How to Build a Qamutiq

On Saturday we attended a qamutiq building workshop. Traditionaly qamutik were made from frozen fish or caribou leg bones wrapped in caribou skin to form planks which were then lashed together with strips of sealskin, this one was made of wood and rope.

In a modern day qamutiq the runners are made from lengths of 1 x 4 with the curved front points created by cutting a curved section from the the bottom of the wood, then attaching the removed portion to the top. Regional variations have developed, including rounded tips but essentially the height and angle of the qamuitq's prow are dictated by the hunter's personal preference and the geographical conditions it is to be used in. This style is a good multi purpose qamutiq suitable for the lower Baffin region.

The slats are shaped carefully to accommodate the rope that holds that qamutiq together. Sharp edges are created when cutting the slats to the template, these must be pared to a smooth curve so that the rope does not get cut over time. In this style of qamutiq the front and back slats have one straight and one curved edge, the straight edges facing the front and back respectively. All the interior slats are curved on both sides to an extended oval shape.

The front and back slats are attached first. These two slats are fastened independently wheras the remainder are secured by a single length of rope. Again the wood around the drilled hoes is pared away to eliminate chaffing that would eventually cut through the rope. there is a specific technique for running and fastening the rope at each slat, I did not attain a good enough understanding to be able to explain this technique, but I did video it so that we can watch and learn. In this picture Dino is supervising Jan as he practices the technique, an important lesson as he just took delivery of a qamutiq from Dino and plans to take it out hunting soon. you want to be able to make your own repairs when you are out on the ice, there is no BCAA.

To complete the qamutiq, teflon is attached to the base of the runners and metal stips over the prows to protect them from the ice.

it could be worse

Due to an unfortunate series of events (none of them our fault, all of them out of our control and which I am not at liberty to discuss here) we awoke on Wednesday morning to find ourselves without running water. Happily I had washed my hair on Tuesday night and Blaine could shower at work so we went about our day, this included Blaine notifying our landlord (the City) of the issue. Although they hoped to have things fixed by Wednesday night that was not the case. We agreed to stay the night in our house and to move into a hotel if it was not resolved the next day. Blaine had to attend to some phone calls and budgets for his other job so came to bed just after midnight... only to be woken by a pager call less than 2 hours later. I stopped by the firehall on my way to work at 8am, he was still up at the fire scene. My blog is not about firefighting, suffice it to say that an apartment building burned to the ground and some 29 families were displaced. I felt a little churlish booking into a hotel because we had no running water when these people had no home at all.

Hotel rooms and residential housing are in short supply here and sure enough when I phoned the Capital Suites they didn't have any rooms available on Thursday night. Not because of the fire mind, the residents of 4100 Road to Nowhere were housed in the Frobisher Inn which is the closest hotel to them. Late in the afternoon I got a call from the hotel letting me know that there had been a cancellation so there was now room at the inn. The wind was blowing a gale, Blaine was still on the fireground and taxis don't take dogs. My knights in shining armour were Linda and her husband Craig who drove me home then came back 45 minutes later to pack me, the dogs and our bags in the car then drive us to the hotel where they wouldn't let me lift a thing (except Johnny Cash) and even took my bags to the room - thank you once again guys :-)

After settling in I walked the dogs on the beach by the coastguard station and then went back to our suite to cook dinner. By 8:45pm Blaine was still not home so I put the puppies' boots on and we walked up to the firehall to drop off a room key as the hotel front door is locked at 10pm. At the hall dispatch informed me that Blaine had just left, sure enough when they radioed him he was just arriving at the hotel. We walked back and Sage was very very happy to see daddy after his gruelling 19-hour day. On his part Blaine was very happy to remove his turnout gear, eat some healthy food and soak in a hot bath. The city hopes to have our water issue resolved 'soon'. The Capital Suites has room for us until March 31, then is fully booked for a week. Every room in the city is full the following week for the April 3-6 mining symposium so please all keep your fingers crossed that they fix it asap. We don't know when we will be home or if we will have internet access at the hotel so we may or may not see you online.

As the title says, it could be worse... we do still have our house and contents... we are just a little tired and frazzled.

Car Shopping

We are trying to buy a vehicle, which up here means pretty much anything from sedan to a pickup and an ATV to a snowmachine (we don't use the brand name Ski-Doo as a universal noun, think vacuum not Hoover). The Suzuki will be joining us in July or August so we don't really want to buy a car just to use for a couple of months, rather we would prefer to build a stable comprising a vehicle for each occasion and season:

• ATV for use on days above -10, maybe May to September (buddy in the Yamaha dealership informs us it is very unwise to run your quad in colder tempreatures, ATV suicide in fact)
• Snowmachine for hunting, Sunday trips to Apex or Sylvia Grinnel and general running around town from Mid-October to Mid-May.
• Suzuki for commuting, and times when we want a roof.

First you must find a vehicle for sale. This is acheived through posters on noticeboards, the Facebook Iqaluit Sell / Swap page, and word of mouth. No-one has the foresight to date their posters so you have no idea how long they have been promoting their wares... maybe that is deliberate. The facebook page is not categorized in anyway so there is a lot of scrolling to be done, but reading the comments where people occasionally bitch about the price or quality of the items for sale is entertaning compensation for the effort. Having located a vehicle that you are interested in you then must attempt to make contact with the vendor who may or may not respond to telephone calls or emails. You may then find that having made contact, viewed the vehicle and made an offer, that the vendor decides not to sell. It is a different world up here and you will drive yourself insane trying to figure these things out, so just roll with it.

I forgot to mention perhaps the most important and most difficult part. You must reconcile in your mind that paying showroom prices for used vehicles is normal, and that showroom prices do not include tax or shipping. When I say showroom, that applies only to ATVs and Snowmachines, there is no car dealership up here. July to October is sealift season when the market is flooded with fresh mechanical meat, the rest of the year you get to make your very limited choice from those vehicles already here, or you pay big bucks to fly something up. Unless of course you know someone on the inside and can access the $1 per kilo cargo rates. Currently on the market is a 2007 Dodge Nitro for $20k, a 2010 Polaris Switchback for $10,800 and a 2008 Yamaha Kodiak for $6,500

As soon as we have made a purchase I shall be all over posting it here, in the mean time I need to get some sleep so I am ready for my pedestrian commute in the morning.

Our Iqaluit

Click on the link below the map to open and explore... I shall add more "features" over time.

Enjoy!

View Our Iqaluit in a larger map

i lied - sorry

It is 9:40pm and I just sat down so my promise of a decent update cannot be fulfilled.

We walked the dogs to Arctic Ventures to return a plumbing thingy and buy some cornmeal, then we all walked down to the beach front. The tide had fallen from the extra-high high-tide and restored our world to normality, there was an 11m tidal range over the weekend so the ice shifted noticeably. We did an inadequate job of photographing the effects but it really was amazing - instead of looking up at the breakwater, we were almost on a level with it. Several skating rinks had been created by the tide and we were entertained by the dogs slipping and sliding along, bemused and not bright enough to come back on the snow. Johnny displayed the same amount of talent as his mother in the patinage area.

Back at home I got in the kitchen to prepare delicious Orange Rosemary Shortbread to snack on and our supper of Pork in Milk and Lemon with wet Polenta, while that finished off I baked bread to go with tomorrow's minestrone soup lunch. Dinner was delicious and filling - thank you River Cafe cookboook! finally I had a shower and washed my hair... you cannot be rushing out the door in the morning with wet hair. So now I am enjoying that glass of wine, watching Celebrity Apprentice and finally relaxing.

online!

woo hoo! last week the internet was hooked up...
a few days later we found the wireless router...
we uncovered my laptop yesterday...
I just found the power cord...
Normaility is restored and we can now facebook simultaneously.

We are just about to walk the dogs (in 15 laps time) then I have to bake my Orange Rosemary Shortbread and cook dinner. After I complete these chores I will pour a glass of wine a write a 'proper' blog post.

Thank you for your patience :-)

not exactly the Farmers' Market...

On Saturday lunchtime we went to the Iqaluit Country Food Market which I had seen advertised on noticeboards around town. (Iqaluit doesn't do classifieds, Kijiji, Ebay, or Craigslist, we have noticeboards in the Post Office and grocery stores.) I took along my Pike Place Market canvas shopping bag in anticipation of buying lots of goodies, but we hadn't really developed any preconceptions. 

surprise #1 - the market really was in the square i.e. outside

surprise #2 - some of the meat was in ziplock bags, most of it was just there, unwrapped and (naturally) frozen

surprise #3 - the meat could be identified by the head sat next to it on the table, of course you could buy a Caribou head if you didn't want steak...

Although a medium sized seal would have cost us only $80, we decided to head to the North Mart for our groceries instead. I bought ingredients to make thai pork curry, Sunday brunch and roast beef dinner.

A fellow blogger has posted way better photos than I took, and provides an intelligent commentary. Clearly he has been here longer than us and was less shell shocked therefore I encourage you to visit his blog to see more of the market.

Johnny establishes a routine

The kids and I are settling in to our new home and finding a routine. I am amazed that Johnny wakes up at 6:20 am, the same time he did in Vancouver - how does he know the time? I get up and feed them and then they go outside for a quick pee. On work days I then put their boots on and we go for a walk on the beach, on the weekend that can wait until after my breakfast. The sunrise this morning turned the bay a beautiful shade of pink as they frolicked in the snow undettered by the -30 temperature.

Back in the house it is mummy time! I have my coffee, some breakfast and get ready for work while listening to the radio (no TV yet). The kids go out again for 2 minutes then get penned in the hall way (no carpet) and I head off to work. The walk takes me about 20 minutes which is lovely in the sun, if I don't feel like walking a taxi is $6 and takes about 10 minutes from when I call to when I arrive at work. My colleagues informed me that the best taxi company is 979 4444 and it seems to work just fine for me.

Because Blaine is away this week I am cabbing home at lunch to let them out. I finish work at 5pm and either walk or cab home, feed the dogs and take them for a 30 minute walk. 9:30pm is last pee then they go to bed. Repeat...

The unpacking continues:

I found the cutlery late Saturday evening, in a box labelled spices;

After opening multiple boxes in the guest bedroom, office and main bedroom I was able to make the bed with a complete, matching sheet set by 9pm on Monday;

On Sunday morning I found a clock radio for the bedroom;

Monday night I found a second clock radio so can listen to the radio upstairs too;

The many Ikea lamps and lightbulbs are bringing a welcome soft-light alternative to the flourescent lighting and accompanying hum that graces every building in Iqaluit.

You probably won't hear from me until March 12 but don't worry...

Our stuff arrived yesterday, the fourth and final van full was unloaded at 6pm. Today we went in after work to set up the bed and put up blinds which was not as easy as it sounds. The shipment got repacked for the flight and things were grouped together in very random fashion and were not labelled. The rails for the bed were eventually discovered in a big box containing our bikes that was in the cold storage, both bedrooms had been labelled as the master bedroom so that was all mixed up and the blinds were in a box of kitchen items!

Tomorrow we move out of our lovely apartment in the Capital Suites, Blaine will move the puppies and our bags up to the house, then fly to Rankin Inlet for a week. I will walk to the house after I finish work and spend the weekend unpacking and arranging the kitchen, bedroom and living room. Nancy's bedroom, the office, cold storage and laundry can wait until Blaine gets home.

Once I find the telephone I will plug that in, I have to schedule a site visit for the internet install, and wait for the new computer to arrive via DHL (who have royally effed up). I can check my email and facebook at lunchtime at work, except next week because I will be spending my lunch hour walking to the house to let the dogs out and then walking back to work.

I am aiming to be online again next weekend and promise to celebrate my return with an awesomely fascinating blog post!

It really isn't that cold

We arrived on a bright sunny Saturday and were surprised at how quickly we all adapted to the cold.

The dogs can now go outside for 3 minutes without booties, somehow their feet don’t bother them when they are wrestling, just when they are supposed to be going to the bathroom. Bizarrely Johnny prefers to wade into belly deep snowdrifts to pee.  Yesterday was only -14 so I went to the post office and liquor licensing without hat or gloves and with my jacket unzipped!

On Tuesday it snowed all day and I couldn’t make out where the sun was in the sky, everything was white and it was hard to see the ground properly, I couldn’t make out if it was flat or not because of the white out. Every other day has brought an abundance of beautiful, bright sunshine from 8am to 4:30pm. It is light from at least 5:30am (as I observed when I woke up this morning) and gets fully dark by 6pm.

How to buy beer, wine and spirits in Iqaluit

The very helpful chap at the Nunavut Liquor Commission kindly explained the process to me. 

You can order your favourite tipple from Rankin Inlet, Montreal or Ottawa. Rankin Inlet has a limited selection and cargo rates are high. The store in Montreal has a crappy selection too but is a good option if you are combining it with a food mail shipment. The best option is the LCBO store at 1980 Bank Street in Ottawa because of the selection and favourable cargo rates from Ottawa.

Step 1

Visit the LCBO web site to decide what you want to buy and check stock in the store.

Step 2 

Go to the Nunavut Liquor Commission to buy your permit. You have to specify the quantity and volume of beer, wine, spirits and cider that you wish to import so that the relevant charges can be calculated: 

Spirits are $3.75 per litre plus a $0.29 per bottle deposit

Wine is $2.00 per litre plus a $0.29 per bottle deposit

Beer is $0.56 per litre with a $0.14 per can/bottle deposit

Cider is $0.59 and $0.14

GST is charged at 5% on the per litre fee, but not on the bottle deposit.

Step 3

Send a fax to the LCBO store specifying your order and if they should ship it by Canadian North or First Air. Be sure to include your credit card details so they can charge you and your contact number for when your cargo arrives.

Step 4

Wait for the call

For a permit fee of $41.36 I ordered:

1 x 3l bottle Jack Daniels            $131.95

1 x 4l bag in box French Cross Shiraz            $41.95

1 x 4l bag in box French Cross Cabernet Merlot            $39.95

1 x 4l bag in box French Cross Pinot Grigio            $39.95

8 x 44ml cans Guinness Draught            $20.95 (for St Patricks!)

I also found this GN information today from which I am delighted to learn that Nancy can indeed bring us a bottle of Jack when she visits in June!

http://www.orientation.hr.gov.nu.ca/i18n/english/pdf/Buying%20Alcohol_eng.pdf