Seven Signs of Spring

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?

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...

.... 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...

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

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)

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

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.