OK, Now I have to Vent

Hello Everyone,
This happens everewhere I've ever done retail but that doesn't make it easier. we went to the store for a few minutes to call our family and I got 4 phone calls asking when we were going to open, and when we were going to close. Are these people calling the Hamlet? Are they calling the school and the daycare with the same questions, I think not. But because your in retail people think you should be there and the store should be open whenever they want something. I challenged one of the callers "Are you at work? No, well niether are we. Its Christmas." It still stuns me, Its happened everywhere I've been but somehow it seems more absurd up here. The store has never been open at Christmas, never open Boxing day. In a town with two stores, It shouldn't be that hard to keep track of, neither is open for 2 days. Ok, I'm done and I'm glad we don't have phone yet, because they would be phoning my home.
Have fun, and don't call you local store
Take care
CG

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas From the Grooms. Santa Came for a visit and Daddy slept through the whole thing. Christopher got lots of trains and cars. Mommy got a new fur, and Daddy gotto cook the Christmas dinner. Hope everyone is enjoying thier holidays.

The very best Comic Ever

Hello Everyone,
Some blessed soul sent me some comics and I thought I'd share one of my favorites with you.
BTW Calvin and Hobbes ROCKS still.
CG

Merry Christmas

Hello Everyone,
We'd like to wish everyone of our friends, family and extended internet friends the very best of the holidays. May you recieve everything you need and a little bit more during the holidays and throughout the upcoming year. We hope everyone can share in our hapiness as well as share their own, and when we need to endure suffering hopefully we will do it together.
Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years.
Take Care
CRG, MLG & CRG

Its looking alot like Christmas

Hello Everyone,
I know some of you in southern Ontario have been telling me about your lack of snow. We never really has a shortage but it hasn't snowed since we got here, until last night at 10 pm. Its been coming down ever since and so far it been nice christmas'y snow, big fluffy flakes, with a gentle descent to the ground. Thats left us with about half a foot in the last 12 hours, but there are 2 minor problems with this. First, we have a Blizzard starting in about half a hour and we're in a valley, which means the half a foot from all the surrounding area's is going to end up here. The second problem is the guys who remove snow work regular hours, and I don't think they'll be working in the next 3 days, which could leave us with a heck of a mess on the 27th. Well, I guess we'll just go on and see what happens, but by now you know, I'm cheering for a earth shattering blizzard, one that makes the "Day after Tommorrow" look like spring break in Lauderdale. somehow this doesn't feel like it though.
Take Care
CG

Elders Day

Hello Everyone,
Well, two more shopping days till Christmas. We completed Christophers gift buying in September so we're ok there, however I'm still in the air with Melissa. On Christmas Day it looks like Santa's going to visit Christopher, hopefully that goes well. I'm going to go and get the Santa suit from the store and bring his presents over in the morning, I hope he likes it but he doesn't have alot of Santa experience. He understands and totally approves of the concept of someone bringing him gifts, We'll have to see what he thinks of the Big Guy himself.
Here are some photo's of Elders Day at the Northern. Everyone seemed to have fun and I let Melissa host lets make a deal, She has a little thing for the Elders. Melissa and Lizzie (my Office supervisor) made excellent hosts. We ended up with 14 elders, which is 8 more than we got last year, we pretty much got everyone above 60 in town.
Take Care
CG

The light at the end of the tunnel.

Hello Everyone,
Well I'm almost at the end of the long road that leads to a Northern Christmas. Tonight was Moonlight Madness, and it lived upto its name. Sales were incredible. usually the best night of the year will be ladies night but we blew that away tonight. The Co-op held Mens night tonight against us and I think they gave up and closed early (not a small task as they have 5 times the sales floor we do).
Friday will be a good day, a lousy sales day but its Elders day, so I'll get to sit with the Elders drink tea and hear stories. I think I'm going to play "Lets make a deal" with them and that will also be fun. Its a fun way to end the sales season. I feel sorry for all the teachers who run home to the south every Christmas. they miss the town celebration, once Christmas has gone by the games will begin till New Year. I've been invited to compete in some of the traditional Inuit games of the season (which I don't think I'll participate in). One of the games is called finger pull, it involves what I consider fish hooking your opponents mouth and pulling as hard as you can till they surrender, or you surrender as they are doing the same to you. You sit back to back and reach back and fish hook your opponent. Other games are one leg high kick
and two leg scissor kick, the actic games record for one leg high kick is 9 feet 7 inches, not bad for a race that has a average height of 5 foot 6. I've seen it casually played nd its amazing how they can kick, I haven't seen martial artists rival thier performance.
Which leads me to question about this particular game. Ok I understand how if your living in the land of the long winters, you'd make games to relieve the boredom during the long winter, or to prove strenght when another family is met upon the tundra traditionally. However,how could a game evolve that involved kicking alot higher than the roof's of traditional housing. It doesn't seem to be a skill building game as traditional hunting techniques don't seem to involve alot of personal combat. No real point in triing to kick a bear in the face, its likely to tick him off. There aren't alot of obsticales that you would need to focus a skill set in order to build jumping skills. Anyone with any answers or guesses?

Anyways, Bed Time,
Take Care
CG

Ok, Now we have Cable.

Hello everyone,
We now have TV, so hopefully progress will continue with our phone being up soon. Here's another photo from the front of the store, to the left of the picture you can see our house and deck rght behind our warm warehouse (68 steps from the store) near the middle of the photo is the Co-op.
Take Care
CG

Ok, Onto the transition.

Hello Everyone,
The move was less than fun. Lets just run over the highlights. We left Repulse on time and arrived in Winnipeg a hour and half late after the usual 5 stops down the coast of the Hudsons Bay. When we arrived it was a blustery -11 in Winnipeg and it was a race to take off our coats and get to the hotel. For the last few days we had dreamed of what we would eat when we hit town but with the evenings adventures practicality pulled ahead of desire (OK that and apparently only one restaurant delivered after 11:00 on a weeknight in Winnipeg). The next leg of the journey to Toronto the next day went off without a hitch. Where we were met by my father for the trip to Oshawa. I was suprised by Melissa, when after being in TO for 30 minutes she said she missed home and wanted to return to the North.
Throughout booking we had concerns about the next leg of our journey, that being to Montreal, we only had 50 minutes to get our animals off the Air Canada (whom I personally despise) flight and get them registered, checked in and get to our First air flight. In Montreal we waited, and waited for our animals, then after sprintint through various checkpoints and hallways we made it to our First Air flight and comfortably sat in our seats after holding the flight up for 20 minutes... when we were asked to leave the plane along with everyone else. It seems the toilets weren't working and they wouldn't be able to leave until they where repaired. We were told this would take about 30 minutes. A hour and a half later we were given lunch vouchers and told to be back promptly at 12:15pm. At 12:15 we were told nothing. At 1:00 we were told we would spend another 5 hours in the airport waiting for a new plane to fly down from Iqualuit. So we waited, with a 4 year old who was woken up at 4:00 am for his trip to his new home. I made all the nessassary calls to home office and told them we wouldn't make our connector that left 15 minutes ago. And waited, with Christopher, who doesn't like waiting, we waited. We looked at planes, we walked the long halls, we enjoyed all the airport has to offer... and we longed to get out of the city. At 6:45 (fifteen minutes after we were able to get Christopher to fall asleep for a nap) we got on a plane with a ticked off 4 year old and headed to Kujjuuk where we would now be spending the night. We arrived in Kujjuuk and spent the night in some "Northern" housing that could have been cleaned with a sand blaster, but its just one night so who cares. The next day, we gathered up all the luggage and the animal crates and found someone to give us a ride to the airport, then found someone else who would actually show up to give us a ride and went to the airport. We unloaded all our bags and crates into a neat 8 foot pile (that I affectionlly call the crap from here on in), and went to get our tickets, which I confirmed at 9:00am that morning. Now, apparently syntax is very important at this point, I confirmed we were booked on this flight, not that we had seats on this flight. This was explained to me at the airport. I went outside to reflect. Then I waited for our ride and went to a hotel. The 8 foot pile of crap seemed to have gown to a 12 foot pile at this point.
The next morning I called the airport and confirmed we had "seats" on the next plane. We loaded the crap and ended up in Kangiqsuaq with no sanity but a pile of crap waiting fo us. Now we were supposed to move into the mangers house right away and the old manager was supposed to be at a hotel. Apparently this wasn't explained to the old manager who had not moved out (probably due to the parties he was hosting the next few nights), or booked us into the now full hotel. So we started calling teachers and housing associations looking for a place to stay, which we found and I won't tell you about it, but attempt to wrap this sucker up and say, we're happy to be here in our house. Our boxes have arrived, our animals are happy and I look forward to spending a couple of years here.

Memories

Hello Everyone,
I should be discussing my new community and the wonders we have found within, however I just discovered something that makes me wonder about the nature of the human spirit and mind.

Now, everyone has different callings and aptitudes and these we must consider before hailing of condemning other for they're personal choice's. There was a time while we've been in the north that my personal evil was another southerner who joined the northern community I was in and "didn't get it". This individual flailed thier way through a traditional culture with nothing but insults for the local community and culture, They failed to appreciate anything of thier experience but enjoyed ridiculing that which they faced. I have to admit this person made me feel shame at the way they acted and how that must look to the local population and what they must think of me being from the same culture. I and others were happy with this person's departure from the north back to thier "home". Now I have learned this person's love of the all mighty dollar has compelled them to return to the land of poor "dental hygiene". Now, however this person seems to have forgotten the daily horrors (their words) they were sentenced to by accepting thier contract and has voluntarily signed again after a 9 month absense. I am happy I am no longer in this community however I feel for the locals who will have to once again look up the nose of this southerner. If you feel youself so desirous of the mighty buck in your life I suggest you return to school, strive for professional development, or find some other route to your dreams rather than using a fault of your memory to believe acceptance was anything more than tolerance.
Anyways, Here's a nice picture of Kangiqsujuaq.
Take Care
CG

More front Window.

Hello everyone,
More of the view.
Take Care

CG

I'm BACK!!!!

Hello Everyone,
Well, We're safe and sound in Nunavik, in the nation of Quebec the village of Kangiqsujuaq. Where the high speed broadband internet is slower than than you could ever image. Like 56K speed (that being said, I remember upgrading my Moden to the new 2400k and being rocket fast). Anyways, to start, these picture are literally the view from our living room window.
Take Care
CG
PS OK this is brutal, 7 minutes for the first photo, I'm going to have to start resizing the photo's, anyone who wants original quality will have to email me.

No Phone

Hello Everyone,
Due to a unforseen problem we have no personal phone at the house, anyone wishing to reach us must do so at the store.
Take Care
CG

Arrived Finally

Hello Everyone,
We finally arrived after 2 days of cancelled flights, Things are great and the community is beautiful. The Daycare is incredible and Christopher is hamving a wonderful time. Photo's and more when we get up internet running this week.
Take Care
CG

BRB

Hello Everyone,
Well, This is the last post for awhile, we'll talk to you on the other side.
Take Care
CG

Blizzard

Hello everyone,
Well we had a bit of a suprise blizzard today, at least it was a surprise to me. The Daycare closed at noon and Melissa had to go get Christopher. On the way back she kinda lost her way and slipped off the road 20 feet from the house (Thanks God). Here are some photo's of me triing to get the truck out. Remember this is literally 20 feet away. The storm winds are about 40-60 km at the time of these photo's, when I came home it was about 80 km, tonight they're calling for 120km. Its pretty darn cold and windy, thats all I know. The other two are of the rescued truck taken from about 10 feet away.
Take Care
CG
PS. We're leaving Repulse on Nov 28, arriving in Toronto Nov 29, Leaving Toronto and arriving in Kangiqsujuaq Dec 4.

A semi-natural Northern Barometer

Hello Everyone,
Tonight, we are experiencing out first real Blizzard of the season. The wind gusts are supposedly reaching 120 km. Which lead me to a suprising discovery, early in the season before your stink pipe freezes, your toilet acts as a excellent baromter (of sorts). You see as the wind whips past your stink pipe it creates a vaccuum, which causes your toilet level to drop, when the air is released in the toilet the level returns to normal. Which means at this moment I am having rapidly ebbing tides in my toilet bowl. So the moral of the story is, If your locked in a room in the north, with no windows and doors but just a toilet, you can still tell when you don't want to go outside.
Take Care,
CG

Sunday Musings

Hello Everyone,
Well, Its been a hectic and confusing week ended with a bit a snowfall (as seen above, taken at 2:30pm). On Wenesday this roof was clean, Thursday and Friday it snowed a wee bit. Not bad weather but pretty constant. On Friday we all got to go out on a sji-doo ride, which was Melissa and Christophers first, they both seemed to enjoy it. Ok, they LOVED it, I still can't get used to ski-doo's being working machine's, they are just too much fun. They just make you want to yell Yea-haw after every little bump. Also snow machines aren't what they were when I was a kid, the machine I borrowed can easily travel 160 kph for extended periods of time ( I think at one point we may have even hit 40 kph, but thats us). I didn't believe this till I saw one do a wheely for about a 100 feet. The RCMP up here don't chase ski-doo's, they just try to identify the machine or ridera nd let them go, cause they ain't going to catch them (so I am told). \ We're still waiting to finalize plans for our move, we have lots of people coming and going from this store so we're just waiting for the iteneraries to work together then we'll have actual dates.
Thats it for now,
Take Care
CG

On the Road Again,

Hello Everyone,
Well, Its official. Our family has accepted a position in the community of Kangiqsujuaq, on the northern reaches of Quebec. It is a Inuit community of a small size (500 people) and the store volume is comparable to that of Repulse Bay. I have heard great things about this community which is one of the reasons we jumped at this opportunity. This also means Melissa will not be a Casual employee anymore. I am going to train Melissa to be my grocery manager and she will become a salaried manager. This is not what we had in mind when we came here, but we'll just keep rollin with the punches. We will be leaving here around the 26th of this month and taking the 8 hour plane ride to Winnipeg, then onto the 3 hour plane ride to Toronto (where we hope to have a layover of a couple of days. From there we will take another 2.5 hour flight and overnight in Montreal then onto Air Inuit for the 9.5 hour flight to Kangiqsujuaq stopping at apparently every settlement from James Bay onward, looks like about 8 stops before we finally arrive. It will be a very long journey with a 4 year energy bomb like Christopher. It is rumored we will be able to spend a couple of years in this community.
Take Care
CG

Our First

Hello everyone,
This was our first carving. It was made by Nate in Baker Lake, Its not particularly good but we like it. As you can see Nate is triing to make the carving more appealing to southerner's by polishing it, this takes ALOT of time and adds nothing to the value so is usually only done by lesser known carvers, this bear is about 5 inches high and 7 inches long. You never forget your first, This would have been wednesday (definately a Wednesday, Bingo night in Baker) when his wife brought this around, It was like the home shopping network had gone local. Anyways, Good night,
Take Care
CG

Melissa's Favorite

Hello everyone,
This is a carving by a elder in Baker by the name of Toona. His work is in the national Art Gallery in Ottawa and has been given as gifts to foreign heads of state. As you can see Baker artist have a much rougher and more primative style than Repulse. Toona is very old school and very simple in his carvings, he just emphasis's the rock shape. I had Toona make several pieces for us but this is the largest. It is a traditional dancer carved in black soapstone and stands about 8 inches high and weighs in at a hefty 5 pounds. Melissa loves this piece (his name is Mr Tippy)
Take Care
CG

I don't know if its Art, but I know what I like.

Hello Everyone,
This is a interesting carving we got while in Baker Lake. It was a strange one, when it was first brought to ou door I turned it down. I just didn't get it, I showed it to Melissa and she had the same reaction. I told the carver I just didn't get it and wasn't interested. Its the same carver as the Polar bear pictured above. Over the next couple of days, it was strange Melissa and I discussed this carving over and over, till I saw the carver in the store and I asked him to bring it back, we wanted it. Its grown on us and is one of our favorites, but I still don't get it. Its a Inuk face atop a flexible leg with a human ankle and a animals foot. The quality of the stone is better than any of our others though. Go figure. This is about 6 inches high.
Take care
CG

A interesting Repulse Carving

Hello Everyone,
This is a very interesting piece we got here in Repulse. The hunter and the Beluga whale are carved from Narwhal tusk, and have very interesting lines as they were carved from poor pieces of tusk, making it more interesting in our opinion. They are pegged to a piece of green soapstone using caribou bone pegs, the harpoon is also made from caribou bone.The tie line is made from dental floss, wintergreen I believe.
This is our favorite of the pieces we have gained on this leg of our journey. The carving stands about 4.5 inches tall
Take Care
CG

Our first two Repulse Carvings

Hello Everyone,
These are our first two Repulse carvings. Repulse is well known for the quality of its carvings (these are not good carvings, they are known as bingo carvings, because they are usually made on bingo days to make enough to buy cards). The quality of the soapstone is poor as you can see lots of white specks and streaks in the stone, good stone should be pitch black without lines. Unlike popular opinion very few carvings are as highly polished as the one's seen down south, this is usually done in a attempt to increase value by southern opinion. Both the Narwhale and the Walrus's tusk are made of Caribou bone. Both of these carvings are about 3 inches long.
Take Care
CG

Our latest carving

Hello Everyone,
we've never shown any of of carvings that we've aquired since we got here so we wanted to share some of them with you now. This carving shows eight birds in various forms of action, the uppermost 3 are supposed to be perched above the water. The next four are diving into the water and the last bird is swimming under the water (for fish). They are carved of walrus ivory, the branch carved from caribou antler and the based carved from green soapstone. This is a Repulse Bay carving. It measure about 6 inches high.
Take Care
CG

Hello Everyone,
Well, Its been a wonderful day off and I thought I'd share todays sunset with you all. We're getting about 5 hours of light a day which is still plenty. You still get to see alot of light, the only drawback is by the time you get off work, Its dark, Not twilight, not dusk, its dark. the whole bay appears to have frozen over last night. at least you can't see anymore open water anywhere. This means soon the bears will head out onto the ice for the year, and we'll see them again in May.
Take Care
CG

3 days till Inventory

Hello everyone,
Well, We're three days till inventory and we've been counting for three days. My new helper is really taking alot of the pressure off, So that's a great relief. Hopefully next week, I'll be able to get some time off. Melissa has been off work all week caring for Christopher, who's recovered from his Chicken Pox, but has come down with a case of the sniffles. With the holiday we're hoping (as he is) that he'll be well enough to attend on Tuesday. Tommorrow, I'll be taking a few hours off to go target shooting with my new relief manger Neil. Then back to the grind to clear up some remaining paperwork.
BTW, that's tonights sunset, Pretty nice.
Take Care
CG

From the front of the Store

Hello Everyone,
I took these photo's at lunch from the porch of the store. This bearded seal is about 120 yards away.
Take Care
CG

Do you really want to go fishing?

Hello Everyone,
These two industrious guys wanted to go fishing the day after freeze up. So they broke a 4 foot wide path a quarter of a mile long to get thier boat out to open water. The really sad part was when they came back they has to do it all again. These boats, are like very large stable canoe's and weigh more than 800 lbs. They are anywhere from 4 to 6 feet wide and start at 18 feet long.
Take care
CG