OK Tire

When I first moved here I went to OK Tire to get the wheels balanced on the Suzuki. The owner, Chuck, is so unbelievably kind and helpful. He said that I could come to him for local advice as well as car related issues, and true to his word he has always welcomed me and cheerfully provided help. One morning he switched over the tow hitch for me, he connected us with the lawyer who handled our house purchase. This week I noticed one of the tires on the Tahoe was a little low, I drove into three gas stations but the air was off in each one... So I headed down to impose upon Chuck's generosity. True to form he cheerfully came out and filled the faulty tire, then checked all the others. Not only is he a lovely man, but he has skied the wall at Kirkwood so he is proper hardcore too. Thank you Chuck!

Posted with Blogsy

Christmas Shopping

If you are in Iqaluit this weekend I implore you to go along to house 122 to buy some beautiful gifts - for yourself or for others!

NU food prices protest

 Events were organised across Nunavut on Saturday June 9 to protest high food prices, including this group marching outside North Mart. There are sites popping up where people are posting pictures of exorbitantly priced goods.

I don't think that frozen corn dogs and cans of soda are really necessary items and am inclined to agree with some people that suggest "junk" food prices could subsidize "healthy" food. But who decides, and how, which food fits in which group?

$70 netted me this bag of groceries (to support the protest I shopped at Baffin Canners not North Mart)

• 4 chicken breasts $22
• 2 packs of Parma ham (agreed not exactly a necessity) $8.36
• A packet of bacon $6.94
• Small tub of sour cream $2.41
• Mozzarella cheese $8.48
• 500ml Whipping cream $5.23
• Butter $7.10
• 2l milk $5.63
• Cherry tomatoes $4.27

In the past couple of weeks I excitedly bought some fruits that seemed brilliantly cheap, but maybe I am getting too used to prices here. $3 for a ripe avocado, $7 for a delicious pineapple, $4 for a mango.

Sealskins for sale

The monthly country food market featured sealskins  which were extremely popular. the market was scheduled to start at noon but it was already busy by 11:30 when I arrived. I was told that the skins came from the Department of  Environment who sell them off annually.

Shoppers braved the icy winds to check out the goods

There were both tanned and untanned skins

The untanned skins were traditionally prepared: cleaned, stretched and dried.

Tanned skins were around $100 each, traditionally prepared ones were around $60 each

Christmas Craft Fair

On Saturday December 3 we went to the Innuksuk High School craft fair. I was so busy shopping that I didn't take any photos of the three rooms packed with tables overflowing with goodies. Items for sale included:

Photos of local wildlife and scenery

Carvings by local artists

Lots of sealskin mittens and kamiks

Christmas tree decorations

Cakes, cookies and bannock (but no hot dogs)

Handmade jewelry

Christmas cards

Paintings, block prints and sketches

I cannot divulge my purchases here as that would spoil the surprise for the recipients!

Aeroplan

My dislike of Air Canada is no secret. However, I am a fervent collector of Aeroplan points, signing up for offers at every opportunity. Why? Because 15,000 Aeroplan points gets you a 'short haul' return flight which is defined as to an adjacent province or territory. Nunavut is Ontario's northern neighbour so what is usually a $1,800 return flight can be had for as little as $37.56. 

Of course you pay in some way:

• You have to fly Air Canada at every opportunity to earn miles, 
• You have to plan way ahead and be very flexible with your dates (only 2 seats on each flight between Ottawa and Iqaluit are points seats)
• You have to endure the tedium of telephoning the aeroplan contact centre with the annoying voice recognition call handling computer,
• Finally after being told that it looks like you can book, you have to wait a nailbiting 48 hours to see if your flight is avialable

Happily I survived all these challenges and have a seat on a flight out of here en route to San Francisco for our annual snowboarding holiday at Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe. Yes I know it seems a little crazy to leave the arctic in the middle of winter to go snowboarding but we don't have hot tubs here, the snow is hard pack ice and it it ffffreezing whereas SLT will be mild, covered in pow and home to many steaming hot tubs. See you there!

Iqaluit Swap / Sell

Iqalummiut don't use Craigslist, instead we have a Facebook page where people list items for sale. Often there is a colourful debate in the comments as to the quality and value of the item which provides endless entertainment, to me anyhow. Here are some of the more unusual things that we can buy (click on the images for a bigger picture)

bowhead whale baleen

A fresh walrus head

Two fat caribou

Hmm, typing those captions gave me an idea... maybe we could rewrite the lyrics to "A Partridge in a Pear Tree"

North Mart Used Autos - Update

This weekend we actually went up to the vehicles on offer to check them out.

2008 Dodge Ram double cab Pick Up $29,094.92

2007 GMC Canyon crew cab $25,157.07

My favourite - they crossed out $20,988.95 and put it up to $22,677.90

awesome play on words

Is it just me or does the pricing seem a little odd? I am used to car prices being along the lines of $22,995 or $17,750 but I don't think I have ever seen it to the penny before.

How I shop (updated)

Today someone who is moving to Iqaluit asked me about how we shop. I didn't have time to respond to the email at work but while I was walking the dogs this evening I had a brainwave... why not blog my response?

I don't like Arctic Ventures, although the little 'exotic foods' section in the back right corner can be kind of interesting provided you inspect the best before dates closely. There is not a big turnover in this section and the "new products" sign is looking older than it did when I arrived 6 months ago. The baking stuff is pretty good and you can get superfine sugar here which they never have at North Mart. The upstairs in Ventures is awesome (on an Iqaluit scale) the bookshop is comprehensive and you can buy furs and all kinds of things. Oh and the music played outside is very entertaining, Bollywood & Opera at full blast all distorted over the speakers in a failed attempt to reduce loitering.

My shop of choice is North Mart, yes I know it can be a pain to make your way through the mess of taxis and tangle of abandoned shopping carts then run the gauntlet through the lobby just to get in and there are never any shopping baskets but at least it is mostly sort of clean inside. I probably spend between $500 and $700 a month on groceries such as bread, fresh fruit & veg, cheese, meat, frozen fish (fresh stuff looks very suspect) and milk.

The weekly Metro flyer from Montreal is very enticing but with the different cargo rates for the varying food groups I find it all too complicated. A friend has a nifty spreadsheet that approximates the cost on your kitchen table, he tells me if there are any unmissable deals. Once we ordered a load of T-bone steaks which were amazingly good and excellent value. Sadly they have all been eaten and I am waiting for them to be half price again.

Baffin Canners is good if you can find it. I don't like the brand of milk they sell but it is the place for (frozen) cake and meat.

If you have access to the $1 per kilo staff rate for cargo with the airlines then you can happily shop online from the Country Grocer or Metro Glebe in Ottawa. This is a great way to stock up on heavy things like pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes, canned fruit pie filling and frozen fruit and french fries. The HST rebate makes this even more attractive, but again only with that $1 per kilo rate.

We sealifted mainly for dog food so didn't really have a comprehensive plan for the human food component. Next year we will be shipping up much more. The 2.5 m3 500kg crate cost just over $700 to package and ship. Let's say that half of the shipping was dog food, that means it cost us $350 to get $1,000 of groceries here. By my crappy math that makes it 1/3 more expensive, which is much better than the 2 to 4 times more expensive that it costs here. i.e. a 1l carton of orange juice for $1.33 instead of $4, a tin of pumpkin pie filling for $5.33 instead of $9. Back though to the old issue of stumping up thousands for one grocery shop, and then having the room to put it all.

The airlines have very generous baggage allowances, two 70lb bags per person and a very liberal attitude to hand luggage. If you are strong (or have friends in Ottawa and Iqaluit to help you) and are willing to wait a day if your baggage gets bumped you can take them up on the offer that: "A maximum of three additional pieces can be accepted at check-in subject to $50.00/per piece" First Air and "Third & subsequent pieces accepted on a space available basis $50 per item" Canadian North. That is less than $1 per kilo so I say load er up!

[oops. I never claimed to be a math genius... you cannot determine the cost per kilo when the values in your equation are lbs... 70lb = 44kg in airport land so it is $1.14 per kilo]

The ratio of suitcases to giant rubbermaids / action packers on the Iqaluit airport luggage belt is 1:1. Buy the biggest container that is within your airline's required dimensions and a roll of duct tape, load it up, tape it up and pay your $150. Suggestions for your extra bags include frozen steak, frozen steak, frozen steak and toiletries. If they say the plane is full have them tag the steak as priority and leave the clothes to follow you later.

If you are visiting a friend or relative who lives in Iqaluit you will be issued a list prior to your departure from home. Pack your clothes in your hand luggage, your hosts will ensure your suitcases / rubbermaids are full to the gills.

our sealift arrives

We were not overly impressed by the "customer service" from NSSI Desgagnes. As I have not received a response to my request for clarification so I can only share with you my understanding of the process:

1. Wait for boat to arrive
2. Telephone NSSI office / beach shack 979 0002 which is never answered and does not have voicemail
3. Drive to NSSI office / beach shack which is never staffed
4. Telephone Desgagnes in Montreal who will advise you to repeat steps 2 & 3
5. Drive around sealift beach and compound (avoiding being run over by recklessly driven heavy equipment) looking for a) your crate and/or b) an NSSI employee
6. After approximately one week you will find someone who takes your PO Box number for billing and tells you that Hansons's will deliver your crate
7. On the same day you will receive a bill in the mail from NSSI Desgagnes to demonstrate that they had your PO Box address all along
8. Come home from work one day (August 31) to find crate outside house

Wasn't that fun and efficient?

You will then need a man and some tools to open the crate and carry the contents inside.

The main driver for our shipment was dog food. Johnny and Sage eat a brand that is not sold here so we either have to bring it up by boat or plane (Orijen never responded to Sage's letter). We popped a few things in the crate for ourselves too.

I spent Wednesday evening (after wings) arranging all the goodies down in the sealift room.

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!

Ulu ~ women's knife

On Tuesday Morning when I was walking the dogs on the beach a lady approached me asking if I would like to buy an ulu. It was very beautifully made but at the time I had no money and no real need for an ulu. Last night, as the air of excitement in town began to rise due to the success of the bowhead hunt I began to wonder if I had made the right decision. And so it was that at lunch time today I drove past their home to enquire if the ulu was still for sale, alas it was sold but he was making another already and invited me to come take a look. 

Josipee and Elina (sorry if I have misspelled your names) introduced themselves and invited me into their home to choose the piece of caribou antler that would form the handle of my ulu. The piece that I chose has a gentle curve that fits perfectly in my hand. I particularly asked Josipee to leave the small spur on the antler as I really like it, it's presence somehow makes it more real to me that it is indeed a piece of antler. We chatted outside for a while and I was shown the various tools used to make the ulu which is comprised of three parts, the blade, handle and shaft. 

I also learned that the hunters had delivered some maqtaaq to the pier this morning for everyone to help themselves. How could I refuse when they offered to share some with me! Josipee opened a wooden box to reveal a huge slab of whale fat with about 1.5cm of thick black skin and proceeded to start carving me a hunk of the skin. Finally Elina and I persuaded him to only cut me a small piece about the size of my little finger, he then cut it part way through half way along to make it easier to bite. I was surprised at how odourless it was and it had a faint fish like taste but a texture unlike anything I have ever encountered. Not slimy but sort of rubbery, although not in the way that squid can be... there is nothing for it you shall just have to try for yourself. They told me that you can keep it for ages and it just ferments, however they didn't think I should try fermented maqtaaq just yet.

After work I fed and walked the dogs then went back down to the beach and was delighted to watch the finishing touches. 

The blade is pinned to the wooden block between Joe's knees, this is to hold it still while he sharpens the cutting edge. He is filing the shaft so that it fits properly into the handle which Elina is holding. 

The handle was filed all over to make it smooth and to bring out the white colour. The blade is attached to the handle with two metal pins, a small guide hole is drilled into the handle then it is hammered into place on the shaft.

Joe hammers the metal pins flat to make sure the blade doesn't wobble as I slice and dice.

A final rub on the sharpening stone and my very own custom made ulu is ready!

Thank you guys - see you on the beach!

Footnote: According to Wikipedia  the ulu "is utilized in applications as diverse as skinning and cleaning animals, cutting a child's hair, cutting food and, if necessary, trimming blocks of snow and ice used to build an igloo." Johnny will be pleased to learn that "The ulu is still used today but not for cutting children's hair."

North Mart Used Autos

The area to the side of North Mart acts as an overflow car park when the spaces at the front are all taken.  A couple of weeks ago we noticed that the cars were parked in an odd way. Closer inspection revealed that it is actually a used car lot. Apparently North Mart actually ships up vehicles on the sealift to sell them.

Best Before (but perfectly acceptable and a fraction of the price after) Dates

At lunch time today I popped into NorthMart to grab some Caesar salad dressing (I like the Renee's roasted garlic yogurt one). Just opposite the entrance is my favourite section, the "specials". Most of the time they are not very special, just a convenient place to dump a pallet of goods and possibly tape a piece of paper with a price to it. Or more often, place (not tape) a piece of paper with a price on the product, but no other information, and then laugh when the paper blows off the various products and the customers stand around in small herds trying to match up the product and price. I am most happy when this area is used to sell out of date groceries to make room for newly arrived fresh items.

The astute shopper can pick up 12 cans of soda for $5, last week Blaine took advantage and filled the bottom shelf in the sealift room with cases of Tonic (for me and my Gin), Club Soda (for our whisky), Mountain Dew, Cream Soda, A&W Root Beer, Diet Ginger Ale (also for me) Pepsi and Dr Pepper. Imagine my excitement today when I saw Apple Cinnamon Cheerios for less than $5! Behind that was a pallet of Multi Grain Cheerios and then another of Luck Charms, all for less than $5 a pack. You will recall from Monday's post that "Long Weekend Special" price is $12.69. I grabbed a pack of each and headed home for lunch, tempted to forgo the salad and have a bowl of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios instead. The Lucky Charms are for Blaine, there is something about those funny pieces of dehydrated marshmallow. On my way home tonight I am going to stop and get some more, I think there might have been some coffee reduced right at the back of the section too...

Given my new found love of expired groceries I thought I would do a little research. According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency I am not putting myself at any risk.

You can buy and eat foods after the "best before" date has passed. However, when this date has passed, the food may lose some of its freshness and flavour, or its texture may have changed. Some of its nutritional value, such as vitamin C content, may also be lost.

There is a medical condition prevalent in those born in Nunavut or who have lived here too long, whereby they suffer an extreme reaction, sometimes full blown anaphylaxis when eating fresh food. It would appear that the intensity of the flavour and the freshness of the product is just too much. A good friend of mine not only prefers but exclusively eats expired food, I believe the term is expiritarian. This subculture is so widespread here that I have heard there is a store in town which actually buys in already expired foods, seriously I read it on the internet.

*I made that last paragraph up

A Comparison of Long Weekend Supermarket Specials

At the supermarket checkout on Thursday I picked up the weekly flyer to help distract me from the pain of $165 in one small shopping basket. This evening I decided it would be amusing to compare this to the flyer from our local Save On foods in Port Coquitlam, here are some of my findings.

525g box of Cheerios - BC $4.99, Iqaluit $12.69
930g tin of Ground Coffee - BC $12.99, Iqaluit $20.19
Fresh Mango - BC 99cents, Iqaluit 600g frozen Mango chunks $6.89
Toilet Paper (12 double rolls) - BC $5.99, Iqaluit $21.99
Coke 24 cans - BC $5.99, Iqaluit $23.99 (this is really cheap so Blaine has gone out to stock up!)
250g Philadelphia Cream Cheese - BC 2 for $5, Iqaluit 1 for $4.99
Hot Dog Buns 12 pack - BC $2.39, Iqaluit $2.69 (although the last pack we got were mouldy already)
500g Kraft Cheese Slices - BC $2.99 , Iqaluit $7.99

This afternoon we went clam digging, I will post clam digging 101 some time this week.

Dog watching

On Sunday morning I took the dogs out for their usual walk on the bay. This morning's walk featured entertainment, the Toonik Tyme sled dog race was scheduled to start at 10am. We had a bit of a run around (which means me driving them following) then drove over to the start line where I stalled, in the middle of the path! Happily Fred from city works was on hand to turn the ATV's fuel onto the reserve tank and I sheepishly moved out of the way. With the puppies safely seated on the quad, and tied to it for good measure, I pulled out the camera to photograph the start of the race. Johnny and Sage are really good dogs and they didn't try to hop off but I was a little dubious so didn't get the pictures that I would have liked as I didn't want to walk too far away from them.

My Toonik Tyme album can be viewed in all its splendour here.

FYI, I went to the Baffin Gas station and filled up then turned off the reserve. Approximately 70km of driving costs $14. To fill up the tank from dead empty (last week's experiment) costs $18. The snowmobile has a fuel guage, the quad doesn't.

Iqaluit's second country market

The market was advertised to start at noon on Saturday, we got there at 11:30 and it was almost over. We were a little disapointed to see prices hiked considerably from last month so didn't buy any fish. From what we hear caribou is pretty scarce this season, I don't know if the heads were all that was left by the time they arrived but I was rather amused by these ladies strolling around the square casually brandishing their grocery shopping.

Wing Night

Wednesday night is wing night in Iqaluit, both at the Legion and the Storehouse Pub at the Frobisher Inn. We have not been to the Storehouse, but we have now participated in Legion wing night three times. This week was particularly significant for three reasons; I am now an associate member so was able to sign Blaine in rather than us both having to get Craig or Gerry to sign us in; We drove there together on the Quad; Blaine was not on duty so was allowed to have a beer.

At the legion wings are 25c each, beer is (a rather less reasonable) $9 per can. Beer in Nunavut comes in cans or bottles; the bottles are Corona; cans include Rickards Red, Molson, Canadian... all the crappy beers. There are no kegs. There are few glasses.

The Legion opens at 5pm and is instantly busy. Make your way past the smoking shed and join the line up inside the double doors to sign in and check your coat at the compulsory $1 coat check. Canada Goose jackets are bulky so the coat check makes sense and they don't try to screw you by charging another buck for your helmet. To the left of the coat check a short corridor leads to the quiet room which I have not yet explored, the open doorway to the right leads into the main room. As you leave the coat check desk you immediately join the queue which snakes back from the bar. At the cash-only bar you order your beverage and wings then take your receipt to the kitchen hatch at the back of the room. Carefully print your name on the paper and hand it in then take a seat and wait for your name to be called over the tannoy. Depending on who is MCing the kitchen mike you may or may not be able to decipher your name when your order is called. The wings arrive piled high on a paper plate (our landfill is a hungry beast that needs regular feeding) which you then take to the adjacent table to load up from a selection of six sauces; Honey Garlic, BBQ, Thai, Sweet & Sour, Hot and Xtra Hot. I like to combine BBQ with Xtra Hot.

Two Rickards Red and twenty wings makes a happy Wednesday :-)

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.

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 :-)