Amazed

We've been up here almost three years now, and two things still amaze me:

1. Watching the Northern Lights dance and flow across the sky.

2. That I have to look to the south to see the Northern Lights.

;)

Neato

Today is our first workday blizzard of 2012. (We had blizzard-like conditions on Saturday, but it didn't last too long, and what fun are weekend blizzards?! They just ruin our social plans :P)

We like to watch the Environment Canada website for the weather updates. There are general rules set out for when we are allowed to shut the office for the day. We need to hit visibility of .2kms or less AND have sustained winds more than 60 km/hr AND have a windchill of -50 or greater. There are a couple of caveats: we can also close if/when the municipality pulls the water/sewage/snowclearing equipment off the road and/or the taxis give notice that they are going to shut down.

Well, today we hit the trifecta! Quite often, we close because one of the caveats have occurred and management feels that it is no longer safe for people to be trying to get home (either walking or driving). But this afternoon, we legitimately have met all the conditions set out to stay home in our jammies.

Ok, well the jammies thing probably isn't in the official policy, but it is our 'house rule'.

Turning a Corner

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

Epic Fail

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?

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

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!