Sunday Musings

Hello Everyone,
Ever have one of those days when every one's against you? That's been our last two weeks, About a month ago we lost the transmission in the truck. That seems unfortunate enough right? Well, we took it to the town garage to have the transmission taken out as Ford wanted us to return it to them, at which point they would send us a new one. So we scrambled around looking for a rental truck so we continue to work cargo. We found one for a hundred dollars a day. Now t just seemed like a matter of a few days and we'd be back on the road. Long story short, three and a half weeks later the garage finally removed the transmission and we boxed it up and took it to the airport. I was told it would be shipped out on Monday, Yesterday I learned it had been moved but was still sitting at the airport a week after it was supposed to have been shipped and I had been told it had been shipped. Two weeks ago the pipes under our house froze and cut off our use of the washing machine and kitchen sink. I called someone to come in and work on the problem, then I called a friend to call this individual and tell him in Inuktitut what happened so there was no misunderstanding. this person said they'd be right over. That was two weeks ago and he still hasn't shown up, so for the last two weeks we've had to do dishes and laundry in the bathtub. Last night something happened to the hot water tap in the bathroom and now I can't get it to stop flowing (I have tried to reset the seals and checked the valves), so now I have to cut the water flow at the main to stop us from running out of water from the flowing water. Melissa is currently laying on the couch with a migraine and a condition called shingles. We had a district tour this week, or as I am reminded a seagull tour (they fly in, they crap on you, they fly out), that went poorly, No one seems to think that, I am now replacing four experienced full time people alone, standards will fall, I can only do so much. also for the tour I hadn't had freight in ten days so guess what, the shelved will be empty. Frankly I think you could say, I'm sick of the north right now, I' m sick of everything right now. I have a 2 second fuse left, which makes it hard to handle Christopher with Mommy sick on the couch.
Hopefully that is the end of my complaining. But it has brought a strange northern shopping habit to mind that I haven't discussed. This particular Inuit habit of shopping has been frustrating to me since I first came to the north and its been the same everywhere. You see when shopping the local people put their items on the conveyor belt at the cash register, then go and get more items. It doesn't matter if they have a basket or a cart, they will empty it onto the belt and then disappear into the store again. So as a cashier you will have 3 or 4 piles of items sitting on the belt at any given time, and someone will come up and impatiently say they want to pay, so you figure out what pile is there's and start ringing them through. Then they look at the total figure out how much money they have left and disappear into the store again to spend the rest of their money. Then they spend too much and they start disappearing into the store again to change items in order to come up with that magic number, which is the amount of money they have in their pocket. Then finally they will invariably ask you to go to the warehouse and see if you have the last item your looking for. Somehow for the last couple of years this little idiosyncrasy has always been bumped from the blog for other items, but with the level of frustration I am currently experiencing somehow today it seemed important.
Take Care
CG

On the Road Again,

Hello Everyone,
This evening Melissa and I came to a difficult decision. In order to ensure the welfare and well being of our son, recent events have caused us to decide to leave Kangiqsujuaq. We will be leaving ASAP (within a few weeks) for another Northern Quebec community called Puvirnituq on the coast of Hudson Bay. Unfortunately things do not always work out as planned, but we must ensure we do what is best for our family.
Take Care.
CG

Back to the Land

Hello Everyone,
Went back ou today and also Melissa went for her first solo. I went out at low tide which lead to some of the green ice (that looks like water) in the photo's. There's also a cliff I saw yesterday I wanted a better look at so I went back this morning.
Take Care
CG

Another Week has come

Hello Everyone,
We it seemed that not allot had happened this week, so tonight I borrowed a ski-doo and we all went out on the land for a couple of hours, and man was it cold. -30 times 60 miles a hour on a ski-doo times 40 miles a hour winds = lots of winter wear. One amazing thing was if you drove too long the engine would get too cold, you had to stop with the sled out of the wind and let it rev up for a couple of minutes to warm it back up. No matter how close you look at these photo's I don't think you see any exposed skin (Ok, I just checked, you can see Melissa's nose). The item you see Christopher playing with out on the bay, was a bag he found frozen into the ice and tied closed with rope, We inquired no further than that, I'm almost positive that I really, really don't want to know what was in there.
The dog teams headed out of town on Friday after their 5 day layover, I guess their racing times don't include time spent in town as the race is two weeks old and the leaders time is 22 hours when he left town. There is a photo of the teams getting ready to leave Friday morning, I don't actually have any photo's of the race beginning, to be frank, I just got sick of going out there every day waiting for the race to start, then hearing they decided it was too windy or too cold to race.
The other photo is yet another photo of George and someone else having fun out on the bay.
Take Care
CG

The North,The Tundra and Global Warming.

Hello Everyone,
I've been meaning to discuss this topic for awhile but quantifying this topic with measurable value's is difficult. I've found some material to broach this subject however so lets begin. First the tundra isn't what most people would imagine, it is not a vast expanse of nothing other than rock. During the summer, it is a very boggy, wet and living landscape. In the winter, well, its ice and snow. Oh yeah, and there are lakes everywhere.
I recently found a scientific interpretation of satellite images from ten years ago compared to last summer. They found in approx 1000 mile square zone of Nunavut there were 125 fewer lakes than 10 years ago. The reason for this is (and for so many lakes in the arctic) is the permafrost. The permafrost is a area of ground that never thaws. The depth at which the permafrost begins can give you a good idea of how far north you are. Most area's do have a number of inches that melt in the summer. For example the permafrost here is around 16 inches below ground level.
Now, increases in global temperature's have caused these levels to go deeper than previously recorded. Now, this means the thaw comes earlier and lasts longer than in the past. This means tree's are travelling further north every year. Another result is that the lakes are disappearing. The permafrost causes many low lying depressions to become lakes effectually sealing the depression to collect water. However with the reduction in permafrost many of these lakes are actually draining causing the lake to dry up, thus affecting all life around it.
So there you have it, easily measurable and quantifiable look at global warming in northern habitats.
Take Care,
CG

ammendum: This post was made early, prematurely and upon erroneous results. Global warming is not affecting the tundra, the natural cycle of climate is. But hey, if you live in the south, just listen to the news and believe that BS, your life will be easier. To the Sierra club, Greenpeace, the sea shepard, et al, kiss my ass, you people know nothing of the north till you live and grow here. Talk to the people instead of the press and you may learn something. I repeat "Kiss my Ass``.

A slow week.

Hello Everyone,
Its been a slow week. The only real activity in town that I know of is there is a Dog team race going on. It started on Monday at the village south of us. The teams left from Quataq and should have passed through Kangiqsujuaq on or about Wednesday, however the weather seems to have bogged them down. Due to the cold they had to camp down for a few days till the cold spell passed. As a result they are expected to pass through town today, Sunday. On Thursday, a group of men went to take them food as they were running out of supplies as they had planned to be a able to stock up on Wednesday. We're just a stop on their journey as they continue onwards from here past Salluit, about another 500 miles to go. They arrived in town about 3:00pm and will be spending a couple of night in town due to the temp falling again. All the driver looked as if it had been a hard journey s far and they haven't made it half way yet. We now have a transient dog city in front of our house with about 120 dogs out on the ice from 18 teams. Out local entry and the team we have photographed many times is in the lead. He is the 3 time national champion. Once the teams crossed the finish line most of them were transported down to the Bay (in front of our house). The picture of the ice was a interesting photo at the finish line that I found interesting.
That's it,
Take Care
CG

For our friends.

Hello everyone,
Just a photo update of 2/3 of our family.
Take Care
CG

Beautiful Days are here.

Hello Everyone,
We have a Hockey tournament starting today with half a dozen local communities flying in to participate. Also there are Para skiing lesson going on on the lake leading to some nice photo's of the learners, but there's not allot actual skiing going on, seems to be more kite flying.
Take Care
CG