Halloween

Here our Ferry sit upon the desolate Inuvik shore waiting for next June.
The river has stopped flowing meaning for the first time all you can see is ice across its breadth.
You can really work up a sweat in -16 weather.
Mommy dressed as the Camo witch.
Returning from battle

Hello Everyone,
Today didn't go as well as Christopher would have hoped. The school had a Halloween party that the kids had to earn, over the last 2 weeks the kids had to earn 90 stars to go to it. Christopher was doing well but has been struggling with bad behavior this week and missed his last chance at going today, so he didn't get to go to the party, and trick or treating was in grave jeopardy. However, he was able to maintain a reasonable standard this afternoon and was able to at least go out this evening.
On another note, today the river finally stopped flowing so the freeze up can continue unabated by current, so soon you'll be able to cross the river to Inuvik by ski-doo safely. This week several people went through the ice as the river rose due to the ice buildup down river. Everyone remained safe however, which is fantastic news.
Take Care
CG

Happy Halloween

Hello Everyone,
Christopher would like to wish everyone a happy and safe Halloween
Take Care
CG

Unpacking and Priceless artifacts.

Hello everyone,
We have started the long process of actually unpacking, both the items we brought with us as well as the treasures we acquired while in the south on vacation. Which lead me to todays startling discovery. My incredibly astute wife seems to have acquired a couple items of note while on our recent foray into the commercial world of the south. Yesterday she put a new clock on the wall of the bedroom and in my ignorance I asked her to move it, as the timepiece seemed to make a deafening tick tock that would have forbade my sleep while that timepiece was in the same room as me. My darling wife happily complied and now this clock sits above our kitchen sink. This is where I made todays startling discoveries. Now, I am not a antiquarian of any sort however this clock captured my attention the previous evening and now I had a chance to investigate its presence. This timepiece as its faceplate conveys to me was made in 1863, in a shop in London England by a builder known (presumably worldwide) as W.O. Woldman. The rear of the timepiece assures me that it is genuine authentic (their words, although they spelt "genuine" incorrectly I'm sure it was a oversight). Now, I'm not sure who our broker was for acquiring this treasure, although I am confident that somewhere within their name the phrase Rama appeared, I was also unaware that the craftsmen of 19th century Europe were so adept at utilizing the yet to be invented AAA. Regardless let me get to the point, I apparently own 2 of these wonderful (and very rare items) and I would happily auction at least one of them to the highest bidder, Good luck and commence bidding.
Take Care
CG

And so it Begins

Last night, we had some pretty good lights but unfortunately I shot them all out of focus. These one's turned out ok, I like the clouds which had the lights doing thier thing above them.

This was last nights sunset.

Hello everyone,
It looks like we're hours away from isolation for the next 4 to 6 weeks. The last ferry trip is scheduled for 5:00 today. then we'll be isolated until December. No Police, no hospitals, no doctors (we have a nurse who will be staying in the community for the whole period so hopefully nothing big will come up). Mail will be helicoptered in once a week and thats it, no produce, no dairy, nothing more coming into my store for the next month. When talking to my district manager about the process his only comment was "have you seen the Shining?". We were tired of the bustle of the city but this may be a bit much. Guess we'll have more time to blog though.
Here's wishing everyone a good November, see you on the other side.
Take Care
CG

Siku News service

This image did not appear in the following article from the Siku news service... Nice rack EH?

Ancient beast uncovered in the NWT

Paleontologists say it could be the carcass of a steppe bison that roamed before the last Ice Age.

Publisert: 13.09.07 12:40

A man in a small Northwest Territories community has found what paleontologists say could be the carcass of a steppe bison that roamed before the last Ice Age, reports CBC news.

The remains of the beast were uncovered in the permafrost near an eroding cliff, said Shane Van Loon, who first came across the pre-historic find last week while walking along the riverbank in Tsiigehtchic, about 230 kilometres south of Tuktoyaktuk.

Van Loon told CBC something strange was jutting out of the permafrost from an eroding cliff, so he climbed up for a closer inspection and noticed the frozen animal hide and bone, as well as a large-horned skull that measures one metre wide from horn to horn.

Some of the animal's hair and innards were kept intact by the perennially frozen subsoil, he said.

Van Loon said he kept quiet about the discovery for several days until some surrounding ice melted and the animal's remains fell to the ground. Then he collected what he could and notified officials.

"I got all four hooves � one missing toes," he told CBC. "I got a back leg and two shoulder blades and half the spine, and the head."

A piece of the animal's intestine was dried out and still felt rubbery, Van Loon said.

Grant Zazula, a paleontologist with the Yukon government, said the animal could predate the last Ice Age, which ended about 10,000 years ago, since the Mackenzie Delta area would have been covered in glaciers during that period.

That would likely mean the specimen is more than 20,000 years old, he said.

"Finding an Ice-Age animal [is] something we typically find in the Yukon, but rarely find in the Northwest Territories," Zazula said. "But if it is � as we suspect � an ice-age bison, it might be one of the first found in the Northwest Territories."

The water temp has reached ZERO

Hello Everyone,
Why, your asking yourself, do I care what the water temperature is in Tsiigehtchic NWT? The answer is you probably don't but I do. You see all my previous store's have been Sealift store's (where a big boat delivers lots of goods once or twice a year), but this is a road store meaning that almost everything is delivered by truck year round. However due to the fact the community is on the wrong side of the river from the Dempster Highway we need a ferry in the summer and a ice road in the winter to get product to the store. So, your probably asking yourself, and what does that have to do with the temperature of the water, slick. Well, there are 2 very difficult times every year for a store like this, they are freeze-up (the time from when the ferry can't run due to ice, and the ice is not yet thick enough to support a road) and break up (the reverse circumstance in the spring). The fact that the water reached zero degree's this morning means that Freeze up is days away from stopping our ferry service and we will be unable to receive goods for the next month to 6 weeks. Mail will be delivered infrequently by hand by either walking or ski-dooing across the ice when possible. So no more milk, produce, well anything. The other problem is that the huge order to cover this time wasn't placed until I got here meaning I don't have enough product in my store right now to survive freeze-up, so I placed a big order last week. Now, we are days away from the supply chain being shut down, and no sign of our cargo... except for a email this morning explaining that in the bad weather our truck driver left the road while delivering our supplies and this will cause a delay in our recieving the goods.... So, we wait, and watch the ice, and hope that the warehouse in winnipeg sent us what we asked for, we hope that the truck managed to get to Inuvik with our product, we hope that its sorted quickly in Inuvik and shipped down here very promptly, and we hope that it arrives within the next 72 hours, which is how long we have to get this all sorted out before the river is impassable.
Wish us luck
CG

Ok this is just cool

Hello everyone,
I just found this site and its really cool, (at least I think so). You can upload your photo and simpsonize yourself. How cool is that. Anyways, this is me.
Take Care
CG

Sunday Fun

H
Hello Everyone,
Just a lazy Sunday hanging around the house but it appears everyone else in town has pulled the ski-doo's out of storage and are ripping around town having fun. we've been getting small quanities of snow all week and it seems we have finnally reached the level where people can get thier machine's out for all the fun that entails.
Take Care
CG

Couple more Vacation Pic`s

This is where I`d love to live someday, This is the flowerpot Island, unfortunately its spoken for by the government. I`ll just have to find my own island to make my own.
I don`t know at what distance a skunk makes you uncomfortable when walking across a open field towards you... maybe 20 feet? I do know reading a book alone beside a fire and looking up and see them at 2 feet is a uncomfortable distance, I assure you.

A walk around town

A view of my store, the store is on the bottom level. We share the upstairs where our apartment is as well as the local radio station as well as a couple of band offices.
This is a working tepee and a fridge that doesn't. I'm sure they aren't called tepee's up here but I'm not sure what the real name is yet, but when I know, so will you.
This is the local parish.
Just a couple of Ravens, but I know I missed them when I was down south, they make the crows down south look like hummingbirds by size comparision.

Its beginning to look allot like Christmas

This morning we woke up to a very thick frost covering everything in sight. In places the frost had crystallized a inch thick. It made for a very beautiful neighborhood.
The view at 10:30 this morning. Sunlight is quickly disappearing, soon it will be night... for a month or so.
This is our Neighbor bringing in his fish catch, we've been here less than a week and this is the second such haul I've seen unloaded. He races sled dogs and this is his dog food until about march when he runs out. Last year he used 1000lbs, he hopes to get 3000lbs this year and make it all the way to May or hopefully the thaw in June.

Tsiigehtchic Northwest Territories

When there's only one road connecting you to the rest of the world the collapse of a culvert could be disastrous, however in this case the collapse happened right in front of a pass through to a public park, meaning traffic was easily diverted around the road damage.
This is the ferry taking us to to our home which can be seem behind the ferry, you can actually see our store and home on the left side of the photo just to the left of the road at the top of the hill.
The road leading down to the Arctic Red River valley and the ferry landing. This doesn't look like a fun road in the middle of winter. This is the dempster Highway.
This is the long road to nowhere, the Dempster highway about 40 miles south of Inuvik and 40 miles from from Tsiigehtchic. The trip was long and fun with the snow and ice pellets we encountered on the way to our new home.

Hello Everyone,
Our vacation is over and we have settled into our new home. Our vacation took us on a journey of 14,000 km and never really seemed to feel like we could relax, there was always another leg to the journey to come. The new community seems like a wonderful place to live and work. The environment certainly is different from what we are used to, but more on that later.
for now, Happy Thanksgiving Everyone,
and we'll talk to you soon.
Take Care
CG