Operation Hibernation

Operation hibernation is officially underway. 

You know when you look outside during the dead of winter and you get a little chill that goes right through you. Just thinking about what it must actually feel like out there.  It feels like the howling wind is going right through your bones and makes your jaw cinch up.  Those are the cold, hard days of winter.  There are nice winter days.  Sometimes it's cozy looking out.  It's almost a feeling of comfort looking out at the snow while your snuggled up in a blanket reading a book or watching HGTV.  Sipping hot chocolate or red wine, both comforting for different reasons.  Both warm you up, both relax you and both taste delicious on any given day.

Well lets just say I'm bundled up, and I wish I was drinking red wine.  Slippers and a zip up fleecy have been part of my wardrobe this week end.  I'm trying to convince myself that I should be thrilled we made it this late into September. This is after all the first time there has been snow here in town, right here by our house.  It's a little too close for comfort, but I guess I can't control that.  We had the day where we, and by we I mean the entire town, spotted our first glimpse of snow on the hills.  We were all thankful that it hadn't crept into town.  No such luck now, it's all downhill from here.

I'm sure some people are happy to see the snow.  It's a new season of opportunity - of possibility - of activity.  I don't necessarily have anything against winter, I just think it might be better in shorter increments.  But it is what it is, and as much as I'd like to stay in denial - I think winter is here.

What should have been another routine walk around town on Friday afternoon turned into a walk in a flash blizzard. Okay, yes I am exaggerating a tad. But there was snow and there was lots of it.  Big flakes,and the old saying held true, big flakes equal little snow, little flakes equals lots of snow. When R arrived home from work he asked "Did you see the snow today?" Um yeah, I saw it. At first glance I was actually a little thrilled to see it. It really is pretty. Then reality set in that fall had just began and kabam, winter is here too.

There were flurries all week end and now I think I have to admit to myself that the snow on the mountains is likely there to stay for the next 9 months.  Yes, 9 months.  That's a stinking looong time.  I'm glad I have lots of pictures of July because come March I may have to tape them to the window just to have different scenery.

With the arrival of fall I decorated the house up.  I replaced the summer wreath hanging on the front door with the boldly coloured fall wreath, I dug out my favorite fall candles - ginger pumpkin, and I searched the house for the Indian corn I knew I had packed.  I had it stashed well, so after a bit of searching, fall had fully arrived in the house.  To make it official I baked some autumn muffins and pumpkin loaf.  Oh yes, fall is here 100%..........as long as you don't look out the window.

Keeping in with the fall mood, I took N to play school twice this week.  On our first visit I had intended on just stopping in to introduce ourselves and to find out if we could come once and awhile so N could play with some other children.  Turns out we were more than welcome.  As long as I stayed with him, which I intended to do anyway, heck I don't even leave Scotia at the groomer by herself.  The age range is suppose to be 3 & 4 but there are 1 1/2 - 4 there on a regular basis.  It was around ten am and N was the only child there.

 There were three employees who where in the kitchen drinking tea and doing some sewing and beading when we first arrived.  They gladly set those aside to play with N.  We had full run of the place and he was loving the attention, all the new toys and books.  Come to find out this is the play schools normal morning.  Although open, the children in town don't normally go in the morning, just the afternoon.   The afternoon program is during nap time so it kind of defeats the purpose for it just to be us in the playschool. 

Coincidentally N woke up early one day.  Normally a dreaded thing, I thought I might be able to get him napping earlier and then to play school.  It worked, we were late but not toooo late.  I was excited to see N interact with all the other kids but as soon as we sat down another little boy poked him right in the eye.

No harm done, other than his Mom being mortified.  We arrived just as they were getting ready to play a game.  BINGO.  Pre school style, but still BINGO.  I giggled as N played with the buttons we were using to cover up the pictures.  You have to understand BINGO is huge in the North.  There are BINGO's held weekly and then some.  It is on the radio a few times a week. It's EVERYWHERE, even play school.


Ever have an Arctic Char dropped off on your doorstep?

I can now say I have.

What a nice gift.  It's nice to be welcomed into such a small community.  I returned the gift with a few loaves of pumpkin bread. 


What else did we do this week end other than watch it snow?

 Well we went to a Birthday party and built the tallest mega block tower EVER!!!

Here's an updated picture of the firepit.  It has certainly lost some of it's zing for life.

Summer 2011 from the rearview mirror

To say the the summer of 2011 was eventful is an understatement.  Looking back through the masses of photos I took was a real eye opener.  It was fun to reminisce about the fun that that we had, the places we visited and the people we met.  There's some sadness mixed in too.  We left great friends in Yellowknife.  No amount of persuading seemed to convince anyone else to move with us.  Part of being a RCMP family means that we will move, that we will have to say "good-bye" but it also means that there is a chance, a great chance, that we will be neighbors again someday.

Living in the North brings you close to people quickly.  There is less hustle and bustle than there is in the South.  Most people do not have family close that they can visit often, so essentially friends become your second family.  We have been fortunate to form close friendships with people that we will always consider family.  People that we love and miss, and are forever indebted to for the love that they have shown our son. We'll never say "good-bye" we much prefer to say "see you later" and naturally there's almost a secret handshake, that  "later" will involve being in a community in the Southern part of Canada.

You can imagine my surprise when one morning in early July I opened my email to find a message from a friend in Nova Scotia asking if it was my son in their newspaper.  I had no idea, but I knew it could be a possibility because we had taken the once in a lifetime opportunity to see the new Duchess of Cambridge and her husband Prince William.  Since we're all close now, I like to just call them Will & Kate.  What I expected to be a rainy day visit where if we were lucky I'd catch a glimpse of Will & Kate turned into a beautiful sunny day where we sat a few rows back from the Royal couple during their public gathering in Yellowknife.  N was entertained by the drum dancers and throat singers and all the people in their fancy hats and I was star struck at the realization that Will & Kate were RIGHT there. 

After the initial email my Dad called, sounding every bit the proud Grandad that he is, saying the N was in the paper.  N is now famous in NS.  Well with our family and friends.  I know this picture is on many fridges in Elmsdale and Middleton.

We were in Yellowknife until mid-July so we tried to soak in as much as we could.  It was hot at the end of June.  There were many days that it was in the high 20's and a few days it hit 30.  So we packed the bags and headed to the beach.  Oh the fun that we had.

So hot that we even filled up the kiddy pool that until this summer had been for Morley, our English Mastiff.  Morley can't swim, he literally sinks to the bottom because his head is sooooo big and heavy.  So kiddie pool it was.   Now that Nathan is home we gave the pool a good scrubbing and thought he'd have fun in it.  Nope.  It was too cold and Morley wasn't willing to share "his" pool.  So it quickly turned back into Morley's pool and he continued trying to catch the fish painted on the bottom.  It was soon dumped because it also turned into a mosquito pit.  

This is a picture of a day that we had dreamed of for a long time.  This was Adoption Day.  N had come home many months before this but on the day this picture was taken all the paperwork had been signed.  It was nice to have everything "official".

Cameron River Falls is about 40 minutes out of Yellowknife.  You have to drive down a dirt "highway" which is the Ingram Trail.  This is the same road that all the Ice Road Truckers drive down to access the ice road to the diamond mines.   During the winter months this road is primarily used by convoys of trucks and a few home owners.  During the summer months this road is taken over by people who want to take in all the nature they can.  This is the road to campgrounds, a day park, fishing lakes and Cameron Falls.  If we had been thinking, we would have taken a picture of the falls, but since we came across this shiny new bridge we took our family shot here instead.  Who can pass up a nice new shiny bridge?

Up in Paulatuk.  Off to the dump we go.  I wasn't kidding when I said in an earlier post that I like to hang out at the dump.  Look at all the treasure you can find there.  I mean I found a tractor in Paulatuk. 

I took this picture on our first trip down to the river.  I love it.  I've since titled this picture.

Mounties on the Tundra

Every Saturday or Sunday we go 4-wheeling.  Most trips are to the river.  One day we decided to switch it up a bit.  I've heard of a place that is said to look just like Mexico.  The water is suppose to be aqua blue and sand is fine and white.   Or so it's said.  I still don't know because we never made it.  One of the 4-wheelers got bogged.  4 wheel drive would have been better than 2.  Oh well, all part of memories.  We still have not made it to Mexico, but we will.

This is a truly Northern picture.  These little white cotton flowers where everywhere at the end of July.  I've since learned that they were used as wicks in days gone by.  They can also make 2 year olds squeal if they are tickled with them.  In the background of the photo you can see muktuk hanging.  It is a local delicacy.  I haven't tried it myself, but depending with who you talk to it can either taste like firm tofu (which the person loved) or a pink eraser.....

I've never seen as many rainbows as I have since moving here.  They are fairly common.  This was first time I've ever seen a double rainbow.   Does that mean there are two pots of gold????

For about 2 weeks this summer there was a flurry of activity out on the water.  Between the boats and the float planes there always seemed to be activity on bay.  Watching a float plane take off in front of your house never gets old.

So there we have it.  The summer of 2011.  I missed lots of things I"m sure.  Somethings it's better not to have pictures of.  Going away parties, get togethers that we didn't classify as going away events....but we all knew,  tearful good-byes and s**w on the mountain tops. 

Lots of things change in a year.  I'm anxious to see what the summer of 2012 recap looks like, but I am thankful for all the memories of 2011. 

Weekend Bliss

Some weekends are just blahhhhhh.  Sure there are fun moments in between all the stuff that needs to get done.  Stuff that maybe we should have been doing during the week so that we didn't have to spend the weekend playing catch up.

This wasn't one of those weekends.  We were busy.

 Well Pualatuk busy.

 Our busy and your busy are likely completely different.

We had sand mountains to climb, tunnels to digs, sand avalanches to start and watch the sand flake down towards us. Which who knew, is one of the funniest things ever to a two year old. 

The picture pretty much shows how far N made it up.  There were some great attempts to get further, but alas - this was it.  A friend and I trekked to the top, at first laughing at our progress, or lack of progress.  As became more clear to the other that we were both struggling to get to the top we began to joke about how this was the strairmaster from hell.  With every step up, we weren't sure if we'd actually end up closer to the top, or if we'd be caught in the mini sand avalanche that pushed us back down the hill. 

We did make it to the top after the longest 5 minute stairmaster trek ever.  Funny how looking one direction and looking the other you can see two totally different scenes.  Both breathtaking, but remarkably different.

This was looking down from stairmaster hell.

This is looking out towards the land from the top. This picture doesn't do it justice. My camera is KA proof, meaning sand, water, idiot proof because of my past relationships with good camera's....gone bad. The land is beautiful right now. Yellow and red scatter the landscape and its incredible to look at.

This picture makes it look brown. I guess you'll just have to trust me that it's not.

Here's an up close and personal view of the red.

We walked along the beach, often commenting how beautiful it was, and how we couldn't believe that we were in Paulatuk and this is what Pualatuk looks like.  Every time we thought the sun was in the perfect spot, a minute later we'd realize, no now it's in the perfect spot, only to stand corrected a minute later. 

We found lots of treasures.  Not necessarily the same treasures that I'm use to finding at Brule on the Norththumberland Straight of Nova Scotia - but treasures.

In Brule my sister, cousins and I spent entire summers out on the sandbar.  We'd build snail farms, catch crabs and starfish and play hopscotch on jellyfish filled mounds of sand.  We also spent entire days building barricade forts around us that we were positive would keep the tide from covering up our snail farm of the day.  Each fort would have thicker walls than the last, just a little taller, but our forts could never hold back the Atlantic tide.  It's a force not ever the strongest sand fortress could hold back.

Here's a sampling of what we found on our journey along the Arctic Ocean.

Caribou Skulls

I'm not sure where this floated in from, but I am certain it's not from close by.

There is a little sandpiper on a rock in the middle of this picture. I hope he gets a move on and heads South soon.

Lots of little jelly fish were beached along the shore

This is my favorite picture of the day.  He is so inquisitive.  I'm not sure what he was checking out. It could have been one of the many jelly fish, a little shrimp that he caught a glimpse of as it squiggled by, or maybe he saw his reflection.  I love this picture.

This was Sunday afternoon, and on it's own it was magnificent.  This was not all of our busy Paulatuk weekend.  There were no suppers at a fancy restaurant, no glasses of wines on the deck, no appointments to make, no traffic jams to avoid, no shopping errands to run.  But it was busy, Paulatuk style.

Busy Paulatuk style includes of course our walk on the beach, a gathering at a friends house to say good-bye to family off to their next adventure, preparing appetizers for a UFC gathering at our house.  Appetizers included homemade garlic bread with homemade donair sauce (yummy), homemade chicken wings, and a cheese dip.  And what are appies without our near beer.  I have to say, I'm not sure if it's because it's all we have or I'm just tricking myself, but near beer isn't that bad. 

It was a wild week-end : ) 

The "S" word

If there was a meteorologist in Paulatuk, they'd never sleep. The weather seems to change every time I look out the window, or literally as I am walking down the street. This week there was S _ _ W on the hills, there were 65km/h winds, fog that took over the town literally in minutes, and supposedly it was 16C one day.  Here's the week's recap:

Saturday - High of 5C, hello SNOW. Not in town, but it was the talk of the town. Snow on the mountains, clearly visible from every window in town, and nobody was thrilled at the sight, as pretty as it may have been.  It wasn't a welcome sight and I was glad to see it melted by the next morning.  Phew, that was a close call. 
Sunday - High of 4C, nice sunny day. We took the quads to the river where there was a feast going on. It was a great day to be on the bikes.  It was a little chilly on the ride back, but well worth it.

Monday - it's Monday - does it really matter what the weather is like?  Monday is just a universal day to dislike.  The only good part about Monday is that it's Bachelor Pad finale night, but even that turned out bad because they changed the name of the 1st part of the show so I almost missed it entirely.  For what it's worth, the high was 10C.............back to Bachelor Pad, I felt so bad for poor Michael.  I'm voting for him to be the next Bachelor.  Out with Ben, in with Mike.

Tuesday - high of 16C.  Hello wind. It was gusty. Our walk to the end of town was a long one. I'll just call it extra resistance training.  I was surprised to see it was 16, I never would have guessed that.  It was warm, but 16?  Not so sure on that one, 16 is almost beach weather.

Wednesday - high of 10C, beautiful morning. Sunny, calm, just one of those days where you can't wait to get out. We went out for our daily walk dressed in our fall attire, cute sweaters and rain boots, and then out of nowhere the fog literally surrounded us. For the rest of the day we were fogged in. You could see the street lights in town, but no town or water, just fog and lights.

Thursday -  blah.  It was grey, cloudy and looked like it was about to rain at any moment all day long.

Friday -   Looks like it is going to a repeat of today.  Too bad we didn't have a repeat of 16 degrees minus the wind.  I'd love to have that to repeat.

The moon was amazing this week

It's crazy to think that no matter where you are, you were looking at the same moon. 

I mentioned earlier that on Sunday we headed out to the river on the quads.  For the past three weekends we've headed out thinking, we better do it while we can.  This trip was no different, what was different was what we found at the river.  There was a huge feast going on.  Community members were having a feast to welcome the teachers back to town.  I have great pictures.  For now you'll have use your imagination because they are stuck on the camera.  The memory card was in the computer, not the camera.  I'll set the scene for you.

So now that you can envision the scenery, you'll have to really use your imagination for the rest.  We come up over the last hill where we know there is a McPherson tent set up.  A McPherson tent is a sturdy white canvas tent that can be outfitted with a wood stove.  So essentially it is a cabin, in tent form.  As we come up over the hill we realize that there is a quite a gathering going on.  There were likely 40 adults and 15 kids around.  We stopped in to say hi, and were instantly offered caribou stew.  N had taken off with kids who were picking berries.  No need to worry about him getting out of our sight...as you can tell it is wide open space.  No hiding places.  There was a lady plucking a goose and there was a table set out complete with muktuk (beluga whale).  I really wish I could get those photos, it really was a neat scene.

The tent is being used right now as a base location for a family out Arctic Char fishing.  They'll be out there for the next 2 - 3 weeks, until the river freezes.  They'll catch enough to sustain their family for the winter, and they'll store it in the community meat freezer. 

Now you have to remember we are in bear country.

I took this at the dump a few weeks ago (yeah I like to hang out at the dump)

So this tent out in the middle of grizzly bear country - not exactly a place I'd feel comfortable sleeping.  I'm sure I'd be awake all night just waiting for one to get me.  The family staying in the tent have been doing this for many years so they are prepared - they have a gun if need be, but that is last resort of course.  Their first line of defence is a pack of dogs they have surrounding their tent.  Uh huh you read that right.  So with this one tent they had 4 dogs tied around it, around 30' from the tent, one out from each side.  There were 2 older, experienced dogs that they trusted to do their job well and train to the 2 younger ones.  The lady explained to us that they let the older dogs closest to the bank off their chains first and they would run away from the tent to lead the bear away.  The younger dogs are left tied up and cause a big ruckus and scare off any other bears that might be close by.  You might be picturing big hairy beautiful husky dogs, I know that is what I pictured when I first  came North.  I thought sled dogs would look like they did in the movies.  Not so much.  They are smaller dogs, with short hair.  I would have thought they were mutts if I didn't know better.  The dogs are needed as the first alert sign at the tent, there is a Mom and cub in the area and one lone bear that is digging a hole in the bank to hibernate for the winter. 

No thanks - I prefer to sleep without bears outside the tent, thank you.

They are a great family and they invited us out to visit them while they are there, so we'll head out again and bring the camera WITH the memory card.

The weather has definitely rounded that corner.  You know that corner.  The one where you wake up and see snow on the mountain tops, have to put a hat and mitts on every time you leave the house and start to wonder exactly how long you will continue to dress in three layers of coats before you dig out the parka.  Once the parka comes out, it's officially winter.  I'll hold off as long as possible, it's still a ways off, but it would be easier to put that jacket on than it is to peel of the sweatshirt, hoodie and fleece jacket.  This is one of those times that easy will not win out....yet.

N and I were out for a walk, and I'm fairly certain he found the last dandelion in town. 

Make a wish - mine may or may not have anything to do with being able to leave my parka hanging up for another month or so.


**we have the internet usuage figured out - I'm free to blog away again, oh happy day**

It's a bird, it's a plane, no wait........it's THE BARGE

The are many things that happen everyday here that are truly Northern.  Some of them I have become so accustom to over the past 7 years that I don't associate any longer with being Northern, they've just become part of life.  Some things I notice, but just laugh because they strike me as funny.

 Now with this little blog going on, I make a mental note to myself that I'll have to remember that, for the next post.  Things such as how our satellite dish points toward the ground instead of the sky, the fact that there is not a single car in town, how I do a double take when I look out the kitchen window when I see a different truck than normal coming down this far on the road, how the dental team was just in town for 4 days and we won't see them again for 6 months.  All of these "odd" things - I don't think they are bad at all.  I rather enjoy all of the oddities actually.  I get a kick out of knowing who is driving every truck in town, and heck, as long as we don't have any dental emergencies in the next 6 months, who really wants to see the dentist anyway?

Then there are the spectacular things that I get to see everyday.  Things like this,

This view never gets old.  I look out the window all the time and just take an extra second to take note of how smooth the water is, or how big the waves are.  I know my days of doing this are numbered.  In October people will be snowmobiling on this water, and I saw pictures of ice in the bay in June.  Tomorrow I might take a few extra seconds to soak in this view while I can.

This past week was a BIG week here in Paulatuk.  THE barge came.  This is seriously big news, and a big deal.  This was the second barge, the first one was the boring barge.  It didn't have anything fun on it.  It brought the fuel and an airport.  Now I admit the airport was a little fun.  It was fun watching it go down the street and be placed up at the airport where it still stands on wood because the proper stands are missing.  They were hoping it was on this barge, but it hasn't moved yet so I'm not sure how that worked out.  I'll investigate that this week ; ) 

This barge was loaded to the gills with "fun" stuff.  It had food, building supplies, supplies for the school (2 containers full), an SUV (Paulatuk's first), a few new pick up trucks and a 2 new fuel trucks. 

Months before we moved here we placed a barge order.  In essence it was a huge grocery order.  Well this week it was delivered.

This was the first time a forklift has delivered my groceries

We ended up having 6 pallets delivered.  5 for us and 1 for the dogs.  I am very confident we have enough food for the entire 2 years we will be here.  What do you think?

Believe it or not this is not all of it.  These pictures do not do it justice.  It is literally stacked in there floor to ceiling.  We have 20 cases of bottled water stashed in the back porch, 60 bags of  dog food stored in the crawl space and there is an another wall of the mini mart (barge room) that is full of flour, skim milk powder (another special Northern treat I've grown to enjoy in my tea) and 4 cases of mini crispies.

Our little mini mart didn't always look so put together.  Check out this craziness.

Seems as though I've now got myself going backwards in the whole barge process, I guess I'll just continue that way.  N and I were out for a walk when someone told me that the barge had been spotted.  I have to admit I got that little giddy feeling of excitement.  N and I hiked it back to the house so I could grab the camera.  It was a quicker walk than normal, I had a little extra pep in my step.  I grabbed the camera, a blanket, and of course hats and mitts and off we went to the dock to watch it dock.  Turns out we were a little early at our viewing station.  The barge hadn't rounded the last corner so we ended up there for about an hour and half.....during nap time.  Ah well.  I figure the once a year barge was more significant than the once a day nap.  The ocean, sand, stones and odd pieces of styrofoam proved to all the entertainment we needed while we waited for the big show.  Then around the corner it came.

We sat cuddled up in our cozy blanket on the shore and watched as the barge came closer and crew prepared to get this massive old barge docked up.  The anticipation was just like the Christmas morning excitement of being a little kid all over again.  I was trying to remember everything we had ordered all those months ago, and trying to calculate where we were going to put it all.  I knew I had the mini mart all labeled of where I wanted everything, but I had no idea if it would actually fit.  Then I decided that that was not the moment to stress about it.  I decided to just take in the moment, and cherish sights like this.

I'm happy to report that my labeling paid off.  It worked out better than I had planned actually.  I love it when that happens.  Mini mart is now open and well organized I might add.

One other special part of living up North - our internet usage is limited and appears that my blog uses alot.  After we use a certain amount it reverts to dial-up.  Oh noooooo.   I'm only going to post on Saturday's and see if we can avert the dreaded dial-up.

Campfires

There's just something about a campfire.  Is it the smell, the surroundings, the actual fire or the friends that normally gather when there's a campfire going on?

  The answer is d. All the above.

 I woke up one morning this weekend with campfire on the brain.  I muddled around the house for a for a bit while I came up with a plan of how we could actually pull this off.  A campfire shouldn't be an actual task, but when you are living in the equivalent of an Arctic dessert with not a single tree to be seen, a campfire takes a bit of preparation.  By noon "the fire" had taken on a life of it's own.  Initially R looked at me as if I had lost my mind, but I could tell he was intrigued.  When he suggested we use the truck instead of the quads to gather wood, I knew he was on board. 

This is what he showed up with.

N was on the hunt too - for the next hill to run down

Meanwhile, I was on the hunt for serious wood to burn.  I gathered up an armful of driftwood sticks and knew we were going to need a plan b if the campfire I had been dreaming about was going to last more than 20 minutes and since we had met one person on our way out to collect driftwood and invited him to the campfire, we were too far in to bail.

Plan B was pallets.  We had spotted a few stashed under the stairs at the house and R said they had a few stashed at work so we decided we'd burn the pallets.  Turned out to be a great plan or at least I think it was a great plan.  R might have a different opinion on this as he was the one tearing them apart.  He started out with a hammer, progressed to some sort of power tool, which broke and then onto a hatchet, which like the power tool broke.  It ended up in a few pieces and I'm pretty sure at that point R was wishing we'd continued hunting for driftwood a bit longer.

It ended up being better than I even imagined.  We had hot dogs, smores, jiffy pop, a guitar and of course the best part - great company.  As the evening came to an end we all promised to do it again before it gets too cold.  Being that we are in Pualatuk - I guess that means we'll be having another campfire very shortly!

This morning when I woke up and looked out at "the pit" it didn't look like it did last night.  Last night it was energized.  There were stories being told, songs being sung and hot dogs being roasted, this morning it looked barren.  I guess it's just waiting for the next big fire.  I hope it's soon - until then, I'll be collecting wood.



Diapers and Bribes

It's true.  I bribe my son, who just turned 2.  Yeah yeah, I have read enough parenting books to know better.  My thought pattern on this is rather simple though.  Do whatever works.  I do it quite often, but the majority of the time the bribe involves food.  For example last night at supper we had Shepard's Pie.  I thought I had this one in the bag because even at two, N is a carboholic (yes, my parenting books also say not to label your children, blah blah blah...at least I read them).  Shepard's pie should have been a shoe in because of the potatoes on top which should have disguised everything else beneath it.  Notice I said should have.  N is smarter than a layer of mashed potatoes.  I think he could smell the carrots from the other room.  Shepard's pie = no go.  However, Shepard's Pie with the promise of a piece of homemade dinner roll after each bite equals an empty dinner plate.  Funny, I felt like I won the battle, but we all know who won.  The two year old who got exactly what he wanted, his carbs.  Fast forward to lunch today.  Kraft dinner.  Not my favorite at all, but with 90'ish boxes in the barge room, it's going to have to grow on me.  R tried to convince me that he was going to make it gourmet with mushroom soup and cheese baked in the oven.  I just wanted to have another 2 boxes gone and to keep the soup and cheese in our stash of supplies so we opted out.  Just plain 'ol KD it was.  N didn't want any of it of course because he's got the memo about the insane amount of KD we have to consume this year.  So back to bribing I go.  Cheerios, works like a charm.  It does seem a bit mixed up that the bribe isn't going the other way, but nope, this was our bribe.

This did not result in an empty plate, but at least he had a bit for lunch - even if it was KD and Cheerios.  Yes Mom, I gave him some yogurt too, no bribe required.

Now - lets talk diapers.  I've had this conversation with a few people now.  I had great intentions of switching to cloth diapers when we moved here because....I'm cheap.  I'd love to say it's because I'd be helping the environment or because ....I don't know, all the other good reasons people use cloth.  Honestly, I couldn't find any good reasons.  I tried, I really did.  I gave it a go, and thought I might actually like it.  I liked the "idea" of it.  It felt old fashioned to me and I liked that feeling.  I didn't like the reality.  The reality was, it was a lot of extra work that I knew wasn't necessary.  We use about 4 disposable a day.  Switch to cloth, 8 diapers, at least 2 sets of cloths because I was too slow catching the wet diaper, a stinky room where we stashed the dirty diapers and the ammonia smell, well that was over the top.  After a bunch of research I found out that this was common, I just had to do some extra work to strip the diapers which would have to be done once per month.  Of course the easy way to do it is to add Dawn dish soap to the laundry and rinse the diapers a few times to make sure the soap was all out and that should be the end of the ammonia for a month or so, unless your child's urine was toxic.  I didn't get that far into the research because obviously I know nothing about my son is toxic, not even his pee! : )  Please, as if anyone would admit that their kids pee is toxic.   Anyhow - there's no Dawn dish soap to be had in Paulatuk, it's not in one our 6 aisles at the grocery store.  So the next suggestion was to use bleach.  Yup, so I did that.  Rinsed the diapers about 5 times to make sure the bleach was all out and thought I had this ammonia smell conquered.  Not so fast.  It faded, but it wasn't gone.  Rinsing the diapers 5 times was a pain in the behind, but also remember we get our water trucked to the house here.  Town water and sewer in non-existent here, so both are trucked services.  On top of all this - N was getting a rash on his tush.  I was done.  Kudos to everyone who uses cloth but it certainly wasn't my thing.  I guess I have an old fashioned heart with the mind of modern convenience.  It likely would have been smarter of me to make sure I had some disposable diapers.  As of this morning I had 8 left.  I'm sure I could have dug up 3 or 4 more in random bags that I had used at one point or another as diaper bags, but I didn't have enough to get us to being potty trained.

Then the plane came!!!

Let me just clearly state that I am NOT a hoarder!!!  Diapers in town are $140.00/box.  That is over $100.00/box more than I paid in Yellowknife.  As much cloth diapers and I do not mesh, I would have sucked it up to save that extra money.  That is just ridiculous and I would never be able to wrap my head around paying that.  So today I am very grateful that the RCMP plane was scheduled to come to town and I was able to get some disposable diapers delivered to the YK hanger in time to make the plane.  I'm not sure where I'm going to stash all this goodness, but I'll find a place.

What a great little helper!  This kept him entertained for an hour!

Going for a walk turned out a little differently today....

Two of the carvings at the Parks office done by a local carver.

It is a carving of his Mom & Dad

I hope this as a close to a grizzly as we ever get.