At That Very Moment: September 2012

Well I've done it again.

Here it is mid September and the list of pictures to upload just keeps getting longer, which makes me want to upload them even less. See the problem.

I just finished looking over the last post to see where I left off last time. Oh gosh, I'm definitely waaaayyy behind. It's a bit daunting, but I seem to say this every time I start off but once I get started it all seems to come together.

We had some really great experiences during the past month and a bit. Some things you wouldn't believe unless you saw it yourself, like the beluga harvest last month, hundreds of geese flying over town heading South, our mini snow storm last week or the Northern lights last night.

So here it is - August and the first half of September......

Our little community hosted Ocean's Day this year. Nineteen people came to town on a big 'ol chartered air plane and set up a fair of sorts in town for the day. It was really fun. There was drum dancing, harpoon throwing competitions (yes, I tried.....no, nobody should rely on my harpoon throwing skills for any sort of purpose), an obstacle course for kids, a bbq, tug of war for kids and adults, face painting and lots of crafts. Fun fun fun.

A friend took this picture me right before I sampled my first little piece of muktuk. Yes, beluga whale. I expected the worse....the very worse, but I was surprised that I actually liked it. I expected it to taste really fishy, but it didn't. I'm not sure how to describe but I'm glad I tried it.

The drum dancers and singers put on another amazing show. Every time I see one of their shows it makes me appreciate it even more.

Kids tug of war.....

We spent a fair amount of time this summer at different beaches. The early part of the summer we spent over by "the point" but the Arctic Turns chased us away. Then we started hanging out at "sand beach" I don't know what to technically call it, but the name fits, so I'm sticking with it.

This year's beluga whale hunt was late. I guess the whales were late coming through this year. I learnt a few neat beluga facts that I'll share because if I don't write it down....I'll forget it. The Mom's and their calves travel first and then the rest come through. I guess this year there were a couple different pods, one with around 100 whales, one with 30 ish and another with 7 or 8. That's the last I heard but that doesn't mean there weren't more. Baby beluga's (starting singing the song here) are grey. The whales that the men got this year were around 16' long and I asked how old they were, nobody really answered me so I said "are they around ten?" and the said they would be older than that.

I do have a few pictures of the men cutting up the whales. I asked before taking them and was told it was ok as long as I don't post them on facebook or send them to Green Peace. I had no intention of doing either, I really just wanted them so we can have them for the future. It really was something to see. Last year I think it would have really bothered me to see it but this year it didn't. I'm not sure why but I think it is because I feel more in tune with the community now and know that getting a whale really is a special thing and really excites everyone. It's not another every day event. The whale is respected, appreciated and celebrated.

Watching the men butcher the whale really was a sight to be seen. They know what they doing. They don't mess around. While we there there were two whales being butchered and two groups of men working on them. There were a few 10 - 14 year olds around watching their Dad's, Grandad's and Uncles work on the whales.

I'll do my best to describe the process. The men cut large 2' x 2' square pieces and then about 3" from one side put a slit in it and use this as a handle. Then they pull up and over and use their knife to cut the blubber away from the muscle. Beluga whale meat is black. Who knew? Some of this is harvested and taken back to town in the boat. Mostly it is just the elders who enjoy this, and it is dried, like dry meat, or dry fish....kind of like beef jerky only less additives. The whole process is down to a science. Once the whole 2' x 2' piece is cut free it's placed in the Ocean and a rope is put through the slit to tie it to the other pieces. The whole whale was cut up in this manner and the then dragged back to town behind a boat.

Once back to town the women take over. The women take the big squares and cut them up into little squares with ulu's, but the piece ends up being like a rope. Once this is done the muktuk is hung up for 24 hours. Then the majority is frozen to be enjoyed during the year.

The above picture is one of my favourites because it just says "North" all over it. Mountain, lakes, muktuk and bear dogs out guarding it for the night.

Bear Tracks

We spent many afternoons this summer on the quad. We found a few new favourite places to go and one of them is down along "sand beach" all the way up to where you have to cut up on the land. Every time we went out we saw bear tracks. At first it freaked me out. I was on high alert all the time looking for "the bear" who I just knew was scoping us out. I started to feel a little bit like Man Tracker because I was trying to figure out how old the tracks were.

We did see a few grizzly's so far this summer/fall, Two were at the dump, one was during a quad adventure to Billy Lake (2 hrs ride away), he was a ways away, but close enough. The other one was during an evening trip to "sand beach". A few of us were playing in the sand on the banks when R came on the radio and asked where we were. We told him we were on the beach below the dump. He came back on and said to come up because he was at the dump and there was a bear there.

You want to know a great way to get two Moms and a 2 little kids packed up quickly.....that's it. We were up and and out of there on the quads in seconds. Up to the dump we went to see the bear. He was a pretty big one. I think he was a bit ticked off that we were ruining his supper, but eventually he took off up over the hills.

N and I chilling on the hills during a quad trip in August

I think this one is funny because N and the plane match ; )

There was a search and rescue during August. A group of boaters that left Tuk were a few days overdue so the troops were sent out. This plane came to town to refuel. One of the missing boaters was actually a teenage girl from town. They were found, and were thankful to be found because they were in trouble (mechanical issues) floating in the Ocean North of Tuk. Brrrrrr.

Another little quad adventure

Check out that fog.

Craziest thing.

Our side of town was sunny.

The other was not.

The plane was cancelled this day.

Somebody had a Birthday!

R and I had bought a few gifts we were really excited about giving him. Like really excited. We were both a little giddy the night before with anticipation. Our presents were a flop. His favourite "gifts" were balloons, party hats and band-aids. The band aids were a joke gift because I mentioned to a friend that our supply was low because N raided the stash and apparently had about 30 boo boo's because he covered himself and the bathroom with band aids.

You can't really see his party hat in this picture, but it's Hannah Montana. I had a birthday party supply stash but I forgot hats. Whenever I mentioned his upcoming Birthday he'd say "party hats" so I knew I had to get some. Problem was there were none at our one and only store. Luckily a friend was flying into Inuvik and back a few days before his party so I asked him to get some party hats. He searched Inuvik high and low, and the only hats in all of town was Hannah Montana. Cracks me up. N was beyond thrilled with his party hats and for the week following his Birthday asked for a party hat at every meal.

I take hundreds of pictures during the span of a month.

Out of at least 300 hundred pictures I have 1 family picture.

Here it is for the month

I guess if shadows count, this month I had two family pictures

Beyond the obvious rainbow in this picture there's a story. We were out for a walk this evening up to the water shed about 1 km out of town. On the way out I noticed a few kids playing in a trench by the ball field. On the way back it started to sprinkle a little and a truck going by stopped to ask if we wanted a ride. We passed but said "thanks" and continued on our way. A few minutes later the truck was out by the water shed and we heard screaming and they were honking their horn. We figured that they were looking for the kids that had been playing and carried on our way back.

The truck came back past a few minutes later. Stopped and asked us if we had seen the bear.

Uh NO!

Turns out the screaming and honking was for us to get going because a bear was running down the hill towards us. I don't know how close it was, but I do know that we saw the dog come back into town that was "playing" with the bear". I don't know what happened to the bear. He must have taken off back up the hill. I think it's best I didn't see a thing because I might turn into the hermit in town, either that or I would have passed out cold.

The barge came!