Quick Update

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Birthday Kiddo!

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

She was less excited about the birthday hat though.

Thanksgiving Replay

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

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

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

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

Sealift Before and After

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

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

Before:

After:

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

Perfect Timing

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

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

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

Snowfall Warning

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

Up to 15 cm of snow expected.

Details

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

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