Reflections of Spring

I got these photo's Wednesday night as we had a storm coming in. They were taken at Midnight and thats a pretty cool moonrise.


With shades of Iwo Jima the town has started cleaning up after a long winter. Across the Bay on a small island there is some sort of memorial or cairn tat had a large piece of wood marking the center of the memorial. This log was blown over and in this photo some local men are setting it right again.

Cold feet anyone, The Ravens have left town and the seagulls have returned.
Just before the thaw, most of the dogs in town were taken to the land for the summer, This team was one of the last I saw leave. They will live on the land for the summer when they aren't needed and will be brought back to town after freeze up in the winter.
The nets ave started to appear in the bay as local people are anxious for the sea's bounty

Hello Everyone,
Spring as sprung and summer seems to ave reared its ugly little head in these parts. The town has finished cleanup, the boats are all readied and heading to the water this week to all outward appearances and it seems everyone is spending their time out in the camps. Soon the daycare will be shutting down for the summer and Christopher and Mom will get to spend some time together before the beginning of Christopher first school year. Time flies when your having fun.
We ave finally confirmed vacation (again), this time there will be no changes, I've made it clear that this is final and plans are made. So, We'll be coming south in the second week of September
Hopefully everyone in the south is keeping cool, and life remains enjoyable.
Take Care
CG

Sunday Musings

Hello everyone,
We are now into June for those of you whom have lost their calenders or minds. Yesterday I had my first BBQ of the year and the temp is a warm +2 degree's, so its off with the jackets and onto the deck. It seems from the phone calls on my birthday that everyone in the south is suffering through extreme temps but the winner is my brother camping in BC who reported a +37, better him than us. The activity in town has become more focused on going to the land than we've previously seen in Quebec, I guess everyone is counting off the last days of their Ski-doo travels before the ice melts away. Once the ice melts away the travelling is considerably slower by ATV than just scooting across the ice. However as I understand it this is a big fishing community so I'm sure they are looking forward to the break-up in some ways. Since we live on the edge of the bay and ice field it holds we have collected 6 ski-doo's that the owners don't want to drag across all the roads back to their homes every day. Its amazing how small things change this time of year, the last couple of days I've been at the airport doing freight at the end of the day and it surprising, there's a dozen guys working feverishly to go home from unloading the plane until you hear geese honk, then everything stops and eye's go to the skies, the guys in the plane stick their heads out, the people in the airport come out onto the deck, everyone want to know whats direction they are heading for the night. I'm sure that in more than a couple of cases what they see also affects if they will be able to make it into work the next day.
We've swapped managers in this location, the previous going off to Salluit and the new one coming in from Fort Chipewayan in Alberta. There has also been overtones that our time in this community may also be limited. But only time will tell with this company, don't bet on anything until your on the plane, but my district manager seemed anxious to get us on a vacation, sooo... who knows.
Since early January we've been speaking with a new friend from Nova Scotia who was thinking of joining the Northern, and as far as I know he and his family (Rob, Tina, Colby and Joey) have arrived in Fort Rae NWT on Friday. So, if they're experience is anything like ours right now they are looking out their front window and realizing they are not in Kansas anymore. Good luck and have fun. We look forward to hearing about your experiences.
Thats it for today,
Take Care
CG

Another Sunday, more bad weather.

Hello everyone,
Its been awhile since we discussed the conditions here and since I keep hearing about the southern weather I thought we'd let our friends know what they are missing.
The sun is rising about 4:00 am (I'll never understand why the north subscribes to daylight savings time) and is turning dusk around midnight. Today the wind is coming from the south at about 50-60 kph leaving the windchill around -17, but the actual temp is only a couple of degree's below zero. We're about a month from the bay thawing and that means with the nice temps that everyone is spending their free time out on the land hunting geese and camping. Snow geese and Canadian geese are the foods of the season. We've even seen a few flies around, although they are moving slowly. It always seems strange to me to watch flies crawling across the snow.
There have been a few recent challenges in this area at work as well. A couple of managers from Inujuak failed to return from vacation so the store is encountering staffing troubles (especially at this time of year), meaning they have had to pull their butcher to work the grocery dept, meaning no more fresh meat for us. The store manager in Sanikillajuaq died suddenly a few days ago, mean just adding to the difficulties in this area. Also the store manager and grocery manager in Salluit have given their notice as they are planning on returning south in June. Our manager here in POV has reluctantly accepted the position to move up there and take over this store. As well as another couple of personal issue's for other managers that means we are running at about %50 staffing throughout the whole district. We have no idea what this will mean for us but I would assume that there will be another round of changes and moves across the district very shortly. Such is life and work in the North.
Hopefully the wind will die down a bit today and I'll be able to take some photo's to add to this post.
Take Care
CG

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

What was the name of that last POST???

Hello everyone,
Yesterdays post was premature and the reports of springs arrive may have been greatly exaggerated. To assist our southern readers I made sure to include a weather widget on my Blog, why, I have no idea. I check it every morning as weather up here is very important to daily life. However, I trust it as far as I could comfortably spit a dead cat. Yesterday weather Canada reported that our temp was -4 at it's highest and it was raining. Yesterday was a beautiful day that must have been zero with nice clear skies. Today was supposed to be 4- and lovely as well, and apparently all this nice weather (according to enviro Canada) has ticked mother nature off, and make no mistake she can be a vicious mother. This afternoon around three, a system blew into town with the intention of blowing the town a couple of miles further North. environment Canada still insists as of this minute that it is -4, -14 with windchill and the wind is blowing at 38 kph. I would invite that person to come on up here and enjoy this balmy weather with a gentle breeze.
This house is the furthest I have lived from a store, a total of 372 steps. Now once before in Baker lake I experienced an interesting phenomenon, when your drink something really cold you get a pain in the middle of your head starting in your sinus's and radiating outward. In Baker I experienced the same sort of thing by walking to the store, it literally felt like my brain was rapidly freezing, and I experienced the same thing today. So in today's glorious spring day I experienced this very painful and annoying stimulus. Thanks to environment Canada for advising me of the wonderful day it was going to be so I could leave my toque at home.
I will continue to have my Widget at the side of this blog, but don't take it serious, its for my own amusement.
Take Care
CG