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.

What on the News today?

The inside of the Twin Otter taken from the second last seat. Awe inspiring isn't it, the aesthetics is only surpassed by the personal attention you get. Mainly due to the fact that your ticket taker, seat assigner, steward, and baggage handler are all the pilot.
These are the photo's from our move that we have been delaying due to technical difficulties. This photo show;s the ice breakup that was already present at the beginning of April on the Hudson Strait. Not a good sign for the north.
More of the ice break-up. Here you can see previous break lines as well as new one's showing the break up has been happening on and off for awhile.
Riding in the relative luxury of the Dash-8
The view from my seat in the Twin Otter, You can see our luggage and animals in front of the cockpit (possibly a security measure? You can't hijack the cockpit till you get over the animals.)
Looking back from my seat at the Christopher and Melissa at the back of the plane.
The View

Hello everyone,
Last night before going to bed I switched on the news. It was from a local in the states, I presume Boston, due to the mentioning of Beacon Hill. For the top 12 minutes of the 22 minutes standard schedule, Nothing other than local murders was discussed, Man shoots cop, then is shot by passerby, woman with knife shot in the street, two dead in suspected crack house, 18 year old shot in drive-by like shooting.
Yesterday in Puvirnituq, there was also a rash of shootings, and many were killed. Of course the major difference is the only thing shot here were geese, and the worst consequence of this may have been that someone had too much to eat and went to bed with a stomach ache. Surely, nothing to lead off the evening news, but you sleep better.
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

Now I see Says the Blind man.

Hello everyone,
Well today I was having a discussion with my hunting buddy and I had to ask a few questions to explain some things I was having trouble mentally recitifing. While we were hunting , when we saw the Caribou he was very relunctant to shoot at them and only took a shot after I asked him to. The shot wasn't a easy one but it was only about 250 yards, with no real wind and seemed very straighforward, At least I would have taken the shot. This confused me why a experienced substance hunter would be so relunctant to take a fairly clean shot. This was the topic of our conversation today. After much fumbling with translation we came to a couple of conclusions, Kabloona's shoot from too far away, Americans doubly so. Inuit shoot close, and only when they can get a good kill. The Inuit will shoot from far but only if they will definitly lose their prey by getting close. The shot isn't as importantant as the animal, a good shot means nothing on a bad animal. Also the Tundra is very windy with many valleys and ravines creating wind tunnel effects that are difficult to account for in your shot, Therefore you miss more from far away. Also ammo is very expensive Most rifle's capable of making a accurate shot from and good distance means at least a buck a bullet, some of the rifles used for whale's cost $10 a bullet, therefor return on investiment means you have to get a kill fairly often also gas is cheaper thn ammo, so drive closer.
This is why they want to hunt with a Kabloona, first Kabloona will take the risky shot and usually have very good equiptment and might get a lucky kill, Kabloona can afford to waste ammo. Second, Kabloona usually don't want furs. Third, Kabloona don't usually take alot of meat. This means While their way of hunting is more conservative, it also pays to hunt with Kabloona, it becomes win-win.
Take Care.
CG
PS There may be a lack of photo's for a couple of weeks, I'm keeping my camera at the store for the rest of the month. Last year they had to close the store a couple of times cause there were Polar Bears in the parking lot and this is what I'm hoping to get some photo's of.

On the Land

Hello Everyone,
After a year of triing I finally made it to the land. Over the past year lots have people have told me they would get me out, apparently all I had to do was quit asking southerners and ask a local. It was -10 this morning with clear skies and Gabby said he'd call to see if I was ready around 10:00, Around 7:30 the phone rings "Can we go now?" I hear as I awake from a deep sleep on my first day off since god knows when. 15 minutes later I'm waiting outside (I'm wearing my winter gear for the first time this year and its too hot to wait inside). We're supposed to be going out for Caribou. When he arrives I found out there's a wolf near town and he wants to get it, too late as we leave town we see the wolf on the way in strapped to a Honda. At this point I'm thinking I should have pulled my Belaclava down before we were doing 50 with me bouncing around on the cargo rack. My cheeks ache from the cold within 10 minutes, luckly I lost feeling in them about ten minutes later and from then on I was never cold again. The back of a ATV's cargo rack may be fine to sit on while touring around town, however on the land it makes for a butt breaking ride. BRING A CUSHION is on my list for next time. We spent a hour and a half crossing the frozen tundra over land I never would have thought a ATV could travel (much to my butts dismay). Thoughtout this time I never saw a single moving thing with the exception of various other ATV's looking for Caribou. We eventually arrived at a Elders tent as he had recently returned home with a fresh Caribou. Yes please take a moment to imagine this, Living in the Tundra year round, no electricty,, no plumbing, very little wood for fire, in a TENT at 70 years of age. He was sitting on his Honda drinking a hot coffee from his Coleman telling my friend what he'd seen lately. Shortly we continued on following caribou tracks. Soon we turned around and hunted our way back over endless hills and following endless random tracks. Eventually Gabby stopped the ATV on top of a cliff and said we should wait here for the caribou. Suddenly he turned around and pointed and said alot of caribou were about to come through a ravine about a quater mile away, and seconds later they came about 40 of them. Unfortunetly they were too far away for my rifle and there were 2 cliffs and a frozen river between us. He announced "Now we run" and he ran towards the cliffs, I fumbled to put my rifle on my back and get my gloves back on as he ran towards the cliff. we both scaled down the cliffs and ran across the river and he started to scale the other side and pointed for me to run down to the lakebed then climb the cliff and there we would wait. Unfortunately the Caribou were moving too fast and were too far away when we reached the summit. So he ran back to the ATV and I made like I was moving fast while I tried to catch my breath before he pointed at something else. we made it back to the ATV but we couldn't find the trail as they crossed onto the rocks. From there we tracked a wolf for a couple of miles with no success until we just sat and watched the world go by on a cliff above a frozen lake (Pictured). From there I admitted my butt was on its last legs and I should go back and cook dinner. The first Photo in the series shows 2 caribou, I was there and it took me a couple of minutes to see them.
Nunavut means our land, and these people love their land, its not hard to imagine how someone could be so in love with a frozen tundra. I can't wait to get back out (however,
my butt can wait at least a week or two). I remember asking a Inuk emloyee in Baker If they liked tree's, Her answer was "they get in the way of the view". I guess you can't see the forest for the tree's.

Take Care and have a good Thanksgiving,
CG