Cultural activities this weekend

The forecast is for warm weather so I plan to get out as much as possible this weekend. There are a couple of neat things happening at the library / visitor centre too: Throat singing, drum dancing and igloo building. Hopefully all this will result in an intersting blog post on Sunday!

Sunday Blizzard

 

Today there is a blizzard warning in effect. Looking out the kitchen window the sky doesn't look the least bit threatening but I am inclined to play safe believe environment Canada on these things. Last Sunday there was a blizzard warning and you could barely see 10 foot at times. Annoyingly, as with last weekend, the blizzard is set to clear overnight so it is unlikely that we will get a day off tomorrow.  The city closes during severe blizzards because it is just not safe to have everyone on the roads. Indeed if the Government of Nunavut declares a "blizzard day" your car insurance is invalid during that time so you can't go anywhere.

 

Yesterday we went out for an awesome skidoo ride to some friends' cabin up the river. It was much more tiring than I expected. It isn't safe to travel along the river, the ice isn't strong enough and there are lots of rocks, so we had to follow the path of the river along it's uneven rocky banks. My back, shoulders, arms and legs are all aching today. The ride to the cabin was tricky because there was this really flat light so you couldn't see the contours of the land very well. Literally on the doorstep of the cabin I flipped my skidoo because I hadn't been able to make out a snow drift.

Blaine and I had been invited to stay the night but we declined as we already had arranged to go out with a friend, the dogs couldn't come to the cabin, and we were both recovering from a cold so didn't want to make the others sick. As we were getting ready to leave around 2pm a group of rangers came by, they were heading to their camp down the river so we got an escort part way home. The light was totally different and the trail was easy to see, but I kept getting distracted by the beautiful setting sun. I thought about taking photos but was unwilling to get my hand cold so I have no image to share, but believe me it was wonderful.

Iqaluit Christmas Lights

1st Place

Each year the city holds a Christmas light competition. 

2nd Place

Tinah, Lisa and I drove around on judging night checking out the houses. 

4th Place

The entries were not listing anywhere so we tried to hit every street and I took some photos of our favourites.

6th Place

The results were posted on facebook this week, we learn a lot from facebook up here :-)

Getting ready for winter

Two weeks without an update, you could be forgiven for thinking we had lost our satellite again. The truth is I have been busy. Last weekend we were getting ready for winter which involved me standing in the sunshine drinking coffee (bundled in my Canada Goose jacket and wearing gloves) watching Blaine work:

He has converted the crate that our sealift came in into an insulated house for the puppies. Naturally they prefer to sit outside in the cold looking pathetic instead of enjoying the warmth of their palatial box.
We had lifted the back of my skidoo up to stop the track getting iced in, unfortunately we had not taken the same precautions with the skis. Many jugs of hot water and some effort later the sled was released from the ice and lengths of wood placed under the skis to prevent repetition.
Fred and Stephane arrived with Blaine's new sled so we reshuffled the toy parking. There is not enough snow to go out on the land yet and the sea is still liquid so the sleds are parked by the house with the quads in front.

Overnight on October 1 the snow fell heavily and covered Iqaluit with a white blanket which has remained. Since then we have had several cool days and more snow, warm days have only succeeded in melting the snow enough to turn the whole city into a skating rink. The forecast is for more snow this weekend and as I type the wind is blowing swirls of fresh snow into the porch where the dogs are barking and messing around instead of sheltering in their house. I am beginning to hear talk of the sea ice forming in November. We can't wait for it to be thick enough to get out on our sleds!

Sealift Storage

The MV Camilla Desgagnes arrived in Koojese inlet on Tuesday night. On board the 133 metre cargo ship is  the fourth of eight shipments that form the 2011 "sealift" for Iqaluit and other communities in the Canadian Eastern Arctic. None of Nunavut's 25 communities is accessible by road at any time of the year, Ice Road truckers is in the West. The 33,000 people who live in the Territory rely on air transportation to deliver supplies throughout the year. During the summer, when the ice retreats and the ocean becomes navigable a series of cargo ships make the journey north to deliver all manner of goods: Building supplies for the construction industry (including heavy equipment); vehicles both for individuals and commercial bulk orders; dry goods to resupply the grocery stores and for those individuals who have the resources to place an individual order.

Much like ordering alcohol (other than from the poorly stocked and overpriced Rankin Warehouse) the sealift is out of reach to most of the population as it requires credit cards, internet or fax connections, and considerable investment. If you are interested in learning more there is an excellent article about food mail / nutrition north in Up Here magazine. Back in July when we were in Montreal we spent almost $3,000 in one day on dog food and groceries which we delivered to the NSSI cargo packaging company in Ste Catherine. A few weeks ago we got the bill for crating and shipping which was $750. Spending $3,000+ in trip to the grocery store is not something you are used to before moving up here Revenue Canada tax returns fund the majority of private sealifts. If you can't tack a shopping trip onto a holiday there are a number of companies in Ottawa who will do the shopping for you (for a fee).

So when your year's supply of toilet paper, canned tomatoes, pasta, flour and dog food arrives, what do you do with it? We are lucky enough to have both a "Cold Storage" and a "Sealift Room". The Cold Storage is a secure lean-to on the side of our house, it looks like part of the house but it is not insulated, hence it is cold, sometimes very cold indeed. We store empty suitcases, camping gear, tools, the generator, snowboards and bikes in here, shortly it will also house sixteen bags of dog food.

Our cold storage room

A door leads from the cold storage to the Sealift Room which is a kind of a corridor between the cold storage and the downstairs hall. This room is within the house proper and has insulation and heat, although it is always the coolest room in the house, once there was frost on the inside of the door to the cold storage. This room doubles as the dog's bedroom, a cool dark room with no windows is essential for letting them know it is bed time during the never-dark summer nights. As you can see there are two deep shelves running the length of the room, the bottom shelf is currently devoted to dog food and out of date soda, the top shelf holds light bulbs, coffee, pasta, spices and the extra toilet paper that I couldn't fit in the laundry room. In a characteristically anal way I have labeled the rubbermaids for easy reference.



Our sealift room



We believe that our crate is here in Iqaluit, but because two ships arrived at the same time everything is backed up. tomorrow Blaine is going to cruise around the compound by the coastguard looking for our crate so that we can get it delivered to the house for unloading. stand by for an account of the delivery and unpacking experience!

Iqaluit's Igloo Church

Now that summer is here the construction industry has just exploded. The short construction season is dictated by the weather and I guess you can't convince someone to fly up from Montreal to work in -40. One of the most iconic projects is the reconstruction of the Anglican Church which was (according to this CBC article) badly damaged by fire in 2005.

They have been working on it for almost two months now. Last week one of the ladies that works in the office on the other side of my building, who enjoys a view over the city, called us over to watch the spire being lowered into place by a big crane. The church is located right downtown so it is a predominant feature of our eclectic skyline. I am told that the old church contained beautiful tapestries depicting Inuit in bible scenes, I don't know what the plans are for the refurbished interior but am looking forward to seeing it when the church is completed.

Water, wheels and warm hands



Caesar Milan never thought of sealskin mittens as a dog training device - I have their undivided attention!

It certainly isn't my intention to only update this blog on Sundays and I apologise for the gap, but it has been quite a week.

We finally moved back home on Friday after 8 nights at the Capital Suites. Staying in a hotel may sound like fun but we have spent more time in hotel beds over the last two months than we have in our own bed so we just want to be home. Our stress levels have been through the roof with not knowing when we would be home and the knowledge that all hotels are booked out from Monday 4 so it was with great relief that we learned the water was back on.

On Monday night we bought a 350cc Yamaha Quad, getting it on the road was, as with all things in Nunavut, far more complicated than really necessary. But let me back up a bit, yes I did say ON the road. ATVs are allowed on the roads provided they have lights and are insured. To me this equals the perfect vehicle, I can ride on the roads around town to get to the shops, work, Tim Hortons etc, but when it suits me I can nip off the road and take a short cut, head to the beach or whatever takes my fancy. Snowmachines on the other hand are not allowed on the roads, rather they are ridden pretty much everywhere else. In my estimation snowmachines outnumber cars here in Iqaluit and the town is criscrossed with snowmachine tracks alongside the road, across the road, behind buildings, in between houses, along the beach etc. The space behind our house is a veritable race track on the weekends.

I digress... Tinah needed to replace her drivers license so we went together to Inuksugait Plaza and proceeded to the blue building where the printed sign taped to the door directed us to the office next to the Quick Stop in the green building (those really were the directions). Inside the driver licensing office we were attended to by a very helpful lady who reviewed my documentation and informed me that since I would be surrendering it, my BC drivers license could not be utilised as one of the two required pieces of government ID, however my Permanent Resident card and Social Insurance number would suffice. Unfortunately these are in the wrong name so I had to come back the next day with my divorce certificate. Everything closes at lunch so all events in this tale take place during working hours, fortunately I had to work late on Tuesday so had accrued banked time to burn. I returned on Thursday with a print out of a scan of the divorce certificate which was accepted without hesitation. A few forms and $68 later I left the office clutching my temporary license which is essentially a till receipt.

Over to apartment 210 in the pink "red" building where I spent an hour getting insurance, this cannot be issued without Nunavut ID (said till receipt) and is processed online using painfully slow internet and an even slower computer. Unlike BC, Nunavut requires all drivers to be named on the policy so I had to provide driving history and the supporting documentation from ICBC for both Blaine and I. Ironically ATV insurance is not eligible for discounts, but they still demand the information. As this is my main vehicle and I will be driving it on the roads at peak times I opted for full insurance which cost $330 for the year. The Nunavut Insurance office also dealt with the transfer of ownership, I was given a temporary red slip and am to expect the real one in "a month or two". Presumably this documentation proved that I owned and had insured the vehicle as I was then directed back to the green building where I paid $28 for my very own polar bear plate. We think the "can't run an ATV in -10" yarn was just a scare tactic to make us buy a snowmachine from the dealership because it runs just fine, simply plug in the block heater an hour before you need to head out and you are good to go.

By the time this was all done with I had, for the second day in a row, missed the liquor permit office which closes at 4pm. Friday morning I used my coffee break to get the permit for my wine order and was pleased to note that they have extended their opening hours and now operate 9am to noon and 1pm to 4:30pm whereas they used to only open 1:30 to 4pm in the afternoon. Blaine and I have decided that quantity should rule over quality in terms of booze importation so I ordered a selection of bag-in-box wines.

While riding around I found that even with fleece liner gloves worn under down-filled mittens, my right thumb was getting cold. As this digit controls the throttle it is not an option to put your hand in your pocket. A couple of weeks ago a lady came into the office selling a pair of caribou gauntlets that would have been perfect for riding, but I didn't know that I needed them then. I was planning to head to Northmart to check out their selection of mittens and was lamenting to Gerry that I should have bought the caribou ones when a lady appeared with two pairs of ring seal mittens with red fox cuffs. The smaller pair had beautiful patterns and fit me perfectly, the only drawback was that they are not cured so they have a very strong aroma of seal which drives the dogs nuts. I decided that the puppies could learn to live with it, here was the opportunity to have fashion and function for only $80 so I snapped them up and counted down the minutes until I could wear them on the drive home. Blaine took the photo of the dogs greeting me when I got home, they went insane and I have their undivided attention whenever I put the mitts on, although I have to be wary of inquisitive teething!

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.

Our Iqaluit

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

Enjoy!

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