Enduring the cold for Cancer

Hello everyone,
A couple of days ago a few dedicated individuals passed through town on a adventure of their own. They left Kujjuaq a week ago on a journey to raise funds for cancer research. One of the commitments they made before leaving was shaving their heads (a decision that they may be regretting now they are on the open land in the cold). They are traveling up the Ungava coast and back down to James Bay where they are going to continue their journey to Quebec city. This is one hell of a trip. I only was able to get photo's of their machines as they we're probably inside sleeping the sleep of the very cold and tired. The other image is of a cloud I saw at sunset, for about 30 seconds it was illuminated in a very strange way I wanted to capture.
Take Care
CG

PS. I'm sure that rifle on the back of the Ski-Doo is simply for aesthetic purposes.

Fire.

Hello Everyone,
Today began with some unexpected excitement without much tragedy. While Melissa was taking Christopher to daycare she noticed this fire and came back and we all ventured forward to find the Hydro building on fire. fortunately it was just the office, and didn't effect service to the community, also everyone was relieved it wasn't a residence and no one was hurt or worse in the fire. It did take out all the phones on our street, so we are officially incommunicado. We also lost Internet for a couple of hours but things appear to be operating well now. So overall it was a pretty good fire, no one lost their home, no one will lose their job, the fire didn't damage any other buildings and the kids got a day off school. The school and the daycare were downwind of the fire so neither opened today. Anyways, picture speak a thousand words, so they can tell the story.
Take Care
CG

Make hay while the sun shines

Hello everyone,
Today was a beautiful sunny day and it seemed everyone was skipping out of work to have some fun.
Take Care
CG

Back to the Bears

Hello Everyone,
If you click on the title of this post it will take you to the Nunatsiaq News article about the bears in Kangiqsujuaq. I've also heard concerns from our southern friends regarding the "extreme" nature with which these bears were treated, So lets discuss the bears a bit.
Polar Bears are not a endangered species, Lets clear that up to start with. They are on the WWF's watch list. The watch list consists of animals that live in very small habitats, live in very small numbers or for other reasons, such as they are on their way to becoming extinct. A couple of years ago the Polar Bear scare began in earnest, A polar bear was found dead in the water near Churchill. The bear under closer examination proved to have been starving to death and drown in the water. Polar bears can swim along way (up to 60 miles its rumored), So the question was raised why did this bear drown? It was speculated that the bear was on a ice floe and starving and drown triing to swim to another floe. Experts then speculated that ice floe's must be further apart thereby causing speculation that global warming would cause the end of the Polar bear. The main reason that the Polar Bear is on the watch list is that there isn't enough data on the Polar bear to have established a baseline by which to judge the populations security in its environment.

Now, according to the elders around Churchill there aren't as many bears around town as five and ten years ago. Leading people to conclude there aren't as many bears as five or ten years ago. However, up the coast further there are reports of more bears than in previous years meaning the bears may be heading further north to ensure good ice floe's. Reports from elders do not support this as bear census numbers are down in the Hudson's Bay population by approx 20%. There are also reports that conclude that containment's in the Hudson Bay have lead to the actual physical shrinking of the Polar Bears penis size, thereby reducing the effectiveness of mating.
Now, the region we currently live in has a different bear population than the Hudson Bay Bears, we are subjected to the Davis Strait population of bears. These bears according to the same census numbers as the Hudson Bay bears have grown by approx 40%. Meaning the population of bears here is thriving.
Onto the question of why the bears weren't relocated (as we've all seen on TV). first the bears must be tranquilized in order to be moved, and as any Vet will tell you this is extremely dangerous, too little and you die, too much and the bear dies. Ok, so now we have a tranquilized bear, we must contain it, in Churchill this is done is extremely large drain pipe looking things with large grates at either end, these were custom designed for this purpose and must be on hand in order to contain the Bear's You can't indefinitely tranquilize a animal as it will die, you only have hours to get the bear moved. Which also means you need a helicopter on hand to immediately move the sedated bear. Now if you add up the cost of this equipment every community of the north would have to invest about( I have no idea what a helicopter costs) but I'll guess the whole kit and caboodle will run the community in the neighbourhood of 10 million. This doesn't include the costs of having a pilot, mechanic and vet on hand to be able to utilize this equipment when necessary. We can't even get doctors (same as the south), but the idea of getting vets in the town to protect the bears against a occasional intrusion is unrealistic.
Above all, remember this is also a traditional food for the people of this land. These animals are not restricted to hunting the way narwhal and other animals are. this is due to the fact they are rarely found and extremely hard to hunt, they are intelligent, impossibly camouflaged in the winter and also incredibly dangerous. The Polar bear is considered the most dangerous bear on the planet, it is unpredictable and incredibly large some reaching 22 feet on their hind legs, they can kill with a single blow. While Churchill has a booming eco-tourism business that contributes to the expenses of bear relocation, they too have to destroy bears from time to time.
In this community I found out the decision to destroy the bears was made by a elder, as is their right.
Polar bears look real cuddly behind the glass and bars of a zoo, but in your backyard they are a true danger.
Take Care
CG
P.S. They got a wolf in front our house today as well.

If you have nothing nice to say....

Hello Everyone,
Seems like the silence on this blog is going to continue for awhile. Things are occurring in our lives right now that should not be made public till some resolution has been reached. Many of our friends are aware of this problem however I find myself unable to focus on daily trivialities without some resentment seething through into my writing, and as such, we will limit the writing here till such a time when we can discuss the issue or we can move on to other things. I'll try to post some pictures to keep thing fresh however as I have stated my mind is preoccupied on the welfare of my family at this point.

Take Care
CG

And so it begins.

Hello Everyone,
I've noticed myself getting up earlier and earlier every day lately, just a couple of minutes but now that the sunrise has passed my wake up time, I seem to be chasing the sun. This is the same thing as last year that I struggled to get a handle on. Course Melissa just sailed right through it loving every minute of sunshine. It took me till the middle of may to shut down my internal clock and just sleep by the little clock on my beside table. Hopefully this year will be easier, I don't think we'll get much of 24 hour hour daylight, at least not the intesity we experienced last year.
Take Care
CG

After everything else.

Hello Everyone
It still seems strange to me after the breadth of our travels that we finally saw the Polars bears in Kangiqsujuaq. This is the first time the bears have been in town in 20 years (or so I'm told actually Melissa heard last year, so who knows). Through our time in the north we've seen allot of wildlife. So far on our list we have Sic Sic, Arctic Hare, Arctic fox, Ptarmigan, bearded seal, wolves, grizzly, Caribou, narwhal, beluga whale, ring seal, the ever present Raven, heck while crawling across the ice in Repulse ( hunting with Gabby) I even stumbled upon a very slow moving mayfly. So the only two big guys left were Polar Bear and Walrus. I didn't hold out much hope to check the Polar Bear off the list here in Kangiqsujuaq, but that just goes to show you. Never assume anything. Its been a amazing journey.
I've got over 220 posts on this blog and the same in pictures. We've traveled about 5,000 km, Christopher has grown about 6 inches, he's making great steps in learning a second language, I've learned to teach without counting on language to help, Melissa continue to learn as she's rejoined the workforce, we've gone without all the things that would have seemed inconceivable to us in the south and we've never been happier. Sometimes, its the uninformed decisions that can really change your life for the better. Look before you leap is usually a good adage however I don't know what we would have done if we had any idea what the north was really like when we made this decision. When we started this blog there were only four other active blogs in the north, last time I looked there were over twenty.

Take Care
CG

Well, who knew?

Hello Everyone,

Well today was a interesting day. Around 5:00 while going to pick up Christopher from daycare Melissa got the truck stuck in a snowbank. So I trudged out to try and get the truck freed and eventually needed the front end loader to pull us out. Then off to the daycare for Christopher, The daycare is located beside the school and near the arena as well as the new gym. At 6:50pm we got a call at the store saying that there was a Polar Bear up at the Arena. I hoped in the truck to find out whether this was just talk or what was happening. That's when I met my first Kangiqsujuaq traffic jam. There were about 50 vehicles of all sorts gathered along the road scanning the cliff side with spotlights. After a couple of minutes everyone seemed to know something and headed up the road towards the airport, so I followed. everyone drove onto the runway and so did I. I caught a glimpse of a bear crossing over a snowdrift about 50 yards away. We sat there for a couple of minutes then all at once, about twenty people ran over the drifts and all the vehicles started moving towards the main runway and that's where we found the result of the 20 men over to drift. A mother and 2 cubs were destroyed. There seems to be two schools of thought running through town right now, pretty evenly split actually. Some people I have spoken to think they should have been allowed to continue on their merry way as long as they where headed out of town. I tend to agree with the other side of the coin. Bears shouldn't be near town at this time of the year, and the idea that a mother and cubs where so close to the center all all the kids activities creeps me out and I agree with their destruction.
I have photo's of the harvesting of the bears but unless requested I'll leave them off the blog.
Here are photo's of the bears before harvesting.
Take Care
CG

A couple of minutes out of the store.

Hello Everyone,
Today I made it out of the store for a couple of minutes and wanted to share with you the beauty of the land. I went out to get some "stock" footage for my next photographic lull.
Take Care
CG.

Guess whats for dinner

Hello everyone,
One of my customers just dropped off dinner. Look at this great piece of Char Melissa and I will be enjoying in about 15 minutes.
One a completely different note. When I was eight or nine I ordered a model building kit from a comic or cereal box. It promised to arrive in 4-6 weeks but I tell you it must have been a year and half before it arrived. I went to the post office everyday including the weekends and looked through that little window into our post box, and every time except one there was nothing but boring letters but no magic box. Living in the North is like that. Its been 5 days since we have had a plane, but somehow I still find myself at the post office everyday looking for mail, maybe they found a stray bag in the back that holds some magic for me. I don't even know what I'm waiting for, but rest assured, I am waiting and I'm waiting with due vigilance. Every package that arrives is magic, first, if its in the mail , you can't find it in town, so that makes is unique. Second, someone was thinking about us when they sent it, and that's nice. Third, it can get boring in the dead of winter this far North, I even find myself reading bills, carefully, why? Because someone wanted me to, so I am giving them due vigilance. My junk mail filter has even been through the ringer and I find myself reading more and more of the stuff (except anything religious (BTW this is not a invitation for anyone to throw me on a junk mail list please)).
Anyways, that's my life in the north.
Take Care
CG

Silliness Abounds

Hello Everyone,
Well, as you can see from the comments in a previous post (the end of the world as we know it) we have a friend (OK Melissa has a friend, I have a stalker who wants me, real bad) in Kentucky who is claiming to have beaten our temperature yesterday. The city where they live is exactly 2670 km to the south of our current location, and before accepting such a outrageous claim I needed to verify. Yes... Its true, yesterday Frankfort Kentucky beat the heck out of our temp. second, while verifying this info I found out that Frankfort is currently under a heavy snowfall warning. Before 4 Am they expect to receive 4-6 inches of snow.
Ok, lets just discuss the gravity of this situation. While our current address is Quebec, make no mistakes, we are in the north. The ice in the bay will melt in June, we live 500 km north of the nearest tree, we are surrounded by tundra, our local wildlife consists of Polar Bears, Arctic Char, Seals and all good northern animals. Kentucky is, well Kentucky, mint juleps, horse races and hollers where ya can marry your cousin in order to diversify your gene pool. But don't worry, the government is investigating the situation and will have firm plans in place by 2050. I know about El Nino, and global warming and carbon balancing etc. but really think about this. It is serious.
Take Care
CG
PS. I apologize to all my friends south of the border, the statements made in this posting we designed to annoy our fiend in Kentucky and do not actually represent our view of Kentucky, just the sort of people she hangs around with.

The Last Ten Yards

Hello Everyone,
Well, the storms built up a full head of steam... or snow. Visibility has dropped to about 20 feet and driving about 10km is too fast. I finished work and had the truck all warmed up for the 14 second drive home. I knew this was bad day to drive home but whenever possible the truck has to come home so we can plug it in and also ensure no one messes with it, and hey its only 50 feet right? You see where I'm going with this right.... start up- check, drive around the store so you don't reverse into something- check, find the road and drive on it-check, turn into your driveway... damn, not quite. After 15 minutes of rocking the truck and watching our house mock me from its ever so secure and warm surroundings, I gave up and decided to get the truck out in the morning.
Then looking out the window at the truck, mocking me this time with its evil grinning grill in a Stephen Kingish manner, I make the hard decision that if I leave the truck where it is someones is going to kill themselves driving their snow machine. So it begins, for the first time this year I start digging out the winter wear, the pants, the down vest, the furry hat, the goggles, the face shield, the balaclava, the gloves, the gloves for under the gloves, the big boots and I'm ready to kick that trucks butt right out of the snow drift. A hour later the truck is sitting nicely between the warehouse and store in a comfortable little alcove free from the 120 km winds that have been battering me for the last hour. Under normal circumstances this would have been taken care of much faster as any number of people (actually the number it takes to free the truck) would have been on the scene in minutes offering their shoulders, ATV's snow machine's or trucks to help extricate the truck, one minor problem with this good will tonight though... no one could see you were stuck as no one was on the roads and you can't see squat from your windows.
Take Care
CG

Its the end of the world as we know it.

Hello Everyone,
Well, Its been a year and half and its finally happened. Today, when I checked the weather it is currently colder in Kitchener than it is here. Yaaayyyyy, hope your lovin it Southerner's, keep your smiles and get your jobs done. It is currently -14 here and -17 in Kitchener. Break out your parka's and go for a walk in our shoe's.
Take Care
CG
PS for the purposes of this post, we won't talk about windchill. The wind is currently 90 kph here but lets ignore that for this monumental occasion.

Sunday Mornings

Hello Everyone,
Another week has come and gone. They all seem to be blending together, nothing new here but lets see what we can talk about. We are under a blizzard warning however I no longer have the deep anticipation of these events that I did last year. we hear stories from the Elders of day of yore when the town was blocked out from the rest of the world for a month, or when the snow covered all the houses and you had to tunnel out. It appears these days are gone. I have to say this has been a very mild winter. Whenever I check the weather it always seems that the temp is about 10 degree's off the seasonal norm, and although we've been getting warning of this blizzard for three days, I expect some snow, some wind and then it'll go away, nothing to write home about.
We're all still suffering though on heck of a cold and flu however, After two weeks of complaining about this particular illness last night I took steps to prevent its recurrence. I found a on-line pharmacy that will deliver up here, so as we speak (I hope) busy people are running around a warehouse, in a mad rush to ensure that we have a good supply of Nyquil, contact C and neo Citreon before the next illness can strike. I was hoping to find a place that sold these remedies by the case, and guaranteed 24 hour hour delivery worldwide and that delivered during blizzards but we will have to endure. And at the rate we are all recovering, they will probably arrive with lots of time to alleviate suffering.
Christopher hasn't been to daycare in 5 days, unfortunately this corresponded with my year end accounting. I've also found out that I won't be able to attend the meeting we have in Winnipeg in March as they can't find anyone to do my job while I'm gone. On the up side I have finally seen our vacation for this year in writing, It looks like we'll be arriving in Ottawa on or abouts May 7 and returning about a month later.
Thats it for today.
Take Care
CG