little one, her older daughter is having her seventh birthday.

When I was asked to make her cake, I was pretty excited. Then a little worried when I found out she wanted a 'Hannah Montana' cake. (I *think* Hannah Montana is a TV show.....)

All in all, I think it turned out pretty good. And I had a good time doing it.

Happy Birthday to the soon-to-be big sister! And we wish only the best for the safe delivery of the new baby!

silly puppy

2010-11-25T12:37:00.003-06:00

We've been working diligently with Squire, trying to teach her not to run up to people. Instead, we want her to sit and wait for them to come to her to say 'hi'.

It's starting to pay off.

Last night while walking, we came within 25 feet of a white arctic hare. Instead of barking and lunging after the bunny, Squire promptly sat right beside me, hoping and waiting for the bunny to come be friends.

The bunny, of course, declined.

Time isn't the only thing that's flying

2010-11-16T12:53:00.002-06:00

We had a heads up looking at the weather forecast yesterday.

And we knew with all the soft pretty snow falling last night that we might be in trouble....

It's officially a blizzard afternoon. Visibility is down to barely across the street, and the wind is roaring away. Right now the wind is gusting to 40 km/h, but tonight we're going to get gusts at 120 km/h.

'He' is already curled up on the couch with a book. And the Squire dog is snuggled up next to me while I type this.

We'll see how long this lasts - we could be cooped up in the house tomorrow too.

Quick Update

2010-11-14T22:19:00.003-06:00

Time is flying by again. It's hard to believe that in almost exactly a month, we'll be heading south to visit with friends and family for Christmas again.

Heading home at Christmas is always a bit bittersweet; because Air Canada and West Jet won't fly dogs Squire's size over Christmas, she always gets left behind. She's always spoiled rotten when we return home, but it's difficult to leave her here.

We're starting to make our own lists and checking them twice. There's always so much we want to accomplish while we are in 'civilization'. We already have dentist appointments booked, and are planning this week to book eye doctor and hair cut appointments. We're also busily making a list of things we can't get up here and definitely want to bring back with us in our luggage.

The rumours that our current place might actually be 'SOLD' are getting stronger. We aren't exactly looking forward to moving in the dead of winter, but at least we're assured we won't be homeless - not really the time of year for that!

Our busy social life is part of the reason we're wondering where the time has gone. We had a great Euchre night with a couple of friends tonight, and enjoyed watching a movie with a couple of friends on Saturday night. 'He' won the last poker night (I came in numero two) and is anxious to prove that it wasn't a fluke.

We've been keeping busy at work too. 'He' had a big project to get done under a tight deadline, and did a great job pulling everything together. It seems like anytime I get to the finish line of one project, it becomes just the starting line of another. I'm definitely not complaining! I'm enjoying being busy and getting my hands dirty in the financial world. In fact, I'm enjoying it so much I signed up for a distance ed course through Ryerson. It should be an interesting way to pass the dark hours this winter.

Speaking of dark... we got an email about a week ago from a colleague at our plant in Grise Fiord. He told us that the sun had set that day, and wouldn't rise again til February.... Yikes! Even here, I'm staring to notice that the sun is just beginning to set after coffee break, and we're generally walking home from work in the dark. Shortly, it'll be sunshine from am coffee break to pm coffee break. By the time we return from our Christmas trip, our days will already be getting longer.

This year, I decided not decorating for Christmas was sacrilegious, so we invested in several ornaments and brought them back with us last Christmas (our original collection being safely stored away in storage somewhere). I'll post some pictures when I get everything done.

We are looking forward to spending time catching up with everyone while we're home. Please let us know if you want to meet up for a chat or a coffee or whatever. Give us a heads up, so we can make sure we don't just pass each other by with only a wave!

First Blizzard of the Season

2010-11-02T18:24:00.003-05:00

We're keeping our fingers crossed that we'll be able to spend Wednesday at home in our jammies!

Right now it might be the calm before the storm; it got really mild this afternoon and calm - almost no wind whatsoever. Apparently the wind is going to kick up overnight and reduce visibility to nada.

Click here for the Weather Network's warning.

Happy Hallowe'en

2010-10-31T09:58:00.004-05:00

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!

2010-10-22T18:15:00.004-05:00

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

2010-10-16T10:14:00.004-05:00

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

2010-10-16T09:51:00.008-05:00

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

2010-10-05T19:50:00.003-05:00

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?

2010-10-05T12:33:00.006-05:00

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

2010-10-01T08:09:00.002-05:00

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!

What is this??

2010-09-22T19:25:00.003-05:00

It could be frost. It *could* be. But it isn't. It's totally snow and fell two days earlier than last year! This was what was waiting on the ground for us in the morning on Monday, and more fell while we were at work. None of it was around much past coffee break. Turns out those white bunnies knew what they were talking about afterall.

Breaking News

2010-09-16T20:52:00.002-05:00

Every once in awhile, we think it's nice to reward those that check our blog often. As such, minutes after booking our plane tickets south for Christmas, I logged on here to break the news.

We'll be arriving in Toronto in the evening of December 15th, and departing after all the festivities on December 29th. We haven't firmed up our schedule... but let's be honest, there will be a schedule. Luckily, it won't be as strict as the pre-wedding schedules.

As now savy north-dwellers, we patiently waited until FirstAir was running a seat sale. We saved over $1200 compared to what we paid for our last Christmas trip. Sounds like I freed up some budget space for a shopping spree.... but don't tell him!

Return of the....

2010-09-13T20:22:00.002-05:00

...... white bunnies!!

Looking for a sure sign that winter is around the corner? I watched two white bunnies playing on the tundra today, and last week while walking to work, a white bunny escorted me all the way to the office.

Apparently, it's a little closer to winter on the north end of town, since our friends who live on the south end, say their bunnies are still brownish-grey!

A bit about everything

2010-09-12T12:30:00.004-05:00

Its September now, and summer is fading fast...what we saw of it anyway.

I think we may have had one day where the temperature really reached 30C. This is in contrast to several days we had last year, if I recall correctly. But that's not much of a big deal when you always hated hot days as a kid anyway, now is it? (

Ok, I admit, I wouldn't mind just one scorching-hot-lazy-day....maybe next year?)

Honestly though, I'm looking forward to the snow. Its purty for one thing when the land is a blanket of white. Its also fun to get all snow-geared-up and wander around. Bring along some hot-chocolate, watch the dog go nuts...great times, and looking forward to it again!

We miss our friends and family a lot, and we're especially sad that we're missing out on so so much of niece3's childhood (who smacks her forehead any time she says my name for some reason.) For the record, niece1 and niece2 live in paradise with nephew0 (hahah take that, M.B.) so we don't feel too guilty about missing their childhoods.

Speaking of friends, here's a bit of irony: she and I were relatively quiet people back in "civilization". Surrounded by literally hundreds of thousands of people in southern Ontario, with all the clubs, bars, culture, restaurants, whatever...we kind of liked to stay at home, watch movies, play a little guitar-hero, read some books, cook good food (well, She did anyway)...we had to come to come to a town of 1800 people to develop (relatively) active social lives.

Its a rare month where somebody's not having some sort of social gathering. We play poker most weekends (She wins more than I do, lucky $@#!$). And in a small town, if you go anywhere, you're going to bump into people you know and end up hanging around to chat for a while, possibly arranging a social gathering or card game.

News and items of interest:
* We may be inheriting a friend's dog for a week later this month. Chester's a small yippy dog, but very friendly and pretty smart. He's spent a few days with us before and other than a few "accidents" we had a good time.
* New blu-ray player. YAY! (We didn't earn this in any kind of worthy way...apparently we're 1-year Baker Lake survivors?)
* She has a new important project at work keeping her very busy. Congrats to Her, and expect to find her pretty tired after putting in some weekend time.
* Dog has a critically important new project to catch the local sik siks. Oh and a friend in town gave her a new ball-and-rope toy, which in turn is her new best friend ever. This week.
* I have a new programming project at work, too (although I probably won't be working weekends...that's important computer-gaming time, thank you.)
* I've been playing Euchre a lot on our laptop as some of you know (I'm training hard for our next tournament in Mitchell/Stratford...don't be shocked/offended if my first thoughtless words walking through the door are "Where's the Euchre?") Well, lately I've been switching to Bid Euchre (sorta like Whist apparently if you know that one). I hear her Grandma plays that, so we might have to get a game of bid Euchre going too if the opportunity presents itself!
* We are hoping to see our sealift soon. It was supposed to be here just this last weekend (already pretty late at that point) but nothing yet. We have 3 skids coming in (instead of just the one we had last year in addition to our initial Costco supplies). I think it took us 30 minutes to unload the skid last year...I'll be timing us on this run to see how we do with three!

Labour Day Weekend

2010-09-06T19:21:00.004-05:00

I think this long weekend was the most enjoyable of our summer! The weather was fantastic, and there weren't so many bugs.

Squire and I went on a couple of Epic Walks (note the use of capitals, as each was almost two hours long.)

On Sunday we walked out past the east edge of town to a little waterfall we drove out to when Mom was up here. At that point, it was really gushing, and the sides of the banks were still covered in snow. Now, it was barely more than a trickle. Quiet enough that Squire decided to take a dip amongst the rocks.

Today, we decided we should wander down and see what was up at the 'beach'. On the west end of the lake, there is some sandy areas which are nice and shallow for our swimming-phobic dog. I even waded in, up to my knees, since the water wasn't too cold. There was a nice long sandbar, so for the most part, the water was at most ankle deep, but we were a long way from shore.

We're still patiently waiting for the barge to come in - but we've been assured that all food stuffs will be on it. I'm also hoping to get out and try to take some pictures of the northern lights before its too cold to bother. And yes, that means it is now dark enough at night to see them. We've joked about having a contest to pick the first day of snowfall in Baker amongst our friends, but I think it's pretty much guaranteed that we will have had snowfall accumulation before the next long weekend in October.

The Keg at Baker Lake

2010-08-30T20:43:00.003-05:00

Well, not really the Keg , as such. But as close as we'll get before coming south at Christmas.

We tried to replicate a favourite meal from the Keg: Prime Rib au Jus, with a couple of exceptions.... Yorkshire pudding instead of bread, no garlic for the mashed potatoes, and the au jus could use some more pizazz. But for a very first prime rib attempt, neither of us could complain.

We have to thank the good people at Calm Air for making sure our groceries got in at all, but next time, maybe a bit earlier than 11:30pm?

Flea Market

2010-08-21T21:05:00.002-05:00

I don’t know if the weather is taking its cue from the school calendar, but it sure seems like fall here lately. The kids went back to school on Monday, and we’ve had cool, wet, damp weather ever since. The sun might’ve come out for 20 minutes all week… and we’ve had to turn the furnace on!

Taking advantage of the fall mood, I decided to step up my baking to the next level. (I’ve been baking *a lot* since moving north, maybe because sweets are so expensive up here.) I decided to bake a whole bunch and cart everything down to a local ‘Flea Market’, and see if I couldn’t make some fun money.

I whipped up some cupcakes (chocolate icing was much more popular than vanilla!), butter and coconut tarts (Grandma Rose - yours are still better!), brownies and m&m cookies. And then I packaged some together, made pretty labels, and pulled my tablecloth out of the cupboard.

Everything went over really well. The brownies were the hottest seller, followed by the cupcakes with chocolate icing. I came home without any m&m cookies, after giving what was left to my friend who was nice enough to come down and hang out with me. All the packages of coconut tarts were gone, but I still got to bring some individual ones home. And most of the individual butter tarts were gobbled up, but I had two packages left over (‘he’ says ‘wooohoo!’).

Food, in general, rules at the Flea Market; there were buns, casseroles, salads, and pizza and caribou stew and popcorn, jello, and more! And what did my efforts get me? About $100 in profits. Turns out, sweets at the Flea Market were just the ticket!

Driven to Distraction

2010-08-09T19:08:00.001-05:00

While suffering through bug season, we’ve found a couple of new ways to keep from being bored. (By the way, the bug hood is on its way… so shortly we’ll be able to get back out there and enjoy the warmer weather without worrying about the blackfly welts! How do the little buggers tell the difference between leg skin and face skin??)

For a birthday present, ‘he’ got Heroes Season One on dvd. We’ve been diligently watching an episode a night, torn between wanting the disks to last and needing to find out what happens. I don’t know if I’m developing a special ability… but I see us purchasing more seasons in the near future.

About a month ago, we decided to blow the remainder of our Chapters Christmas gift cards. $200 dollars later, we were anxiously waiting for the books to get here, and hoping we had some gems in the bunch. I had finally given in and decided to try ‘Eat Pray Love’ (which is now a movie starring Julia Roberts). I *LOVE* it – I’m not quite done, I still have the ‘Indonesia’ section to read – but I think if the movie is half as good as the book, it’ll be great! Oh, and I’m totally jealous of everyone in the south (and if anyone in Iqaluit is reading this) who get to go see the movie while I’ll have to wait for the dvd.

And since we were enjoying new toys, we decided that Squire shouldn’t be left out! We gave her the last ‘moo’ friend – Mr. Moo Pony. I don’t exactly know how my dog got a pony before me! But since hers is green and goes ‘squeak’ instead of being bay (or gray) saying ‘neigh’, I think I’ll just let her keep it and keep holding out for something better.

Rediscovered

2010-08-04T22:20:00.000-05:00

We’ve rediscovered a few ‘lost’ treasures from winter in Baker.

One has happened pretty slowly. It’d been commented on a few times in passing, but now I’d officially say we have ‘night’ back. It’s not as dark at any point as it was in the winter, but after months of remarking on the lack of darkness, we’re now remarking on how dark it is.

The other blew in suddenly last night. We have some freakishly strong winds today in Baker. It reminds me of blizzard days from winter when we had to turn the TV up to hear it over the wind. Deciding to take advantage of the bug-free outdoors, Squire and I headed up the central hill to see if I could get a good picture of the white caps on the lake. We gave up when the wind wouldn’t allow me to hold the camera steady enough to get a non-blurtastic picture.

Back by Popular Demand

2010-08-02T14:56:00.001-05:00

(And a bit of friendly nagging,) we’re going to recommit to the blog.

We’ve settled into life up here, and things are less exotic and exciting then they were when we first arrived. We’ve realized though, that the blog is less about life in the North, and more about keeping those in the South up-to-date on *our* life in the North.

Next week marks our one year anniversary of being in the North. Having experienced a whole year, we’ve definitely learned a couple of things.

1. Winter just may be better than summer for being outdoors. We are finding that the cold and snow was much easier to deal with than the huge swarms of huge mosquitoes. And apparently we have black fly season still to look forward to.

2. The weather in the summer can be just as wild as the weather in the winter. Our first visitor to the north tied our longest delay due to weather. We were stuck in Winnipeg for four days due to a blizzard in December. Mom was stuck here in Baker for four days due to a massive fog system in July.

3. Don’t hold your breath waiting for the barge. As we experienced waiting for the last barge to come in last year, the first barge of the season is already late too. At least at this time of the year we don’t have to worry about things freezing.

We miss our friends and family in the South, and the convenience and independence of life down there. But we’ve made new friends up here (Poker Night is becoming a weekly tradition), and we’re starting to look forward to what life will be like for us when we do return to the south in a couple years.

A brief soliloquy from the "he" in this "we"

2010-06-30T20:33:00.007-05:00

Seems the days fly by and become months by the time you turn your head to look back at them.

There's been a lot of firsts these days. We survived our first winter in Baker. "She" won a poker night the other day (I've never done better than second best myself). I've made my first trip to Iqaluit, the territory's capital. And its the first time I've blogged in way too long.

We've really settled into routines here; some of the adventure feel is starting to fade, as we go about our usual daily business of waking up in the morning, going to work, arguing about dinner plans--you know, normal, non-adventuring people stuff.

"She" now has a position up in the main office; my department has moved down into a converted-residence office. (No more unacceptable 5-minute commutes for me; I currently walk a much more reasonable twenty-four seconds or so...two houses down from our own.)

Iqaluit was cool but I'd really love to see it in the summer. I couldn't make out where the land ended and the water began.

Its definitely more "civilized" in the metropolitan sense: there are all the amenities of a proper city, including theater, bars, real paved roads. Its got its quirks too. You cannot sit down at a restaurant or bar anywhere in town as far as I can tell without several people offering you a bit of local art (drawings, carvings, etc). I thought it was just funny at first, even after I'd been warned in advance, but after a while you just learn to wave them away.

I feel pretty much zero interest in ever moving to Iqaluit though. Amenities aside, I prefer the quiet-town thing we have going right now, and I love not needing a vehicle (we'd need one in Iqaluit..and the unpaved roads are bone-crushingly bad bad bad in the winter).

We managed to get some more euchre games going at a party the other night. Somehow we even both got groupies cheering for our individual teams. (It was that kind of party I guess). I'm starting to hold my own a bit now although I still make her shake her head sometimes with some of my strategically-unpredictable (read: stupid) plays.

Just to bring this post full-circle, and speaking of firsts: we're about to receive our first visitor from the south and we're sort of christmas-excited around here. Couple more days till MOM arrives. Huzzah! We're looking forward to the week ahead for sure.

I'll just close on this last note. Summer is pretty awesome, how we get two stat holidays, with Canada's birthday plus the civic thing right? Well, smack dab between those, we poor souls up north also get Nunavut day off (July 9th.)

How sweet is that? Suckers.

Seven Signs of Spring

2010-06-04T21:16:00.002-05:00

1. Seagulls outnumber ravens
Ravens are the only bird we see throughout the winter months - so the arrival of the seagulls must equal spring. Accompanying the seagulls on their return to Baker Lake are ptarmagans, buntings, geese, and several other small birds.

2. Birdsong
See above. All the our new feathered friends sure make for a chorous of song we haven't heard since last fall.

3. Icicles
Or as Squire calls them: 'sticks'. (poor kid) It was a rare day we had any in the winter, but now in the thaw we have plenty.

4. Mud
Keeping the floor clean is a practical impossibility. Almost makes me prefer the cold and snow. And only having choking dust to look forward to all summer doesn't make it any better.

5. Sicsic
They're just popping out of their holes, and have already started yelling at Baker Lake inhabitants.

6. Hondas outnumber machines infront of the Northern
A machine is a snowmobile, and a honda is an ATV of any make or model. The landscape is still predominately white - especially on the land - but the roads are bare, muddy (see above) but bare!

7. Barbeque!
Ok, so not blissfully warm, but at 2 degrees on the plus side, I deemed it the start of bbq season. What's on the menu? Hot dogs and steak.

** I have a confession to make... I actually wrote this post while sitting at work earlier in the week, and forgot to post it. :( So in the few days that have passed, with the mild temperatures, I can't say that the landscape is still predominately white.... It's suprising how fast the snow is melting out on the land. The culverts have thawed, and the melt water that had threatened to flood the roads has drained.

I know that it's only a few weeks to the official start of summer, and I think I'll go out on a limb and say that we are right in the middle of spring here in Baker. I'm hoping to still have snow for our first southern visitor at the end of the month. My mom is making the sojourn up, and both of us are looking forward to having her here! At least I can guarantee ice on the lake!

Can you spot the Arctic Tern?

2010-05-10T17:51:00.007-05:00

Today, while walking home from the office, 'he' and I almost literally stumbled across some new neighbours living in the open area behind our house. (Hey! Their camoflauge was super effective!) The new neighbours, Arctic Terns, recently migrated from Antiarctica, where they winter, to Baker Lake, where they'll breed, or so Wikipedia says.

And while you're sitting there laughing at our southern city-slicker ways, maybe we should play a game?!

Can you spot the Arctic Tern?

Ahhhh, but can you spot all five Arctic Terns?

What if I made it slightly easier for you?

Ok, admittedly, there are only four terns in the last photograph, but I challenge you to get any pictures of any birds whatsoever once your super-hunter dog has spotted them!

Good morning sunshine...

2010-05-03T20:27:00.002-05:00

.... at 3 am?!

Squire decided at 3 am one morning this weekend that it was time to get up and take a trek outside. After bundling up and taking her out, I decided to check for Northern Lights while she found the perfect pee spot.

I didn't expect to see the sky lightening already. So I went back in, got the camera, and snapped a quick pic before heading back to bed.

While people back home...

2010-04-13T18:56:00.007-05:00

While people back home prepare to mow their lawns for the first time, up here, we've been doing slightly different property maintenance.

Tonight after work, 'he' surprised me with a brand new set of snow steps! We cut through the back field on our way to and from the office. The snow hill behind our house (a combination of snow drifts and plowing in front of and in between houses) was becoming a bit of a slippery slope. And since I'm one who manages to fall over while standing still on flat ground, my super-hubby decided we could no longer take the risk of me walking up (or down) the hill. Seeing as we've been having nice mild weather, with lots of daylight, he was able to shovel me some steps to keep me safe (or safer, at least) in the days to come.

We have to congratulate our friends A&P (not the grocery store) on the birth of their baby boy. It's moments like this when I really miss being back home and close to the action!

Not to be outdone by our friends, we too have a new addition to our family. He's soft and cute and cuddly and blue and says 'squeak, squeak' when you squeeze him. 'Moo puppy', as he's become known, is just the lastest addition to Squire's Moo Family; Moo Cow and Moo Bunny being the older siblings.

Since we reached a blissfully warm -2 today, we were asked if we'd be dragging out the bbq. We'll cook a steak on the bbq for anyone who wants to come shovel it out....

PS. "He' says we have way more sunlight than our friends in the GTA. And he woke me up at 5:00AM this morning (!!!) to prove it.

Him: "Wake up! Look, its 5AM and its bright enough to read!"
Me: "Whatever."
{Edited by "him": }
Me: "Whatever (snore)"

a blizzard day double header, an arctic heat wave and easter bunnies

2010-04-07T18:16:00.000-05:00

Last week we had a decent blizzard here. We had two afternoons where the office was shut down and we were sent home early. Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? It is pretty great (a paid vacation) but keep in mind it was a blizzard – perfect for watching movies on the couch.

This week we’re experiencing ‘spring’. It’s -6 outside as I write this, and is getting mild enough that my parka seems like overkill. The snow has melted enough that we were able to unearth the deck boards on our deck that have been buried since Christmas under 20” of snow.

Last weekend was a super long holiday weekend for us. We had both Friday and Monday off. We had Bingo planned for Thursday night, but it was cancelled due to an unexpected death in town. The jackpots were $5K and $10K respectively! Friday was poker at our house, and there was a party at a co-worker’s house on Saturday. Needless to say Sunday and Monday were rest and relax days. We had an Easter dinner on Monday (ham and scalloped potatoes) and ‘he’ got a chocolate bunny.

In the next few weeks we’re looking forward to more spring like weather, another foodmail order… and maybe our liquor order will come in now that planes are able to land again!

A Moment to Reflect (aka I'm Not Dead)

2010-03-20T16:13:00.005-05:00

Well, its been a while since I (the "he") had anything to say here. No good excuses, I just haven't had anything new and exciting to talk about lately regarding our northern adventure.

Weddings and honeymoons and what-not will do that sometimes. But things have just been rolling along nicely, and isn't that a good thing?

I've been keeping some notes on items I wanted to discuss though and now's as good a time as ever.

First of all, people often ask us about the long-night thing. I want to put it to rest. In Baker Lake, I hardly notice it at all, and it doesn't impact my happiness one way or another. The example I like to use is this: When we lived in Toronto, in the middle of winter, we left for work in the morning, and it was dark. We left work at night to come home, and it was...dark. Personally I never left the office for lunch, so I didn't even see the sun then. So...how is that any different from here? And honestly, even on the weekends it doesn't seem much different. Yeah the sun takes a couple hours longer to rise but its not like its pitch-black at 9AM in the morning. There's still some light even though the sun hasn't technically "risen".

Honestly, the long-daylight thing is far more annoying. Sunglasses at 10PM is pretty cool, but trying to sleep without uber-blinds on your window is more annoying. Also, the folks around here must operate on 1-hour sleep schedules during the summer, with kids still out playing after midnight and vehicles tearing around all "night".

Next, people always ask about the cold: For me? Non-factor. We brought warm clothes, and we dress accordingly. I never feel more cold than I did living in Ontario. Well, except for one thing: 23 degrees Celsius in the house always seemed pretty cozy down south; for some reason it feels "just warm enough" up here.

For what its worth, Baker is kinda beautiful in winter. Just about every day over the last two weeks, I keep having "wow" moments on my way to and from work. For one thing, its bright, so I'm always wearing sunglasses out these days. But the blue skies, bright sun glaring off snow and ice to the horizon in every direction...very acceptable.

Having seen both, I'd take deep winter over deep summer any day. So those of you considering joining us up here (anyone?) but worried about the winters, don't be!

Slightly off topic: we Honeymooned in Jamaica at the end of February. It was...ok. Maybe I'm just not a great vacationer or maybe I really did just take too much sun to the head, but I spent most of the time wanting to go home to Baker. (Somewhere my sister is jabbing needles into a doll that looks like me. She definitely would have made the most of the trip.)

Important news of the month: Best day ever last Friday! Check this out...Krista got a new (temporary) gig, which was wonderful. Then I won $50 at bingo (barely, it was a tough game requiring a lot of thought and strategy) which was even better. (Yep, better). Best of all? We managed to get a Euchre game going at a party that night! I don't think I accidentally reneged at all but I did give "her" a double-facepalm moment when I ordered up a suit when we had a total of two trump between us. (oh, euchred, and how). Somehow we're still together after that, what a forgiving girl.

Ray of Sunshine

2010-03-16T19:34:00.003-05:00

I have a confession to make. I love the new Tropicana commercial where they bring sunshine to Inuvik. It’s a great depiction of the North. It makes me all teary-eyed.

We’re lucky enough that we never had 24 hours without sun. We got down to about 4 hours of true daylight in December, and have been amazed since coming back from the wedding and honeymoon how much daylight we have now. (It’s 7pm and I still don’t have lights on….)

The commercial raised some deep and interesting questions for me though.

Where on earth is Inuvik that it has 24 hour darkness? Ok, well Inuvik is in the Northwest Territories. Technically, it’s in the northwest corner of the Northwest Territories. It is two degrees above the Arctic Circle.

I had to Google ‘Inuvik’ to find all that out, and probably wouldn’t have bothered at all, if it wasn’t for the presence of trees in the commercial. What I *really* wanted to know was: Where on earth is Inuvik that they have 24 hour darkness AND trees?!?!

On our way to Baker Lake we say goodbye to trees at Churchill. And we feel sorry for those trees, because they are lonely, stunted, sparse things. In Baker, we’re south of the Arctic Circle and we don’t have 24 hour darkness, so how come we don’t have trees?

(Please note: This is where the cynical thinking of my new husband must’ve rubbed off on me and I set out to prove that they doctored the commercial to make the town of Inuvik more picturesque to sell more OJ.)

So I Googled ‘arctic circle tree line’. Who knew that the tree line isn’t a straight line drawn at approximately 55 degrees? Not even close. The tree line is all topsy-turvy. Several areas in the NWT, Yukon, and Alaska enjoy the presence of trees, even though they are north of the Arctic Circle, probably due to some meteorological phenomenon that’d take a degree to understand.

So Inuvik is north of the Arctic Circle. They have trees. They also have 24 hour darkness. AND they have the kind people from Tropicana bringing them OJ, which, if you’ve lived in the north, is worth its weight in gold –en sunshine.

End of Craziness

2010-03-11T19:15:00.002-06:00

And back to routine.

Our trip down south was very busy and ultimately successful. We had the wedding we dreamt of. It was beyond perfection and we wouldn’t have changed a thing. Even the weather cooperated; we had unseasonably warm temperatures for our outdoor wedding.

We spent a week relaxing poolside and oceanside in Jamaica. It was exactly what the doctor ordered considering the changes in our lives over the last six months. The doctor didn’t order the nasty cold that ‘he’ picked up though!

We planned our trip home to include an overnight in Winnipeg, since catching a flight to make the connection onto First Air is a bit difficult. It’s even harder when travelling with the dog.

‘He’s’ been back to work for a week now, while I’ve been laid off by the company I was working for. I’m planning on hitting some of the other offices around town to see if I can pick up something else. It gets a bit boring and lonely being a housewife in Baker Lake.

It’s definitely been nice to be back home and get back into a normal routine. We’ve been marvelling at the changes up here in Baker.

First, we’re up to a crazy amount of daylight! We now wake up to sunshine and ‘he’ comes home from work in sunshine. And we’ve had so much sun! The weather’s been unbelievable, fairly warm (around the -10 degree mark). There was one day where it was pretty windy, making the temperature around -30, but we haven’t seen much new snow at all.

We managed to get together with a group last weekend to play poker. We hosted it at our place (a first) and it was success. We have a busy weekend planned – ‘he’s’ boss has said it’s a requirement that he attends his party on Friday, and we have another game of poker on Saturday.

I found it harder to leave this time, since there is no real timeline for our next visit, but we are happy to be back in our own place.

Blizzard Day

2010-02-01T13:47:00.003-06:00

Today is our first official blizzard day. (The blizzard that kept us in Winnipeg after Christmas doesn't count, because we didn't experience it!)

Both of us are home for the day, listening to the wind roar and blow the snow around, while the sun shines happily.

I'm not spending much time outdoors... the snow is drifting up on the porch, and by the time I get shovelled out, Squire is done peeing!

Yesterday there was a lull in the storm, so they started clearing the snow away. With a loader and dump truck....

And the wind roars

2010-01-24T16:31:00.003-06:00

I should've know while enjoying the abnormally warm temperatures this week, that there would be a price to pay.

Yesterday we had a lovely snow fall. Actual snowflakes - not just dried out snow granules.

Last night the wind kicked up from the North, and started blowing that snow all around. It's windy enough that here in town, there's no hiding from it. When taking Squire out to pee, there was no way to keep the wind from blowing cold snow in my face. We can hear it roaring out there over the tv!

I snapped a quick picture when the sun came out. It actually looks picturesque... oh, did I mention the -40 windchill?

A month and counting!

2010-01-20T08:46:00.002-06:00

A month to what you may ask?

Our wedding is officially a month from today. I've been pretty preoccupied lately with all things wedding, bridal, and honeymoon related. It doesn't seem to matter how well I prepared over the last few months, there's still going to be a major push at the end.

We leave to go back home in 20 days.

I'm hoping that the four day delay in Winnipeg on the way back up after Christmas satisfies the weather gods and we get to all the places we're going without delay or incident!

Foodmail

2010-01-07T08:08:00.003-06:00

I mentioned in the last post that we had to do a foodmail order once we got back to Baker. The fridge and freezer were pretty bare; we had no fresh produce, were pretty low on meat options, and were down to making homemade bread in the bread maker.

We try our best to do a foodmail to last a good 4-6 weeks, and are starting to get it down to a fine art. We scan the local flyer (available online) for weekly specials, and there is an online form to fill out of all the options available. We generally keep a note on the fridge to mark stuff down when we run out.

This week, the order came to $461. Which, when we figure we spent about $100/week on groceries down south, doesn't seem like too much. (Keep in mind that our barge order to fill our pantry was about $2000.) Included in the $461 is a $5 delivery fee to take our food to the airport for transport on the plane, a $20 or 10% fee for having the store "shop" the order for us, and air freight of about $100. Interestingly enough, foodmail has priority over just about anything else that goes on a plane; passengers' luggage can and has been bumped for foodmail, and foodmail was part of the delay in getting our personal items up here from Ottawa.

Included in our order this week was (from memory) two roasts, four packages of stewing beef, four packages of ground beef, two whole chickens, two packages of pork chops, hot dogs and buns, two packages of bacon, three packages of breakfast sausages, hashbrowns and hasbrown patties, four 4L jugs of milk, four dozen eggs, four loaves of bread, four frozen pizzas, a lasagna, a 10lb bag of potatos, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, romaine lettuce and ceasar salad dressing, apples, pears, two bunches of bananas, green peppers, celery, cereal, cans of soup, cans of beans, brown sugar, ground mustard, steak spice, and rye and whole wheat flour.

So many items to go in the freezer, I have to cook a roast tonight that wouldn't fit, and I'm hoping the hot dog buns won't go stale too fast!

Foodmail is our preferred option of grocery shopping - prices for fresh produce can be outrageous at the Northern - but it's not without it's problems. For one, only 'nutritious' food is deemed foodmailable (stuff like cleaning products, baby items, pharmaceutical stuff is also allowed to be sent as foodmail.) Pop, chips, breaded chicken, cookies, and cakes are all not foodmailable and instead of paying a discounted freight of about $1/lb, you'd pay the basic freight at about $4/lb. And there seems to be some loopholes.... for example, CoolWhip= not foodmail, DreamWhip = foodmail... frozen pie crusts = not foodmail, Pilsbury refrigerated pie crusts = foodmail. It's kinda silly that all the items to make chocolate chip cookies are permitted as foodmail, but actual chocolate chip cookies are not. Oh well, fresh baked is always better anyway!

Also, if the plane gets delayed because of weather conditions... they store your food at the temperature per the labels on the boxes when possible. So you do have a chance of all your meat thawing and having to cook it or risk it spoiling. Also, fresh produce can freeze on the way up, making it into a sloppy mess. Neither has happened to us *yet*, but someone at Safeway mislabeled a box on our last order and our frozen pizzas and hashbrowns were sent as 'Dry Goods' instead of 'Frozen Goods'. However, it's winter up here, and although they were quasi thawed, it wasn't a disaster.

And, I think we've all probably gone to the grocery store and forgot to get something, even if it was on the list, but I'm paying for the privilege of having someone shop for me, so things shouldn't be missed. This week, garbage bags, salami, provolone cheese, and chicken thighs were missed. I *really* needed those garbage bags! Also, sometimes you get some bizarre choices of brands. A colleague has sworn off a particular store because they sent her 'Weight Control' Oatmeal for no apparent reason.

We still go down to the Northern for 'party' items like chips when needed, and occasionally pick up the makings for a meal when a craving hits, but by and large we wait for the next foodmail order.

I've read some criticisms online that the government should not be subsidizing the freight on foodmail orders to Northern and other isolated communities. One person even went so far as saying 'they chose to live there, they can deal with the consequences". To them I say, fine, invest the money in building and maintaining an all season road to each community, so that we can get regular transport rates on our food (any EVERY other sell-able good that we do pay regular freight on) and we'll see how the dollar signs add up then.

Foodmail really is a lifeline for us to the south. It allows us to feel like we're still 'home' and to get some of the food and brands we're used to and at decent prices. Without it, we really would be at the mercy of the stores up here who would be able to charge whatever they wanted.

By plane and by car

2010-01-05T15:29:00.006-06:00

So it's quasi official, we logged close to 10K km's, by plane and by car, to get down south, and all the travelling we did down south.

We did a lot of visiting with family; it was really awesome to see how much our niece, Leigha, has grown. We did family Christmas dinners all over Ontario, and introduced my family to "he's" family's traditional Mashed Potato Stuffing. We did A LOT of shopping ("he" nearly fainted when he saw the Visa bill.) We were able to schedule (literally) some time between visiting, shopping, and wedding plans to have some nice dinners out at our favourite restaurants and got to go see 'The Road' (a fantastic movie, but depressing as hell.)

We stayed mostly at my mom's house, and it was great to have mommy take care of us, and let us steal her car all the time!

And so, after all that, we were *fried*.

The night before we left, I had a pretty nasty stomach bug, and that combined with getting up at 4:30 am to head to the airport, made for a super happy girl :S

So maybe, just maybe, it was a good thing we were stuck in Winnipeg for four days while the north experienced the longest blizzard of the year so far. We were able to catch up on some much needed sleep (in fact, it's all I did for about the first 24 hours) and we took advantage of the time to do some of the 'extras' that didn't get done during our scheduled vacation. We both thought it was weird that we felt we were missing out on something special!

We were able to head out to the mall in Winnipeg, and between shopping, and eating out, we got to see Avatar. I'm glad we did, because we wouldn't have an opportunity to see it at a theatre up here, and definitely not in 3D (which is wicked, btw).

It was awesome to see Squire, who, incidentally, We just did another thought it was pretty awesome to see us. (Although, I think she really loved staying at Nina and Wayne's!)

"He's" been back to work for a couple of days now, and I get back in the swing tomorrow. We just completed a big food mail order (to the tune of of $461, but the freezer was looking pretty bare), which, weather permitting will come tomorrow. Other than that, we're mostly working on finalizing wedding plans, as we're about six weeks away from the big day.

Oh! And of course! We'll be cheering from the North as our Juniors face the Americans for the gold medal. Bragging rights against family in the States is on the line... so Go Canada Go!

He wears the red pants and other randomness

2009-12-15T20:03:00.008-06:00

Well, the red panties anyway! This was part of his bid to win a DVD player to go along with the TV I won at my work Christmas party. (For those keeping score at home, he came in third to two women!)

We've been busy socialites heading off to Christmas parties around town. It was great to get together with our new friends and share some food and laughs!

We've also been busy preparing for our Christmas trip back south. I'm embarrassed to say we do have a schedule, but it's necessary to finalize all our wedding plans. We're looking forward to movie theatres, restaurants, and oh yeah, seeing our families and friends!

Even with the somewhat miserable weather (lows of -46, blowing snow) we've managed to get all our water deliveries. Our water is delivered directly from the lake, via tanker trucks three times a week, and is stored in our crawlspace. (A different tanker comes and pumps the sewage from the holding tank three times a week as well.) The driver just backs up to the house, and hooks up. There's an alarm that goes off when the tank is full, and a red light comes on to let them know. I felt awkward asking why all the houses on our street had red lights, until I found out about the 'No Fill' lights.

Although surprising to some people, we do still get hours of daylight even with the soltice just around the corner. 'He' says he's not noticing the lack of sun, since during the winter down south, he was at work during any daylight hours anyway. We do take the dog out during our lunch break to take advantage of the sun's weak rays. Here's a picture of a sunset over the lake.

We've managed to parcel out our pets to our friends up here, and are secure that everything will be fine while we're gone. We've paid homage to all the weather gods, and the forecast seems ok for getting out of here on Thursday. We're looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone at Christmas.

In case we don't post again before Christmas, and aren't going to be seeing you for whatever reason, we wish you all the happiness the holiday season has to offer.

High noon?

2009-12-02T20:56:00.004-06:00

Well, in Baker Lake at least!

We're down to shorter days now in Nunavut, with the solistice being a few weeks away. We start our day of work in the dark and the sunset almost at coffee break time. According to the Weather Network, the official sunrise is at 9:45 and sunset is 14:41. That's almost exactly 5 hours of daylight.

All week I've been wanting to take a picture of the height of the sun at the noon... but today was the first day this week we've seen the sun.

Just think though, by the time we get back after Christmas, we'll already be on the flip side!

Making a house a home

2009-11-29T13:10:00.006-06:00

and a touch of Christmas to boot!

Our house is definitely starting to feel like 'home'. We asked for and received some new couches from the company 'he' works for. Combined with the pieces that were here, and our special pieces we brought all the way from Ontario, we are all comfy cozy!

One thing we chose *not* to bring with us was Christmas decorations. We kinda figured we'd likely be going home for Christmas and didn't really need them. Well, it all comes down to 'need' vs. 'want' and I definitely wanted some decorations.

So I headed down to the Northern to pick through their lot of decorations and came home with some vibrant blue and green balls and a gold snowflake tablecloth. The balls I hung from fishing line in the windows and from the chandelier.

It's not quite like Christmas at home, but it is a touch of Christmas.

Seventeen days til we come home, but who's counting?

Walking in a winter wonderland

2009-11-26T22:19:00.003-06:00

So last night, after actually seeing the Leafs win a game (between us not getting 'Ontario' channels and the Leafs not winning much, it might be only the second win we've been able to see all season) 'he' and I decided to venture outside with Squire for a night time walk.

As an interesting aside, tonight while I sit and write this, a walk isn't possible, because of a warning of wolves in our backyard, right between our house and his office!

We went for a nice meandering walk, all bundled up in warm parkies and snowpants and hats and mits. And Squire sported her new boots, which made all the local puppies laugh at her.

We posed for some night time pictures, but us humans had a difficult time keeping our eyes open during the flash. There isn't a decent one of the two of us, but Squire managed to look only quasi demonic, and my eyes are at least open in this one:

And I had to do some creative photoshoping, but wanted you to be able to check out the frost on the ends of my hair and eyelashes!

And now a solemn moment of gratitude

2009-11-17T21:22:00.006-06:00

With below-minus-twenty temperatures fairly common by now in the early winter, it seems an appropriate time to initiate a solemn discussion about something heretofore unfairly neglected. You may have heard occasional references to it, but it has not received nearly the attention it deserves. It is the backbone, the foundation, the quintessential thing about which all our Baker Lake adventures spin.

It is my parka. I heart my parka.

What’s this, you say? A mere coat is worthy of such adoration?

Well, let me tell you.

I don’t know about you, but I hate spending money. Hate. Going forward I won’t use that letter in the middle of a sentence involving money because it always deserves to be capitilized. Hate spending money.

HOWEVER...we spent a small fortune on these parkas and let it be known: worth every penny. Underline that. Twice.

My parka saved my sanity on the snowstorm day (which some locals may agree was a blizzard, but most will say was just a half-assed storm, I’m reserving my judgement.) but to be honest, that’s not the really cool thing about it.

Its got this fun wire running through the hood that allows you to shape it into a tunnel to peek out of during a windy day…but, no, that’s not the really awesome thing.

Its apparently filled with goose down, and I praise the birds that presumably sacrificed themselves to make my life more comfortable every day. But that’s not the best part either.

The coolest part?

I don’t know about your parka, but mine has these amazing pockets in front that can hold books. Books! And not just softcovers, either. I can comfortably pack two new, large hardcover novels into my coat pockets in the supreme confidence that they shall arrive at my destination safe and sound, ready for me to delve into and forget the mundane universe around me. Suck on that, old coat.

So there you have it. By now, everyone reading this must be realizing they should move to Baker Lake so they can have an excuse to own a parka just like mine. I fully endorse this plan. Because I heart my parka.

Survival of the Blizzard and Vaccinations

2009-11-11T19:24:00.004-06:00

Well, as far as arctic blizzards go, we were a little bit disappointed! While we were late for work, we did both make it to work. Planes didn't make it in or out until late in the day, and school was cancelled all day. However, I've been assured that this was just a warm up, and that we can expect better in the near future.

The day after the blizzard, while areas were still digging out from all the snow drifts, we bundled up after dinner and went down to the community hall here in town for our H1N1 vaccines. We figured that one medivac experience was enough.

We survived the vaccines too, although we're both feeling a bit achy in our H1N1 arm (up here we got our seasonal flu vaccine at the same time, just in the other arm). We took full advantage of the day off for Rememberance Day to rest up.

For the days ahead we're looking forward to our next food-mail order. We called the airport today only to find out that the trip in had been cancelled...so no foodmail tonight! Fortunately we're well stocked for most stuff and not desperate for anything yet (except eggs...help!).

Keeping our fingers crossed for a delivery tomorrow!

Nice Weather!

2009-11-08T19:08:00.000-06:00

Well, back home anyway.... We were watching CP24 (old habits die hard) and saw that back in Ontario you are expecting a beautiful day tomorrow. Plus 18! (he he, while proofreading this, I'm struck that already it's 'plus 18' to me. As if I must make the destinction.)

It made me wonder what we should expect weatherwise, so I went online to find out, and this is what greated me:

Weather Warning: Blizzard Warning for Baker Lake.

Yup. Uh huh!

Goes on to say:

Blizzard warning: Baker Lake Issued at 8:26 PM CST SUNDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2009

BLIZZARD CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED ON MONDAY. THIS IS A WARNING THAT BLIZZARD CONDITIONS ARE IMMINENT OR OCCURRING IN THESE REGIONS. MONITOR WEATHER CONDITIONS..LISTEN FOR UPDATED STATEMENTS.

A SLOW MOVING LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM MOVING ACROSS THE KIVALLIQ IS EXPECTED TO GIVE BLIZZARD CONDITIONS TO THE BAKER LAKE AREA ON MONDAY. FRESH SNOW FROM THE SYSTEM WILL COMBINE WITH STRONG EASTERLY WINDS OF 40 GUSTING TO 60 KM/H REDUCING VISIBILITIES TO NEAR ZERO AT TIMES BEGINNING EARLY IN THE MORNING. THESE CONDITIONS WILL PERSIST THROUGH THE MORNING WITH IMPROVEMENT NEAR NOON WHEN WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO SLOWLY DIMINISH.

**

Okay, thanks Environment Canada. So, is it weird that I'm actually looking forward to seeing an actual blizzard?? We'll let you know how we make out!

Weekly Specials

2009-11-02T12:35:00.004-06:00

I wanted to do a quick post on the weekly specials at the Northern, the grocery store here in town.

These are comprised over a couple weeks, but should give you a decent idea of why we do things like foodmail and sealifts!

We're taking orders and can bring home these amazing deals at Christmas when we come! Who wants some Campbells Tomato Soup at the low low price of $5.49/can?! Why order take out when you can get Kraft Delissio Pizza's for $23.99??

In Nunavut, the Pumpkins Grow Square

2009-10-31T20:12:00.004-05:00

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!

2009-10-28T12:37:00.005-05:00

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!

2009-10-26T12:41:00.006-05:00

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

2009-10-09T20:27:00.003-05:00

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

2009-10-07T21:09:00.007-05:00

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?

2009-10-07T20:26:00.004-05:00

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

2009-10-03T13:53:00.005-05:00

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

first day of fall?

2009-09-22T08:05:00.004-05:00

So on the calendar and lunar cycles, it may say that it's officially the first day of fall. Apparently it arrives at 5:18 EDT today.

However, the locals have been saying that September is fall here, to expect snow at any time during September, and that winter starts officially in October.

So, September 22, 2009, first day of fall, is our first day with any kind of accumulated snow.

I went out with Squire this morning, and thought 'wow, that's a pretty heavy frost'. As I'm standing there while she finds the perfect pee spot, I thought to my self 'hmmm, that frost is falling in an awful snowlike fashion....'

It's not a lot of snow, I don't even know whether you can tell in pictures (I'll try to post them at lunch break.) But teeny tiny flakes are still flitting past my window here at work.

First day of fall up here feels an awful lot like the first day of winter.

fall colours, nite skies, and special deliveries

2009-09-16T21:48:00.003-05:00

Random photoiness from the last few weeks here. We've been completely negligent in our posts. You'll have to forgive us, as you know internets were infrequent. But we now have a permanent connection, so *fingers crossed* posts should be more frequent.

There are lots of really interesting local plants. This little plant goes up the side of Mount Baker Lake, and the whole sections of the side of the hill are red right now with colour. Although we won't see the leaves changing colour, there are definite changes in the foliage up here too.

Oftentimes, the moon is really pretty up here. OH! And we saw northern lights the other night for the first time. I took a picture of that too, but um, well, it's just a black sky in the photograph. I'll have to play with settings to see if we can't get some good shots.

So it wasn't quite Santa Claus (although there were times we thought about enlisting his help... how busy could he and the team be? It is only September...) but it was still kinda like Christmas morning when we finally got our stuff. About 50 boxes came the first day, and another 40 or so the next. Glad to say that everything made it up ok ('he''s computer fan is slightly damaged but still functional), and we're really enjoying having the ammenities of home. Never thought I'd miss a slow cooker, our books, and my shoes so much.

Mount Baker Lake

2009-09-16T20:21:00.010-05:00

Ok... so not really a mountain, but it's a pretty big hill with an awesome view overlooking the town and the lake.

It's always really picturesque up there, no matter the weather. There's a well kept trail that runs up the back side (the local kids climb up the face) that's great for jogging up. You can pretty much see the entire town from up there, including the airport and the hill behind it.

It's become a popular choice for weekend excursions (coffee in tow... not quite Tim Horton's, and it costs about twice as much as Timmies.) Even during the week, Squire and I will often head up there on a walk.

A bit of Baker Lake perspective... the big blue building on the right side of the photo is his office, on the north edge of town. Our house is on the road in the centerish of the photo. Oh, my office is on the exact opposite side of the mountain from our house/his office.....

An example of the difference in culture up here:

#1. Dogs as pets are super cool. So are you if you have one. Kids come running from miles around, and will follow you around town for hours, just to hang out with your dog. Without fail, the first question is "does it bite?" almost always followed by "what's the name?" Kids up here may not be too sure on child vs car etiquette, but they are certain of child vs strange dog etiquette.

#2. Strangers aren't scary. Kids have *no* fear of strangers. They are extremely friendly, and very willing to share their name, where they live, and all that other personal information that kids back south are taught never to share.

Anyway, these two local boys followed us up the hill, and then asked to play fetch with Squire.

photos galore

2009-08-30T15:46:00.012-05:00

Stories are all well and good, but we all know that a picture is worth a thousand words. So it’s time to share a bunch of photos from our first almost-month up here!

Me and Squire down by the lake on our first weekend here. It’s become a bit of a family tradition to go for a walk on the weekend, pick up coffees, and take Squire swimming. The bravest I’ve been is to dip my toes in, but Squire doesn’t seem to have any problems with the temperature.

Early one morning, this was our local welcoming committee. He kinda just sat there and let me do a whole photo shoot. According to our co-workers, we’ll have to have the camera handy when it’s the caribou’s turn to be the visitors.

The kitchen at our new place. I can’t wait to get all our handy utensils and appliances so I can really cook up a storm… although, even with meagre supplies we’ve managed cookies, and scalloped potatoes, and even a curry!

The living area is nice and big – and we get so much nice sunlight that it really warms up the place during the day. I can’t wait to make it feel so much more homey.

This is Squire’s favourite swimming spot, since it’s almost beachy. It’s pretty shallow and perfect for fetch with the ball. It’s tucked away behind the Northern (the local grocery store) so it’s perfect for picking up coffees.

Another beautiful day in Baker Lake. We try to make it a priority to enjoy the gorgeous weather while we have it. Rumour is that we can expect snow flurries as early as September.

xo
~ she

roadblocks

2009-08-30T15:04:00.002-05:00

We’ve been up here for three weeks now, and must apologize as our internet connections are sketchy, borrowed (and sometimes stolen), and therefore blog posts are few and far between. We’ve been loaned a modem for the weekend, and I wanted to take the opportunity to fill everyone in.

We are finally getting settled in our ‘permanent’ home, as the house that was originally supposed to be home may be used for another purpose. We’re happy with the new place, as it is all over homier and suits our lifestyle better. Squire likes that there is carpet in the bedrooms – sleeping on laminate wasn’t her favourite. It also has a super dooper long soaker tub, which I’ll be enjoying on a regular basis.

It hasn’t been without its difficulties though, the way things are done up here are a bit foreign to us. For example, there has been an ongoing parade of repairmen through the house – first because we had no heat, and then no hot water, and (as I sit and write this) now we have no water at all. Water and sewage are held in tanks at ones’ house (water delivery and sewage pump out is via truck based on a schedule). Apparently an account wasn’t set up and we were cut off… it’s difficult to comprehend how much you depend on running water until you live without it for half a day. In any event, I have been assured that we are on the list for delivery today. Because we had our phone line connected prior to coming up here, it was set up at the home we thought we’d be going to. Streets aren’t officially named here, and there is no municipal number system like what exists in the south. I was on the phone for almost an hour with Northwestel to get the phone line moved two doors down. I kinda hope that we don’t ever have to move across the territory.

Prescriptions work vastly different up here as well. As the patient, you really don’t ever handle your prescription. It floats from health clinic to doctor, back to health clinic, to the pharmacy in Rankin Inlet… who’ll call you to get payment information prior to processing your meds. Then they’ll put it on a shipment (via plane) back to Baker Lake, where you pick it up from the kind people at the Health Centre. The whole process can take as long as a week, as the pharmacy in Rankin is closed over the weekend. As a side note, we’ve found the people at the clinic to be very helpful – from the first day when he was medi-vac’d, to his follow up appointments, to late-night “please make the pain stop” visits.

The last, and maybe most saddening, stumbling block is that our personal effects are still sitting at Canadian North’s terminal in Ottawa. In the three weeks our stuff has been in Ottawa, it hasn’t moved except to be bundled together for delivery. I’m on a first name basis with the people at Canadian North, since I call almost daily – we just keep getting bumped for more ‘important’ cargo. It’s extremely frustrating because we’re looking forward to different items of clothing, and being able to set up house. Oh, and of course, we sent a bunch of food items for us and the pets, and paying $25 for 4kg of cat litter (a small bag) gets pretty old pretty fast.

All that said, we are enjoying our time up here, and we are starting to get into a routine. There are a lot of positives (which we’ll go into shortly), but we needed to give some rant-time to the obstacles that needed overcoming!

~ she

Really quick...

2009-08-20T12:46:00.002-05:00

Cuz I have about 10 minutes before I have to return our loaner internet connection...

The days since our last post have been nuts. Don't even know where to start.

Last night we got our first Food Mail delivery. Huzzah! Real food finally. We had steak and corn and potatoes and it felt like thanksgiving. To commemerate the event, we ate at a table rather than on a couch as per our lazy norm.

Our current debates are covering whether its cheaper to get our food via Food Mail our in bulk on our Sea Lift. Both are pricey but still cheaper than buying groceries at the local Northern grocery store. So we're polling our newfound friends who have done all this before.

Our cargo from Bowmanville still hasn't arrived. Its not "late" yet, but when we try to contact the shipping company they're not particularly helpful because we don't have a bill of lading. My company is trying to help straighten it out. Hopefully we'll know more soon, but being the paranoid person that I am I'm starting to come up with all kinds of ideas of what could possibly go wrong.

As some of you may already know, I've done some pretty detailed research on the medical facilities here. Specifically, on my first day of work I ended up getting med-evac'd to Winnipeg with chest pains. Diagnosis: pericarditis. Turns out my sister has had the same thing, so if you're not in the know, she can endorse my summary of pericarditis: it sucks. 'Nuff said.

Funny local story of the week: couple of days ago I was walking the dog up near a bluff where you get an amazing view of the lake and town. There were a bunch of kids nearby, and they came running up to check us out (the local kids ALWAYS run up to check you out here). But they said they didn't want to get to close because they had "blood" on them. I asked why they had blood on them.

As it turns out, they had found a ptarmagan (took me forever to find that in wikipedia, phonetically), killed it with a rock (ptarmagan's are notoriously placid...kids 1, Darwin 0), de-feathered it, dismantled it, and ate the thing's heart and liver raw. The one kid actually still had blood on his mouth.

Which just goes to show that the debate of FoodMail vs Sea List is really a silly discussion when the locals already know the cheapest sources of food.

Time to get back to the office, and I have no clue when we're going to get our permanent internet connection so it might be a while before next post.

he\

final ontario post

2009-08-07T21:13:00.009-05:00

'he' actually found this comic and presented it to me to as evidence as to why it's a good thing he wasn't helping with more of the preparations.

He didn't need to do that. He was extremely helpful and reassuring and understanding and fun. A great shoulder to cry on. A fantastic rant listener-to-person. A wonderful resource of ideas and solutions.

While we couldn't do this move without the support of our family and friends (and our deepest heartfelt thanks again to each and every one of you), we couldn't even contemplate it without being stronger together than we are apart. We know each other's quirks and keep each other sane.

At the end of the day, as long as we (he, she, squire, knight and page) all get to Nunavut in one piece, together, with our health and wits about us, we'll be ok.

I'm not too sure when the next post will come, as we weren't able to arrange for internet service yet, but we'll post an update right away.

~ she

moving day

2009-08-06T11:59:00.002-05:00

Well the big day has arrived.

8:30AM
I watched the news for a few minutes this morning; that little CP24 bit where they tell you “This day in history”? Turns out this is the anniversary of Maple Leafs Garden closing business. That’s kinda sad. Oh, and it’s the day they dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.

The moving guys are here. I’m feeling super pumped and ready to jump right in there and get this project moving along! Ok, that’s a lie. The fact I’m writing this while 'she' tells six people what’s going to what province should give you a rough idea of how motivated I am right now. My glorious achievement this morning was getting the cats into the bathroom, followed closely by getting a battery-operated lawn-mower into the backseat of the Elantra. (By the way, if you’ve never lifted a battery-operated lawn-mower, don’t as you value your back.)

So far the moving guys seem all around cool. The leader of the operation told 'she' not to panic. Points to them. He’s a horse person as it turns out and did dressage at the same venues as 'she'; now they’re getting along famously, talking about mutual acquaintances, and I wonder if she’s thinking “This guy should be lifting stuff instead of talking to me.”

Moving on.

Midnight
I won’t even bother explaining what a day this was. Suffice to say my brain would have exploded if it weren’t for Krista, my mom and the moving guys actually doing the lifting. We are really, really fortunate to have an amazing support system of family and friends and I can’t even imagine this being possible without them.

By the way, mental note for “next time” (??): Sell off as much junk as possible and THEN move.

~he

stressosaurus

2009-08-05T13:30:00.003-05:00

Stressosaurus [ stress-o-saurus ] – noun

An unusual female-only species belonging to genus Stresszillae.

Notable Characteristics
The stressosaurus originates in the Mitchell, Ontario area and inhabits various parts of Canada. It differs from others of the Stresszillae genus particularly by its curious predilection for migrating to habitats beginning with the letter “B” (e.g. Bracebridge, Barrie, Bowmanville, Baker Lake, etc) combined with a strong instinctive drive to occasionally return to its place of origin.

The stressosaurus has an uncommonly strong anxiety tolerance which contrasts interestingly with an uncontrollable weep reflex when in proximity to another weeping female member of the herd. This is a curious phenomenon as it is not firmly established what might initially trigger one female of the herd to begin weeping. (The pursuant chain reactive effect on the other hand is extremely reproducible and well documented.)

The stressosaurus will frequently seek and adopt a less sophisticated animal (typically of species canis lupus familiaris) into the family pack. Interestingly, this adopted member will often be afforded rank privileges typically reserved for other members of the pack, and is in fact often assigned status equal to or greater than that of the mate (e.g sleeping place, feeding priority, etc). This new de facto alpha member will consume large quantities of food resources and research continues to explain how the pack actually benefits from its presence.

Food
The stressosaurus prefers chocolate and icecream during times of abundance, but will also combine peanut-butter with bananas when food resources are scarce. Note that the adopted member of the family will rarely suffer during lean years; it is common for the adoptee to feed with the stressosaurus while the mate fends for himself.

Hypothetical rendition of a stressosaurus reacting to Air Canada saying the adopted member of the pack cannot migrate with the family:

(illustration coming soon)

For more information, watch Godzilla or any other movie where a creature terrorizes some poor unsuspecting city.

~ he

leaving on a jet plane party

2009-08-04T10:31:00.005-05:00

We wanted to make it easy to meet with a whole group of people (family and friends) to say goodbye in one big emotional shot!

We were glad to see everyone who was able to make it out on a long weekend on short notice, missed the people who weren't able to make it. The love and support from family and friends is what makes this whole adventure possible. We really honestly couldn't the move without it.

I attached a photo of our impromptu fashion show. The whole family got decked out in their arctic gear. I *have* to mention how very very warm it was to be wearing these coats in Ontario in the summer. Hopefully they are equally warm in Nunavut this winter.

~ she

countdown to departure

2009-08-02T20:52:00.002-05:00

So, status update #1: Its coming down to the wire. Our last day in "civilization" is this Friday. T-minus 5 days and counting. Tomorrow we have an official farewell shindig for some of the people we probably wouldn't get a chance to visit before we depart; we'll just have to make do with last minute visits to get the rest and apologize profusely to everyone we miss...sorry in advance!

Hopefully at least one more post before we take off.

~he

testing, testing...

2009-07-31T01:19:00.006-05:00

one
two
three

Ok, it seems like this is working. Good. 'Cause it's late and it's soon time to go to bed.

We thought we'd do a blog so that anyone who wants to keep up-to-date on our adventures, trials, experiences, exploits, feats, and occurrences. It'll make it easy for us to share our new life with all of you back south of 60.

Maybe on top of being a vehicle to keep in touch, we'll also be able to help anyone else contemplating or preparing for a move to Nunavut.

Oh, and I should add... the title of the blog... *he* came up with it! Cause he's thinking (even though we bought parkas) that it's going to be easy to freeze up here.

~she