Mixed bag of Spring

Here we are at the end of the first week of June.

- snow
-ice

and FOG.

Holy Fog!!!  I've been doing a lot of reading and research on San Diego and other California destinations for our upcoming October trip.  And I've read about the dreaded June Gloom.  Well I guess California and Paulatuk share a few thing in common.  Who knew?  Beaches, Ocean Front, Fishing, and FOG.  If only it was 20 degrees warmer....Paulatuk might just be confused with some isolated area of California.  Yeah - maybe a far stretch but with all this fog it you can't really see where you are anyway.  I have a feeling nobody is wearing mitts and hats in Cali though......

It's not all doom and gloom.  There have been a few really nice days tucked in with the fog day during the past few weeks, and we took full advantage.  We travelled down to the river - twice.  We've gone on walks that lasted all afternoon, we've gone quading around town, just because we can and we have our fishing sticks all reading to go catch "the big one".  Fishing sticks wasn't a typo - we really have sticks with line attached.......that's the way we roll in up here. 


June 5 - anybody else seeing this out their window?
There are three snow machines out there - two of towing toboggans filled up with I'm guessing geese.  Coming back from hunting.  Love how I"m making up this story as I go.  An educated guess.   Geese hunting is a big deal here.  Families rely on them as one of their main food staples and it is a once a year thing - so when geese arrive, people get excited.

Obviously there is ice under the water that they are snowmobiling on.  They made it across safely.  I watched.  Buuuuuut - there are 2 snowmobiles in the bay waiting to be recovered and there have been a few more go in that have been dragged out already.  People don't really seem to worked up about it.  Just another sign of Spring I suppose. 

What's another sign of Spring?

Well flying kites of course.  Garbage bags count as kites don't they?

Well they do in the eye's of a very pleased and entertained 2 yr old. 

We do have a real kite for him.  The Easter bunny brought it.  I"m waiting for summer to dig out the big guns. 

Here is a picture of the fog I was talking about earlier.  June Gloom.

You can see the other side of town here - which you can sometimes, but not all.  Sometimes I can't even see the bay. 

Here's Bossy.  This is the same dog that came to the boat with us.  He is cute!  He has the chair turned the other way now so he lays on the back.  Smart dog - there is more room for him that way.  I think it looks cuter this way, but he does look a little cramped.

The next few pictures are some I"ve taken around town. 

I've started my own version of "Where's Waldo".  Only I try to spot whatever is new around town.  I've spotted some great things the past few weeks.

This is the seal skin that I told you I spotted awhile ago.  Well it's still out.  It's stretching alot!!!  

This one was a little more difficult to spot.

Do you see it?

There is a Polar Bear hide attached to the house.  Fur side in.  I walked by it a few days before I figured out what was going on.  I always figure somebody is watching from their window so I try no to stare at anything for too long.  Fur side in threw me off. 

A few days later it was hanging off the railing.  Spotted that right away.

These ones were neat.  I could see them right from the kitchen window.

Do you know what they are?

Two Wolverine hides and a Wolf in the middle.  Cool.  I have to say that either that is a small wolf or wolverines are much larger than I thought.

Goose eggs!  Delivered right to our door.  We were instructed to boil them because they are the best that way.  People here love them.  I"ve boiled them.....haven't figured out if I'm brave enough or not to try them.  

Egg salad sandwich?

Purple flowers are covering the tundra by the River.

Love It!

This past week-end we took the quads down to the river for the second trip of the year. We ended up down at the tent right beside the river. We tucked inside for a visit. We made the 8th, 9th and 10th person in the tent. It was neat. It was pretty big inside, had a bed, bench, table and chairs, wood stove, camping stove, radio and a caribou hide mat. I loved it in there. It was toasty warm, we sat around chatting while having tea and a few people played cards on the bed. It reminded me a rainy day at our cottage growing up.

When I first went in the tent I glance up at the ceiling....is that the right word for a canvas tent. I'm not sure. So anyway, my eyes were drawn to an area at the top that when I glanced quickly looked like a skylight. I almost made myself sound like a fool by making a comment about how the tent even had a skylight. Anyway, my brain intervened and saved me from sounding foolish but I took note and realised that it was a patched area on the tent. The owner of the tent must have spotted me looking at the ceiling because he told us the first of many tent stories.

So this tent looks like it is all canvas from the outside but on the inside there are half walls from the ground up.  There is a real floor in it, and as you can see a real door.  So this patched roof was on the other side of the tent - I checked, you can't tell it was patched from the outside or I would have taken a picture to show you.

So our first tent story went something like this. 

"You see that hole in the roof?'

Me - "yeah, what happened?" 

"A bear came through there"

The story became much more detailed than that but the gist of it is that a bear came into the tent 3 different times while nobody was there.  Remember that grizzly I told you about a few weeks ago in an earlier post.  The first grizzly of the year hanging up in town - that was this bear.

I have to say - bears freak me out.  They are so big, fast and really will eat you.  I just don't want to come across one by mistake.  I know my little bear banger pen is not going to do anything.  I felt a little braver last year before I saw the other RCMP member try to scare one away from town with a rifle shooting some sort of noise bullet.  That bear didn't care AT all.  If he didn't care about I know how much he'd care about my little pen.  The standard bear tip is to play dead - I think that might come easy to me because I'd pass out on the spot.

So back to the tent.

So this bear was known to the couple that stay in the tent.  It was a three year old.  The first time they saw it, it was up around the tent with his mom and another cub.  Then they saw it last year by himself.  They had gone fishing and when they came back the bear was outside the tent.  Their dog chased it away.  This year it tried to bust in the tent 3 times.  The first time it tried to use the door (nice house guest ; )  )   The second time it bust in threw the roof right onto the bed.  Didn't trash the tent like I guess is normal bear practise - but gave the tent a new skylight.   The roof was patched up.  Then Mr. Grizzly came back a third time.  Threw the roof again.  I can say from the size of the hole in the roof - Mr. 3 year old Grizzly was big.  Again - he was a good house guest and didn't trash the tent.   Fourth trip - Mr. Grizzly was caught for intruding. 

Sad day for Mr. Grizzly but these people spend the entire summer and fall in that tent.  They live there and use it as their base for fishing and hunting.  They can't have Mr. Grizzly as a regular visitor.  Can you imagine sleeping away and waking up to a Grizzly jumping into your tent.  Oh gosh - I'm getting freaked out now.  Dang those bears are big!  Anyway - no thanks.

This is leaving the river - that little blue dot is the top of the tent.

This loader is in the middle of nowhere.  Literally on the road to nowhere.  If you look close you'll spot the ptarmigan.  He's white with brown head right now.  I guess this is the best hiding place he can find until he finishes changing colours.

This little hut has been parked out there on the ice for over a week now.  It is kind of on it's own little island now.  I'm sure somebody will be by to pick it up eventually.  Either that or it's going to turn into a submarine.

TADA

The first glimpse of our camp fire site. 

 Looks like we have a little brook beside us this year.

On one of our walks we met up with one of N's friends.  They had a great time running around town, chasing birds, hunting out sik sik's and throwing rocks over the banks.  We ended up at the swing set where they both thought they needed to swing in the baby swings.  Let's just say getting them into the swing was much easier than getting them out.  

So I have been told that Spring is almost over.  I have my doubts.....ice, snow, hats and mitts being the main reason for these doubts.  But no no - Spring is almost over because the geese are now sitting on their eggs, and that my friends, means Spring is almost over.

Bring on Summer!!!